Advocate-General, the brother-in-law of Duranti. The magistrate was sitting with his family, reading a passage in the Bible. The young and interesting daughter of the First President was by him, as yet ignorant of the murder of her parent. All at once shouts were heard; the doors were broken down; the domestics put to flight; men and women rushed furiously into the apart ment where he was with his family. He now saw nothing but insult in the countenances which had formerly regarded him with respect and fear. Esteemed and honoured till then, adorned with the chief dignity of Toulouse, after that of the First President (the judge of this very populace, which now heaps upon him reproaches and injuries), he is separated from his children, loaded with irons, conducted to prison, and without pity for his age, secretly strangled by some fanatics.

Witness the fruit of religious wars; witness the consequences of fanaticism and priestly zeal, when it is in pursuit of power! See how we have been cast into all the miseries of anarchy and disorder! This terrible picture of a city, once calm and happy, now carried into the most frightful excesses, has something well fitted to awaken reflection. Who could have believed, that in a city, where they were magistrates, the first magistrates of the kingdom could be assassinated without one course being left for defence, one voice to demand justice, one priest for confession? Such were the bloody fruits of Saint Bartholomew !

Happily the time of retribution arrives sooner or later. When the first fury was appeased, the relatives of Duranti demanded that a new process should be instituted to his memory. He, and also his brother-in-law, received the honour of a public funeral, in which the parliament assisted, the capitouls, and the corporation of the city of Toulouse. The body of Duranti was put into a marble sepulchre, near those of the Counts of Toulouse, whose good actions occupy so large a sphere in the old French chronicles; and about a hundred years after, when they were about to remove this tomb, the body of the unfortunate magistrate was discovered yet entire and unchanged.

5453

The work of Baour-Lormian is full of interest and truth, and very preferable to the unpoetical verses of the academician. The author has gone to the proper sources. He has studied the old chronicles; he has, moreover, made use of the life of Duranti, by Martel. He has not forgotten any of the facts which could increase the glory of his hero; he follows him from his infancy tỏ his death; he mentions all the improvements he made in Tou louse. He was founder of the College de l'Equisse; of the institution for the marrying of poor girls, and assisting prisoners; and his liberalities towards young persons who gave evidence of ability and contributed to the advancement of the arts or literature, were many and great. During the plague which afflicted Toulouse in 1588, when negligence and selfishness were the order of the day,

when the citizens avoided each other, neighbours neglecting neighbours, and parents even fearing the contagion, not only avoided conversing with, or approaching the sick, but abandoned them to their wretched fate, Duranti opened his palace to the sick, spent his revenues in providing them with places of shelter, and devoted the most careful attention to all who required it. He neither feared the contagion, nor shrunk from the thousand horrors which he saw around him. He saw but in them suffering humanity, and he assisted, succoured, and protected it. His recompence for all this was a fearful and terrible death! But not many years after, his name was placed by that of the Chancellor l'Hopital, &c.; a new proof, that the halo of glory is often found only on the tombs of great men.

We repeat, this work of M. Baour-Lormian has much interest. Its style is frequently eloquent, though occasionally declamatory; and several of the descriptions are picturesque, though failing, perhaps, in fidelity. The greater part of the characters are historical; and, after having read what the chroniclers and biographers say of the President Duranti, we are able to add, that the author has preserved a close resemblance in the portrait he has drawn of this excellent man, an ever memorable honour to the French magistracy.

ART. IX.-Reise Seiner Hoheit des Herzogs Bernhard zu Sachsen Wei

mar Eisenach, durch Nord America, in den Jahren 1825 und 1826. Herausgegeben von Heinrich Luden. Zwei Theile. Weimar: W. Hoffman. London: Black, Young, and Young. 1828.

Travels of his Highness Duke Bernhard of Sachsen Weimar Eise

Weimar :

nach, through North America, in 1825 and 1826. 2 vols. W.Hoffman. London: Black, Young, and Young. 1828. IN giving to the public an account of the travels through North America that have recently made their appearance, it has been our lot to be confined principally to English and American authors, whose statements, it must be confessed, are generally tinged with an air de patrie. A flaming Tory can see nothing in the New World that is worthy of praise; the United States are as galling to him as a novus homo amongst aristocratical legislators; their pretensions are mere bombast, their society ridiculous, whilst! he wilfully shuts his eyes against their vast and increasing resources. A native, on the other hand, will give his travels or notions in the extreme of ultra Americanism; and the unfortunate reader is thus left to choose between detracting hostility and fulsome panegyric. Some few honourable exceptions occur, but these are mostly confined to a narrative of a few weeks, which the writer spent over there on a trip of pleasure, and our knowledge of the country is enhanced by a few personal adventures; but with respect to the internal economy of the growing republic, we

are as much in the dark as before. The Travels of Duke Bernhard of Saxe Weimar Eisenach, which have just been published (although we could have wished that their contents had been given to the world at an earlier period), give us the results of an attentive and impartial observer of manners, society, and economy, in many parts of the United States. As he had previously travelled through England, and almost all the countries of Europe, he is, of course, free from those prejudices that always tinge the remarks of a traveller warm from his native land.

When the scion of a royal stock voluntarily relinquishes the attractions and privileges of his high station, and submits himself to the rough treatment of criticism, he is justly entitled to indulgence, which should not be granted to men in a lower sphere; but the house of Weimar are literary property, and it must be more gratifying to the good sense of the Duke, that his remarks and observations should be judged according to their real worth, than that his work should be loudly lauded, with the damning qualification-pretty well for a royal author. He has shown very naifly, in several passages, that he is by no means insensible to, or regardless of, the outward marks of respect paid to birth and rank, and we like him the better for it, for these advantages are only railed at, or affected to be despised, by those who can never attain them; but in his varied intercourse with the world, he has learned to consider them as externals, and not the only substantials of life. One of the most interesting features in these volumes, is the laudable desire of knowledge and instruction which they display in every page; no object is so minute as to escape his attention, but all things are observed and described with the indefatigable perseverance of a German traveller.

•

薯

The MS. was intrusted for publication to Luden the historian, who, as he informs us in a preface that appears to us written in an affected tone, has altered nothing, but merely omitted, at the Duke's suggestion, those parts which alluded to his private affairs. The work, indeed, in several passages bears manifest marks that it was not written for the press. The author tells us that he had no intention of publishing his observations, but committed them to paper for the gratification of his own family; several other persons, however, having read them, expressed a desire of seeing them in print, and he could not with propriety refuse their request.

"

Respecting either the cause or object of the undertaking itself, I have nothing to say. The idea of the voyage to America has accompanied me from my childhood. I wished to see the New World and its inhabitants, their mode of life, and institutions, manners, and customs. The more I saw of the Old World, the greater was my desire to behold the New.'-vol. i. p. 8.

The affairs of Europe at length enabled him to obtain leave of absence from the King of the Netherlands, in whose service he is, and on the 6th of April, 1825, he sailed for England, in the Pallas,

one of the King's yachts. The vessel touched at several English ports, which are minutely described. At Portsmouth, on the 1st of May, he saw the chimney-sweep gala, and a fight between two boys,which was conducted as decorously as any duel.' From the unfavourable state of the weather, the Pallas did not leave Falmouth for America until the 18th of June,' amidst the waving adieus of the young ladies, to whom the officers of the Pallas were by no means disagreeable.'

The passage across the Atlantic was tedious, and the Prince suffered the usual penalties of a sea voyage, for the vessel was not well built, and slingered sadly. The water now and then came in, and choosing, on one occasion, precisely the most inconvenient hour of the day for one of its unwelcome visits, the contents of the dinner table were knocked about in sad confusion, and the sauer kraut terribly salted. As the intruding element was no respecter of persons, his Highness was sent, not in the most gentle manner, into a corner of the cabin.

"On the 28th, the roughness of the sea did not abate. I remained in my hammock till four o'clock in the afternoon, and passed the time as well as I could in reading, and heart-breaking reflections on the condition of man at sea in bad weather.'-vol. i. p. 58.

They soon after met with a ship with one hundred and thirty Irish emigrants on board, who were in great distress from want of provisions. Assistance was given from the Pallas, to which the Duke contributed out of his own stock. It was afterwards discovered that the master, Nicholls, had not distributed the provisions among the poor Irish, but kept them all himself. It affords some consolation to learn that the fellow was dismissed.

On arriving in America, our traveller describes the towns, curiosities, public buildings, &c., with his usual minuteness. Any thing like a connected account of his progress through the different states and the Canadas being, of course, out of the question, we shall select such passages and observations as are of general interest, either for the description of the country they contain, or as tending to unfold the personal character of the Duke. Throughout his journey, he directed his attention in a particular manner to the prisons, and his remarks on this subject show that he has studied it with the feelings and attention of a philanthropist.

A statistical account of the prison at Boston gives us the following results:-Between the years 1805 and 1824, 1816 malefactors had been received. Of these, 1103 had been released at the expiration of their confinement, 298 had been pardoned, 15 had escaped, and 102 had died; remainder, 298. Of the 1103 who had been dismissed, 213 had been committed a second time, as had 24 of those who had been pardoned.

Of the 298 who remained in the prison, 54 were black or coloured men, and 59 white foreigners, viz. 13 English, 17 Irish, 8 Scotch, 4 from Nova Scotia, 2 Canadians, 1 from the Cape of Good

VOL. IX.

H

Hope, 3 West Indians, 2 Italians, 1 from Cape Verd, 1 Portuguese) and 1 German.

1

The whole expenses of the establishment amounted to 57,622 dollars; whereas the receipts from the produce of the labour of the prisoners amounted to 58,834 dollars, leaving a profit to the state of 1,212 dollars.

In Northampton, we learn that the people are very pious, and go to church three times a week, besides Sunday. A Bible formed part of the furniture of all the bedchambers of the inn. A curious mode of delivering the letters is customary here. The coachman throws them on the ground before the houses to which they are addressed, or if he should not happen to pass close to them, he leaves them in the nearest street.

The Duke visits the fall of Niagara, but does not attempt a laboured description.

At Manchester we took up our quarters at the Eagle tavern, and immediately hastened to the fall on the American side. The roaring of the waters directed our steps. We came suddenly upon the precipice, and beheld the immense mass of water, rushing impetuously downwards, with a dreadful noise, to a fearful depth. It is impossible to describe the view; it is impossible to convey the mingled feeling of weakness and sub limity that arises in the human breast at the sight of this stupendous work of nature. We can only wonder, admire, and adore. The rocks on both sides are very steep; there are, however, covered wooden steps, by which we descended to the lower part of the stream, but the spray caused by the foam of the fall deprived us of the beautiful view we had anticipated. We, therefore, soon re-ascended, and enjoyed from above the contemplation of the majestic and sublime.'-vol. i. p. 132.

In company with some gentlemen of the Pallas,

..

'We went to Goat Island, to which two convenient wooden bridges have been recently thrown over the rapids. ... The Indians, who formerly inhabited the country, esteemed the island sacred, and said that the great Manitto dwelt there. And how could the great Spirit reveal himself more awfully than in the overwhelming force of the vast waterfall.'— vol. i. p. 133.

We extract, likewise, the description of the passage of the last rapid. There is a stillness in the Duke's conduct which speaks in his favour, and forms a striking contrast with the noise and bustle of the scene around him.

'We had now to pass the last and most dangerous of the rapids. The waves rose very high, and we glided over the dangerous spot with inconceivable swiftness. By the side of the rapids is a canal, with locks, for vessels going up the stream. To any one who views these rapids from the shore, it appears impossible that a boat could venture in them, without being instantly swallowed up. The wind blew strong, but favourable. We met a steam boat with a corpse on board; its flag, on this occasion, was half masted. This is considered a bad omen. Another steam boat passed 'quickly by us, and excited our desire to rival her in speed. But suddenly we heard and saw a dreadful storm approaching over the lake. We tried,