having turned his thoughts, as all French consuls feel themselves in duty bound to do, to the manner in which the commercial interests of France may be best promoted, at the expense of all other nations, but more especially of England, conceived a plan, which is developed in an introduction of fifty pages, and by which the old story of the arbitrary dominion of the seas exercised by Great Britain, and her monopoly of the trade with India, are to be at once annihilated. We pass over his nonsense about the dominion of the seas; and with regard to the other point, we suspect he will not find it so very easy of accomplishment as he seems willing to persuade himself. His first postulate is, that all the great powers of Europe shall bind themselves, by a solemn treaty, not of an 'armed,' but a 'pacific neutrality,' by which the general interests of this vast commerce' are to be secured. This being accomplished, the next step is, to destroy the monopoly of the vast commerce' between Europe and Asia now possessed by Great Britain; to which end the confederated powers are to re-establish the ancient intercourse and stations between these two parts of the world, as they existed before the discovery of America and the Cape of Good Hope. We could tell M. Gamba, that if the execution of his first project be politically and morally improbable, that of the second is physically impossible. We could show him, were it worth the while, that a single Indiaman, of twelve hundred tons burden, will bring from India or China to the Thames, in less time and at less expense, a greater quantity of merchandise than twelve thousand mules, donkies, and dromedaries would carry, in many parts of his land-journey, for a single week; and that looking to the five or six months' travelling over rugged and barren mountains and naked sandy plains,-what with the additional beasts for the drivers, the sore backs, the deaths, and the relays, it may well be doubted whether three times twelve thousand might not be required to transport a single ship's cargo of goods from India or China, by land, (throwing him the navigation of the Caspian and Black Seas into the bargain,) to the capital of France; for-be it noted-a part of the Chevalier's plan is to avoid the Persian Gulph and the Mediterranean in time of war, as not being maria clausa-and therefore not quite secure from the molestation of the unconscionable power which holds the 'dominion.' But, in fact, this project of the consul is a story as old as the time of Queen Elizabeth, and was tried and failed in the reign of Peter the Great, by Captain Elton and Jonas Hanway, men far superior, in every respect, to M. le Chevalier Gamba.-That Russia might profit, as undoubtedly she will, and, in fact, has partially done, by a commerce of this kind, is obvious enough. The possession of nearly the whole of the eastern coast

of

of the Euxine, and the western coast of the Caspian,-the magnificent rivers which flow into them through the heart and centre of her own dominions,—with the occupation, also, of the whole interjacent country between those seas,-these give her advantages such as no other European nation can expect to enjoy.

An ukase of the late Emperor Alexander, of October, 1821, which opens Georgia to foreigners as well as Russians, with certain privileges and immunities, M. Gamba more than insinuates was grounded on his project. That sovereign, indeed, appears to have been so much caught by it, that he made the author a grant of a large tract of land on the banks of the Phasis, where he intends to plant vineyards, and improve the wines of Georgia. An order was also despatched to Admiral Greig, who commands the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, to convey the consul and his suite, in a ship of war, from Odessa to Redoute-Kalé, on the western coast of that sea, by which he had an opportunity of seeing and making excursions into the countries of the Abassians, the Mingrelians or Colchians, and the Immeritians, all bordering on that coast. From Redoute-Kalé he proceeded to Kotais, in Immeritia, and from thence visited the banks of the Phasis and various parts of the ancient Colchos. His residence at Teflis gave him opportunities of seeing most of the provinces of Georgia, and on his return to France he skirted the western shore of the Caspian, from Bakou to Astracan. M. Gamba is but a superficial observer; and, modestly enough, he apologizes for his deficiency in geology and natural history, and in the various languages spoken in Georgia. Still we may perhaps glean something from his two bulky volumes relating to this latest acquisition of the crown of Russia.

On his visit to the banks of the Phasis, now one dense forest, the Chevalier feels that he is treading heroic earth, and accordingly thinks it right to talk of Jason, and Alexander, and Mithridates. We are not surprised at this: we know from experience how wide a difference there will always be, in point of feeling, between the mind of a traveller on such classic ground as that of Colchos and Iberia, and of another who may be doomed to plod his weary way' through the back-woods of America. The objects may be the same in both-forests, rivers, mountains-more sublime, probably, in the latter than in the former country; but when the eye once becomes satiated, as it soon does with the most magnificent monotony, all that remains is drearily barren,—making no appeal to any memory either of deeds worthy to be written, or of writings worthy to be read; whereas, in the other case, every step the traveller takes calls up recollections which transport him back to those happy days, when the young imagination fed itself on such

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such stories as the flight and subsequent sufferings of Phryxus, the fate of poor Helle, the adventures and exploits of Jason to recover the Golden Fleece, the magic cauldron of Medea, and the rejuvenescence of Eson. It can scarcely be doubted, that most of these venerable fables have their foundation in facts; and we could wish that some Edipus, among the idle sons of the Cam or the Isis, would seriously set about expounding-what we think has not yet been satisfactorily done these mystic tales of 'hoar antiquity.' Mr. Marsden, in one of his valuable notes on Marco Polo, says, I have long entertained the idea, and hope it will not be thought an extravagant one, that the Golden Fleece, which Jason and his companions, in the Argo, are said to have brought away from Colchos and exhibited in Greece, was a cargo, or perhaps only a specimen, of rich, golden-coloured raw silk, in the hank, which might, figuratively, be termed a fleece, because, like the wool of the sheep, it was to be twisted into thread, and woven into cloth.' This is ingenious enough, and we have but two objections to urge against it. The first is, that Phryxus carried away the ram with the golden fleece from Greece, and that Jason only went to fetch it back again: the second is, that silk continued to be unknown to the Greeks, and even to the Romans, nearly a thousand years after the Argonautic expedition. Gibbon, following Strabo, supposes that the Colchians were in the habit of fishing up gold particles by means of sheep-skins, which is but a puerile suggestion, and open to objections of the kind just stated.

M. Gamba just hints at the possibility of the Argonauts having first brought into the Western World from the banks of the Phasis, whose name it bears, that beautiful bird which is now so abundant in our copses, contributing to the amusement and the luxury of one class of society, and unhappily the innocent cause of demoralizing another. The forests of Colchos and Iberia still swarm with the common pheasant (Phasianus Colchicus), and the large turkey-pheasant (Ph. Gallipavonis), but not, as stated, with the golden pheasant, that species being a native, exclusively, of China. The usual mode of taking these birds by the present race of Mingrelians, or Colchians, is with the falcon, which may have accompanied the introduction of the former into the western world. The vine, as M. Chaptal supposes, was brought originally from Iberia into Greece. It is still found in its wild and native state in all the forests of ancient Colchos, climbing to the tops of the loftiest trees. If the celebrated chemist be correct, we see no reason why this delicious fruit might not have been transplanted at least as early as the pheasant into Greece; and if so, what charm more potent than the fermented juice of the grape could Medea have employed to invigorate the limbs and exhilarate the

spirits

spirits of old son? It would appear, from the Iliad, that some three or four hundred years after the Argonautic expedition, wine was common enough in Greece.-We may here observe, that the modern Georgians (under which term we mean to include the Colchians, Iberians, and Albanians) are in the habit of doing ample justice to their wines, which, according to M. Gamba, are by no means of an indifferent quality. The consumption of wine in Georgia,' he says, and above all at Teflis, is considerable, I may even say, prodigious. From the artisan to the prince, the ordinary allowance of a Georgian is a tonque per day;' that is, a full gallon, the cost of which is from a halfpenny to sixpence or sevenpence a quart, according to the quality.

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The wreck of walls and fortresses commanding the passes, and perched on the summits of the mountain ridges of the great Caucasian chain; the remains of bridges in the streams of the Phasis, the Kour, the Terek, and the Aragvi, or Aragua; the ruins of palaces, churches, baths, &c., in the midst of which are discovered, from time to time, medals of Medes, Parthians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, (Gamba, tom. ii. p. 259,)—attest the various nations that have been in possession of Georgia in ancient times. The Consul thus describes one extraordinary monument—

'About five versts from the post of Dzeyam is seen the column of Chamkor; it is placed outside the boundary of the fortress, and remarkable by the boldness of its elevation and solidity. It may be compared to Trajan's column at Rome. It is of red brick, laid in the most regular manner in courses, and corresponding perpendicularly the one with the other. Its base, which is square, is fifteen feet wide each side, and twelve feet high. Upon this base stands the column, whose diameter is about twelve feet; its height about one hundred and eighty feet. The stairs wind round a double spiral, but so decayed as not to be ascended without great danger. They lead to a gallery_surrounding the column, at the distance of forty feet from the top. The origin is lost in the night of time; it is ascribed to Alexander, king of Macedon. It is surrounded on all sides with ruins more or less considerable. In olden time, no doubt, a population, rich, active, and powerful, occupied the territory at present covered with demolished buildings, in the midst of which wander, during the winter, a few Tartar Nomades.'-Gamba, tom. ii. p. 245.

M. Gamba quotes a passage of Gibbon, taken from Strabo, the accuracy of which, he says, he cannot confirm, as, indeed, it would be most surprising if he could. From the Iberian Caucasus,' says the historian, the most lofty and craggy mountains of Asia, the Phasis descends with such oblique vehemence, that, in a short space, it is traversed by one hundred and twenty bridges.'* But in making

* Decline and Fall, vol, vii. p. 219.

this quotation, he adds to it, what is not in Gibbon-' pour en rompre l'impétuosité;' as if bridges were thrown across torrents to check their impetuosity, instead of furnishing the means to cross them.

Georgia may be considered as one of the most interesting countries on the globe ;-we include under this name the whole territory between the summit ridge of the Caucasian chain of mountains and the river Araxes, or Arras, on the Caspian side, and the redoubt of St. Nicholas, some twenty miles below the mouth of the Phasis, on the side of the Euxine, and all that lies within these limits between the two seas; and also the two provinces of Daghestan and Shirwan, formerly belonging to Persia, but now held by Russia, partly by conquest and partly by cession. While Georgia maintained a nominal independence, it was not only kept in a state of perpetual internal warfare by the violence of its numerous khans, or princes, but subject to the frequent inroads of the Persians on the one hand, and the Turks on the other-it was, in fact, entirely open to the southward; but the great Caucasian ridge, stretching north-west and south-east between the two seas, had always proved a complete barrier against the Tartar hordes on the north, and might also have successfully resisted the Russian arms, had there been anything like a common interest among the chiefs, and a disposition to support the king and the integrity of the country. There are, in fact, two practicable passes only across the Caucasus-that of Dariel, about the centre of the ridge, the Porta-Caucasia of the ancients; and that of Derbent, between one of the spurs of the Great Chain and the Caspian the Porta-Caspia-across which a wall was built of four or five miles in length, passable only through a strong iron foldinggate.

The pass of Dariel is a narrow defile, bordered by almost perpendicular cheeks of rock, and five or six miles in extent. Sir R. Porter says, The chasm rises from the river's (Terek) brink upwards of a thousand feet. Its sides are broken into cliffs and projections, dark and frowning-so high, so close, so overhanging, that even at mid-day the whole is covered with a shadow bordering on twi light.' Sometimes these cheeks give way, or an avalanche of ice and snow descends from the Kasbeck, in either of which cases the road becomes impassable, and the Terek below is choked up, and the valley inundated. The summit of this defile is a little beyond Kobi, where a large cross gives the name of Kristowajagara to a ridge, the height of which is estimated by Mr. Henderson at seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. He found it in the month of November covered with deep snow. The Russians have chains of posts the whole way from Dariel,

without