following extracts contain the most interesting of the parti

culars:

The new city, or rather the town of Alexandria, is built, the greatest part of it at least, on the brink of the sea. Its houses, like all those of the Levant, have flat terrace roofs: they have no windows, and the apertures which supply their place are almost cutirely ob structed by a wooden lattice projecting, of various forms, and so close, that the light can hardly force a passage. In those countries, more than any where else, such inventions, which transform a mansion into a prison, are real jalousies (jealousies, window-blinds). It is through this grate of iron or wood, sometimes of elegant construction, that beauty is permitted to see what is passing without, but eternally deprived of the privilege of being seen; it is in this state of hopeless seclusion that, far from receiving the homage which nature demands to be paid to it by every being possessed of sensibility, it meets only contempt and Quirage; it is there, in a word, that one part of the hu man race, abusing the odious right of the more powerful, retains in degrading servitude the other part, whose charms alone ought to have had the power to soften both the ruggedness of the soil and the fero city of their tyrants.

Narrow and aukwardly disposed streets are without pavement as without police; no public edifice, no private building arrests the eye of the traveller, and, on the supposition that the fragments of the old city had not attracted his attention, he would find no object in the present one that could supply matter for a moment's thought. Turks, Arabians, Barbaresques, Cophts, Christians of Syria, Jews, constituted a population which may be estimated at five thousand, as far as an estimation can be made in a country where there is no regis ter kept of any thing. Commerce attracts thither besides, from all the countries of the cast, strangers whose residence is extremely tran sient. This motley assemblage of the men of different nations, jealous of, and almost always hostile to each other, would present to the eve of the observer a singular mixture of customs, manners, and dress, if a resort of thieyes and robbers could repay the trouble of observation.”—

If there be altars dedicated to the demon of Revenge, in Egypt, undoubtedly are the temples which contain them: there she is the godHess, or rather the tyrant of the human heart. Not only the generality of the men, whole combination constituted the mass of the inha. bitants, never forgive, but, however signal the reparation made, they never rest satisfied till they have themselves dipped their hands in the blood of the person whom they have declared to be their enemy. Though they smother resentment long, and dissemble till they find a favourable opportunity to glut it, the effects are not the less terrible: they are not for that more conformable to the principles of reason. If a European, or, to use their term, a Frime, has provoked their aninosity, they let it fall without discrimination on the head of a Europcan, without troubling themselves to enquire whether the party were the relation, the friend, or even the compatriot of the person from ahom they received the offence; thus they purge their resentment of the only pretext which could plead its excuse, and their vengeance is dow might atrocity,

9

• The

The Arabic is the language generally spoken at Alexandria, as well as all over Egypt. But most of the Alexandrians, those in para ticular whom commercial intercourse brings into contact with the merchants of Europe, speak likewise the Italian, adopted in the ports of the Levant. The moresso or lingua franca is likewise spoken there; it is a compound of bad Italian, Spanish, and Arabic. A stranger could, more easily there than any where else, provide himself with domestics, who, if they were not of approved fidelity, had at least the facility of making themselves understood by persons not well versed in the Arabic. A Serdar, an officer of no great consideration, had the command there, and his power did not always extend so far as to overawe an ungovernable populace. »

A wide extent of sand and dust, au accumulation of rubbish, was an abode worthy of the colony of Alexandria, and every day they were labouring hard to increase the horror of it. Columns subverted and scattered about; a few other still upright, but isolated; mutilated statues, capitals, entablatures, fragments of every species overspread the ground with which it is surrounded. It is impossible to advance a step, without kicking, if I may use the expression, against some of those wrecks. It is the hideous theatre of destruction the most horrible. The soul is saddened, on contemplating those remains of grandeur and magnificence, and is roused into indignation against the barbarians who dared to apply a sacrilegious hand to monuments which time, the most pitiless of devourers, would have respected.'

Of the antiquities of the neighbourhood of this city, the Needles of Cleopatra, Pompey's Pillar, &c. the reader will here find a description; and he will perhaps be diverted with the sanguine hope of the Frenchman, that Pompey's Pillar, since distinguished by having been the head-quarters of Bonaparte, and by having the French who fell in the attack on Alexan dria buried round its base, will be called by posterity THE' COLUMN OF THE FRENCH! He even suggests the practicability of transporting the pillar itself to the Place de la Revolution in Paris; where, with a colossal statue of liberty on its capital, it could not fail to produce a most majestic effect*.

The vaulted cisterns of Alexandria, so immense as to have supported the whole extent of the antient town, and which are acknowleged to have been among the proudest monuments of former greatness, our author was not so fortunate as to see. We find, however, a description of the canal which receives the waters of the Nile at Founh, and conveys them about forty miles to Alexandria;-and which the indolence of the Alexandrines is suffering daily to fall to ruin, though the existence of their city depends on its preservation. The Catacombs fèrnish another interesting topic; as do also the Cameleon, and

* Dr. Hunter, in a note in his translation, properly censures the injustice of this appropriating, self-aggrandizing principles pl

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the Jackall, which ventures to seeks its prey even in the streets of Alexandria,

From Alexandria to Rosetta, the traveller passes, if not a desert, at least a tract which differs from a desert only by a few houses built at great distances, and a small village seen from the road. Near Rosetta, the scene changes as if by enchantment; and almost instantly, instead of miserable ruins, and plains of hideous sterility, the delighted passenger is charmed by a view of nature cloathed in her richest dress, and wantoning in gay profusion. Rosetta itself, compared with Alexandria, is as delightful as its charming environs. In depicting this scene, the author seems to have deeply felt its beauty; and his description will be read with pleasure: but we conceive that our readers will be still more gratified by the account which he gives of the customs and manners of the inhabitants of Rosetta,

The most ordinary pastime here, as well as all over Türkey, is to smoke, and drink coffee. The pipe is never from the mouth from morning to night at home, in the houses of others, in the streets, on horseback, the lighted pipe is still in hand, and the tobacco-pouch hangs always at the girdle. These constitute two great objects of luxury; the purses which serve to contain the provision, are of silken stuffs richly embroidered, and the tubes of the pipes, of an excessive length, are of the rarest, and, for the most part, of the sweetest scented wood. I brought home one made of the jasmine-tree, which is more than six feet long: it may convey an idea of the beauty of the jasmines of those countries, seeing they push out branches of that length, straight, and sufficiently large to admit of being bored. The pipes of more common wood are covered with a robe of silk tied with threads of gold. The poor, with whom the smoke of tobacco is a ne cessary of first rate importance, make use of simple tubes of reed. The top of the pipe is garnished with a species of mock alabaster, and white as milk: it is frequently enriched with precious stones. Among persons less opulent, the place of this is supplied by faucets. What goes into the mouth is a morsel of yellow amber, the mild and sweet savour of which, when it is heated or lightly pressed, contributes toward correcting the pungent flavour of the tobacco. To the other extremity of those tubes are adapted very handsome cups of baked clay, and which are commonly denominated the nuts of the pipes. Some of them are marbled with various colours, and plated over with gold-leaf. You find them of various sizes: those in most general use through Egypt are more capacious; they are, at the same time, of greater distention. Almost all of them are imported from Turkey, and the reddish clay of which they are formed is found in the environs of Constantinople.

+

It is difficult for Frenchmen, especially for those who are not in the habit of scorching their mouth with our short pipes and strong tobacco, to conceive the possibility of smoking all day long. First, the Turkish tobacco is the best and the mildest in the world; it has nothing of that sharpness which, in European countries, provokes a

continual

Continual disposition to spit; next, the length of the tube into which the smoke ascends, the odoriferous quality of the wood of which it is into the mouth made, the amber tip which goes into the mouth, the wood of aloes with which the tobacco is perfumed, contribute more towards its mildness, and to render the smoke of it totally inoffensive in their apartments. The beautiful women, accordingly, takes pleasure ind amusing their vacant time, by pressing the amber with their rosy lips,pr and in gently respiring the fumes of the tobacco of Syria, embalmed with those of alocs. It is not necessary, besides, to draw up the d smoke with a strong suction; it ascends almost spontaneously. They put the pipe aside, they chat, they look about, from time to time they apply it to the lips, and gently inhale the smoke, which imme diately makes its escape from the half-opened mouth. Sometimes they amuse themselves by sending it through the nose at other times they take a full mouthful, and artfully blow it out on the extended palma where it forms a spiral column, which it takes a few instants to evapor rate. The glands are not pricked, and the throat and breast are notto parched by an incessant discharge of saliva, with which the floors of our smokers, are inundated. They feel no inclination to spit, and that affection, so customary with us, is, in the East, considered as a piece of indecency in the presence of persons entitled to superior re spect: it is, in like manner, looked upon as highly unpolite to wipe d the nose while they are by aistro of gre doing ad viuzul The Orientalists, who are not under the necessity of labouring, 12 remain almost always in a sitting posture, with their legs, crossed unl der them; they never walk, unless they are obliged to do so; and do not stir from one place to another, without a particular object to ei put them in motion. If they have an inclination to enjoy the cool ness of an orchard, or the purling of a stream, the moment they reach their mark they sit down. They have no idea of taking a walk, exig cept on horseback, for they are very fond of this exercise. It is ad great curiosity to observe their looks, as they contemplate an Euro pean walking backward and forward, in his chamber, or in the open: air, re-treading continually the self-same steps which he had trodden before. It is impossible for them to comprehend the meaning of that q going and coming, without any apparent object, and which they con sider as an act of folly. The more sensible among them conceive, it, to be a prescription of our physicians that sets us a walking about in a this manner, in order to take an exercise necessary to the cure of some disorder. The negroes, in Africa, have a similar i idea of this practice, and I have seen the savages of South America laugh at it heartily among themselves. It is peculiar to thinking men; and this agitation of the body participates of that of the mind, as a kind of relief to its extreme tension. Hence it comes to pass that all those nations, whose head is empty, whose ideas are contracted, whose mind is neither employed, nor susceptible of meditation, have 30 need of such a relaxation, of such a diversion of thought with them, immobility of body is a symptom of the inert state ofthe brajo rded op

Mitorne to idea visor ord *Being ourselves fond of an easy chair and an indolent posture, we cannot subscribe to this observation: but we admit that it comes. with a sufficiently good grace from an indefatigable traveller. REV.

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Those

Those who are oppressed by want of employment, and this is the heritage of the rich, retire to the gardens, of which I have presented a sketch, and, evermore seated, delight themselves with breathing a cool and balsamic air; or in listening to wretched music. If they do not choose to go out of town, they repair to one of the coffee-houses, of which we should form a very erroneous idea, in judging of them by our own. It is a mere tobacco-smoking rendezvous, totally destitute of decoration, and in which nothing absolutely is to be found, except coffee and a live coal to light the pipes. Mats are spread for the company, and these places of resort are frequented by the men of all nations who reside in Egypt. There is nothing that deserves the name of conversation: a few words only drop occasionally. The Turk is cold and taciturn; he looks down on every other nation with disdain. The African is less disposed to silence, but likes to follow the example of the Turk, and those who are not Mussulmans, take no pains to shun the appearance of a servile subjection to the taste of their tyrants. With the pipe in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other, they slowly wash down every four or five whiffs of tobacco, with a gulp of coffee. Dancing girls, buffoons, extempore declaimers, come to tender their services, and to carn a bit of money. There is scarcely one of those haunts but what attracts to it some story-teller by profession, who is never tired with talking, nor his auditors of listening to him. The narrations of those indefatigable orators are, for the most part, very insipid and tiresome. The Arabian writers, however, from whom their storics are bor rowed, sometimes furnish them with some that are excellent.'

In the remaining part of this first volume, the reader will find much curious matter relative to the vices of the male sex in Egypt, and the sufferings, the seclusion, the amours, and the cosmetics, of the females. For this detail, which is in parts disgusting and indelicate, though conveyed in language as decent as could be employed; for an account of Aboukir, (celebrated by the splendid victory of NELSON,) and the ruins of Canope; and for various particulars in natural history; we must refer to the work.

[To be continued in the Review for October.]

i.'e:

ART. XX. L'Abeille Française, i. e. The French Bec... Svo. pp. 3. Paris. 1799. London, imported by De Boffe. Price 5s

sewed.

THIS is a collection of short moral tracts and parrations,

formed for the purpose of general education: such a plan excludes the pretension of novelty; and we have only to remark that the selection appears to be judicious, and that the precepts and examples are conveyed in a pleasing and correct style. Subjoined is an interesting account of a public meeting $t the Lyceum of the French Youth; in which we observe,

among