ACRE. 80 
key to Palcestine. The port of Acre is bad; but 
it is better than any other along the coast. 
That of Se'ide is very insecure ; and the harbour 
of Jaffa worse than any of the others. The pos- i^^^p^.t. 
session of Acre extended his influence even to ^;]J-^' °^,*^'^ 
Jerusalem. It enables its possessor to shut up ^'^^e. 
the country, and keep its inhabitants in sub- 
jection. All the rice, which is the staple food of 
the people, enters by this avenue : the Lord of 
Acre may, if it so please him, cause a famine 
to be felt even over all Syria. Here then we 
have a clue to the operations of the French, in 
this, as well as in every other part of the 
world. They directed every effort towards the 
possession of Acre, because it placed the food 
of all the inhabitants of this country in their 
power, and^ consequently, its entire dominion. 
It is a principle of policy, which even Djezzar 
Pasha, with his propensity for truisms, would 
have deemed it superfluous to insist upon, that 
the key of a public granary is the mightiest 
engine of military operation. Hence we find 
Acre to have been the last place from which the 
C/im/mn.? were expelled in ih.e Holi/ Land ; and 
hence its tranquil possession, notwithstanding 
the insignificant figure it makes in the map of 
this great continent, is of more importance than 
the greatest armies, under the most victorious 
leader ever sent for the invasion of the country. 
G 1 
