by the discovery of the Aleutic islands and the north-west coast of America.  But, in fact, it is the highest censure he could possibly have passed on his own government, to admit, that it had been subjected to such stupifying treatment.  This it certainly could not have been, without the previous existence of such a lethargy as materially depreciates the virtue of any opiate employed.  There is no room, however, for the allegation made; and the full amount of her slumber is justly imputable to the gross darkness which so long enveloped the horizon of Russia.  Whose business was it to rouse her?  What nation could be supposed to possess so much of the spirit of knight-errantry, as to be induced to instruct her savages as to the advantages of cultivating commerce, without a cautious regard to its own particular interests in the first place?  But the bold, though somewhat impolitic seaman, has perhaps stumbled on the real cause of the slow progress which she has hitherto made in the course which his sanguine imagination has pointed out for her.  Speaking of her inexhaustible springs and incentives to commerce, he nevertheless admits, that there are obstacles which render it difficult for her to become a trading nation.  But these obstacles, he says, do not warrant a doubt of the possibility of removing them.  “Let the monarch only express his pleasure with regard to them, and the most difficult are already overcome!” The true prosperity of Russia, it is indubitably certain, will be infinitely more advanced by fostering her infant commerce, than by any augmentation of territories which the policy or arms of her sovereign can accomplish.  But he will always require much self-denial to avoid intermeddling with the concerns of other nations, and to restrict his labours to the improvement of his own real interests.—­E.]

The extended review we have taken of the preceding voyages, and the general outline we have sketched out, of the transactions of the last, which are recorded at full length in these volumes, will not, it is hoped, be considered as a prolix or unnecessary detail.  It will serve to give a just notion of the whole plan of discovery executed by his majesty’s commands.  And it appearing that much was aimed at, and much accomplished, in the unknown parts of the globe, in both hemispheres, there needs no other consideration, to give full satisfaction to those who possess an enlarged way of thinking, that a variety of useful purposes must have been effected by these researches.  But there are others, no doubt, who, too diffident of their own abilities, or too indolent to exert them, would wish to have their reflections assisted, by pointing out what those useful purposes are.  For the service of such, the following enumeration of particulars is entered upon.  And if there should be any, who affect to undervalue the plan or the execution of our voyages, what shall now be offered, if it do not convince them, may, at least, check the influence of their unfavourable decision.