syllabic and discouraging, and I was compelled to fall back into my character of silent observer. As the dinner proceeded, and the conversation, with one exception, became general, a boisterous band of bugles and clarionets, enough to startle the whole Thuringian forest, was admitted into the room; and the astounding noise they made rendered the voices of our guests louder and louder still, until it became, at last, animated to the highest degree, though no Rhenish wine, but only a single tumbler of cold punch had been set before them. Brandishing of knives and forks in the air, as the interlocutors studied to enforce by gesticulation their narratives and propositions; picking of teeth with the point of the knife or a pin during the short pauses of affected attention to the adversary's reply; spitting across the room, and at some distance, on some unlucky piece of furniture; despoiling every plate of the last drop of the savoury sauce, with a morsel of bread held between the finger and thumb; these formed some of the episodes to the more general occupation of eating, enacted by these sprigs of nobility and untravelled fashionables. Their shirtpins, bearing stones of the diameter of a rixthaler, cornelian watchkeys like the pans of scales, profusion of massive rings on every phalanx, coarse linen, hair uncombed, and nails terminated by a sable crescent, bespoke them members of that privileged class, which in many of the principal towns in Germany, I am sorry to be obliged to admit, do not always combine the Chesterfieldian manners and neatness of person with their other excellent qualities of the heart and head, but whose peculiarities never strike the uninitiated so forcibly as at table.' -vol. i. pp. 226–228. And now for the cuisine, in which, however, we cannot help thinking our author indulges too much, and wastes a great deal more time than the subject demands. 'Our dinner began with potage au riz, of which deep basinsful with grated cheese were speedily swallowed. To this succeeded, in single and orderly succession, plain boiled beef with sour mustard and a profusion of fermented red cabbage; boiled carp, with its silvery scales in all their brilliancy upon its back; large balls of a substance resembling hasty pudding, light and savoury, swimming in a bowl of melted butter resembling castor oil, and eaten most voraciously by all present, with the addition of a sweet compôte de pommes. Chevreuil piqué au lard was next introduced; followed by some sort of fried fish. At last a boiled capon made its appearance, to which I, who had hitherto been a motionless as well as a silent spectator, commended myself for a dinner; and while thus engaged, I observed that fried parsley roots, hot and hissing from the pan, were received on the table with the approving exclamation : "Das ist ganz vortrefflich!" This comedy had now lasted upwards of an hour, and I began to repent of my experiment. At last Dutch cheese, pears, and sponge biscuits, were laid on the greasy table cloth; coffee and liqueur were presented to somé and not to others, and the "convivii turbulenti," after having rolled up their weekly napkin, and confined it within a ring of red leather, paid their moderate reckoning of half a rixthaler, (eighteenpence!) and departed, one after the other, in all the swaggering complacency which a full stomach is apt to inspire.'-vol. i. pp. 228, 229. Heaven defend us, we say, from the table-d'hôte at Weimar! It is but little consolation to be assured that, with all this, the chymification and chilification go on uninterruptedly' in the human caldron; and that the whole secret of eating and drinking depends on the manner in which a stomach has been educated. Each,' the Doctor tells us, has had its physical education as peculiarly different from that of the rest, as that which the professor has received in the nursery or at college, and each must be dealt with accordingly.' If so, what becomes of Mr. Abernethy's universal specific, the blue pill? We suppose it is adapted to all stomachs, something like a purser's shirt, which fits all the Johnnies, great and small, in a man, of war. Every body has heard of the immense quantity of books that are exposed for sale at Leipsig fair, but we certainly were not aware that one of the objects that attract so many personsDeutchers, and Polacks, and liegemen of the Dane,-is to friandize' on Leipsig larks; about half a million of which, the Doctor was informed, are consumed at the Michaelmas fair. We are grieved, moreover, to find that the Germans have a keener edge for these feathered dainties than for the edges of our Birmingham and Sheffield scissors, knives and razors, all of which once found so good a market in that country. • It is a fact,' says Dr. Granville, that in the course of our whole journey from the Rhine to Berlin, I did not observe a single knife, or any other table utensil, which was not of German origin -clumsy, awkward, badly finished indeed, but still preferred because German.' This is carrying patriotism or prejudice to a great length indeed. We venture to say that a pair of English scissors may be afforded at Leipsig, for three half-pence, better than any that can be made in all Germany for three-pence; but it would be difficult to persuade the muzzy-headed smokers of this. 6 Berlin, with its splendid museums of pictures, natural history and Egyptian antiquities-the university, with its seventeen hundred students—the academy of arts and sciences, enriched and supported chiefly by his Prussian Majesty affords a subject on which we could dwell with pleasure, if our limited space would allow; but we have so high an opinion of the excellent qualities of King Frederic William, that we are unwilling to pass unnoticed the testimony which Dr. Granville has given of the regard and veneration which his grateful subjects pay to him. 'No sovereign in Europe is more beloved by his subjects. Goodness of heart, uprightness of judgment, a desire to promote the utility utility of public institutions, an anxiety to see men of talents fill the most important offices of the state, a watchful jealousy over the interests of his country, and over the honours and power of his army, so necessary for their preservation; a readiness in affording support and adding splendour to public amusements; a strict observance of the religion of his ancestors; an unassuming demeanour in public; an amiable deportment in the relations of domestic life, an unbounded attachment to his children; these are the features in the character of Frederick William, which I have been able to cull from the many eulogies bestowed on his Majesty by the several classes of people, from the highest to the lowest, with which I mixed during my short stay in Berlin, as well as in the course of my journey through Prussia. What nation would not rather be governed by such a monarch, than by some renowned conqueror, or prince endowed with brilliant talents, but without any of the qualities of the heart here enumerated?'-vol. i. pp. 342, 343. We are now within sight of autocratic Russia. The province of Livonia presents an anomalous and somewhat staggering fact. Dr. Granville states, that out of a population of 644,701, about 3892 belong to the nobility; this, in Russia, is a moderate proportion; but the remarkable point is this, that of the whole number, 289,266 only are males, leaving an unexplained excess of 66,169 females. Had the Doctor investigated the subject, he probably would have found that the males had been sent to the army; as it appears, from the statistical tables of Mr. Weydemeyer, that the number of males to that of females, in all Russia, is as 44 to 40. The approach to the capital from Strelna, on the Gulf of Finland, is stated to be an uninterrupted line of sumptuous palaces, in every variety of chaste, fanciful, and imitative architecture, with gardens and pleasure-grounds attached to the country seats of the nobility and gentry of Petersburg. A triumphal arch opens into the suburbs, and after passing two handsome bridges of granite, Doctor Granville entered the Northern Babylon, having, as he says, travelled one thousand seven hundred. and sixty-five miles in thirty-five consecutive days, from the time he left London.* In the same time, he has contrived to collect materials for supplying four hundred and fourteen close printed pages, and forty-three views, plans and vignettes! An ill natured critic might, perhaps, call the dressing up of these bookmaking; but we would submit that a judicious precis of authentic materials, such as printed guides, views and plans, which may be * A friend of ours recently went to Russia by steam, and actually breakfasted in Moscow the thirteenth morning after he left London. There is now, he says, a road as good as that to Brighton over three parts of the distance between St. Petersburg and Moscow -what a change from 1812! had had at all the large towns on the continent, will necessarily be more accurate than any account which a traveller can of his own observation and industry collect, especially one who moves at the rate of fifty miles a day, which, with Dutch and German posthorses, would occupy from eight to ten hours. We have said that Petersburg is the theatre for the display of Doctor Granville's descriptive powers and graphical illustrations. Here he had at least five weeks, and the best opportunities, for collecting materials, and comparing how far their accuracy corresponded with his own observations; and we do not hesitate to say that his Picture of Petersburgh' contains the most copious and detailed description of the gigantic edifices of this extraordinary city which has hitherto been laid before the public, and the woodcuts are neatly executed, and convey as good an idea of what is meant to be represented as more costly engravings could do. As to the Russians generally, and the Russian manners and character of St. Petersburg, we must yield the palm to Capt. Jones, from whom our author has largely, but not judiciously, borrowed. If we should hint a fault' touching this part of Dr. Granville's performance, it would be that of wearisome verbosity -of too minute a detail of unimportant and uninteresting circumstances—an unnecessary display of his own movements and engagements—and a trick of viewing persons and objects' couleur de rose.' The emperor and every individual of the imperial family are exhibited as above all praise; they are applauded to the very echo, as the brightest examples of piety, morality, benevolence, and every human virtue. Even Constantine, that man whom all former travellers, and his own countrymen here, have represented as a compound of every vice, and one that has been guilty of the most brutal and atrocious acts at which humanity shudders, is here held up as a pattern of conjugal fidelity and domestic virtue. We hope it may be so. Time, that great innovator, may have worked a change for the better; and, if there was no juggling, the first public symptom of a proper sense of decency, was the rejection of a legitimate crown, which conscious unworthiness could alone have prompted. It is, perhaps, fortunate for mankind that there is an avenger, an Edax rerum,' to weaken the incitements to vicious pursuits, as it weakens the corporeal powers of committing them: an event which happens to all,-with the exceptions, perhaps, of an abandoned woman, and a thorough-paced jacobin; for in these hearts the original taint is said to stick fast, ineradicable by the caustic of time, even when hoary old age has rendered the members impotent of sin; and, As with age their bodies uglier grow, So do their minds with cankers.'. Capt. Capt. Jones tells us it is generally believed in Petersburg that he is quite a reformed character; and that the first good impression made on his mind was owing to two Polish noblemen, who went privately to him, and assured him that his despotic conduct would create a revolt; that they were prepared to meet the fate they knew they should receive at his hands, but that the good of their country actuated them to take this step; and so saying, they pulled out their pistols and shot themselves dead. The story is not very probable, though Captain Jones, a sensible man, evidently believes it to the letter. But the Emperor Nicholas-he is all perfection; towards him,' the doctor says, the eyes of all Europe are at present turned. A young and powerful sovereign-full of health and energy— beloved by his subjects, to whom he is attached in return— esteemed and looked up to, as their natural leader, by one of the finest and most numerous armies in the world-surrounded by a galaxy of generals, whose names have been entwined with the laurels of the last memorable war-Nicholas the First,' &c. &c. is, in short, a monarch, on whose personal character and political principles the entire faith and confidence of the European cabinets repose.' We hope they may not be deceived; but of this by and bye. That the new Czar is regular in transacting both public and private business-that he is the most indefatigable and active sovereign now reigning-that he is a benevolent prince and patron of the liberal arts-that he bestows stars and ribands, that public services are very cheaply rewarded by the imperial family of Russia with rings and trinkets; and that Dr. Granville will most assuredly be summoned one of these days to Ashburnhamhouse to receive a diamond ring, or a gold-enamelled snuffbox, all this we verily believe; but when we are told that the emperor in person visits all the prisons, inquires into their several cases, and that he hastens on the trial of their causes before the tribunals, we deem it sheer nonsense; more especially when we find it stated that there are no fewer than 130,000 prisoners in confinement, and the causes to be tried are counted by millions. Dr. Granville is by no means the first that has been carried away by the condescension of the imperial family to strangers, and more particularly to Englishmen; we incline to think that, when on the parade, the glittering of the smooth snow,' the waving of the pendant plumes, and the power of the imagination, must have combined to dazzle his eyes when he fancied the countenance, stature, and figure of Nicholas and Michael claimed a decided superiority over every handsome officer we had seen that morning, or that we observed on subsequent occasions among the several regiments of the guards.' The following anec dote |