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.

1. It may be fairly considered, as one great advantage accruing to the
world from our late surveys of the globe, that they have confuted
fanciful theories, too likely to give birth to impracticable
undertakings.

After Captain Cook's persevering and fruitless traverses through every
corner of the southern hemisphere, who, for the future, will pay any
attentio