VISIT TO ABYSSINIA. 
^65 
Selasse is vested with the constitutional, but immoderate, power 
of prime minister. This is fortunate, as through that province alone 
can any communication be carried on, at present, with Gondar. An 
alliance with the British would supply him with arms, ammunition, 
and revenue, and thereby enable him to liberate his sovereign from 
the oppression in which he is now held, and to place in his hands 
the sceptre of the finest part of Africa. Abyssinia under one master 
would resume her ancient consequence ; her people would culti- 
vate their fields in tranquillity ; and her eternal enemies, the Galla, 
would soon be driven, by the possessors of fire arms, into their own 
country. Nor would they, in all probability, long remain unsub- 
dued. It is only difficult to fix in imagination the boundaries 
of the Abyssinian empire. By an alliance with Great Britain, the 
Christian sovereign of these realms would be rendered independent 
of his refractory chiefs, and those repeated insurrections and re- 
volutions, in which the people invariably suffer equally with the 
monarch, would at once be at an end. He would have time to learn 
from his allies the arts of peace ; and the amiable character of the 
Abyssinian, which Mr. Salt has drawn from his own experience, and 
the accounts of former writers, gives a fair promise, that a little 
labour would produce incalculably good effects. I cannot but flatter 
myself that Christianity, in its more pure forms, if offered to their 
acceptance with caution and moderation, would meet with a favour- 
able reception ; at any rate, the improvements in arts and sciences, 
which follow trade, would ameliorate the national character, and as- 
sist in bringing back their own religion to a degree of purity, which 
it has long lost. This would be greatly farthered, if the English 
were to use their influence with the Archbishop of Alexandria, to 
