The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-11 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Egypt, and the Great Suez Canal. A narrative of
Travels, bjeJ. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, Mem-
ter of the Institute Acadernie des SCiences,
Morales, and Politiques. Bentley.
This is a most interesting and important work,
and one which will doubtless be welcomed and ap-
preciated by many. It bears reference to a subject
which bas engaged public attention, and it is
furthermore rendered attractive by information re-
lating to a land so worthy of regard as that of
Egypt. Perhaps the most pleasing letters are
those on the Nile, the Pyramids, andThelms. The
Nile alone, among all the rivers in the world, has
a periodical rising, that has never bsen interrupted
for four thousand years. Besides this .advan'age,
it never devastates its shores, and the waters in
rising leave behind a mud which fertilises. It is
observed, as an extraordinary fact, that although
"nature could not bestow upon man a gr?ater
blessing than the Nile, the population of Egypt
has at all periods ban degraded and unfortunate."
The writer explains this anomaly by the circum-
et ince that !he people depend Lr subsistence upon
the management of the river, which care they
.always leave to their rulers, and thus instead of
an advantage, politically comidered, the Nile may
have produced quite the contrary effect. It is said
the water is so exquisite to the taste that it is
not to be wondered at that the princesses of the
family of the Ptolemies had it brought to them
in Syria. The soil of the valley of the Nile rises
nearly five inches a century, and it was feare I byHe-
rodotus two thousand years ago that from this con-
stant rising Egypt would be reuderd a complete
marsh. It is unsatisfactory to the lovers of pro-
gress to be toll that nearly as much was known in
the days of Herodotus, as at present of the source
of the Nile. The addition consists in having 'as-
certa;ned that there are two rivers which unite to
form it at a certain point. In discussing the Py-
ramids, the author truly observes, that they are
not only a glary to the people who raised them,
but they form part of the history of art, and to
pass them by would be to efface a page, from the
annals of the human mind. The Great Pyramid
was faced with polished stones, the smallest of
which was thirty feet in length, this statement was
made by Herodotus, but all traces have disap-
peared, therefore it is urged that no one can now
form a true idea of what the Pyramids once
were before ruthless destroyers bad profaned
" their smooth surface glittering in the sun
which shone down upon them from a
cloudless sky." Another suggestion is made
worthy of regard, namely, the advance that must
have been made in architecture .before their con•
struction, thus referring the dawn of Egyptian
civilisation to a period which baffles all calculation,
"in what age of the world's history must we ima-
gine that men began to hew stones and to erect
edifices, for such perfection to be attained two
thousand years before the Christian era ?" The
greatest admiration is expressed for Thebes. A thou-
sand years before the Christian era, its fame had
crossed the seas, and the author observes, judging
from the ruins now extant—" Thebes was very
far from receiving her full meed of glory." It is
said that Egyptian architecture is characterised by
solidity, which is evidenced by the fact, that almost
every structure is perfect, except where violence
has assailed it. Were it not for the spoilers,
Thebes would be nearly the same city to behold as
when Joseph was Minister to Pharaoh. It is in'e-
resting to peruse the account given of the camel.
After describing its various uses, its peculiarities,
itc., the writer goes on to state that some travellers
amusethemselves by ridiculing this valuable animal,
which has been truly called the treasure of the
East, and that the best refutation of their absurdi-
ties, is the thought that " God who created it formed
it for the desert." In the first chapter there is a
detailed account given of the Isthmus of Suez, and
the great enterprise concerning it is thus de-
scribed :

" The project in question consists in opening a sea
canal from Suez to Pelusium, that is to say, from the
Red Sea in a direct line to the Meditteranean, affording
a passage to ships of the largest size and burden, from
250 to 300 feet wide and twenty-five to thirty feet deep.
The project is entirely novel, and could neither have been
conceived nor carried into execution in any previous age.
With a view to facilitate the enterprise, a rrant was
made by his Highness Mohammed Said, Viceroy of
Egypt. to M. Ferdinand de Leeseps, dated November,
30th, 1854.
" The idea of connecting the two seas bas indeed been
mooted at various periods, but never otherwise than by
a freshwater canal, supplied by the waters of the Nile,
and terminating. by a more or less complicated course,
at Alexandria and at Suez. The present project is to
supply the canal from the sea, without any opening to
the Nile, and simply to establish as abort a communica-
tion as possible between the two roadsteads which con-
tinue along this Isthmus for twenty-nine leagues north
and south. It does not-cross Egypt, but merely follows
the boundary which separates Africa from Asia, travers-
ing the Desert, without at all encroaching on the inte-
rior of the fine country which it will so essentially
benefit, by opening along its frontier a perpetual stream
of civilisation. This feature of the intended canal dis-
tinguishes it from all previous projects, none having been
hitherto framed upon the same idea, as history shows."
The International Commission forwarded a meat
successful report of their expedition to the
Viceroy :

"They declared plainly and openly 'that the direct
canal from Suez to Pelusium offers the only solution to
the problem in question, and that there is no other prac-
ticable means of connecting the Red Sea and the Medi-
terranean ; that the execution of this sea-canal is emy,
and its success unquestionable ; that the two ports to be
formed, at Suez and Pelusium, present only ordinary
difficulties ; the one at Suez opening into a wide and
secure roadstead, accessible at all times, and with
twenty-six feet of water and one mile of beach,—and the
port at Pelusium being situated between the mouths of
odm Fareg and Oum Glidmi'6, with twenty-six feet of
water and nearly a mile and a half of beach, and having
an excellent anchorage, with all facilities fur getting
under sail.' Lastly, the Commission added, that the
total cost of the canal would not exceed the two hund-
red million francs calculated in the original estimates."
11 It is remarked that the " interests of humanity,
I not less than those of commerce, conspire to render
the opening of the Isthmus of Suez one of the most
useful and honourable enterprises of the nineteenth
century ;" and it seems a glorious thought that the
triumphs of modern science should be rea'ised in a
country that possesses the trophies of ancient art.

The Irish Sketch Book. By Mr. M. A. Titmarab.
New edition. Chapman and Hall.

This volume is uniform with the new and cheap
edition of Mr. Thackeray's miscellaneous essays
which bas recently appeared. Mr. Titmarsh's
works with the pen and the pencil do not need any
criticism nor any recommendation to the lovers of
genuine humour. It is enough to say that this
edition has every requisite for a library, while
the clear type, and commodious size commend it to
the casual reader.