ii was also believed that the pressing emergencies which required this extra expenditure would be but temporary. This hope, though long indulged, has been uniformly disappointed by every successive month: for the eve of publication has never yet arrived, without our being embarrassed as to the choice of articles to be left out or deferred to the following; and one postponement has succeeded another, till the interest of the subject has entirely passed away. A climax of these embarrassments led to the necessity of our issuing with the last regular Number (already five sheets, or eighty pages, more than the stipulated size) a Supplement, to include such of the Hyderabad documents as appeared to us essential to a correct understanding of the case. The same, or if possible, a still greater necessity impels us (as much against our wishes as it is unfortunately against our interests) to repeat the same course in the present month; a proceeding which nothing but a deep sense of duty to our supporters would induce us to adopt, as the pecuniary sacrifice which we make in determining on this step, will be more than many months of ordinary sale will repay. We entered on our career, with the determination that the subscribers to the Oriental Herald should be presented with the earliest, the fullest, and the most accurate information on Indian affairs that zeal and labour could furnish, or money could procure: and at the risk of all we now possess, we have hitherto redeemed that pledge. We feel, however, that the period is arrived when some arrangement of a more permanent nature than the present must be determined upon. We feel, perhaps even more keenly than any of our readers, the force of all the objections that may be raised to the irregular issue of Supplementary Numbers: to them they are productive only of a temporary irregularity, and a very trifling additional expense, which they, however, have the option of avoiding if they choose: to us they are productive of much certain additional labour, and much certain additional cost, from neither of which can we shrink, without making such omissions as would destroy the character of the work for fullness and fidelity as an impartial record of Indian affairs. The reports of the last three days' debates at the India House, on the Hyderabad transactions, are of themselves more than sufficient, though printed in the smallest type that can be read with ease or pleasure, to fill the whole of the space allotted to a regular Number; so that if the usual variety of information were to be given, these debates could not be printed at all; or if we confined ourselves to the publication of these debates alone, we could issue nothing else. Yet the facts developed in these discussions are undoubtedly of the greatest public importance; and the circumstance of their extending through a period of six days, with successive adjournments, the last day pressing close upon midnight before the debate was ended, as well as the crowded audiences and numerous speakers in each, warrant our considering them also of the highest public interest. We can assure the reader that their accuracy and fidelity may be relied on: and in the preliminary article which introduces the whole discussion, as well as in the notes affixed to the most remarkable portions of every Gentleman's speech, by which we have endeavoured to enliven and enrich this Supplementary Number, we feel persuaded he will find that which will render the whole more intelligible, as well as more agreeable to read, than the mere dull report of any India House debates can ever be made, without appropriate comments on the facts and opinions disclosed in them. There remains, however, besides this, all the late and deeply interesting news from India, equal in importance to any intelligence ever received from that country, as well as the indispensable details of various other matters connected with those branches of information, by which the variety of our publication is maintained. No alternative seems to be left, therefore, but that of making a separate Supplemental Number of the India House debates, to which nothing more than a preliminary article on the same subject has been attached; and including all the rest of the materials, which could neither be suppressed nor postponed, in the regular Number of the month; issuing each at the same price, and giving to purchasers, as before, the option of taking one or both, as may be most agreeable to themselves. We have already stated our determination, that No MORE SUPPLEMENTS SHALL BE ISSUED, and our conviction that some plan must be at once determined on, which shall enable us to keep pace with the increasing interest of Indian affairs, without making any irregular demands on our Subscribers by an augmentation of charge for whatever additional matter may be required to be printed. The only way in which this can possibly be done is, to increase the size of each Monthly Number from its present standard of 150, to an enlarged standard of 200 pages, and to make the price Five Shillings. This increase of limits will make the work extend to four volumes in the year, instead of three, one volume being completed every quarter. As a reference to existing standards of quantity and price is at once the fairest and most intelligible way of ascertaining whether the charge for any publication be beyond the ordinary standard or not, it may be well to mention that the average number of pages in the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews is about 250, and the prices six shillings: the average of the Retrospective Review 190 pages, and its price five shillings per number. The charge for the Oriental Herald, when fixed at 200 pages for the last named sum, will be, therefore, at least, as moderate as in either of the preceding publications; with this essential difference in its favour, that 200 pages of the sizes of type and close manner adopted by our printer, will cost to us, in their preparation, even more than the 250 pages of the two first Reviews, and will contain, for the reader, as much as 300 pages of the last, so as to be relatively much cheaper than either of them, as far as the mere labour and expense of printing, paper, &c. is concerned : while the two former possess a steady circulation 12 or 15,000 copies each, which would enable them, if necessary, to bear twice or thrice the expense that their preparation, at present, involves. It deserves especial consideration also, that the very nature of the subjects to which the pages of the Oriental Herald are principally devoted, must limit its iv interest to certain circles of society, and consequently render it impossible for it to attain more than a fourth part of the circulation enjoyed by the great Reviews adverted to. These being, however, almost exclusively the property of men in trade, and managed on trading principles alone, are made to produce a profit of five or six thousand a year. But, without discarding altogether the desire of that return without which no publication can be maintained, we hope we have given sufficient proofs of a better spirit, in other countries, to obtain credit for its continued influence on our views in this; and, in this spirit, we shall hope to effect as much practicable good as may be consistent with an exemption from loss; being willing to give our labours, in what we deem a good cause, on conditions with which no mere writer for gain, whose heart was not in his subject, would be content. We trust that this explanation of our motives for making the augmentation proposed, and of the grounds on which the calculation has been made, will remove all possible doubt as to its entire disinterestedness. The labour and the risk to us will certainly be much greater; the profit will not, even if the proposition is well received, be more than at present. In expressing a hope, therefore, that the share we sustain in this undertaking, will be met with that ready and cordial acquiescence and support, without which no public enterprise can avail, we are only giving our friends and supporters credit for the same zealous and ardent aspirations after the improvement of India, by which we feel ourselves to be actuated in endeavouring to rouse the attention of our countrymen, in England, to the thousand objects that deserve their serious consideration, connected with the fate of their countrymen and fellow-subjects in the East. THE ORIENTAL HERALD. No. 16. APRIL 1825.-VOL. 5. SPEEDY COMMUNICATION WITH INDIA-CANALS ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ. A Bill is now passing through the House of Commons, for the incorporation of a Company, whose purpose is to make a passage for ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, through the narrow country which connects North with South America. The immense advantage arising from such an undertaking, must be apparent to every one who looks at a map of the world. *** There only wants now a canal through the Isthmus of Suez, and then the two great desiderata for which all geographers have sighed, would be accomplished, and little of circuitous navigation left in the world.-EXAMINER, March 13, 1825. THE readers of our earliest Numbers will remember, that about twelve months ago, March 1814, we devoted an article to the subject of uniting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and after a full development of all the details that could be given in illustration, concluded with venturing to predict that this important undertaking would, ere long, receive that serious consideration to which it is so justly entitled. We are gratified at seeing that the expectation was well-founded, and to learn that it is thus already fulfilled. From the consideration of this subject, the mind is naturally impelled towards an inquiry into the practicability of a similar union between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; the Isthmus of Suez and that of Darien being constantly associated, in our recollection, from their similarity in size and position, and the impediment which each offers to a more speedy communication between distant quarters of the globe. In the very first Number of The Oriental Herald, we drew the public attention to the difficulties of steam navigation by that route to India, a project which was then seriously entertained, but which has since been judiciously abandoned. The same objections do not apply, however, to the hope of shortening the route of navigation for sailing vessels, such as are now in use, between Great Britain and her Indian empire; but more especially for vessels of a smaller kind, which would then maintain a speedy and uninterrupted intercourse between all the European, Asiatic, and African ports of the Mediterranean, and those of Arabia and Abyssinia in the Red Sea. At the present moment, when capital is so superabundant as to be seeking channels of profitable employment in every country under the sun, we shall perhaps render an acceptable service to merchants and capitalists, as well as to our literary and geographical readers, and, above all, to the cause of humanity, the best interests of which are most effectually promoted by undertakings that unite hostile nations in the bonds of reciprocal interest, by devoting a portion of our work to the consideration of Oriental Herald, Vol. 5. B the subject proposed. The period for such a discussion is favourable, from another circumstance also, and one of even still greater importance than the abundance of unemployed capital, namely, the present state and condition of Egypt, and the enlarged views and enterprising character of its present celebrated ruler. We learn, by advices received from Alexandria, during the past month, that the commerce of Egypt was rising to a degree of splendour which astonished all the European residents in that country; and the government of the Pasha is said to have been spoken of with the same respect as that of the most enlightened in Europe. A number of intelligent Europeans were already in the service of this prince; the government monopolies were giving way to free-trade; an insurance company had been established, an institution never before known under a Mohammedan government; a public journal was on the point of being established; and every other indication of the spirit and feeling of the country manifested a thirst after improvement, and a zeal among all classes in the pursuit of great undertakings, which has never been witnessed there since the days of the Caliphs. F The independence of Egypt, which most persons acquainted with its present state, regard as not very remote, may perhaps be thought still wanting to secure the success of any great project undertaken for its benefit: but, although there is always a greater degree of insecurity under despotic than under free governments, yet even this insecurity is often effectually counteracted by the powerful claims of self-interest, which, in such a case as we are supposing, would compel even the despot to promote the stability of relations that could never be interrupted without greater injury to himself than to others. We proceed, however, to the immediate object of our inquiry:— In tracing the history of the communication by water, which formerly existed between the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, it is curious to observe the discrepancies that occur with respect to it in the testimonies afforded by the Greek and Roman writers. That a canal did once exist from the Nile to the Red Sea, sufficient to establish such a communication, is evident, not only from the express words of Arabian authors, but also from the vestiges of it which yet remain; but at what era it commenced, and under whose auspices it was finally completed, is still open to considerable doubt. Herodotus, the earliest author who notices it, asserts that this canal, known at a later period by the denomination of Fossa Regum, was first contemplated by Pharaoh Necos; that it was begun by him, and that one hundred thousand Egyptians perished during the progress of the work; that he desisted from it on being warned by an oracle, that all his labour would turn to the advantage of a barbarian ; and that it was afterwards undertaken by Darius, who completed it. He expressly states that it commenced at Buhaste on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, and that it terminated in the Red Sea; and describes the length of it as extending to a navigation of four days, and its breadth as sufficient to admit two triremes abreast. A testimony so explicit, from an intelligent observer who visited Egypt very shortly after the period assigned by him for the completion of the canal, and whose description almost implies that he was an eye witness of its operation, would appear entitled to the most implicit confidence, were it not that we find Aristotle, who passed over the same spot only a century later, completely contradicting it. This writer declares that the |