COMMERCIAL RESEARCHES AND LABOURS OF M. CESAR MOREAU. To retrace the origin of our trade; to record the rise and progress of each of its multifarious branches; to bring them forth, as it were, from the dusty scrolls of libraries, and exhibit thus the whole commercial system of the British Empire in an intelligible and luminous array, has been the object of the many works which M. Moreau has undertaken with a spirit, and persevered in with a zeal and a correctness, that reflect on him the highest credit. We have frequently had occasion to speak of this gentleman's merits and qualifications for the peculiar studies to which he has devoted the greater part of his life; and we have now the gratification to see that these merits are as fully appreciated by his own countrymen, as they have been by ourselves. The following testimony, from a recent French work published in this metropolis, will bear out our assertions : "The "Examen du Commerce de la Grande Bretagne," is the twelfth production with which the indefatigable pen of M. Moreau has enriched the cabinet of the statesman, the counting-house of the merchant, and the library of every man who wishes to explain, by an investigation of facts, the long-inexplicable phenomenon of the commercial grandeur of Great Britain. If we deem commerce, its development, its action, and its re-action, as the real arteries. which carry life through that vast political body, with the same truth may we say that no writings have described the nature and conditions of its existence in a more lucid or more mathematically exact manner than the tables of M. Moreau. This method of reasoning on the highest questions of social order, and of rescuing them in some measure from the vagueness of theory, to subject them to the logic of positive calculation, constitutes a genius entirely new in the domains of political science. The labours of M. Moreau belong to no school-system or party; he is at once their originator and their model; and, if he himself may be supposed to be astonished at any thing connected with them, he must, without doubt, be so at the general utility and perfect success, which have been the fruits of a conception so simple, in an age when the merit of intellectual labours is not unfrequently made dependant on the complexity in which they are involved. The idea once discovered, M. Moreau had only to work it out by persevering diligence and patience inexhaustible; but, though no great effort of genius was connected with that diligence and that patience, it must be conceded that the primary conception carries with it a character of reflection and of justness which distinguishes it as one of the most remarkable in the present age. Arriving in England at a moment when peace had just dissipated the shades which had concealed the real situation of this country from the eyes of Europe, M. Moreau deemed it ne cessary to resolve two most important questions, then generally discussed; namely, 1. Were the commerce and manufactures of Great Britain, in reality, as prodigious as they were represented? 2. What were the true causes of such a prodigy, if it existed-the nature of its solidity, and the conditions of its existence? Such were the thoughts that originated the undertaking of M. Moreau: but how were the means of solving this two-fold problem to be obtained? Had he inquired of the multitude of English writers who had treated on this subject, he would have found in them nothing but a perpetual conflict of contradictory opinions, marked not by the impress of truth by those of the opposing parties which have at all times divided Great Britain. One set would have held out a picture of exaggerated prosperity, and another of imaginary decline. If he had recourse to the information furnished by Government, there would have been exhibited the movements of the national prosperity, not as they had taken place, but as the politics of the Cabinet wished them to appear in the eyes of Europe. Lastly, had he examined foreign writers, he would have found nothing but the echo of the idle dreams and prejudices, worse than childish, of which the commercial and political organisation of this Empire has been the subject. What course then did M. Moreau pursue to get at the truth, amidst the numerous errors that surrounded his subject? He neither rejected nor admitted exclusively any of the elements of conviction which we have mentioned; he invoked the whole, not to borrow from them their speculative opinions, but to extract from them the few facts which they contained; and, submitting afterwards this numeric harvest to the most exact of existing tests in such matters, namely, Parliamentary documents, he has succeeded in presenting to the world a Table more nearly approaching to absolute truth, than any statement ever published on the state of each of the branches of the commercial and manufacturing organisation of Great Britain, considered in the separate relations of its internal and external policy. has The execution of this enterprise would have been absolutely impossible any where else than in England; and even there it must have encountered numberless difficulties. In order to realise it, nothing was wanting but that perfect freedom of investigation, the result of the constitutional system which for so many ages governed this country, and has brought to light so many truths which, had it it not been for it, would have remained buried in the records of the administration. But the having so deeply known all the resources of a representative government as to be able to make the most advantageous use of them in a foreign land, and in the bosom of a susceptible and unexpensive nation, is not among the least of the titles which M. Moreau possesses to the public gratitude. Be that as it may, it is by these means that M. Moreau engaged himself in the career, as new as it was difficult, through which he has run with so much success; and, as if every thing should be unusual in his productions, he has proceeded directly opposite to received methods; that is to say, he has not made details from the whole of his subject, but, on the contrary, has grasped at the whole, descending afterwards to details; and, indeed, the best means of interesting the public in so vast a labour, was, probably, to surprise their attention by the delineation of all its extent. The view of the commerce of Great Britain with all parts of the world, from 1797 to 1824 inclusive, was well calculated to produce such an effect. Never before had so many facts been exposed and accounted for in so small a compass. It is the panorama of the British History, during an age the most fruitful in events of every kind, the most rich in political inferences. The records of the East India Company, considered relatively to the revenues, expenses, debts, commerce and navigation from 1600 to 1827, from a work of immense extent and importance, at a time in which not only the political existence of 100 millions of men is about to be brought forward before the British Parliament, but when the whole of the Colonial system itself is a subject of general controversy. The work on the origin and rise of the silk trade is of a more special interest to France than to England; and the epoch in which it was published gives it a peculiar merit which it will long pre serve. British Industry, studied in its exportations, is, of all the works which have been brought forward for a long while, the best calculated to dispel the illusions which the outward view of this industry has created in the minds of foreigners, and well calculated also to animate them with a noble emulation. In his work on the Royal and Commercial Navy of Great Britain, M. Moreau has succeeded in connecting considerations of the wisest policy with the material interests of a mercantile navigation. The statistical picture of Ireland is of the highest importance at a time in which this valuable appendage of the British Empire causes such well-founded solicitude. Lastly, the table comparing the commerce of France with all parts of the world, before the Revolution and since the Restoration; the statistical examination of this kingdom in 1827; and the work which has served as a text to this article, concur in proving, that the scrutinizing genius of M. Moreau is equal to the most important tasks, and promises to France a man the most capable of appreciating and of defending the true interests of her commerce and her industry. If all England has been unable to refuse M. Moreau the homage of her admiration for the secrets which he has revealed to her, and the strong light which he has thrown on every branch of her pro sperity; if every English newspaper has marked him as the economist who was best able to unravel every thread of her system; if all parties have made use of his works as of so many authorities, and have joined together to load him with praise,-it is impossible that France should not have a right to expect the same services from the zeal and patriotism of this writer; and he, in his turn, will have a right to expect from her the same applause.' LIBERTY. LIGHT of all lands! how sweetly forth, And with her thousand harmonies, The heart, the bounding heart, replies The deer upon the mountain side, The eagle's tameless soul decays, In vain the joyous heaven and earth They call no thrill of transport forth, Nature, in bounty unconfin d, Showers down her gifts on all; But man, usurping man, would bind The unfetter'd thought, the quenchless mind, In base, ignoble thrall. Fain would he fix the chain of shame Upon a race of slaves; But surer hope were his to tame The gales that blow, the fires that flame, Or ocean's thousand waves. H. W. J. JOURNAL OF THE ENGLISH EXPEDITION FROM INDIA [Concluded from page 498, vol. xvii.] CHAPTER XVIII. The Turks make an ineffectual Attempt to land a Body of Troops at Gyzeh. Nomination of a Viceroy of Egypt, and his arrival at Cairo. Departure of the Grand Vizier. Interesting Anecdote of the Honesty of an Arab, and Gratitude of the Beys. Numerous Desertions amongst the Troops of the Garrison, News from Europe, announcing the Peace of Amiens. Some of the Indian Troops receive an Order to depart. The Army quits Egypt, and embarks for Suez. TOWARDS the end of January, the Turks made an attempt to land at Gyzeh; but the garrison troops immediately armed themselves and compelled them to retreat. They reascended the river, and landed under the ramparts of the town, from whence they sent a detachment of cavalry to take possessien of Mourâd Bey's countryhouse, which was situated in the neighbourhood, and which we had converted into a hospital for those infected with the plague, under the protection of a military guard. A company of the 8th light dragoons, which had arrived on the preceding day, pursued them, gained the advantage over them, and reached the house in time to defend the entrance. The Turkish officer, who was an Hungarian renegade, did not dare to charge our troops. He said that he had been ordered to occupy the post; but that, since they refused to permit him, he was anxious to spare the effusion of blood, and would, therefore, send for fresh instructions, and wait their arrival before he took any further steps. These instructions arrived at eleven in the evening, when he returned and joined those Turks who were in pursuit of the Beys. General Stuart left us on the 28th, and was followed by Lord Cavan, on the 30th, both for Alexandria. The Grand Vizier being about to quit Egypt, the Porte appointed Mohammed Yousouf Pasha, to succeed him in the administration of the country in quality of Viceroy. This person arrived at Cairo, from Alexandria, in February; on which, the Vizier immediately ordered his army to hold itself in readiness to march. He encamped his troops in the vicinity of Cairo. He was extremely anxious, before his departure, to obtain the restoration of forts Ibrahim and Gyzeh. Lord Cavan yielded to his wishes with regard to the first of these places, but would never consent to give up the second, which was an essential point to insure the return of the army to India, and which also contained all the magazines, |