We have a kind of impression, that some general improvement is about to take place in the more neglected portions of the world, and that England is honoured to be the chief agent in the great work.  Africa, which has been under a ban for so many thousand years, may be on the eve of relief from the misery, lawlessness, and impurity of barbarism; and we are strongly inclined to look upon this establishment of British feeling, and intercourse in Abyssinia, as the commencement of that proud and fortunate change.  All attempts to enter Africa by the western coast have failed.  The heat, the swamps, the rank vegetation, and the unhealthy atmosphere, have proved insurmountable barriers.  The north is fenced by a line of burning wilderness.  But the east is open, free, fertile, and beautiful.  A British factory in Abyssinia would be not merely a source of infinite comfort to the people, by the communication of European conveniences and manufactures, but a source of light.  British example would teach obedience and loyalty to the laws, subordination on the part of the people, and mercy on that of the sovereign.

But we have also another object, sufficiently important to determine our Government in looking to the increase of our connexion with Eastern Africa.  It is certainly a minor one, but one which no rational Government can undervalue.  The policy of the present French King is directed eminently to the extension of commercial influence in all countries.  To this policy, none can make objection.  It is the duty of a monarch to develop all the resources of his country; and while France exerts herself only in the rivalry of peace, her advance is an advance of all nations.  But her extreme attention, of late years, to Africa, ought to open our eyes to the necessity of exertion in that boundless quarter.  On the western coast, she had long fixed a lazy grasp; but that grasp is now becoming vigorous, and extending hour by hour.  Her flag flies at Golam, 250 miles up the Senegal.  She has a settlement at Gori; she has lately established a settlement at the mouth of the Assinee, another at the mouth of the Gaboon, and is on the point of establishing another in the Bight of Benin; when she will command all Western Africa.

She is not less active on the eastern shore.  At Massawah, on the coast of Abyssinia, she is fast monopolizing the trade in gold and spices.  She has purchased Edh, and is endeavouring to purchase Brava.  Her attention to Northern Abyssinia is matter of notoriety, and we must regard this system, not so much with regard to advantages which such possessions might give to ourselves, as to their prejudice to us in falling into rival hands.  The possession of Algeria should direct the eye of Europe to the ulterior objects of France; the first change of masters in Egypt, must be looked to with national anxiety; and the transmission of the great routes of Africa into her hands, must be guarded against with a vigilance worthy of the interests of England and Europe.