T RAV

1~6 TRAVELS IN ln1RO?E.possessed to tlle churlish meditations of Egypt. Romepossessed greaterpowers of action, and used them accordingly.rrhus her armies bave1eft in thesecountries t,he most powerful traces of occupation and conquest.But the sea-coasts bear equal witness to the extent of commercialenterpr,ise. The language of the merchants ofPalestine remains,to bear testimony to that existence of which their rivaIs wouId Faindeprive their memory. Maritime"local names, like aquatic plants,heara doser generic resemblànce over the world than thoseof any other description.Indeed, events and their obviousprogress point ouOt thewaters as the first object to tempt mankind to the experiment ofenterprise,"going in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters." Rence Wennd throughout Europe the objects most catching to the eye of the na...vigator, with names rooted among the very corner-stones and foondationsof language. Such is the case on the coast here. But the Phœnicians,it i5 proved by the same authority (language), established themselves,and ruled long, inland. How comes it that no more traces remainof them?Beeause they were not a people elegant like the Greeks,monumentarylike the Romans.Ascalon is eut off."But" haldness is come upon Gaza,­And with the subversion of the parent state thetraces of exterior domination are nearly obliterated; a circumstance to·he regretted, situated so near the sources of primitive manners, of originalmatter, moral and politieal, as that state was.But. to revert to modern days. A territory unpeopled, a frontier indefensible,and no particular moral resourccs, present a picture conclusiveat first view.Still, however, as there are few cases in this world whichmay not be worse, what \Vould be the situation of the Peninsula, did}'rance, as in former time, hold Navarre, the very k:~y to it? rfhe separationof this Peninsula into two independent (not to say hostile) kingdoms,bas probably been on the whole injurious to the great EuropeaJl