300 SYRIA ; ITS IMPORTANCE TO GREAT BRITAIN. 



either of them, had to draw their supplies of European manufactures 

 from these two points. Now, when we consider that all goods in 

 Turkey are conveyed into the interior by mules and camels, owing 

 to the wretched state of the roads, and the heavy charges which 

 such a mode of conveyance must necessarily entail upon them, the 

 advantages to be derived to our commerce by establishing English 

 houses at the intermediate points between Smyrna and Alexandria 

 will be the means of opening to our merchants a field that, if properly 

 cultivated, we confidently predict will yield them a golden harvest. 

 But Syria, again, must not only be considered as the centre of an 

 extensive radii of political intercourse and observation with all the 

 regions of Western Asia, but also that it is more favourably situated 

 than any other for a direct intercourse with India ; and its adoption 

 as such, by directing the officers of the Company through the ad- 

 jacent regions on their way to the East, would be the means of 

 opening to our knowledge those countries so important in a po- 

 litical point of view. The passage by the Red Sea has been tried 

 and failed. The immense steamer, necessary to carry the requisite 

 fuel for its voyage to the nearest depot from Bombay, was too great 

 an expense ; while continued delays and difficulties were experienced 

 at the depots on the Red Sea. But had it been otherwise, this line 

 of intercourse presents no advantages compared with those by the 

 way of Damascus and the Persian Gulph. From Bombay to Eng- 

 land the rout by the Red Sea does not embrace a single interest 

 of the Company, political or commercial ; its interests are not enlarged 

 its means of information are not extended ; a dreary journey across 

 the desert is followed by a long and uninteresting voyage to Bombay. 

 At Tabriz, at Ispahan, at Bagdad, Bushire, Muscat, and along the 

 Persian Gulph, the Company have extensive interests, both political 

 and commercial ; which are daily increasing in their importance 

 first, from the proceedings of Russia on the military operaions and 

 conquests of the late Mirza Abbas in Horat and Afgistan ; and, 

 secondly, the sovereign attitude and restless ambtion of Mahomet 

 Ali, and the fact that Bagdad, at the extremity of the Turkish em- 

 pire, and more immediately under the influence of his power, is 

 known to be an important feature in the objects of his ambition. 

 Not many years ago, it must be recollected, this city was the central 

 depot of the merchants of Persia, for the markets of Syria, Armenia, 

 and Turkey ; but with the two latter parts it has lately been carried 

 on by way of Erzeroum and Tocat. The presence, however, of the 

 Russians at Erzeroum, and the barrier they will erect to the transit 

 through their territory of our British manufactures from Constan- 

 tinople, will, in all probability, have the effect of bringing back the 

 trade into its ancient channel, and the Euphrates may again become 

 as important a line of commercial intercourse as it was anciently. 

 Again, it is obviously his policy to enter into relations with Persia, 

 with a view of acquiring an influence in the affairs of that distracted 

 country, and of making her an element of resistance towards Turkey 

 and Russia. These considerations, added to the commercial interests 

 of the Company in the Persian Gulf, the facility of transmitting 

 dispatches to and from their agents to those parts by this new line of 



