parts of the world. Such notions, however, as I had derived from my previous studies, proved, upon examination, both defective and incorrect. In many respects, the country itself had changed; for the people, projected by recent innovations into the track of improvement, appeared in many respects to be daily assimilating more and more to the nations of Europe; still preserving, however, in this perceptible mutation, those striking peculiarities of manners and habits which characterise every Oriental people. Hitherto the innovation of Mohammed Ali might be said to have produced no beneficial external result; but it was clear that public opinion, and the sentiments of individuals, had underthe roots of action, gone a change. Without knowing why or wherefore, the bigoted Turk and ignorant Fellah had ceased to exhibit, in their intercourse with Europeans, that brutal contempt which is the most offensive characteristic of barbarians; taking their tone, perhaps, from their Ruler, who, it matters little whether from partiality or policy, openly evinces, on all occasions, a respect for enlightened foreigners.

III. Immediately on my arrival, I found that Egypt was in a position truly extraordinary: the ancient landmarks had been removed; new ideas, feelings, wants, had been generated: society, convulsed to its centre, and reduced, as it were, to a state of fusion, seemed ready to assume any new form into which the genius of the times might mould it; but what that new form was to be, no man, whether

Of

high or low, appeared competent to discover. those Europeans who had long resided in the country, and who might for that reason be supposed capable of communicating instruction to a stranger, numbers decried every measure adopted by the Pasha; while others, perhaps equally competent, habitually applauded his conduct, explaining away what was harsh or unseemly, or justifying it upon the plea of necessity. By this means, whether I desired it or not, I was placed in the position of a judge, who listens to the pleadings of two parties; and this continued during the whole of my stay in Egypt. Fortunately it was not necessary blindly to adopt the views of either party. The former condition of the country I had learned from historians and preceding travellers; and, to enable me to judge of its present state, the whole land lay before me. Leaving, therefore, the Franks and their theories, I traversed the whole valley of the Nile, from the sea to the Second Cataract, including the Fayoum and the Delta, visiting the towns and villages, - those situated in the interior, and on the edge of the Desert, as well as those standing near the river,-conversing, as frequently as possible, with the poor peasant behind his plough, with the village Sheikh, with the Turkish Kiasheff; and observing, day after day, their dress, their dwellings, and their food. In this way, I succeeded in correcting many ideas acquired from reading and the conversation of Europeans. Here I saw, naked and undisguised, the effects of the Pasha's policy; there was no room for mistake; for the poor, desperate in

their misery, spoke out, and made no mystery of their sentiments. But while I heard their opinions, and deeply commiserated their distress, I could not refrain from acknowledging the difficulties which surrounded their Ruler. Was it ambition, or was it necessity, that involved him in the struggle with the Sultan, which inflicted on Egypt all the evils I witnessed? Upon the answer to this question hinges the whole inquiry, whether the Pasha is to be considered a just though despotic prince, or a selfish adventurer, sacrificing wantonly the happiness of millions to his own personal aggrandisement? and this answer I have endeavoured to give in the following work. Despising mere declamation, which, in the end, neither instructs nor persuades, I have laboured to be impartial both towards prince and people, — expressing my opinions of both with equal freedom; for which reason, should these Travels ever fall into their hands, the probability is, that both would be equally offended. But the traveller who bestows upon the subject before him all the pains in his power, is no way answerable for the conclusions at which he may arrive, since these must be regarded as the result necessarily produced upon his mind by the objects he beholds. And this result, and this only, if he be honest, will he ever consent to place before the world.

IV. Respecting the antiquities of Egypt, the opinions which an attentive examination suggests

to me, will be found to differ materially from those of many former writers, whose character and abilities I, nevertheless, highly esteem. But it will be ad

mitted to be the duty of a traveller faithfully to decribe the impressions made by the objects he observes upon his own imagination, whether they resemble or not the pictures of those objects which may have been traced by others. Much appears to depend, in matters of this kind, upon the temperament and intellectual habits of the observer; and as the public will quickly discover what his temperament and habits are, they will know exactly what value they ought to set on his conjectures and decisions. The incorrect ideas concerning ancient Egypt and the Egyptians, which seem commonly to prevail, even among the learned, may partly be owing to our too great veneration for ancient authors, who would appear however to have fallen into many errors, misled by the priests, or, where their notes were deficient, by a lapse of memory, to which we all are liable; for Diodorus insists that Herodotus relates many fables ; and whoever shall be at the pains to examine the work of the Sicilian antiquarian, will find that he also has sinned in the same spirit. Sometimes to dissent from the opinion of these authors is, therefore, excusable. And in my inquiry into the origin and purpose of the Pyramids, I have fully availed myself of this privilege, venturing even to derive from the narrative of Herodotus himself, proofs in support of an hypothesis directly the reverse of his own.

V. In the arrangement of my Travels I have adopted the least ambitious of all forms,-that of a journal; to which several reasons determined me: first, though greater brevity might perhaps have been attained by rejecting, after the manner of Volney, every thing of a personal nature, other and still greater inconveniences than the addition of a few pages to the work might have arisen from this plan; for, materials so arranged have, to many, the appearance of a series of unconnected dissertations rather than a book of travels; and thus the interest would be diminished. Secondly, having written my descriptions on the spot, while the objects were before me, or fresh in my memory, to cast them into any other shape, without destroying their resemblance to the things described, in which consists, perhaps, their only merit, seemed hardly practicable. Lastly, narrative, from which what personally relates to the author is not wholly excluded, seems, in works of this kind, to be the form most generally approved. Since, therefore, much is gained, and nothing need be lost, by conforming to the rules which appear to have been established by public taste, I have, as far as possible, strictly adhered to the common method, noting down daily what I saw, and the observations suggested by it.

VI. For my account of the manufactories, the colleges, the schools, the harems, the history of the war in Syria, &c., I derived the materials from sources, not, perhaps, accessible to many. Chance