AND LOWER EGYPT. 30]? 



equally unknown, and who cannot be denied the 

 privilege, whether he be attended to and consulted 

 or not, at least of speaking out with some confi- 

 dence on a subject of which he has taken pains 

 to make himself master. 



It may have been observed in the course of ibis 

 work, that I looked upon the project of substituting 

 in room of our distant and perhaps insecure colo- 

 nies, another colony vv-hose proximity to the mo- 

 ther-country, the almost miraculous fertility of the 

 soil, its adaptation to agriculture, its singularly fa- 

 vourable situation which renders it the medium of 

 the commerce of the wealthiest nations, its vicinity 

 to countries abounding in the most costly produc- 

 tions ; in a word, whose speedy means of commu- 

 nication render it of far higher importance ; I say, 

 it may have been observed that I looked upon this 

 project as a sublime thought, as the happiest of 

 conceptions, and its execution as one of those un- 

 common acts which shed a lustre on nations, and 

 which bears upon itself the evident stamp of im- 

 mortality. 



Infallibly the possession of Egypt will secure to 

 an enlightened and industrious nation the com- 

 merce of the Levant and of Barbary, and that of 

 the wealthy land of Yemen. The Indian seas, roll- 

 in"; their waters with violence across its sands, dis- 

 play the practicability of a navigation, and of a 



X 2 commerce. 



