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volume, upon the Ambassador of Bavaria. Ratisbon is the city from which our voyager starts, and many are the legends which he has picked up of castles and monasteries, enough for six tragedies and sixty melodrames. Mr. Planché has an ear for music (he was poet to Weber), and rates the English soundly "as the only people who have no idea of singing in parts." He, therefore, insists that we are not a musical nation. The truth is, that the common people have become too pressed down by labour to compete with the "Bavarian bauers" in this particular; and, moreover, the progress of knowledge is an enemy to such accomplishments. We have never been a merry people since the time when witches were burnt. But" part-singing' was common enough when the Book of Sports was in vogue;—we left off the amusement as we began to think. However, we trust the faculty will come back with Mr. Irving's Millennium. The following story may afford us a little consolation under our musical backslidings:

Pilgrims, from all parts of Germany, flock to Deggendorf upon Saint Michael's eve, which is a celebrated gnade-zeit (time of grace,) when absolution is granted to all comers, in consequence of some miraculous circumstances that, in the year 1337, attended the purloining and insulting of the Host by a woman and some Jews; who, having bought the consecrated wafer from her, scratched it with thorns till it bled, and the image of a child appeared; baked it, vision and all, in an oven; hammered it upon an anvil, the block of which is still shown to the pilgrim; attempted to cram it down "their accursed throats," (I quote the words of the original description,) but were prevented by the hands and feet of the vision aforesaid; and finally, despairing to destroy it, flung it into a well, which was immediately surrounded by a nimbus, &c. I should not have noticed these disgusting falsehoods, but for the melancholy fact, that the circulation of this trumpery story was considered a sufficient cause, by the pious Deggendorfers, for the indiscriminate massacre of all the wretched Jews in the place; which infamous and bloody deed was perpetrated the day after St. Michael, sanctioned by Christian priests, who, in grand procession, carried back the indestructible wafer to the church, and solemnly approved, in 1489, by Pope Innocent VIII., who issued his bull for the general absolution abovementioned. Above fifty thousand pilgrims assembled here in 1801; and as late as 1815, so consider. able were their numbers, that the greater part of them passed the night in the streets of the town, and in the fields in its neighbourhood.-pp. 55, 56. We are glad to hear such an excellent account of the King of Bavaria, as Mr. Planché gives. He is called the "King of the Learned" by the érudits, and " a good fellow" by the peasantry. This is well. What a pity it is that the welfare of mankind should yet depend upon chance in these matters; and that he same age which boasts a Louis in Bavaria may be disgraced by a Miguel in Portugal!

Mr. Planché occasionally describes well. But why will he fall into the trick of men who do not know how to use their weapon, when he talks of the "pencil of a Salvator Rosa?" When a man is undertaking to make ideas intelligible by words, what has he to do with the vague generalities of another art? Mr. Planche tells us that the wine made in the neighbourhood of Aschach, "is the standing joke of the inhabitants themselves." Its qualities must be very inspiriting, then ;-for marvellous must be the properties of that wine which would produce any joke in a German. But we turn to a more inviting subject:—

• The Linzer women are famed for beauty, if we may believe the guide

books, and who would dare to doubt them upon such a subject ?-honestly, however, I cannot say I remarked any extraordinary difference between the lasses of Linz and their Bavarian neighbours. The young females of the lower and middling classes, throughout the south of Germany, are in general plump, good-humoured looking girls, with florid complexions, large laughing blue eyes, snub noses, and light hair. Amongst the nobility and gentry, indeed, are some of the loveliest creatures I ever saw, and more resembling our own sweet countrywomen than the females of any other nation in Europe.'-p. 145.

It is marvellous to see how well a man writes when he has vivid impressions of what he writes about. The following description of a dangerous passage in the Danube came, we are sure, hot from the pen; and does not want the pencil of Salvator Rosa :'

The traveller now approaches the most extraordinary scene on the long Danube, from its source in the Black Forest, to its mouth in the Black Sea. As soon as a bend of the river has shut out the view of Grein and its chateau, a mass of rock and castle, scarcely distinguishable from each other, appears to rise in the middle of the stream before you. The flood roars and rushes round each side of it; and ere you can perceive which way the boat will take, it dashes down a slight fall to the left, struggles awhile with the waves, and then sweeps round between two crags, on which are the fragments of old square towers, with crucifixes planted before them. It has scarcely righted itself from this first shock, when it is borne rapidly forward towards an immense block of stone, on which stands a third tower, till now hidden by the others, and having at its foot a dangerous eddy. The boat flashes like lightning through the tossing waves, within a few feet of the vortex, and comes immediately into still water, leaving the passenger who beholds this scene for the first time, mute with wonder and admiration. These are the Scylla and Charybdis of the Danube, the celebrated Strudel and Wirbel. The passage is made in little more than the time it takes to read the above brief description, and I could scarcely scratch down the outlines of these curious crags and ruins, before I was whirled to some distance beyond them.'

'There can be no doubt that, in earlier ages, there must have been considerable danger in passing these falls and eddies; and even now, when the water is low, an inexperienced or careless steersman might easily get the bottom of his boat knocked out in the Strudel, or its side staved in by the crags of the Hausstein, under either of which circumstances the passengers would stand a very fair chance of being drowned. I cannot help thinking our own rather a narrow escape, for my readers will recollect that, on leaving Nieder-Walsee, our worthy pilot was lying dead drunk in the stern of the boat. To our utter astonishment, however, upon approaching the GreinSchwall, he managed to get upon his legs, and, as if sobered for the moment by a sudden sense of his own situation, snatched the rudder from the boy (who in a few minutes would certainly have had us upon the rocks), steered us manfully and cleverly through the Strudel and Wirbel, and then flung himself down again on his straw as drunk and insensible as before. Had we been aware of the vicinity of these places, we should certainly have taken a pilot on board at Ardagger, but we had no idea we were so near them, and the poor fellows who rowed us were altogether ignorant of the river, and merely working their way to Vienna.'-pp. 196-198.

A pleasant situation, truly!

And, now, with these specimens of Mr. Planche's book before you, perhaps you will spend a month on the Danube. It is a newer thing than the Rhine; and there is no steam-boat to take off the romance of the enterprise. By the bye,-you, and all your family, of course AUGUST, 1828.

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know French. That language will carry you through Germany. If there be the slightest hitch in your pronunciation, you cannot do better than buy an excellent little work, just published by the intelligent and accomplished French master of Eton College, Mr. Tarver. It is clear and simple; and, unlike most books on pronunciation, does not make a difficult thing more difficult.*

Mr. Planche's book is, as you may perceive, a light, gossiping affair, and does not much meddle with such dull matters as statistics. If you read German, you will find a capital book at Stuttgart, by Dr. Ignatius Rudhart, on the Condition of the Kingdom of Bavaria. A few particulars may, perhaps, be interesting. The length of this kingdom, in the direct line, is about 535g geographical leagues; reckoning the obliquities of the surface 731; the total of its superficies is 138,259 square miles. The number of inhabitants has increased, within the last thirty years, about a moiety, and the population amounts now to 3,743,328 souls, distributed into 787,818 families. The mortality is less than the general proportion elsewhere-not amounting, to the dismay of the Malthusians of Bavaria, to more than the thirtysixth part of the population. This result is attributed, not merely to a favourable climate and to the occupations of the inhabitants, but also to the paternal solicitude of the government. The communal divisions of Bavaria amount to 8184. They comprise 208 cities, 410 market-towns, 28,468 villages, and 19,962 single farms and cottages. The number of dwellings amounts to 619,462;—so that, at a general estimate, it may be concluded that there is a separate house to every 1 family.

The state of public instruction is very flourishing. The pupils in the national schools amount to 489,196, the schools are 5008, and the number of masters 7114. Besides these, there are a vast number of private schools, nineteen public preparatory ones, nineteen gymnasii, seven lyceums, various seminaries for the priesthood, veterinary and agricultural schools, three universities, and a royal academy of sciences. For this favourable state of public instruction, Bavaria is indebted principally to her kings, the late Maximilian Joseph, and his excellent successor. Those who desire information as to the state of the agriculture, revenue, and expenditure of Bavaria, or of its civil and military institutions, will find their curiosity fully satisfied with the work we are noticing; which holds forth a practical proof that a liberal government is the soil most conducive to the happiness of a people.

We are glad to see that the Italians are beginning to direct their attention to the great principles of national improvement, in spite of bad governments. The study of political economy, which may be said to have originated in Italy, though afterwards neglected, is once more in honour there. We consider this a good symptom of the state of the public mind. We have now before us a little work, Economia Politica Elementare,' published at Genoa, by De Filippi, which is a clear and satisfactory catechism of the principles of the science, adapted to the intellects of readers of every class. We know of no elementary work on the same subject, that can be compared, for correctness and * A Complete System of French Pronunciation, arranged upon the principle of Analysis. By J. Ch. Tarver. Dulau and Co.

clearness, to this unpretending publication. It is a series of simple propositions, linked together by deduction and inference, in a sort of mathematical process, which fixes the attention of the reader. We single out a few of these propositions to give an idea of the whole context. "We cannot detach morality from political economy; morality consists in furthering the common weal, which is industry directed to universal advantage. History teaches us, that wealth derived from industry and civilization proceed together, and that poverty and ignorance and barbarism, are also found united.-Political economy tends to repress unjust ambition, by shewing, that the surest means of promoting the prosperity of a people are, peace, security and justice-that mutual kindness, and free communication and trade, when reciprocal, are advantageous to all. The right of property is necessarily attended by inequality of riches and of conditions; this inequality acts as a stimulus upon industry, and the wealth of one class ought not to be considered as the cause of the poverty of the other. The right of property must be protected by just laws; wherever it is not, as in Turkey, barbarism, decay, misery and depopulation are the consequences.Machinery, by cheapening the cost of an article, increases its consumption, and, therefore, increases production, which is wealth, and, consequently, tends to create or stimulate other branches of industry." A memoir by Pagani on Mendicity and Houses of Charity,' and several dissertations, especially by Tuscans, among whom political economy has long been in repute-on free trade, on the improvement of agriculture, on the best methods for subduing the unwholesomeness of the maremme, shew that the public attention is alive in a right quarter. There is an Agrarian Journal also established at Florence, and the Academy of Geography of that city is an useful institution.

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There have been several statistical works lately published in Italy. In Petroni's Statistics of the Kingdom of Naples,' we find that in 1825, the population amounted to five millions and a half, shewing an increase of nearly two hundred thousand above the census of 1823. The number of marriages at the same time was less by ten thousand. Deaths had decreased by 15,000. The births of natural children were as one to twenty-four. With regard to Sicily, we read in a late work by Palmieri, An Essay on the causes and remedies of the present depression of agriculture in Sicily,' that in that fine island there is a lamentable deficiency of information upon this important branch of knowledge.

In the north of Italy, Quadri has published a statistical account of the Venetian provinces. Gioja, the Italian economist, has written a work on the Advantage of Statistics,' and another on the 'Philosophy of Statistics,' in two volumes. De Welz of Naples, after his work on the Magic of Public Credit,' published another on the Necessity of Roads,' as an essential medium of commerce, applied chiefly to the island of Sicily, where there is yet no road that deserves the name.

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We thus see, that the attention of the Italians is now turned to those wants which are most essential to their improvement; and, although Government may be slow in furthering these views, yet it is satisfactory to know that something has been done since the peace, and that the necessity of effecting more must, at last, force itself upon their rulers.

Even the almanacs exhibit signs of improvement. There are no less than forty of these little works issued from the Milan presses only, and many have a very extensive sale. They are much better conducted than hitherto, and some of them may be called truly instructive, being made the vehicle of sound advice to the people of the country, of historical information, and also, in a few instances, of literary disquisitions. Our own country has been shamefully behind in this branch of popular knowledge.

But, in this long digression, we had almost forgotten those worthy friends who are impatient to be out of town. You will, perhaps, decide not to cross the Channel; and the six weeks will be spent at Brighton, Hastings, or Margate-Cheltenham, Leamington, Matlock, or Malvern. We cannot much assist your determination. However, we have three or four little books on these subjects upon our table; and a notice of them may be somewhat opportune.

We hope you have an invalid in your family. Positive illness may be dispensed with; but a pensive and therefore interesting wife, whose nerves require a little repose after the racket of a London season—a daughter not yet come out, with just that slight flush upon her cheek which is most fascinating to a stranger, but somewhat alarming to a father—a son, tall, pale, and nineteen, who has been reading too hard during his first term at Cambridge-either of these will give " an object" to your journey, and therefore considerably add to its pleasure. Indeed, an infant with the rickets will answer every purpose. If you have taste, of which we need not doubt, you will not go to Brighton. The place is all overgrown. What think you of Margate? Do not start. It is coming into fashion again; and the citizens will soon have to dispute its possession with the exclusives. We have a "nice little book," as old Cobbett says, called A Week at Margate,' which is both curious and useful. The author is a wag in his way, and never loses an opportunity of extracting good out of evil, which is a commendable quality. Passing down the river, there are certain objects which we have observed generally present a particular attraction to the ladies they are those expressive features of civilization, gibbets. Our friend thus wisely counsels :

'I advise you, when you see an unusual elongation of telescopes, and clustering of passengers to the head of the vessel, to go below, and take a biscuit and a glass of weak brandy and water, as a much more pleasant and beneficial mode of passing a leisure five minutes; particularly if the wind be easterly, which is often known to prophesy sea-sickness.'

Good! An excuse to begin so early in the voyage is well, and may save some unpleasant remarks from our female companions. But what follows is better:

And here I gladly seize the opportunity of paying to the Stewards of the Margate Steam-Packets that tribute of approbation which they so justly claim. Whether you join the social party at half after one in the best cabin, (and whoever wishes to eat a boiled leg of mutton in perfection cannot do better,) or whether you bring your own cold chickens, tongue, and wine, and require only the furniture of a dinner table; or whether you only need the solitary biscuit and glass of brandy and water as aforesaid; or merely the glass of water without the brandy, you will receive the most civil atten