this important subject, the woman gave a loud scream, and fell back from the confessional in a fit. The priest rose, the handkerchief no longer concealed his face, and he appeared to be burning with indignation. She was carried out of the church, and the priest hastened up the aisle to the vestry. What had she done? At all events, something for which it appeared there was no absolution.

Aix la Chapelle-alas! What did we care for the tomb of Charles the Great, and his extensive dominions, his splendour and power? We had lost something to us of much more importance-a carpet bag; not that the carpet bag was of much value, for it was an old one, nor the articles which it contained, for they were neither new nor of much worth; but we lost in that carpet bag an invaluable quantity of comfort, for it contained all the little necessaries required for it, and we could not replace the loss until our arrival at Cologne, to which town all our trunks had been despatched. The children could not be brushed, for the brushes were in the carpet bag; they could not be combed, for the combs were in the carpet bag. They were put to bed without nightcaps, for the night-caps were in the carpet bag; they were put to bed in their little chemises, reaching down to the fifth rib or thereabouts, for their night-clothes were in the carpet bag: not only the children, but every one else suffered by this carpet bag being absent without leave. My boots burst, and my others were in the carpet bag; my snuff-box was empty, and the cannister was in the carpet bag. The servants had smuggled some of their things into the carpet bag.

It would appear that everything had been crammed into this unfortunate receptacle. Had we lost a jewel case or a purse full of money it would have been a trifle compared to the misery occasioned by this jumble up of every day conveniences of little value, showing how much more comfort depends upon the necessaries than the luxuries of life. I may add, now that I read what I have written, that this carpet bag increased in dimensions to a most extraordinary compass for several weeks afterwards. Everything that was missing was declared by the servants to have been in the carpet bag, which, like the scape-goat of the Jews, wandered in the wilderness bearing with it all the sins of all the nurses and every other domestic of the family. I would rather lose anything, if I am to be a loser, than a sac de nuit.

On our road, the landlord of an inn put the following printed document into my hands, which I make public for the benefit of those who are sportsmen without being landholders :

"Comfortable Inn.-The proprietor of the Red House, at Burgheim, on the road from Aix la Chapelle to Cologne, pleasantly situated in the middle of the town, opposite the Post-office and Post-house, has the honour of recommending himself to travellers. The Galignani's Messenger' and other newspapers are taken in. The English, German, and French languages spoken. Having excellent preserves of game in the neighbourhood, he is happy to inform travellers that he can provide them with good sports in wild boar, deer, and hare hunting, and wild. duck and partridge shooting. Horses and carriages of all descriptions supplied for excursions in the neighbourhood.

"A. J. HONS."

Prussia.-I fear that our political economists are running after a shadow, and that their reciprocity system will never be listened to. It

is remarkable, that, after subsidizing this and other powers to break up the continental system established by Napoleon for the expulsion of English manufactures and the consequent ruin of England, now that the world is at peace, these very powers who, by our exertions and our money, have been liberated from their thraldom, have themselves established the very system of exclusion which we were so anxious to prevent. A little reflection will prove that they are right. The government of a country ought never, if possible, to allow that country to be dependent upon any other for such resources as it can obtain by its own industry. We, ourselves, acted upon this principle when we established the silk manufactories in Spitalfields, and it is the duty of every government to do the same.

The indigenous productions of the soil may fairly be admitted on a system of reciprocity and exchange, but not articles of manufacture, of which the raw material is to be obtained by all. For instance, the lead, and iron, and tin of Great Britain, the wines of other countries, are all articles to be exchanged or paid for, by those who have not mines of those metals or do not possess vineyards. Further than this, reciprocity cannot go, without being injurious to one, if not to both parties.

Three of the carriage wheels defective! Add this to the carpet bag, and people will agree in the trite observation that misfortunes never come single. This is not true; they do come single very often, and, when they do, they are more annoying than if they come in heaps. You growl at a single mishap, but if you find that Fortune is down upon you and attempts to overload you, you rise up against her with indignation, snap your fingers, and laugh at her. The last mishap brought consolation for all the others; if we had not so fortunately found out the defects in the wheels, we might have broken our necks the next day, especially, as some amateur took a fancy and helped himself to our sabot. I only wish he may be shod with it for the remainder of his days.

66

So,

It is curious how the ignorant and simple always raise or depreciate others, whatever their rank may be, to their own levels, when they talk of them. I listened to one little girl telling a story to another, in which kings, queens, and princesses were the actors. And "said the queen to the princess, "what a very pretty doll that is of yours!" Yes, Miss; Papa bought it for me at the bazaar, and gave 5s. 6d. for it," &c. This reminded me of the sailors telling stories on board of a man-of-war, who put very different language into the mouth of royalty. "Well," says the King, "blow me tight if I'll stand this. You must buckle to as fast as you please, Mrs. Queen." "I'll see you hanged first, and your head shaved too," answered her Majesty in a rage, &c. &c. What queens may say in a rage, it is impossible to assert; but to the seamen this language appeared to be perfectly regal and quite correct.

Some people form their notions of gentility from odd concomitants. A cabman took up a well-dressed female, who made use of expressions which rather startled him, and he observed to a friend of his, a hackneycoachman, that he had no idea that the higher classes used such language. "Pooh! pooh!" replied the coachman, "she warn't a lady." "I beg your pardon," replied the cabman, "a real lady, hat and feathers!"

Cologne. This is a regular Golgotha-the skulls of the Magi, par

excellence, and then the skulls of St. Ursula and her 11,000 virgins. I wonder where they collected so many! St. Ursula brought a great force into the field, at all events, and, I presume, commands the right wing of the whole army of martyrs. I went into the golden chamber, where there are some really pretty things. The old fellow handed us the articles one after another, but I observed that there were many things which I had seen when here before, which were not presented to view, so I looked into the cabinet and found them. They were crystal vases, mounted with gold and precious stones. One had the thigh-bone of St. Sebastian; another, part of the ulna of St. Lawrence; and a third, a bit of the petticoat of the Virgin Mary. I handed them out to the ladies, and asked him why he did not show us those as he used to do before. The old man smiled and turned the corners of his mouth down, as if to say, " It's all humbug!" I am inclined to think that he was not far out in his surmise. Relics are certainly at a discount, even among the Catholics.

I question whether the Bridge of Boats at Cologne don't pay better than any other in the whole world, although by no means the handsomest; the stream of passengers on it all day is as strong and as wide as the Rhine itself. As for Cologne, the best thing that could happen to it is to be burnt down. Narrow streets, badly ventilated, badly drained, your nose is visited with a thousand varieties of smell as you pass along; and the Eau de Cologne in the gutters is very different in savour from that which you buy in the bottles. The only habitable part of the town is on the river-side; and even there, you must be two stories high. Reading Coghlan's Guide to the Rhine, I stumbled on the following passage:-" The Rheinberg is a large and convenientlysituated house. I did not visit it, so made inquiries of those who had. The characters I received differed a little. One party said it was an excellent house; everything very good, everything very clean, and everything very cheap. Another party swore it was d-d bad, d-d dirty, and what was worse than all, d-d dear. In a second edition I shall give the result of my own observations." These remarks determined

me to go to the Rheinberg, as I always like to decide a point; and as I have no expectations of my work going through a second edition as Mr. Coghlan has, I shall give the result in this. The Rheinberg Hotel is the very last to go to. It is not so near to where the steam-boats lie as the Hotel de Cologne, Holland, and one or two others—all of which are well spoken of. The man who said it was d-d dirty was

correct.

Although I went to the hotel, I took the precaution to arrange for everything, as I thought, but unfortunately I forgot to stipulate for the servants. The bill was brought, and I found that this omission had been taken advantage of, as there was an enormous charge a-day for each female servant-the regular charge being only one franc, as Mr. Coghlan says. I remonstrated, and told them that at Paris the charge was two francs, and at Brussels one franc and a half. The head waiter, a little stumpy fellow, a sort of hybrid between a Jew and a monkey, answered, with immense importance, "Sir, you are not now at Paris or at Brussels, or any of those sort of places-you are now at Cologne on the Rhine!" This was capital, but what followed was better:-" Sir, if you do not like to pay your bill, it is of no consequence-I will pay it

for you." "I am very much obliged to you," replied I," for your kindness, and I accept your offer: oblige me by receipting it, and then you shall pay it.”

But this offer was like the presents in India which are not intended to be really accepted, and so the reader may suppose it ended in my paying the bill. I conclude with the remarks quoted by Mr. Coghlan "it's d-d dirty and ditto dear." On the whole, I decide that there cannot be a worse hotel than the Rheinberg, and therefore every one will do well to avoid it, and take their chance of the others.

We had a pleasant passage from Cologne to Coblentz, and from thence to Mayence, because we had pleasant company. It is singular, but it is a fact, that you go on board a steam-boat to avoid fatigue, and each night you are more tired than if you had travelled by land. You go to avoid dust and heat; the first is exchanged for blacks out of the funnel, and you are more dirty than if you had travelled twice the distance; and the heat is about the same: in these points you certainly gain nothing. The expense of the steam-boat is very great. By a calculation I made to travel by post, five persons in a carriage, from Cologne to Strasburg-you will expend 200 and odd francs less than by the steam conveyance. In time you certainly lose by steam, as you are four days and a half going to Strasburg, and by land carriage it is half the distance, being only forty-five posts.

Neither do you save trouble; for the steam-boats being changed every evening, you have to take your luggage on shore, shift it from one to the other, and, at the very time that you are least inclined to do anything, independent of an enormous expense which you ought not to pay, but cannot well resist.

Now, as you really gain nothing in the above points, it is at least to be supposed that you gain in the picturesque; but this is not the case: and I have no hesitation in asserting that those who go up the Rhine are generally disappointed, although they do not like to say so. They expect too much. The vivid descriptions, the steel engravings, have raised their anticipations too high; and they find that the reality is not equal to the efforts of the pen and pencil. Several of the passengers acknowledged to me that they were disappointed; and I must confess that I hardly knew the Rhine again. When I travelled up the Rhine by land I thought it beautiful; but in a steam-boat it was tame.

This was observed by others, besides myself, who had ascended both by steam and by the road running close to the banks; and the reason was simple. When you travel by land you have the whole breadth of the Rhine as a foreground to the scenery of the opposite bank, and this you lose by water; and the bank you travel on is much more grand from its towering above you, and also from the sharp angles and turns which so suddenly change the scenery. Abruptness greatly assists the picturesque the Rhine loses half its beauty viewed from a steam-boat. I have ascended it in both ways, and I should recommend all travellers to go up by land. The inconveniences in a steam-boat are many. You arrive late and find the hotel crowded, and you are forced to rise very early (at Mayence at three o'clock in the morning), which, with a family, is no trifle. The only part of the Rhine worth seeing is from Cologne to Mayence; below Cologne and above Mayence it is without interest; and, although, between these two places, the steam-boats are

well served, above Mayence everything is very uncomfortable, and you are liable to every species of exaction.

If I were to plan a tour up the Rhine for any friends, I should advise them not to go by the Rotterdam steamer; it is a long voyage and without interest, and with many inconveniences; but start in the steamer to Antwerp, go up to Brussels by the rail-road; from thence you will start for Cologne by the route of Namur and Liege through Waterloo ; and I rather expect that many will prefer the banks of the Meuse to the Rhine. I know nothing more beautiful than the road from Namur as far as Chaude Fontaine, although, compared to the Rhine, it is on a miniature scale. From Liege to Aix-la-Chapelle, and from thence to Cologne. Go up the Rhine by land as far as Mayence, and then you may do as you please. When you are coming back, descend by the steam-boats; for then you go with the stream and with great rapidity, and arrive in good time at the towns where they stop. You will then have seen the Rhine by land and by water.

At present the Bubble is at its height; but it will burst by and by. The English are lining the banks of the Rhine with gold, and receive insult and abuse in exchange. I have been much amused with a young countryman who has come up in the steamer with me. Not able to speak a word of French or German, he is pillaged every hour of the day; but if he could speak he has no idea of the value of his money. He pulls out his purse and the waiters help themselves-very plentifully, I may safely add. What he has come for it is difficult to say: not for the picturesque, for he slept the whole time between Cologne and Mayence that is, all the time that was not occupied by eating and drinking. His only object appears to be to try the Rhenish wines. He has tried all upon the Weein Preesen. He called for a bottle of the best; they gave him one not on the carte, and charged him exactly one pound sterling for the bottle. He is a generous fellow; he sits at the table with his bottle before him, and invites every man to partake of it. When he has drank enough, he sleeps it off and begins again. He reminds me of an Englishman, a clerk in a city counting-house, who obtained two months' leave of absence to abroad. He arrived at Ostend, and soon afterwards at Bruges, where he embarked in the track-schuyt, the cabins of which are fitted up with velvet and gold, and the dinners served on board are excellent. He liked the fare and treatment so well that he thought it foolish to go farther. The whole two months were employed in travelling up and down from Bruges to Ghent, and from Ghent to Bruges; and he returned, declaring he never passed a more pleasant time in his life. Some may consider him a fool, others a wise man.

go