316 
and a garden and mock battery at the 
top: the dripping-well, which is in sum 
mer a cool and pleasant spot; but when 
I saw it in the middle of January, hung 
round with a fringe of icicles, which 
shot a sparry lustre:—a museum of pe- 
trified wigs and bird’s nests: an.old cas- 
tle: a woolly- -headed boy; and many 
other means of raising the wind. 
Knaresborough sends two inembers to 
parliament: it is nearly encompassed by 
the river Nid, and has a thriving manu 
facture of linens. 
_ Trode in a cold winter evening ‘from 
Knaresborough to Ripon, a distance of 
twelve miles. Ripon is a handsome 
town, with good houses, a spacious mar 
ket-place, and cheap inns.* It sends 
two members to parliament, , Tt is the 
seat of arural deanery; and its Minster i 1S 
truly majestic. It was originally. founded 
during the Saxon ‘heptarehy : under- 
neath it is St. Wilfred’s needle, a narrow 
passage, through which females, who had 
departed from chastity, were formerly 
supposed unable to pass, There are 
many traces of the ancient monastery 
founded hy Wilfred. A few miles to the 
east of Ripon stands Newby-hall, con- 
taining a fine collection of busts and an- 
tiques, 
(To be continued. ) 
For the Month!y Magazine. 
“OBSERVATIONS and SPECULATIONS by a 
FRENCHMAN, on the ADVANTAGEOUS 
SITUATION of EGYPT, S$ d STAPLE or 
CENTRE for the TRADE Of all Na- 
TIONS; with @ BRIEF ENUMERATION 
of the PRINCIPAL ComMoDITIES that 
puss through EGYPT on their way to 
EUROPE. |. 
T is more from its geographical 
q situation than from the fertility 
of its soil, and the variety of its produc- 
tions, that Egypt will ‘and must un- 
doubtediy be an extensive sharer in the 
commerce of all civilized nations. 
Placed between the? Mediterranean and 
Red Seas, on the frontiers of Asia and 
Africa, and equally convenient for 
Europe and Asia, this country was cer- 
“tainly destined to become the point of 
contact for every nation of the globe, the 
centre of union, and the grand staple of 
all trade. The fleets of all maritime 
powers shall enter its ports; and its 
* The obelisk in the market-place is sur- 
mounted by a bugle-horn, the arms of the 
town. A horn is sounded every night at 
nine o’clock. 
Advantageous Situation of Egypt for Commerce. 
[July 7 
markets shall be filled with every article 
of trade, drugs and commodities of every 
kind, and the fruits of the industry of 
many nations. Here shall Caffres and 
Algerines, Chinese and Persians, Abyssi- 
nians and Hindoos, Banyans* and Jews, 
Greeks and Armenians, Christians and 
Musu]men, be seen to meet together. Here 
shall the jarring discords, the impoliticand 
rash zeal of religious rancour, together 
with national prejudice, receive its death- 
blow, at the side of Europeans and 
Americans. And hence it is_ that 
those sparks shall arise, which are to 
light: a torch of common reason, which 
shall spread its blaze over the coasts 
and inmost parts of Africa, the islands of 
the great Indian ocean, and every corner 
of the extensive continent of Asia. 
For a, short period chere appeared 
some probability that the army compo- 
sed of philosophers and heroes, which 
had so fortunately landed in Egypt, 
might succeed in breaking its national 
fetters; and would, without difficulty, 
disperse the phantoms. of superstition 
by which it was haunted, and enliven its 
drooping energy. There was indeed: 
room to hope, that a people oppressed 
by a handful of foreigners, would with 
joy receive their deliverers, and support, 
to the utmost of their power, everyy im- 
-provemetit in the state which might be 
proposed. 
No real vood can however be effect- 
ed, until Chose obstacles are removed 
which selfishness has created ; the expul- 
sion of the Mamelukes, at the commence- 
ment of the business, excited little mter- 
est among the Egyptians; for the pea- 
sant beheld in the French nothing but — 
new tyrants, and the citizen trembled for 
‘his property; the Musulman conceived 
it an humiliation to obey whom he for. 
* A cast of the Hindoos, acting as Beclogtg 
and agents in the India trade, and serving 
in the double capacity of book-keepers and 
interpreters. There are yery few Europeans 
so conversant in the Bengalee tongue as to be 
able to do without them, on which account 
a considerable portion of the Indian trade 
is carried on through their medium. _ 
+ Itis not to be forgotten, that the writer 
of this article is a Frenchman, who boasts of 
the happiness and customs everywhere to be 
introduced by men, whose conquests have 
hitherto been only marked with misery and 
desolation ; he does not reflect, that the hap- 
piness of man consists in the pursuit of his 
ows pleasures and inclinations, and that he 
will never enjoy what be cannot compre- 
hend,—Zraaslater. 
merly 
