or of revolutionary hordes destroying its possessions, loses the sense of security, so essential to the cultivation of the comforts and elegancies of life. The destruction of property it has once beheld, it is but natural to fear may be again repeated; hence people are more intent on providing for the positive wants of the present day, than in preparing for future enjoyment, which experience has taught them may be frustrated.

The peculiar characteristics of the people dispose them to a facility of excitement, highly injurious to, if not incompatible with, a long continuation of national prosperity. Hence they seem to live from day to day in expectation, or fear, of some subversion of government, the anticipation of which discourages any strenuous efforts of improvement; as the husbandman whose vineyard has once been overwhelmed by an eruption of a volcano, or the overflowing of a river, fears to expend a large sum in bringing it again into a state of cultivation, lest it should be once more destroyed. Is not the insecurity thus engendered by popular excitement more injurious to a country, than any advantages to be acquired by its most successful results can ever be serviceable?

It is this sense of security that has given such an impetus to the English, as to render their land, in defiance of its uncertain climate, the garden of Europe. It is this that has encouraged its commerce-elevated its merchants into nobles, and fostered science and art. Never may this confidence be shaken! but let England learn from the misfortunes of other nations, to estimate the blessings she enjoys.

The love of rural life, so indigenous in English hearts, and which pervades every class, is unknown in France. No sooner has a citizen with us attained a competence, than he secures for himself an abode in the country, where every moment that can be spared from business is passed, in making his residence and its grounds a scene of beauty and repose. He delights in seeing around him umbrageous trees, verdant lawns, and blooming flowers; and enjoys, with a true zest, the tranquil happiness his industry has honourably acquired. Many are the citizens in England thus blessed; and one whom I personally know might furnish the original for a picture seldom if ever to be met with elsewhere.

The respectable individual to whom I refer is a

large capitalist. With a fortune that might enable him to emulate the ambitious in their pursuit of power, or outshine the ostentatious in their display of wealth, he is content to lead the life of a philosopher; but of the active and practical, rather than of the reflecting and theoretical school. See him at his country residence, planning new and judicious improvements in his grounds, overlooking and directing his workmen, suggesting salutary experiments on his farms, ameliorating the condition of his dependants, and the breed of his cattle, and it would be supposed that he had passed his life in agricultural pursuits, and thought of nothing else. Yet in two hours after, this worthy individual may be seen acting as the presiding spirit of one of the largest houses of business in London; examining every new invention in the useful arts; giving orders in various branches of trade that furnish occupation for hundreds; and in his commercial relations with other countries, by his probity, intelligence, and high principles, extending the honourable reputation of a British merchant throughout the civilised world. At night, this gentleman may be seen perusing some clever work: and in the morn

ing, at an early hour, he is again in his fruitful fields.

Such are the men to be found in happy England; but rarely, if ever, are they to be met with where a revolution has left its destructive traces.

6th.—I have taken my last ride in the environs of Vienne. There is something sad in viewing any place with the certainty that we shall see it no more; and this feeling I experienced to-day, when pausing at each point commanding a fine prospect, I gazed for the last time on the beautiful country around. How many bosky dells, moss clad hills, foaming cataracts, and sylvan shades rarely seen, except by shepherd or husbandman's eye, have I become familiar with in the wild regions of the Viennean hills! And how little should I have appreciated their beauty, had I confined my peregrinations, as so many do, to the sterile and unpicturesque high roads. To-morrow we depart for Grenoble.

9th. We stopped a day at Lyons, to enjoy the society of our friend Mons. Artaud; and rarely have I met a person whose conversation is more interesting

and instructive. He has furnished us with letters of introduction to half the cognoscenti of the south of France and Italy, so that it will not be his fault if I do not acquire a more than ordinary acquaintance with the antiquities of both countries.

Comte D'Hautpoul, colonel of the 9th chasseurs, has kindly accompanied us to Grenoble, and his society enhances our enjoyment of the new scenes presented to us. In him are united the brave soldier, the learned scholar, and accomplished gentleman, whose conversation is replete with interest and information.

The route from Lyons to Grenoble, is through a rich and fertile country, and the approach to the latter town is striking and imposing. It is surrounded by rocky mountains of the most picturesque form; behind which are seen towering still loftier ones, furnishing, as it were, a double rampart of defence to the town. I have nowhere beheld mountains so abrupt as here, or offering such a variety in their forms; and they approach so near the town as to render the contrast between their wild and grotesque appearance, and its civilization, provincial as it is, as it is, very striking.