sorry servants; the Norwegians, perhaps, worse. The Danes being more southerly, are on the same grade as the Germans, who, though excellent persons in disposition, are not reckoned the most lively in the world. Here, however, we have no assassinations, scarcely ever theft; what often happens and is believed in the south, would be incredible as told of the north. The blood which boils like the lava flood of Vesuvius in one part of Europe, is here transmitted with the purity and mildness of the mountain spring; the tempests rage and the cold pierces, but the human character is placid, temperate, and upright. The slavery to which the Russians are subject does not, as might have been supposed, impede the development of their mental energies. Every serf is sent from home for eleven months of the year, or allowed to travel; from his labour the lord draws a certain revenue, and, at the expiration of the period, he returns again to his wife, in order that the course of population from marriage may not be impeded. When rich, the term of his absence may be prolonged to an indefinite time by the payment of money. Some proprietors have never seen their slaves, and it is related that one of the latter, who had amassed great treasure, was recognised, whilst travelling, by his master, who applied to him for the loan of fifty thousand roubles, but refused to liberate him on an offer of one hundred thousand. It is the wish, I have heard, of the Emperor Nicholas and his queen, to abolish slavery in Russia, but, as the value of landed property is entirely independent on the number of slaves upon it, this would be opposed by the nobles, and if carried against their wishes, endanger the safety of the crown; for in that country, powerful as the head of government is, there exists an imperious and formidable aristocracy. The hands which strangled Paul might be found again in others to twist the sash for his successors, were their rights invaded, or their interests injured."

But to observe something like a continuous and connected route, let us start in Holland, and hear what can be said in behalf of the industry, enterprise, and perseverance of the Dutch, as compared with national characteristics of certain modern, and the undecaying evidences left by certain ancient nations.

"The arrogance of the English, the vanity of the French, the pride of the German, the superciliousness of the Italian, and the accumulated mass of all these perverse qualities-added to the legion of devils of his own— which exists in the Spaniard, must abate a little of their preponderance, when they reflect on the immense labour of the Dutch in regaining their soil from the sea, and in basing cities on the domain of ocean itself. To plant a house, they proceed as follows, where the land is marshy:-They trace the square of its dimensions, bore to the depth of seven or eight feet till they find water, pump it dry, and drive stakes round the square, by means of a weight of twelve or fourteen hundred pounds suspended from a pully; the stakes are from forty to fifty feet in length, and each requires on an average an hour and a half for driving it down. One hundred of these blocks or stakes are sufficient for a small house. The royal palace at Amsterdam took 13,695. When it is considered what immense labour the towns in Holland have required for construction, what immense sums they must have cost, and what industry the people must have possessed, to enable

them to prosper with such drawbacks on their exertions, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Ruins of Thebes, the Palaces of Persepolis, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, appear no longer as visionary dreams of gigantic enterprise, but as the works of man; of a being capable of conquering the elements, of inverting the dispositions of matter, and wanting only pre-science to be divine."

Travellers are sometimes apt to assume a supercilious bearing, at other times to be dictatorial. Their native country and its customs are not only made to be the rule for foreign parts and foreigners, but as frequently to be ridiculed in the comparison. Of this affectation of a superiority to narrow views, and this severity of father-land castigation, our author seems to be now and then guilty. He will have it that the prudish English attach an air of mystery to their dwellings, because they surround them with trees, because the young ladies fly round a wood at the approach of a strange carriage or a strange person. Venetian blinds suggest to him the concealment of a seraglio, and sundry other features and doings are set down to prudery, which but for a perverse interpretation would be held as the reverse of disparaging. But then in England "the whole household retire at the front door knock or ring-the servants are marshalled-the visitor announced-the master informed-his wife summoned the daughters introduced and the visit wound up by a formal lunch, and ceremonious leave-taking." Whereas on the Continent," they advance to welcome the guest; the proprietor of the domain is not on a rack of agony lest John Footman should not present himself in his best attire, or should smell of the stable; they are kind in their manners, and consequently easy; they do not deal out civility by grains, for fear of giving over weight being natural, they naturally please.' This is Mr. Standish's represen

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tation; but though we should allow it to be unexaggerated, it is a conclusion which we think is not quite so promptly clear, that the forms of civility and nature are all against us. At any rate our lunches should be honoured, while every innovation which will substitute, smiles, bows, and chatter for substantial fare, ought to be strenously opposed.

The Germans have praise bestowed upon them on account of their simplicities, and of their "cleanliness of mind" as testified by their love of flowers.

"All over Germany the natives are fond of flowers. The nursery of Mr. Booth, a Scotchman by extraction, is famous for every variety of rose, and at this moment for an endless variety of plants and trees, collected from the Norwegian, Siberian, and other hyperborean regions. It is situated at the distance of three German miles from Hamburg, in the direction of Altona, and occupies a surface of 150 English acres. It is delightful to see in this country the steps to the thresholds of the meanest houses, gay with flowering plants; the small adjacent strips of land blushing with

peonies and roses, whilst the honeysuckles and eternal creepers festoon the windows of the lowliest dwellings. There is a cleanliness of mind indicated in a taste for these embellishments, that savours of the golden age of innocence, rather than of these vitiated times. Sobriety and peace may be said to dwell where Flora reigns. In fact, after the changes of war, the devastations of revolutions, and the corrupting examples of trea chery and treason attendant on unsettled politics, there is perhaps no nation in the world more pure, more sincere, and more well disposed than the German. Earnest and warm-hearted in their friendships, they love little ceremony, enthusiastic and romantic, they express themselves with the feeling that issues unadulterated from the breast: they affect no diffidence in communicating their pleasures and their griefs; they have little care to calculate the convenience of exercising good offices."

There is nothing very remarkable in this partiality to flowers; and, after all, we should not wonder if it were the Scotchman, Mr. Booth, who has been mainly instrumental in creating the taste in the district specified, seeing that the Scotch are celebrated as gardeners. How easy it is to fill a volume with the most decided conclusions from the slightes external intimations.

We follow our author to Finland, which is not after all a country bathed in blubber and oil. Helsinfors, for instance, is described as being a beautiful modern town, while its bay is quite a diminutive archipelago. At this place, Mr. Standish observed the custom existed which he was told prevails over Sweden," of covering the staircase of an inn with chopped fir-sprouts, and the diningroom with festoons of green leaves.' He also states for the information of future travellers that the Hotel du Nord, where he stayed, was not bad; and that "although they serve the soup in the middle of dinner, and Alpine strawberries and cream after the fish," he made a hearty meal. All over the north of Europe from the 53rd degree of latitude, spirits with cheese, caviare, or some other stimulant, is taken before the principal feed. One great want in Russia is pointed out when it is said, that the potato has not yet found general acceptation, at least amongst the lower orders. The narrative proceeds

"I was tempted to make an excursion from Helsinfors to Abo, a distance of one hundred and fifty English miles, in order to see a part of Finland which I had heard represented as a very beautiful country. It is very beautiful, certainly, but it is a very poor one. I saw only two mansions on the road, and they were nearer to Helsinfors than to Abo; the latter town. having been formerly the capital of Finland, as the other is now. You see fir, beech, and mountain-ash trees, with alder and juniper plants, clustered together very picturesquely, forming glades, and crowning mountain-tops; and you have an eternal variety of small lakes, barren scaurs, and cultivated grounds. In spite of the abundance of water, we could find no fish to eat on our road; and there was only one decent inn which was at Nyby," rather less than half way between Helsinfors and Abo. But when I speak

of a good inn, my readers must not imagine that they will be received in a papered room, with sofas and tables, and a neat chimney-piece, adorned with fly-catchers in papers ;-no, they will have to mount a small scaffold of steps, (for all the houses here are of wood, and built on an above-ground a foundation of stone); you then enter a room which is unpainted, and the whole of the rafters stuffed with moss, to prevent the air from penetrating; the floors are clean, and you generally find a stove, which keeps the whole warm. We were visited with a good deal of rain, but the roads, which are very narrow, are maintained in beautifully neat order; and there is a Finnish law in force, that should a carriage break by the badness of the cause way, the nearest house pays for its repair. The Finland post-horses are of the size of our Shetland ponies, and, without ocular demonstration, an stranger would scarcely believe it possible for them to drag the weight and go at the pace they do, which averages seven miles an hour. We were three in a calèche, and took only two horses. The travelling here is as cheap as in Russia, costing only about three-halfpence per English mile, in English money."

The whole of Sweden is said to abound with delightful scenery, though limited in extent. The different effects of light as you wind your way among the thickets are endless. Vivid flashes through the sombre green startle and surprise, while every variety of hue is presented on a neighbouring shrub. Strawberries were the only fruit which Mr. Standish observed in the country. Now for an anecdote.

"The Swedes are a cleanly nation-they dislike the Russians, (as might naturally be supposed, since by them the whole of Finland, and other possessions, have been ravished from Sweden,) and consider them a dirty people. I will mention a fact which my readers may perhaps doubt, and I could scarcely believe had I heard it from another, and which nevertheless is quite true. On entering an inn in the Thier-Garten, I passed between several waiting girls-for house and table attendance is here performed by females, whereas at St. Petersburgh it is always the office of men-one of them turned to my servant, and said, in Swedish, 'That gentleman comes from Russia; we can tell it by the smell of his clothes." And I have been told that a residence, even of a few days, in that country, gives a lasting odour to the garments worn there. It is asserted by some that you may scent a Croat and a Cossack regiment before you see them, but I was not aware that Russian fragrance could be so infectious, and so easily imbibed by a stranger."

The clothes of the Scottish Highlanders whose huts generally contain an atmosphere of Peat-reek, preserve the savoury scent wherever they go, and for many months after they leave their native mountains and glens.

Mr. Standish did not leave Norway untouched, the people of which he describes as being poor, and unacquainted with luxury, and yet as furnishing a richer treasury than her mistress Sweden. He farther states

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"The language is the same as the Danish, with trifling variations. English is in general use in places of which many English know not even the existence. The customs of antiquity are still retained in society here. After dining with the hospitable and polite Count Wadel Jarlsberg, Viceroy of Norway, we all shook hands, and kissed those of the countess. This ceremony is called the Wollkommen,'-good digestion and many thanks. I afterwards ascended the hill of Akerberg-for our repast terminated at five o'clock to view the town, the bay, and the distant mountains of Christiana. The view is a very fine one, not less so than most of those in Switzerland, where there is not snow. The sombre forests of pine and fir give an imposing effect to the outlines of the several distances in the ground plan, and clothe the massive bosoms of the hills.

"Loud complaints are raised against the British for imposing duties on nine-inch Norwegian deal as high as the Russian on eleven. It is said that hopes are entertained from Mr. P. Thompson of a more just tariff. This, it may be imagined, is a matter of serious importance to a country where the principal property consists in wood. I observed here a fruit called cloudberries and multerbeere,' yellow when ripe, which grows in marshes, on a bush, and has a flavour and size somewhat like the mulberry. It is grateful to the taste, and considered wholesome. In enumerating the resources of Norway, I have not stated its herring fisheries, which are very considerable. This trade is supposed to be worth to the country a million of dollars yearly. The small town of Fleckfoer, on the North Sea, exports yearly 100,000 barrels.

"Amongst the peculiarities of the Norwegian legislature, in its union with Sweden, is that of a prohibition of entry to all Jews. We who have discussed the propriety of admitting that sect to a share in the legislature, may be surprised at such extreme disfavour shown to the children of Israel; they are all considered unclean creatures, and condemned by the Norwegians to fatten elsewhere. Another stipulation is, that the Crown Prince of Sweden shall be acquainted with the Norwegian language."

We have not observed anything in our author's notices of Denmark more interesting than the following particulars in connexion with Elsinore.

"The only objects of interest to a stranger at Elsinore, are the castle or fortress which I have mentioned, and the garden of Marienslust where is to be seen what is called the grave of Hamlet. The interior of the fortress contains nothing remarkable-the grave is a misnomer? for Hamlet lived, reigned, and died, and was buried in Jutland. A conspiracy had been formed against his life by his step-father and mother, as the ancient Danish chronicles state; he feigned imbecility of mind, being aware of the plot laid to destroy him, formed another against them, and eventually burned to death the whole family, by setting fire to a house in which they were, and stopping up the doors. He afterwards reigned quietly and respectably, and died a natural death. I may affirm that there is no brook crowned with willows near Elsinore, where Ophelia could have perished; and the enthusiastic reader of Shakspeare may be relieved from the pain her fate has inspired him with, by the conclusion of its falsity.