The life of Arthur Young is extensive, critical, and discriminated. We think highly of this gentleman, but cannot subscribe to every part of this warm panegyric. To examine minutely, would lead us too far, so that we shall dismiss with general commendation. Of the common temper of the work, we can say nothing favourable: some parts of it, however, are pleasing and satisfactory.

ART. VIII-A non-military Journal, or, Observations made in Egypt, by an Officer upon the Staff of the British Army; describing the Country, its Inhabitants, their Manners and Customs; with Anecdotes, illustrative of them. In a Series of Letters. Embellished with Engravings. 4to. 17. is. Boards. Cadell and Davies. 1803.

EGYPT is a theme almost exhausted. We have accompanied the conquered and the conquerors: we have been alternately witnesses of defeats and triumphs, of splendid discoveries and exaggerated descriptions. We now descend to private life, to the minuter details of the inhabitants-we had almost said of the men who inhabit the country, but that their powers, both mental and corporeal, sink almost below the standard of human nature. This degradation is partly the effect of modern oppression, of treatment the most savage and brutal; but we have often had occasion to observe, that the native Egyptians never soared high in the scale of intellectual attainments, or of heroic prowess. Victims of the natives of the Arabian coast, of Ethiopia, and the shepherds in ancient times, they have had few brilliant epochs, though the number of such periods has been multiplied by their admirers, their splendor exaggerated by the partial historian. No difference of opinion, however, occurs as to their present state: to every eye they appear sunk, dejected, despised. Our author, who writes in the lively Shandean style, gives the following account of the work, in his preface addressed to the Courteous Reader.' After professing to leave military details to colonel Anstruther and sir Robert Wilson, he adds,

• However, resolved that you should know something of the carte du pays, I present you with the following letters, having left out every thing military, as I imagine it may be more suited to your inclinations that my pen should be supplied with simple ink, rather than dipped, like that of Draco, in blood-for I shrewdly suspect thou art of a mild and pacific disposition.

One advantage you will have over the writer is, that of accompanying him, without partaking of his fatigues and privations; and certes you will not have a sleepless night, as he thus kindly presents you with an opiate.

If by chance you should be able to keep your eyes open, and will follow him in his peregrinations, he trusts, at least, you will not find him a splenetic traveller.

In sober seriousness, this trifle (written by a soldier who aims not at literary fame, who never had an idea of making it public, and inrended it but for the eye of a partial friend,) will not, I hope and entreat, be judged with the severity of criticism. It has not even been altered from its original form: "Tant pis," perhaps you will say: however, you must do with it as the author has done with his correspondent-"take it for better for worse." P. 7.

After a tedious voyage, the languor in consequence of a wound, and the unvarying prospect of the desert shore, our author speaks with rapture of his passage up the Nile, and the prospect of Rosetta. In fact, it has been the good fortune of Egypt to be approached on all sides by desolate sands, or inhospitable shores: and we have often thought that the warm, the exaggerated, praises of the country have been partly owing to this circumstance. The account of Volney, a description which was unjustly asserted to have been written in a garret in London-an injurious report, that we were among the first to combat-is now believed to be very faithful. Would that he had never been employed in a worse labour! The prospect of Rosetta is pleasing: the internal view less so.

After this digression I must back again to Rosetta, the interior of which, I confess, ill accorded with the idea I had formed of it while in the boat, or from what I had been taught to expect by Mons. Savary. The poverty and wretched appearance of a ragged multitude that swarmed round me upon landing, and the filthy condition of the streets, gave no favourable impression.

The Christian inhabitants, the Jews, some few European Turks and Greeks, speak a lingua Franca, which is, at least, a very accommodating language, if not a very pure one. These poor Christians, from the constant terror in which they live, and the system of tyranny and oppression exercised upon them by the true believers, (Musselmen,) have dwindled into a race of the most despicable slaves, abject worthless liars, hypocritical knaves and cheats, that exist upon the face of the earth: Jews are said to be so; these Christians I know to be so: their style of dress is like that of the native, distinguished principally by the difference of turban; their manners and customs of smoaking, drinking coffee, lounging crossed legs upon sophas, (called divans,) &c. &c. &c. are those of the Arabs, so that, except in religion, they differ not from the natives.

The poor inoffensive Jew is not less persecuted here than else where; but certainly not more aggrieved than in many, I am sorry to say, much more civilized countries.'

P. 10.

The houses put me very much in mind of the old houses at Chester, the windows projecting in that kind of way. It is true, one does not find at Chester these windows supported by massive columns of granite and marble, which here one does, but, grievous to tell! so disposed, so at

ranged, that though the column itself commands respect, yet you cannot help laughing, or rather crying, to see the order of things so prostituted and reversed; the pillar generally rises from its capital, which, strange to say! in this town, nine times in ten has changed situation with its base. At one side of a door you find a majestic pillar of the Corinthian order, in lovely white marble; on the other side, a miserable broken column of granite, heaped upon, perhaps, two capitals of the Doric order, one over the other: it would seem as if they had found these beautiful remains of antiquity lying in confused heaps, and, without taking the trouble of picking out pairs, had seized upon the first that came to hand, and thrown them indiscriminately up against their walls! I have remarked, that, in the very same street, I could have collected two or three pair of equal dimensions, and of the same order. At this very moment these columns are found lying about the streets, broken and neglected.

Except in a few Christians' houses, and those inhabited by the French, you see no panes of glass; the substitute is a very close woodwork, which effectually hides the person within, which is, I believe, one of their reasons for using it, but it is so much too close, that it makes the rooms very warm, except just at the moment when the sun happens to shine upon the particular window, then its effects are kept out, and the air admitted. The closest grating in Spain or Portugal is open work to this, which, from the scarcity of wood and workmen in Egypt, is a very extravagant, and, I confess, selon mon goût, an ugly

ornament.

The inside of their houses may be made comfortable; but, from the state in which they live in them, are generally wretched, and dismally uncomfortable: even in the best houses, where, though you find. spacious rooms, flagged with marble of various colours, some of them with fountains of water playing in the centre, to keep them wet and cool during the hot weather, glistening with oriental splendour, and all the luxuries that indolence could wish, divans, carpets, cushions to loll upon, &c. &c. &c. yet no one thing in the house bespeaking comfort.'

P. 12.

Several of the women, particularly the Syrian, are said to be really beautiful, particularly in the mould of the hand and arm. The Christian woman, however, though looked on, by her husband, as a servile animal, enjoys a degree of freedom not known to the poor Arabian female.

The one is suffered to live upon the same floor with her husband, and remains uncovered to her Christian visitors: she, in her turn too, visits. The other inhabits the top of the house, seldom or ever de. scends to the room below her own, nor dare she sit down at meals with her husband, but attends like a servant, and does all the dirty and drudging work.

Her rooms are called the Haram, into which no male-stranger ever puts his foot. As these rooms, or, more properly speaking, this room, for one apartment suffices for a lady of this clime to eat, drink, and sleep in; as this is her constant prison, it is always fitted up with great magnificence: coloured glass windows round the top of the room; ceiling and walls gilt and painted in very bright and rich co

lonrs; the floor inlaid with different-coloured marbles; and the lattice-work of the windows particularly well-carved; the divans, carpets, cushions, &c. &c. the most elegant possible: in the midst of which finery this unfortunate creature exists, like a bird in a cage.

No expence is spared in their apparel; the finest shawls, muslins, silks, pellices, &c. &c. compose the dress, which, according to the wealth of the husband, is covered with pearls, and various stones, diamonds, emeralds, &c. &c. &c.

In the haram, as indeed in almost all their rooms, there is a sort of orchestra, the lattice-work of which is fine, and very close, puts me in mind of the place in the synagogues in which the unmarried women sit not to be seen. I have never been able to find out the meaning or use of this orchestra: some say it is for ornament; others, a place for the women to retire to and loll upon sophas without the fear of being disturbed by visitors: and, again, I have been told, it was for the female singers to sit in, where they might uncover their faces without being seen, which seems likely enough, as there are sometimes steps leading up to it: I am almost led to think it is by way of ornament, and to fill up a certain space, for it is uniformly on the top of an armoire, which armoire with little pidgeon-holes such as one sees in apothecaries' shops, on each side of it, invariably, in every house, tills up one complete side of the room. One or two of the native women, who, by great favour, remained unveiled during our visit, were rather pretty, good eyes and teeth, and well made, but stupid-looking creatures, without any manner, and seeming not to know what to do with their hands.' r. 19.

The description of the common people conveys such a variety of wretchedness, that we will not impart to our readers the disgust which we felt on reading it: yet we think the picture faithful. The Egyptian women are described as very abandoned: they lived with the French soldiers with little remorse or compunction, and were transferred, for a slight sum, to the English. After such a life of prostitution, the Arabs, however, received them as wives: the Turks were less tolerant; so that the purchase by the English soldiers was as much for the purpose of protecting them from a cruel death, as of procuring companions.

Our author describes the caravanseras, and speaks with grateful respect of the hospitality of the Arabs: but his most glowing colours are reserved for the country, and his journey along the banks of the Nile. His description does not, however, greatly differ from that of former travelers.

By describing one village you describe all; invariably built upon one of these hillocks; an assemblage of flat-roofed square mud-huts; few houses with upper stories or walls of brick; oval kennels of mud, without any window, and only a small hole, through which they creep, and were it not that a hollow is dug about two feet in the sand they would scarcely be able to stand upright in them. The Arab hut, Jike the " cobler's stall, serves for kitchen, parlour and hall;" in truth answers every purpose, for they are beastly dirty.'

Almost every house has its pigeon-cote erected upon the roof, in a curious form, and giving a very odd and picturesque appearance to the whole a mosque or two, according to the size of the village, a number of ragged inhabitants, and a few date trees, finish my description of the Arab village, which, at some little distance, wears the appearance of a fortification, and does in fact afford excellent cover to the guard which is regularly mounted every night by the inhabitants to protect them from the incursions of the Bedouin Arabs. There are three distinct styles of habitation; the best of brick, with latticed windows and upper rooms; the intermediate ones of mud, four walls forming a square, with flat roof, and holes in the wall to serve as windows; the worst sort, oval hovels of the same material, mud. Outside of each village is a burial-ground, which at first sight appears to consist of a number of the oval huts I have just described, but, upon a nearer approach, you find [they] are tombs of brick, really well constructed, with infinite labour and pains bestowed upon them; they certainly take better care of their dead, than of their living.' P. 47.

The provisions are plentiful and cheap: but the fowls, hatched by artificial heat, are small in size. A ridiculous mistake of an officer is mentioned, who, seeing the men stretched out, to turn the eggs in the oven, thought that they also were hatched by this new kind of incubation. The Turkish army is described very ludicrously: indeed, the ludicrous prevails too generally we smile at first, but we grow weary of constantly smiling: toujours perdrix ne vaut rien?'

In the account of the Mamelukes, our author does not add greatly to what other travelers have said of them. The picture, however, is rendered familiar by some slight strokes, which bring it more within our clear comprehension. To the Mamelukes, general Baird, our author observes, is indebted for the means by which he formed the junction with the European army. The description of the Arabs contains little novelty. They were uniformly friendly to us; and, when they saw us sufficiently powerful to defeat the French, whom they supposed invincible that our strength was not directed against themthat no taxes were required-that their provisions were paid for their services rewarded, even when rewards and payments could not be enforced these circumstances raised us much higher in their estimation. Yet our author thinks that they would not be reconciled to us, in consequence of our being Christians. He has recorded a singular error of these good people in this respect. They freely cursed the Christian dogs in the presence of his countrymen, without suspecting that they were giving offence, as the English were not of the same reli gion with the French. Our author's account of the dromedary corps, though not new, has not been so frequently the theme of every traveler's description, as many parts of his incidental information.

The appendix contains Monge's explanation of the mirage,