"معاملات الجمعية الجغرافية في بومباي. من يناير ١٨٦٣ حتى ديسمبر ١٨٦٤. (تحرير السكرتير.) المجلد XVII." [‎٨‎٠] (٥٢٤/٢٤٥)

REMARKS ON THE TRIBES, &C.
155. It is not my duty to speculate on the general opening up of
this route as amain artery of communication between England and In
dia ; hut analyzing the map, one spontaneously iccalls the first lesson of
Geometry, that the shortest road between two points is a straight line.
A line drawn from London to a point on the Ai estern coast of the Pe,
ninsula of India traverses the Peisian Gulf. Kunachee seems to be
pointed out by nature as the place "where oui English telegraphic ca
ble should enter our Indian Empire. It would of course be an advan
tage to have our telegraph line identical with our line of trade, and
post; and passengers.
15G. In conclusion, His Excellency having directed me to report on
the trade of the Persian Gulf, I have now woven a thread through these
sheets ; but I confess at the same time that I write on trade with much
diffidence and some reluctance. The remarks of a non-trader must be
superficial and theoretic. In trade, as in other professions, there can be
no real school but experience, acting on original capacity. And all that
an outsider can do if useful, is to bring a little grist to that mill.
The principles of Political Economy mathematically true in the
abstract, maybe rendered by circumstances ruinous in detailed practice.
The merchant knows there is no workable law of commerce but to
watch the market, and mistrust general maxims. To costly experience
he must add continued care and forethought. His combinations are not
less comprehensive and complex than those of a General. Like him,
too, he must first fight the compaign in his head : and when the time
comes to leave strategy for tactics, fight it over again on the decisive
field of competition. Ruin or fortune hangs on a day. And when all
is done that can be done, that day may still be adverse. A touch at
the other side of the globe may vibrate through the whole mass he
is dealing with, and disconcert his combinations at the last hour; and
this I presume is the reason why the best laid plans of merchants as
of mice do still go oft awry. 1
1 I apologize to the Government for sending in the office copy
uf this Report; but my Clerk really lias not time to make a fair copy
of it before the outgoing steamer starts.