lating to his admissions subsequent to his imprisonment is tainted with duress, and ought not to have any weight in the decision of this case.

XVII. Then what is the nature of the presumptive evidence on the side of the defendants? First, Naroba was a kind of treasurer to the Peishwa. He is dead, and no judicial process was instituted against him in his lifetime;-shall we presume against the present plaintiff, that all this money was the Peishwa's, and none of it Naroba's or, if part was his, how much was the Peishwa's? Then, does the quantity warrant the presumption that the whole was the Peishwa's? and, if not, what part must be considered so? I am not so conversant with the wealth of the Natives, as even to guess what would be the natural amount of the fortune of a person in Naroba's station. The practice, however, of hoarding would be natural in unsettled times; and, if the intention were to embezzle public property, the concealment seems to have been managed with very little art, and does not show much apprehension of a strict secreting.

XVIII. On the whole of this long case, I am of opinion, upon the gist of it, that there must be a verdict for the plaintiff, at least against Captain Robertson. As it is clear that the money has been appropriated by the East India Company to public purposes, I was also much disposed to think that the plaintiff was entitled to a verdict against them also; but on considering the nature of the action, I have very reluctantly come to the conclusion, that there is not sufficient to affect the Company with the tort. I think also the grounds slight for implicating Mr. Elphinstone as a tort feasor. There is evidence of applications of Naroba to him for redress, and promises of inquiry; but that can scarcely be considered sufficient to fix any tortuous act upon him. With respect to the letter put in, I conceive that relates merely to the question between Captain Robertson and Major Fearon, and has no relation to the propriety or impropriety of the seizure in the light we are now considering it.

XIX. In the last place, I have considered a great deal the question of interest. The rule laid down in trover is, that the measure of damages is the value at the time of the conversion, and I should be unwilling to deviate from established practice, if it did not materially affect the justice of the case. In this case, there is no doubt that a profit has been made of the money, and no new action could be brought for interest; I, therefore, think it not inconsistent with justice to give interest up to the final judgment, especially as I have been given to understand that in India there have been precedents to warrant it.

By the Court.-Judgment for the plaintiff against the defendants, the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, and Captain Henry Robertson, for seventeen hundred and forty-five thousand two hundred and ninety rupees, three quarters, and thirty-two reas, 17, 45, 290, 3, 32).

(True Copy.)

A. FERRIER, Prothonotary.

41

EXCURSIONS ON THE BANKS OF THE NILE.

No. IV.

Bazars of Cairo-Females of Egypt-Intercourse with India, by way of the Red Sea, as a route of Supply between the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean.

Nor having yet completed the purchase of my Oriental dress for the voyage into Upper Egypt, I passed the greater part of the day (October 20) in the bazars for that purpose; and willingly prolonged my stay beyond the time barely necessary for the purchases I had to effect, as I felt a great pleasure amidst the infinite variety of objects and characters which every change of place presented me, and considered such intercourse favourable to that knowledge of the people which I was desirous of acquiring during my short stay among them.

These bazars, not being the residences of the dealers, are one continued succession of little recesses, adjoining each other, with no other space than the dividing wall between them; and, when shut up at sun-set, have the appearance of one unbroken range of flat windows. These are about six feet in height, and from six to twelve feet in breadth; being elevated about three feet from the ground, but without a door, or any thing like an entrance, except that formed by taking down the shutters themselves. These shutters, when let down in the morning by their hinges at the bottom, form the benches on which the goods are laid for the inspection of the purchaser, who stands in the street, as the recess in which the seller sits is scarcely ever more than sufficiently large to contain the wares and himself. Some of the higher orders of dealers have their shutters unhinged; and, in lieu of the stall which it would otherwise form, have a permanent little bench, railed around, and furnished with cushions like a sofa, and a carpet in the centre. In this there is room to accommodate two or three ladies at the farthest; who, after some difficulty in mounting, as there are no steps, sit cross-legged at one end of this divan, and the shopkeeper, in the same attitude, at the other, leaving just sufficient space between them for the parcels of goods, which he reaches them, while sitting, from the shelves with one hand, while the never-neglected pipe occupies the other.

The state of privation and confinement in which the women of this country are obliged to live in their houses, renders them so fond of going out, that every opportunity which they can seize of quitting home is like an hour of liberty to the captive; and as the bazars are

the only places in which they can, under any pretence, enjoy the conversation of men, so it is one of their chief amusements to saunter away whole mornings there, for which the Arab mode of dealing is admirably calculated. A party of three or four ladies, veiled and cloaked, mounted on asses, and attended only by a domestic of their own, ride into the particular bazar in which the article they wish to purchase is alone to be found. They alight at the bench of their favourite dealer, and occupy each a cushion on his little divan. These ladies are so completely enveloped, that the husband himself would find it impossible to distinguish his wife from another, without hearing her speak; and it is by the voice only that they are known to the shopkeeper whom they visit. An exchange of compliments commences, which, from the richness of the Arabic language in that particular, allows of the most tender things being said, and can be prolonged to half an hour at least; the bargaining opens, the goods are shown; the lady inadvertently, as she would wish it to be understood by others, shows her fair hand and red-stained nails, merely to feel the quality of the article; the dealer touches it, as inadvertently, in comparing the sensations of his feeling with her own; and hours are thus passed away, in which, from the highly figurative modes of speech in use among them, the tenderest sentiments are exchanged, assignations made, and a constant communication kept up.

For so much of this conversation as related to the manners of the Egyptian females, I was indebted to frequent familiar conversations with my fair hostess, who, being a native of Constantinople, and long resident in Cairo, was perfectly conversant with the language and manners of the country in all their minutest details. She had herself accompanied me to the bazar this morning, as well as on other occasions, veiled and enveloped after the fashion of the Oriental women; and from some instances, which she pointed out to me on the spot, I could not doubt of the veracity of her statement.

My intercourse with the principal merchants of Cairo had given me opportunities also of learning many valuable and interesting particulars respecting the trade of Egypt, and had turned my thoughts to the capabilities of its extension and improvement, both with India and with England, the result of all which I embodied on the spot, in the following observations, which have the merit, at least, of careful investigation, and a disinterested application of facts and reasonings to the subject under review.

In reverting to the geographical position of Egypt, and its connection with the extensive empire of India, on the one hand, and with the whole of Europe on the other; and remembering that the manufactures and productions of the Yemen, Hindoostan, and the Persian Gulf, consumed principally in Turkey, Syria, and the higher parts of the Mediterranean, are conveyed by the distant route of the Cape of Good Hope, passed through the expensive magazines of England, and from thence re-shipped for the Levant, one cannot

but be struck with surprise at the retention of so circuitous a mode of supply to this quarter, and cease to wonder at the difficulty of rendering a trade profitable which has been hitherto carried on through such a lengthened and expensive channel.

Notwithstanding all this, however, the rice, the sugar, and the indigo of Bengal, the coffee of Arabia, the manufactures of Hindoostan, the shawls of Cashmere, the spices of the Eastern Islands, the pepper of Malabar, the gems of Golconda and Ceylon, and the pearls of Manar and Bahrein, are in as high esteem as ever in Egypt, and want only to be relieved from the burthens which are imposed on them, to resume their former currency, at prices which would render them more easily accessible to the purchaser, and, by increase of consumption, make the trade more profitable to the seller.

The abolition of the India Company's exclusive trade to India, or at least its limitation to China, ought, one would think, to have turned the attention of speculators to this ancient route, by which the wealth and power of the ancient Alexandria and Palmyra arrived at such an unprecedented pitch, and the decline of both of which was hastened by the diversion of that commerce into other channels. The discoveries of Vasco de Gama were important, considered either as connected with commercial or political events; and as a route of supply for the islands of the West Indies, the two Americas, and even the northern countries of Europe, the southern passage of the Cape may be always followed with advantage, besides affording facility to the transportation to India of the naval and military forces by that power in whose hands the government of that country may be. But the circumnavigation of Africa, to arrive at the head of the Mediterranean, can never be the most eligible channel of conveyance while that of the Red Sea is open; because practical experience has borne out the clearest of all commercial truisms, that increase of risk and distance is always attended by increase of price, and this by diminution of consumption.

Let us then enter into detail, and see whether such an evil might not be remedied by making Egypt the route of supply from India, both for Asia Minor and the south of Europe generally. As security is the basis of trade, and moderation of duties its principal encouragement, these are the first subjects of consideration. In treating of security, it must be understood that the present Vice Roy of Egypt, Mahommed Ali Pasha, though a professed officer of the Porte, is too independent of that power, to be regulated in his public conduct by any treaties entered into by Turkey, or even by the tariff of duties established between that country and England. The massacre of the Mamelouk Beys at Cairo, in 1809, has given him uncontrolled dominion; and he makes no scruple of declaring, that he would remain neutral in any war into which Turkey might enter, except against Russia, in which the feelings of his soldiery would not admit of his continuing an idle spectator.

Although risen from the Albanian ranks to the elevated station he now fills, Mahommed Ali Pasha possesses a liberality of opinion, and strength of understanding, which surprise every one who know him. Free from the violent prejudices of the Musulman faith, he esteems and courts the society and information of Europeans; and besides endeavouring to adopt from them, by slow degrees, their military tactics, sciences, and mechanical arts, he is, above all, desirous of encouraging a commerce with every country within his reach. Those who know the Albanian character well, would not, however, place implicit reliance on the mere faith of one of that nation in power; but so devotedly is this particular individual attached to mercantile enterprise, that there would be no difficulty in entering into any private treaty with him; and, by ceding to him a share in the capital of the concern, or in the profits it produced, to obtain his protection for all the property passed through his dominions, as well as established rates of duty, sufficiently low to encourage a trade with his subjects. His individual interest would be the best pledge for his observance of conditions framed by himself; and he is too well instructed on the subject of trade, not to know that his interest must, whether as a partner or a prince, be promoted by the permanent security which his government affords to the property of capitalists embarked in it, whether in money or in goods.

On this head I do not speak at random, having been favoured with the opinions of the best informed men in Egypt, in long and frequent conversations with the principal merchants of the court. Not long ago, indeed, a treaty was actually signed by the Pasha in favour of an Italian agent of a Bombay house, pledging facility and security of transport to goods from Suez to Cairo, and fixing the duties at three per-cent. only, ad valorem; which treaty was never acted on, however, in consequence, it is said, of the India Company's opposing influence. A more recent treaty has, however, since been negotiated between Mohammed Ali Pasha, the British Consul at Alexandria, and an English gentleman from India, which offered the same advantage of security and low duties to the parties engaging in it : and from which, if followed up with spirit, great advantage may yet be expected to ensue.

With regard to the Egyptian articles of export, import, and barter, in the country, they are at present numerous, and might be easily rendered more so. Coffee from Mocha would be a staple article ; and since it has been freed from the difficulties which were thrown in the way of its import from Arabia, by the petty chieftains in the Red Sea being now subject to the Egyptian Vice Roy's power, it could be sent into the Mediterranean, viâ Suez. at a price which would rival the West India, in all the Turkey markets, notwithstanding the run which that article has had; because the preference in favour of Mocha coffee being founded as much on religious prejudice as on its real superiority, is still as strong as ever, and its great