[1] _The Highlands of Ethiopa._ by Major W. CORNWALLIS HARRIS, H.E.
I.C. Engineers. 3 vols.


From the various circumstances of our day, the impression is powerfully
made upon intelligent men in Europe, that some extraordinary change is
about to take place in the general condition of mankind. A new ardour of
human intercourse seems to be spreading through all nations. Europe has
laid aside her perpetual wars, and seems to be assuming a _habit_ of peace.
Even France, hitherto the most belligerent of European nations, is
evidently abandoning the passion for conqest, and begining to exert her
fine powers in the cultivation of commerce. All the nations of Europe are
either following her example, or sending out colonies of greater or less
magnitude, to fill the wild portions of the world. Regions hitherto
utterly neglected, and even scarcely known, are becoming objects of
enlightened regard; and mankind, in every quarter, is approaching, with
greater or less speed, to that combined interest and mutual intercourse,
which are the first steps to the true possession of the globe.

But, we say it with the gratification of Englishmen, proud of their
country's fame, and still prouder of its principles--that the lead in this
noblest of all human victories, has been clearly taken by England. It is
she who pre-eminently stimulates the voyage, and plants the colony, and
establishes the commerce, and civilizes the people. And all this has been
done in a manner so little due to popular caprice or national ambition, to
the mere will of a sovereign, or the popular thirst of possession, that it
invests the whole process with a sense of unequaled security. Resembling
the work of nature in the simplicity of its growth, it will probably also
resemble the work of nature in the permanence of its existence. It is not