from the fact of the particular order in which we proceed with our reforms; and for this, that oversight is necessary which we alone can enjoy. It must, therefore, often occur, that many a one regards himself overlooked and forgotten, because the little spot which he looks down upon, according to our higher arrangement, does not directly come under notice. Hence it is, arising out of this undeniable truth, that the loyalty of subjects-that is, firm faith in the justice and general care of his princeis, of all the duties of the subject, the most indispensable; and the breach of this, as it is reasonable, has been, from the most remote times to the present, punished with the greatest severity as the highest of offences.

"For as God, with government under the most auspicious circumstances, has bestowed on the rulers of the earth a heavy duty, I would ask, how should mortal strength ever sustain it, if every subject should imagine that it should be carried on according to the plans which he conceives in his little sphere? Reform, we freely confess to every one, can be of assistance to us, if every one in his place attend to his office with understanding and diligence. What think ye, will not thence the true reform grow? And will it not, moreover, be much easier than that which is laid upon us, to determine and to carry out reforms which no one save ourselves understands, and which, therefore, every one has a desire to blame, and which we yet must carry through, knowing, at the same time, well, that years must pass before it can demonstrate itself why we have just acted as we have done; and the shallow and evil-minded pretenders to human knowledge, whose speeches we are well informed of, shall, in the meantime, raise as much doubt against these our measures as possible, in order to prejudice the affairs which they have not understood? That is the curse of government, which is, indeed, hard to bear, and against which the sound patience with which God endows us can alone defend us-a patience which teaches us to hold ourselves independent of the approval of men, when a great and God-pleasing object lies before us.'

"Wonderfully moved by that which she spoke, the empress had, in the midst of her speech, as all perceived, against her own will, turned towards Thomas Thyrnau, who, glowing with the expression of inspiration, highly exalted with joy and pride, gazed on Maria Theresa, his great benefactress, and seemed to swallow her words with his looks."

We must hasten to a conclusion of our pleasant task, by bringing our readers to the last incidents of "The Citizen of Prague." We pass by the commencement of the seven years' war and the blockade of Prague, which forms a powerfully exciting episode in the tale, and come to the latter days of Thomas Thyrnau. After his mitigated and almost honourable banishment, which the justice of the law demanded, he retires to Bohemia, and passes the rest of his life in forwarding and carrying out the schemes of the empress and Kaunitz for the amelioration of his native land. Honoured by his sovereign, he declines every offer of a grateful mistress-titles, honours, wealth

"In reply, he received a short note from the empress's own hand, written, as Kaunitz told him, immediately after the receipt of his. The note was as follows:

"You are a man of honour, my faithful Thomas Thyrnau, so God help me! And if I had given you a count's title it would have been superfluous to you. Many subjects have I who have never revolted, and yet who would not have the true-heartedness to warn their empress were she about to confer favour upon them which would be manifestly to the detriment of all.

"Thus you shall have your wish: but your empress will always see in you a noble man-although not a nobleman; instead of an order she will acknowledge a heart in which dwells a nobility that needs no outward sign; and the lesson which you have given on this subject to your empress will remain beneficially in her memory during the whole of her life.'

"After this, no one belonging to him wished for any public favour from the empress; and Thomas Thyrnau, in the late evening of his days, lay in his coffin with his cheerful, glorified countenance, but without any order on his breast. They who were dear to him, and who had assembled round his death bed, dared hardly to shed a tear, so holy and sublime had been his close; and when Lacy announced it to the empress, she said

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That was a man! we shall not find a second like him.'

We have now, with more brevity than we could have wished, taken a review of the excellent volumes before

us. We need scarcely recommend them to our readers; the portions which we have extracted, though taken almost at random, will, no doubt, impress them with a favourable though inadequate idea of the whole. We do not quite agree with the accomplished translator, that the relative positions of Austria and Bohemia at the time of the tale, bear any very striking analogy to those of England and Ireland at the present moment; still less is there any similarity of personages. A queen on the throne of both countries, no doubt; and well do we hope that our own illustrious sovereign may emulate the many virtues, while she avoids the few faults of Maria Theresa; but we confess we look in vain for any, the most remote resemblance in character between Thyrnau and "a distinguished advocate and agitator" not a hundred miles from home.

As an

BORNEO is, as some of our readers may possibly konw, the largest island in the world, New Holland being rated as a continent; and many are, no doubt, acquainted with the whereabout it is; but so utterly has this region of beauty and wealth been neglected, that such may be safely stated as the full amount of knowledge on the subject of it, now afloat amongst the reading and otherwise well-informed classes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. evidence of the ignorance, even of those who ought to know a little about its shores, our learned hydrographers -Capt. Keppel remarks, that he sailed by the best admiralty charts eighty miles inland, and over the tops of mountains! We may add, that when Lord Minto was contemplating the conquest of Java, our unacquaintance with these seas had very nearly rendered the undertaking abortive. naval seers and ancient mariners were disposed to consider the route to Java round the north and east coast of Borneo, and through the straits of Macassar, as practicable, but were wholly against the direct passage by the southwest coast of Borneo. This, however, was selected, and made in safety. Sir Stamford Raffles had sent out a vessel which performed the passage, and, relying on his information, Lord Minto adopted it. The other track is not only far more dangerous, but so very

Our

much longer that, had it been chosen, the expedition must have been postponed for another year, and it is most likely would have been altogether abandoned. The surveys and observations made in these seas by Captain Keppel, although thrown into deep shade by the many brilliant topics of his book, are amongst the solid and important services which he has rendered to the public. Our ignorance of the Eastern Archipelago is to be, most of all, ascribed to a corsair system long established there, which has been so formidable as to have scared away all trade, and so fatal, so satanic in its influence, as to have rendered islands remarkable for their beauty and resources, the abodes of misery

and want.

Borneo is situated in nearly the centre of the Malayan Archipelago; it extends from about 7° north to 4° 10' south latitude, and from 108° to 119° east longitude, and is said to be about three times the size of Great Britain. It is called by the natives and Malays Kalamantan. Borneo, called and written by the natives" Bruni," is the name of the capital of one of the great districts of the kingdom, and when Magælhaens visited it in 1520, he took it to be the appellation not only of the city, but of the whole island, and thus the name being adopted by the Spaniards, became established amongst other European nations. The north

VOL. XXVII.—No. 160.

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