The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-02 00:00:00

T4t E s UN, LON DON, WEDNESDAY EVEN 1 N FERRU ARY 2, 848,

illation which the Russian Consul received it was
suspected that the notes first found their way from
this country, and Forrester, the well-known officer,
was retained to discover the forgers. lie was not
long in obtaining some clue to the guilty parties
Having ascertained that two foreigners had purchased
a press, roller, and stones for lithographing, from
Mr. Lea, the lithographer, of High Holborn, he suc-
ceeded in tracing these parties to their lodgings in
Newton-street, Soho, and there he obtained possession
of a Bible belonging to one of the prisoners, between
the leaves of which a note corresponding to the spu-
rious ones circulating in Russia was found. Subse-
quently he traced the prisoners to Short's-gardens,
Drury-lane, where he forcibly broke into a room
rented by Kauffman, and discovered three of the
prisoners sitting round a table in the very act of
preparing the spurious notes. The room contained
a press, ink, roller, paper, stones, and all
materials necessary for lithographing notes,
but the tracings upon the stones had been
coated with gum so as to conceal the letters, marks,
and figures, which had been struck upon them.
This coat, however, had been removed, and the
tracing exactly corresponded with the impressions on
the paper which the prisoners were in the act of
cutting up into parts when the room was broken
into.

A number of witnesses were called to substantiate
be case.

The prisoners Kauffman and Fredeburg, who had
been identified as the parties who purchased the ma-
terials used in manufacturing the notes, denied all
knowledge of the forgery. Kauffman said he ac-
companied Fredeburg to make the purchases because
Fredeburg cculd not speak English ; while Fredeburg,
who was a lithographer, protested that in partici-
pating in the forgeries he was ignorant that he was
doing anything wrong, and acted more in the ca-
pacity of a servant to the principals in the transaction
than as an accomplice.
The Learned JUDGE summed up with great care
and minuteness, and

The Jury, after a short consultation, returned a
verdict of Guilty against both the prisoners.
Sentence was deferred until the sitting of the Court
to-morrow morning.

NEW COURT.
(Before the COMMON SERGEANT.)
Andrew Schepr, a German mason, was charged with
stealing a cash- box, value 5g., thirty-three sovereigns,
and 355., the property of the General Screw Steam
Shipping Company.
Mr. Bodkin prosecuted, and Mr. Huddleston de-
fended the prisoner. _

The evidence against the prisoner was purely of a
circumstantial character. A fellow-countryman of
the prisoner, named Hyllier, had been in the habit of
loitering about the offices of the General Screw Steam
Shipping Company, in Mark-lane, and was well
known to the clerks as a porter. It was assumed
that the prisoner was in connivance with this man,
and on the evening of the 31st of December, while the
prisoner engaged Mr. Dickinson, the manager of the
company,:in conversation upon the subject of his taking
a passage in one of the company's vessels, Hyllier
entered another office of the company, on the same
landing as the one in which Mr. Dickinson and the
prisoner were conversing, and stole the cash-box,
with its contents. The robbery was discovered the
same evening, and, suspicion falling upon the prisoner,
he was traced to a public-house in the Commercial-
road, where he was found in company with
another foreigner, who was supposed to be Hyllier. The
prisoner, upon observing the entrance of a police-
officer, made a desperate but futile attempt to resist
his apprehension, and his companion succeeded in
making his escape. The cash-box was found near to
the public-house, broken to pieces, and it was ascer-
tained that the prisoner and a man answering
Hyllier's description were seen together that evening,
near to the spot.
Mr. HUDDLESTON having addressed the jury for the
defence,

The COMMON SERGEANT summed up, and
The jury returned a verdict of Guilty.
The COURT sentenced him to nine months' impri-
sonment, with hard labour.

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.
(THIS DAY.)
In the absence of Mr. Sergeant Adams the Assis-
tant Judge, Mr. Walerby, presided. The new
arrangement for the trial of all the male prisoners
on the first day of the sessions, and of the females on
the next, has not in effect been carried out ; for the
whole of the morning was occupied with the trials of
male prisoners, whose cases were not reached yes-
terday.
James Gardner, being indicted for stealing two
ducks, the property of Charles Chowns "and
another," was acquitted on the ground of informality,
the ducks being the property of Charles Chowns
only.

EAST INDIA HOUSE-(THIS DAY)

THE LATE RAJA OF SATTARA.

A special general Court of the proprietors of East
India stock was held this day at their house in
Leadenhall-street, upon the requisition of nine pro-
prietors, for the purpose of taking into consideration
certain resolutions relating to the case of the late Raja
of Sattara, recommending the directors to obtain the
sanction of the Board of Control to the instituting of
a public and impartial inquiry into the whole case.
Mr. Humn, M.P., proposed the resolutions, of
which a eopy had been sent to every proprietor of
East India stock, in order that Hon. Gentlemen
might come fully prepared to decide upon the matter
with the least possible loss of time to the
Court. The Hon. Gentleman went through the
leading points of the late Raja's case. He could bear
testimony from his own personal observation to the
excellent administration of the Indian Government,
and the management of our vast and important
empire in that part of the world, under the super-
intendence of that Court; for it was now fifty-four
years since he first went out to India as a servant of
the company.—(Hear, hear.) He hoped the day
would never come when the Government of those
possessions would be transferred from that Court to
the Colonial-office, although there was a desire to
bring that about, and he was convinced it would be,
if effected, the ruin of our power in India.—(Hear,
hear.) We had hitherto maintained that power more
by good faith and justice than by the sword. The
only exception to our honourable and wise policy in
this respect was the case of the late Raja.--(llear,
hear.) It was too late to do justice to that unfor-
tunate Prince in his own person.—(Hear, hear.)
But it was not the less the duty of
the proprietors to retrace their steps if they found
that they were wrong. It was not to be regarded as
the case of the late Raja alone. It was the case of
all India. It concerned the reputation of the Indian
Government for justice and honour with every de-
pendency throughout that empire. There was not a
prince with whom we had treaties, from Cape
Comerin to Lahore, who could henceforth have any
reliance upon the fidelity of the British Government
if it still persisted, through that Court, in refusing
justice in the present case. All that the Raja himself
ever demanded—all that his friends and survivors
now demanded—was an impartial trial. The Hon.
Proprietor dwelt at great length upon those principal
topics, and concluded by moving the resolutions.
The discussion is expected to occupy the Court to a
late hour, if indeed it he not, as on former occasions,
adjourned to another day.
There were many, ladies in the gallery.

SALE OF RAILWAY SHARES BY
AUCTION.—(THIS DAY.)
At Messrs. Lomond and Co.'s sale to-day a good
business was done. The follow ing aro a few of the
principal quotations:—
Eastern Counties . ........ 16 0 0
Birmingham and Oxford Junction ..... 24 0 0
Aberdeen
Madrid and Valencia
Caledonian 35 19 0
Lond., Brighton, Si South Coast
Edinburgh and Glasgow
Reading, Guildford, and Reigate
London and Blackwall,
Shrewsbury and Birmingham (A) `.4 0
North Staffordshire
Buckinghamshire
Cornwall 0 16 0
Ambergate, Nottingham, and Boston 0 7 6

The Archbishop of Canterbury has appointed
the Earl of Aberdeen's second son, the Hon. and Rev.
Douglas Gordon, to be one of his Grace's domestic
chaplains.
The Right Hon. the Speaker of the House of
Commons, accompanied by Mrs. Shaw Lefevre and
family, arrived in Eaton-square last evening, from Hick-
field Place, Hants.
CHILDREN BURNT TO DEATH. Yesterday four
inquests were held at the London Hospital on the bo-.
dies of children who haze died in the above institution
from injuries which they received by their clothes
catching fire.
INDIA NEWS.—GOTERNMENT OF BOMBAY.—Yes-
terday a Court of Directors was held at the East India
House, when the Right Hon. Viscount Falkland was
appointed Governor of the Presidency of BomuaT:
The Count de Trapani, brother of the King of
Naples, who was put forth as one of tke candidates for
the hand of Queen Isabella of Spain, is shortly expected
to arrive at Munich, to be married to the Princess Alex-
andra, daughter of the King of Bavaria. The formal
demand of the hand of the Princess was lately made by
the Neapolitan Ambassador to the Court of Vienna, who
went expressly to Munich for that purpose.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, although confined
to his room, does not keep his bed, nor is his illness con-
sidered of a sufficiently serious character to confine the
members of his family circle to the palace, several of
them having taken carriage exercise. The immediate
cause of the venerable Primate's illness is said to be an
attack of influenza about a month sines, from which he
has never perfectly recovered. .

GERMAN PAPERS.

RUSSIA AND POLAND. -- FROM THE RUSSIAN
BOUNDARY, 'JAN. 19.—The lcvy of recruits oreasiol,s
much surprise. None are exempt except those who
are so by their official situations or incapacity, and
even lad 3 of 16 are entitled. In answer to the ques-
tion whether the sons of such officers of the State
whose position accords them the privileges of nobility
are exempt from military service, it is stated that only
the suns of those who posses the rights of hereditary
nobility, as well as of those landowners whose nobility
has been acknowledged in regard to the privileges of
the Ordinance of 1836, are not subject to be entitled
as recruits.

THE MAGAZINES.
BEA7'LEY'S 311SVELI„4NY.

The present number of Bentley opens with an
interesting biographical mcmoir of Beethoven from
the pen of Miss Thomasina Ross, and is illustrated
by an engraving by Cook of a portrait of the great
maestro, which is considered by Mr. Charles CzA.ny
to be the most correct likeness of this celebrated
composer extant. This is followed by an amusing
description of a fete champetre at Constantinople
(at which the Sultan was present), by Mrs. Percy
Sinnott, who thus describes the personal appearance
of the Sultan Abd-ul-111eschid—
" Abd-ul-Meschid is above the middle height, bror.d
shouldered, and finely shaped, with the youthful
luxuriance and fulness of form on which the Asiatic e) e
is so well pleased to rest; and his natural advantages
were further set off by the elegant simplicity of a close-
fitting dark blue surtout, embroidered on the stares with
gold, white pantaloons, and polished European chassure.
Notwithstand;ng some traces of the smallpox, his lace
has much manly beauty, with its high forehead, finely
arched brows, small mouth, and straight, well formed
nose. The Sultan has nothing of the look of premature
decay so often spoken of in Europe; but in spite of his
Caucasian blood by the mother's side, Abd-ul-Meschid
has the olive-tinted skin of his Turcoman ancestors.
His profile is very handsome; the moustache is short
and thick, and his whiskers and beard kept within due
bounds. His solitaire was a large diamond as big as a
pigeon's egg. Sultan Abd-ul-Meschid is twenty-three
years old, and, though not disinclined to pleasure, capable
of severe labour, and is undeniably one of the Lest
intentioned princes of our time."

Professor Creasy continues his commentaries on the
six decisive battles of the world, and chooses as the
subject of his present paper, the defeat of the
Athenians at Syracuse. Dr. W. C. Taylor gives us
the fruits of his researches in the provincial
literature of France, in a learned, and to antiquaries,
most interesting disquisition on the origin of the
story of "Blue Beard," and three candidates appear to
contest the unenviable distinction of having been the
original Blue Beard of the legend. The first is Gilles
de Retz, Marshal of France, one of the firmest
adherents of Charles VII., and Lord of the Castle of
Champtoie, situated on th• banks of the Loire, be-
tween Angers and Nantes, which is called "Le
Chateau de Barbe Bleu" to the present day. Gilles
de Retz professed openly to be one of the most reli-
gious of men, and had the service conducted in the
chapel of his castle with all the splendour and forms
used in cathedrals, but secretly he indulged in the
most debauched excesses. Every day young maidens
were taken by force from the cottages of their parents,
and carried to the castle, from whence none of them
were ever known to return. Broken in fortune, he
turned alchemist, and according to the superstitions of
the period, he was said to have entered into a
compact with Satan, and to have stipulated with
the Prince of Darkness to pay for his instruction
in the forbidden art, by a tributary sacrifice of
Christian children. Dr. Taylor is of opinion that
Gilles was in reality the dupe of his own supersti-
tions, and like the Goomsoors and Thugs of India he
believed in the efficacy of human sacrifices. A Floren-
tine mountebank named Prelati was his assistant or
his instructor in these horrible mysteries, and the
cries of the tortured children were frequently heard
proceeding from the secret chamber of the castle, the
approach to which was forbidden to any of the do-
mestics under pain of death. Gilles was at length
arrested, the skeletons of forty children were found
in his castle ; and he was executed on the 23d October,
1440, "a date," says the historian, "about which
there can be no doubt, for all the people of Anjou and
Maine, by common consent, whipped their children
on that morning, so as to impress the precise date on
their memory." Another prototype of Blue Beard is
found in Comorre, Count of Cornouailles, who lived
in the country of Vannes, in Brittany, who married
seven wives, and murdered them as they
were on the point of becoming mothers,
and whose guilt was revealed miraculously
by the corpse of his last wife. Burgundy sets up a
third claimant in the person of the Count of Saulx,
who shut up his wife in a den of bears, who, how-
ever, caressed her as if they had been lap-dogs. Her
brothers hearing of her treatment, attacked the castle
of the Count, and killed him just as he had raised his
sword to murder their sister. We have some pleas-
ing " Road-sketches of the Inns of France," by
J. Marvel, and some pleasant " Reminiscences of
Geneva and its Neighbourhood," by Miss Costello.
Mr. 'Warren continues the narrative of his "Adven-
tures on the Amason," and Cooper gives us another
chapter of " Captain Spike." Spike is dying in the
hospital at Key West, attended by Rose Budd and
Jack Tier, the latter of whom turns out to be a
woman, and the wife of Spike, whom he had deserted
twenty years before, and who, disguised as a sailor,
and assuming the name of Jack Tier, had wandered
over the world in search of him. " What Tom
Pringle did with a Hundred Pound Note," is the
title of a Buz-like sketch of the doings of a clerk of an
old house in the City. What Tom Pringle did we
shall not tell you, reader, for we would not for the
world deprive you of the pleasure of reading the
paper and guessing as you proceed as to what may
be the intentions of Torn Pringle anent the said 1001.
note. It is quaintly illustrated by Leech. The
lovers of romance will be delighted with the
" Heiress of Budowa," and the lovers of horrors with
" The Old Alan and his Guests ;" while the laughers
at the petty miseries of human life will find ample
food for merriment in the " Difficulties in a Tour to
Wiesbaden." There is something to suit all tastes
in Bentley this month.

FRASER.

The " Poughkeepsie Seer and his Revelations," is
the title of the first article in this number of Fraser.
The Poughkeepsie is a " smart" American youth,
named Davis, who having been "clairvoyant boy " to
an itinerant mesmeriser, set up in business for himself
as a quack doctor, and ultimately as the founder of a
new religion, in opposition to Christianity. The
article is Hell written, although we think the blas-
phemous absurdities of this impudent impostor ure
not worth the time and the attention which the
writer has bestowed on them. We are glad to find
that the author of the " Orators of the Age " has
again resumed his pencil. In this number he gives
us sketches of three new Members of the New Par-
liament—Mr. J. Walter, Mr. F. O'Connor, and Mr.
Cornewall Lewis. In his sketch of Mr. J. Walter
we are glad to see that he does full justice to the
merits of one whom he justly designates as one of the
most original and extraordinary men of the age—
the late Mr. Walter. He it was who first rendered
journalism the power which it has now become. He
was the creator of the fourth estate.

" He made his journal an exemplar of what is and
must be the power of the world in this age. It is a
power the most natural in its origin, and the least vi-
cious in its effects, of any the world has yet seen. The
~‘onsolidated empire of the warrior, though transmitted
from generation to generation, never loses the taint of
its unjust origin. The institutions invented to sustain
it are all based en the tradition of force. Religion,
which has founded some systems of rule, and cemented
more, has, nevertheless, save in some favoured portions
of the earth, too often had, as it still has, Superstition
for its strongest ally. Throughout three-fourths of the
world it has hoped to secure the present and eternal
salvation of man only by degrading and enslaving him;
and even now, when, seeing what a purer practice has
•fleeted during the last four centuries for this island,
and for some parts of the Continent, the most elevated
in mind and station of Catholic Europe are striving, by
other means, to reach the same end, the vices of the
system are found almost too strong for the virtuous pur-
pose of the individuals. But the power of which the
most commanding example was created and perfected
by the late Mr. Walter, has no such evils, either of
origin or in effect. It is instinct with a spirit and life
coeval with that of humanity—dormant, but never dead;
and being ,itself of that creative and inspiring nature,
that it must sustain the moral and intellectual future of
man, precluding the recurrence of those intervals of
torper which have heretofore furnished history and phi-
losophy with some of their most striking examples. Of
all the influences by which mankind have, from age to
age, been ruled, this is the most purely intellectual in
it origin. But, perhaps, its greatest claim consists in
that, being a substantive and independent power, it can,
at will, make itself the ally of those other powers which
have preeeded it, holding the balance between them and
humanity, and throwing its weight into either scale,
according to the demands of a high moral necessity.
Deriving its authority from the assent and conviction of
mankind, it is subject to a perpetual check upon its
possible excesses. There is ever a moral pendulum to
moderate pernicious activity.
" The late Mr. Walter, by elevating this new agent
to the highest point yet attained—sometimes judiciously
following the example set him by his brethren, but more
often setting that example himself—has earned a very
high place among the benefactors of mankind. We
must not regard him as a mere fortune-maker, possessed
of more skill than his competitors, or as a first-rate
practical printer, who could himself a turn to at ease.' or
superintend the working of his machines when deprived
of the due service from his subordinates,—or as a man
of enterprise and capital, running expresses against the
Government, and distancing all competitors in the early
procuring of news. lie was all this, and a great deal
more. We remember once being struck with an ex-
pression used by one of a class much abused by the
journal to which we refer. Scrambling over a mountain
side, in one of the wildest and poorest districts of the
west of Ireland, with our temporary host, a Roman Catho-
lic clergyman, the conversation turned upon some of the
dainty epithets which had been applied from time to
time by the leading journal to the ' surpliced ruffians.'
Our companion was a man of considerable attainments,
and contradicted, in his manners and habits, the esti-
mate usually formed of his class. Having incidentally
used, as applied to that journal, the word newspaper,
he broke out suddenly, Newspaper, sir ! it is a part of
the Government of the country !' This magnanimous
admission of the much-abused priest was, in fact, the
highest tribute to the late Mr. Walter. By the most
skilful management, requiring a knowledge of human
nature, an acquaintance with the past, and a prescience
of the future, for which even the intimates of Mr. Wal-
ter never gave him sufficient credit, he brought hit.
journal to be the most fine and delicate barometer of
public opinion. As public opinion more and more su-
perseded, in this country, other and more ancient but
effete forces, statesmen found it to their advantage to
consult the barometer. From consulting it, the step
was natural to making use of it ; for, by a very simple
process, it had equally become to the people a supposed
barometer of the designs of statesmen. The alliance
thus formed was highly honourable to the younger of
the contracting parties ; because it was not an insulting
condescension, but was based on the principle of inde-
pendence. Tho intermediate period, however, between
the first small beginning and this grand result (for it
was a grand result so to conquer the enshrined pride of
aristocracy in office) was one of great trial and difficulty
to Mr. Walter, not as a newspaper proprietor, for there
his way was clear to him, but as a private individual,
taking openly an active personal share in politics."

With the greater part of the above we entirely agree,
but we do not see the difficulty in which Mr. Walter
was involved, as a private individual, by his connec-
tion with the Times newspaper; on the contrary, we
believe that if, at the first outset of his career as a
Member of Parliament, Mr. Walter had boldly
avowed (that of which every one was perfectly aware)
his connection with, and his influence over, the Times,
and upon that connection, and that influence had
grounded an additional claim for a respectful attention
to his views on the part of the Members of the Legis-
lature, he would have escaped many of the difficulties
which he afterwards experienced in the course of his
legislative career, and would have given to the mem-
bers of the fourth estate, which he had created, not
only power, but social position also. This disquisi-
tion on the character of, to use the words of the
writer, " the Louis Philippe of Journalism," is the
most interesting portion of the most interesting paper
of the present number. The " Chronique de Paris"
is an amusing resume of Parisian gossip anent
the domestic habits of the King of the French and
his family, in which we find several characteristic
anecdotes of the late Madame Adelaide, who was by
far the most talented and the best disposed of the
Orleans family. " L'Uscoque" is a review of George
Sand's novel bearing that title. Geore Sand, in this
novel, has undertaken to condense, combine, illustrate,
dcvetail, and continue Lord Byron's poems of the
" Corsair" and " Lara," and the writer of this review,
in his hatred for Byron, has made him answerable for
all the sins of his continuation, and repeats the foul-
mouthed libels of " turncoat Southey" about " the
Satanic school" with evident gusto. This article, we
should imagine, must have been admitted into Fraser
by some unaccountable oversight. It was evidently
intended for " My Grandmother's Review," and we
might almost be tempted to surmise that it was a
similar production of that worn-out pen of " my dear
Robert's" himself. Turn we from this to a review of
" The Life and Remains of John Sterling," in which
the beautiful, truthful character of that most honest,
yet most loving and most tolerant of theologians, is
treated of in a kindred spirit. It is a beautiful notice
of a beautiful work. " The Guerilla" is concluded,
and the description of the unsuccessful attempt of the
Saltador to carry off King Joseph to the mountains
is most dramatically given. We recommend this
story to some of our dramatic adapters. They would
find their account in perusing it. The " Chronicle
and Commentary on the Current History of the Month"
is written in a spirit of great impartiality, and fur-
nishes an useful record of contemporary history.

ATTEMPTED ROBBERY AND ALLEGED MURDER.—
Yesterday Mr. G. J. Mills held an inquest at the Hope,
John-street, Tottenham-court-road, on the body of
Joseph Edge M`Donnell, pianoforte-case•maker, aged
34. It appeared from the evidence that the deceased,
who had been spending the evening of the 13th ult. in
Francis-street, Bedford-square, left the house about
two o'clock on the following morning, when, as he WAS
crossing Tottenbam•court-road, opposite the chapel, he
was attacked by three men, who attempted to rob him,
but having resisted them, one of the party felled him to
the ground with a blow of a bludgeon, which inflicted a
dreadful wound on his head. The wound was dressed
by Mr. Parke, of the University College Hospital, and
deceased was attended at his residence, 78, John-street,
by Mr. Weston until he died, on the 26th ult. Both
those gentlemen stated the death was the result of
erysipelas, produced by the injuries inflicted on the
head. Verdict, "Deceased died from erysipelas, caused
by a wound on the head, but how the wound was
inflicted there was no evidence to prove."
COVENTRY AND NUNEATON RAILWAY.—BIRMINW'
RAM, MONDAY EVINING.—The third half-yearly meet-
ing of the proprietors of the above railway was held to-
day at the Queen's Hotel, in this town, J. Ledsam, Esq.,
deputy chairman of the London and North-Western
Company, in the chair. The secretary, Mr. Watkins,
read a brief report from the directors, which stated that
the line having been re-surveyed by the engineer, Mr.
Gooch, several amendments had been effected. The
line had been sold to the London and North-Western
Company; but, by the provisions of the Act of Parlia-
ment the purchase could not be completed until one-half
of the capital had been paid up. At present the pro-
prietors had only paid 104,0001., 57,0001. of which re-
mained in band. The directors had therefore made a
call of 1/. 12s. per share, in order to complete the sale of
the line. The report was received and adopted without
a word of comment. Mr. John Ellis, Mr. J. L. Prevost,
and Mr. Smith were then elected directors, and the
meeting terminated.
NIGHTLY SWELTER FOR THE HOFSELESS.—Yes.
terday the committee of the above institution made a
report of the poor persons who had availed themselves of
its benefits since the opening of the asylums (three in
number), on Saturday, the 22ed ult. In the central
' asylum, Playhouse yard, St. Luke's, 1,295 were ad-
mitted; in the eastern asylum, Glasshouse-yard, East
Smithfield, 1,067; and in the western asylum, Ogle-
street, Marylebone, 598; making a total of 2,960 men,
women, and children, amongst whom 16,739 rations of
bread were distributed. During the last four nights
upwards of 1,100 have been admitted.

LITERATURE.

LETTERS Fiq)M ThE DAAUBE. By the
Author of" Gisella" and" Second Love." 2 Vol.•.
By far the most interesting of these interesting
letters are those which relate to Hungary, and tell of
the dawning of the spirit of Hungarian nationality.
The theme is one of peculiar fascination—a similar
feeling to that which bade the poet pour forth, in
strains of alternate tenderness and indignation, his
sublime lamt4t over the fallen glories of Greece—

" Greece! but living Greece no more!"
A similar feeling, a feeling of sympathetic patriotism
prompts us to regard with extreme interest, and with
profound exultation, the early efforts of a people
struggling to achieve their independence and to assert
their nationality ; a similar feeling, but perhaps a
stronger one, for much as we may treasure the re-
miniscences of the past, we are naturally prone to
think more of the future ; we may bestow a sigh on
the faded leaves of autumn, but we always turn joy-
fully to welcome the buds of spring; we may sorrow
over the infirmities of age, but our warmest sympa-
thies are elicited by the aspirations of youth ; the in-
terest with which we peruse the glorious chronicles of
ancient Item• is far inferior to the eager anxiety with
which we watch the progress of •vents in modern
Italy. Some such sentiments stirred the heart of the
author of "Gisella" as he steamed along the Danube,
and gave utterance to such hopeful aspirations as the
following :

" But even in the vast tracts of wilderness there is a
charm, as I have said ; and if there be, in all this, but
little evidence of life, and less of cultivation, there is
still the augury of what is yet to come, may come, and,
I should say, must come; and that thought is full of its
poetic feeling. The question, which the traveller who
teanis down this part of the Danube cannot fail of ask-
ing himself—the question, namely, what may be the
future destinies, in the progress of civilisation, of the
wastes and solitudes of this bold and abounding river—
is the same which mealy an inquiring mind may formerly
have made, when floating down the great wilderness
rivers of America, that are now teeming with life and
commerce, where villages, and towns, and manufactories,
and dock-yards have thrust back the aboriginal woods,
as the European has driven away the savage. It is the
question that the man who keeps a daily journal of his
life naturally puts to himself, when he sees the many
white pages in the book before him, and wonders how
they may be filled—what the events, good or bad, for
weal or woe, that may be inscribed upon them. The
pages of the book of man's life, however, may remain
blank and unwritten,—death may stay the heed that
proposed to fill them. But the book of the. future
fortunes of the great river must and will be written as
the world rolls on. The how' is a riddle, the solution
of which is yet in the hands of fate.
" But Hungary is a rising and progressing country;
and, sooner or later, in the advance of that civilisation
which the Turk so long has hemmed, but can now hem
no longer, and under the influence of the present
national spirit that pervades the country, there can be
little doubt that the banks of the Danube will tell
another tale of progress and prosperity than they have
been able to tell as yet.
" How beautifully, how sublimely has our poet Mar-
' lowe said, The use of time is fate I' How will that
time be used, how that fate accomplished, by the Hun-
garian? Not only as a well-wisher to the country, but
with the strongest conviction in the future results of its
energies, I have drawn for the Danube, in my mind, the
brightest, grandest horoscope."

In another place he speaks of the national spirit of
Hungary as of a " feeling which now throbs, as its
very life's blood, in every vein of the land, so long
asleep in lethargy, and but lately awakened to new life
and strength." And after disclaiming any intention of
entering on a political dissertation, he goes on—

" It is impossible, however, for a foreigner to mix,
even in a slight degree, and for a very short time, with
the Hungarians of the present day, without being struck
by the national spirit which pervades almost every
thought, as well as action, of their lives; and the letters
I address you, although only intended to vindicate my
predilection for this country in its picturesque aspect,
would exclude one of the brightest lights that gleam
across it, did they not contain a word or two about the
colouring with which this spirit tinges the whole moral
being of the country.
" This feeling of nationality, avant tout, has sprung
up, at least in its present flourishing luxuriance, only
within the last few years ; but after progressing with a
marvellous rapidity of growth among men of all ages
fur the spirit of 'Young Hungary,' if so it may be
called, is by no means confined to the young, hot-headed,
and inexperienced,—it has evidently taken a deep, firm,
and widely-spreading root. It appears so woven into
every part of the Hungarian existence, like some
brightly-coloured thread into a tissue, that, turn the
stuff which way you will—examine it in its whole
breadth, or in every little portion—the colour is ♦isible,
indelible, never to be mistaken. It may be compared,
perhaps, to that universal peculiar smell of Russia
leather, that seems to the traveller to pervade the whole
empire of the Czar : go where you will iu Hungary,
your every sense must be struck with the penetrating
odour of this spirit. Every detail of daily life among
the Hungarians, however insignificant it may be, seems,
somehow or other, stamped with the impress of this
national feeling ; and nothing can be done, no word
spoken, that is not in some degree marked with it.
Among the better results of this patriotic impulse, little-
nessos and affectations, to be sure, spring up like weeds
in a crop of rich grain.
" Some of these thorough-going nationality-sup-
porters, for instance, although well setuainted with the
German language, which under the rule of the House of
Austria is indispensable to every young man of any edu-
cation, will affect a foreign accent in speaking German,
and an ignorance, now and then, of German words, in
order to evince their complete attachment to their
renovated native tongue, which only latterly has become
of constant use."

He adds that the " little affectations of exclusive na-

tional pride" have sometimes excited him to smile,
but certainly, if they be akin to the ridiculous,
it is the ridiculous which borders on the
sublime, and, like straws on the surface, they
are valuable, as showing the direction of the
current—the strong current of national feeling.
The details about Hungary, brief though they be,
form about the most interesting portion of this work,
butt he remaining contents are not deficient in attrac-
tion. The letters form a sort of descriptive diorama of
the Danube, and its banks, and the cities and villages
situated thereon, extending from Ratisbon to the
southern boundary of Hungary. The noble river has
certainly found a most enthusiastic eulogist in the
writer of these letters, who discards all-matter-et-
fact rules, and avows his strong predilection for the
poetical and romantic. He invariably speaks of the
Danube with the utmost admiration, and even ten-
derness, constantly styling it "my beautiful
Danube"—" my beloved Danube," and even "my
love." Yet the romance of his affection for his
river love is considerably diminished by his inform-
ing us that it holds the same place in his heart that the
Rhine once occupied; it seems he has a predilection
for " second love." Be this as it may be, he was
certainly " off with the old love" before he began
with " the new," as is evidenced by his animated and
almost indignant comparison between the Danube and
the Rhine. " Can a comparison exist," he asks,
" between the stiff physiognomy and melodramatic
airs which characterise the celebrated stream of the
middle ages, and all that there is of grandeur and
simplicity, of magnificence and kindliness, condpined
in the varied course of the Danube ?" After pro-
ceeding in the same strain, he sums all up by declar-
ing, that " where all is dry and harsh on the Rhine,
on the Danube all is living, vigorous, abounding."
All is dry and harsh on the Rhine Yet Byron, who
perhaps could appreciate the beautiful as correctly as
can the author of " Gisella," found only one fault
with the " exulting and abounding river," namely,
that it was not Lethe. Hence it was that he apos-
trophised the abounding luxuriance of Nature :
" Maternal Nature! for who teems like thee,

Thus on the banks of thy majestic Rhine?
There Harold gazes on a work divine,
A blending of all beauties I streams and dells,
Fruit, foliage, crag, wood, corn-field, mountain, vine,
And chiefless castles breathing stern farewells,
From gray but leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells."
And when bidding a reluctant farewell to the " lovely
Rhine," he beautifully enumerates its attractions :
" More mighty spots may rise, more glaring shine,
But none unite in one attaching maze
The brilliant, fair, and soft—the glories of old days,
The negligently grand, the fruitful bloom
Of coming ripeness, the white city's sheen,
The rolling stream, the precipice s gloom,
The forest's growth."
And yet,
says the author of " Gisella" "all is dry and
harsh on the Rhine." His most severe and unjust
remarks respecting his former favourite is only an-
other proof of how often estranged love turns to
hatred—
How hard to reconcile the foes whe once were friends."
On this head we are inclined to find fault with our
author. Granted that he wished to eulogise one
river, was that only to be effected by disparaging an-
other? The world is large enough to contain many
glorious streams, and there is room in our hearts for
admiration for them all. We may apply to him his
own sentiment when, speaking of magnificent
cities, he exclaims, " Naples, Constantinople,
Prague, Edinburgh, Pest : who shall say which shall
bear off the palm of beauty ? You will be tempted
to give the preference to each in turn, as you look on
each ; and is it not: the true philosophy of life to
prefer that which for the moment you possess ?" As
some sort of justification fbr his exceeding love for the
Danube he thus describes what he terms the " arti-
fices" by which it gained his affection :
"The Danube—or as least the Danube, as it is sub-
divided by cities, and, consequently, by the day's
voyages of the steamers—is the most treacherously
coquettish of rivers. At first it always. looks so still
mis-
i
and dull, and sleepy and demure, as if it had
chief in its mind, and never had the slightest nontention
of laying siege to your heart : but gradually it com-
mences to put forward one allurement atter another;
and you begin to feel some commotion in the region
attacked: it bursts forth at last in the ;plenitude of its
mighty charms—the spell of the enchantress is woven—
your heart is woe. So it attacks the voyager from
Ratisbon to Linz; it performs the same manceuvre from
Linz to Vienna, and with like success. In leaving
Vienna, on the day's voyage to Pest, the arch coquette

begins playing the same tricks over again, and is just as
sure o! its eff, et; but now, having appareidly grown 1005
ardent of conquest, as it grows older and et 'Wier in its
progress, it exercises its arts in a more listless, careless
fashion. At first it appears only in the huwble and un-
pretending garb of the rugged willowed islands, that
split it iato numerous branches,—the bare sand. banks,
that are like sun-burnt freckles on its face,—and the
low villages, that possess no other attrac:ion than
histories of innumerable battles fought on the neigh,
bouring plains, from the times of Rudolph of Hapsburg,
through those of Turkish invasion, to the more modern
days of the French empire—an attraction which may
seduce a military heart, but which, in spite of some
romance, exercises but a very transient sway over mine.
At Prosburg it begins to give a smile, and then, as if to
watch the effect of this glimpse of seduction, languidly
falls back into its monotony. At Gran, however, it
again raises its head with the adornment of mountain,
and valley, and tributary stream, and proud cathedral.
At Vissegrad it crowns itself with a haughty diadem of
imperial ruin, and lays on its most brilliant robes of
wood-woven rock and precipice. At Pest and Buda the
fulness of its beauty is put forth in one wondrous
panorama; and its work is again done. Ido not know
of what stuff other men are made, but I am invariably a
lost man."

The description of Pest and Buda, the twin capitals
of Hungary, as seen from the Danube is sufficiently
effectiTe—

" But before long, the rough precipitous outline of the
Blocksberg on the right bank, but lying before you on
the horizon, begins to announce to you that you are ap-
proaching the Hungarian capital : and now, the long
line of the far-stretching suburbs of Old Buda begin to
rise to your sight on the same side ; and green wooded
islands stud the stream ; and innumerable anchored
water-mills tell you that a great town is near: and then
the Margarethen-Insel is passed with its archducal
gardens and woods : and then, all at ()ace, what a won-
derful panorama is before your eyes! On the right is
Buda, with its terraced garden and stately hanging
palaces, rising above each other up the mountain-side, its
palatinate palace, and its citadel—Buda, the old capital
of the Hungarian monarchy, the city of middle-age
souvenirs and great historical deeds. Beyond, rises still
higher, the huge, uncouth mass of the Blocksberg, with
the observatory on its summit, and suburbs clinging to
its side. On the left are the new palace-like houses
which line the quays of Pest, spreading along the flat
banks of the plain on that side. Pest is the representa-
tive of modern reforms, modern ideas, modern architec-
ture, as Buds, on its height, of old aristocratic state-
liness and ancient times. The two form a panoramic
whole, which will scarcely find its match in the world.
The sun is setting; but its last glow yet sheds a beautiful
tint over this grand scene. Lights begin to gleam along
the heights of Buda and the quay of Pest, and add live-
liness to the general effect. And now, the great piles
of the mighty suspension bridge across the Danube,
which, when finished, is to be one of the wonders of
Europe, are shot past with rapidity: the steamer cannon
is fired ; and the steam-boat sweeps up to the quay of
Pest."

Pest, however, we are told, in its wide streets and
neglected squares, has a vague resemblance to " that
dreariest and most soul-deadening of all would-be
grand cities—that showy but dull, magnificent but
shabby, new and yet seemingly half-ruined capital—
that still-born creation, galvanised into a false and
spectral life—St. Petersburg." These volumes, like
all reminiscences of travels, are naturally of a very
rambling and discursive character; and, besides, their
author is a professed "frineur," or lounger—and, as
he himself very truly says, " a confirmed ficineur
might be as easily bear-led from sight to sight, as a
butterfly dragged by a chain from flower to flower.''
Consequently he wanders hither and thither as his
fancy leads him, and if his letters are not free from
the imperfections to be met with in most works of
their class, they also contain sundry pieces of infor-
mation, and much matter of interest and amusement.
Following the course of the Danube, he gives us
some pictures of Turkey and Turkish life, as seen
"by the walls of high Belgrade." There is a very
interesting account of the vintage in Syrmia, and the
manufacture of Syrmian wines. Here is a description
of the manufacture of one almost unknown in this
country :

" The Syrmian ausbruch, the choicest and most valued
of all these wines—that which often obtains the prefer-
ence over the more generally celelsrated wine of Tokay
—is not to be produced every season; its fabrication can
only be expected in a very favourable year. It is made
then by a process peculiar to the richer Hungarian
wines. When the weather is especially dry and advan-
tageous, the fuller and richer grapes are allowed to re-
main upon the stalks until they are dried to raisins in
the sun; under less favourable circumstances they would
rot, not dry ; they are then only gathered in the late
season. These raisins are picked very carefully and
heaped together in tubs, bored below like sieves; and
heir oily juice is allowed to run off, pressed out by their
own weight alone. It would appear almost impossible,
at first, that any drinkable liquid should be extracted
from the thick liquor thus expressed from this sweet,
dry grape. By degrees, however, the particles settle to
the bottom of the tub into which it is conveyed; and the
pure wine is run off clear from the top.
" The wine thus obtained is never in a state to be
drunk until it has stood several years, some thirty or
more, I was told; and at that period the second deposit
made by this purified liquor is said to be sometimes so
great, on the sides as well as the bottom of its receptacle,
that, if the cask be broken, the wine will stand alone in
an inward-formed cask of its own leather. Whether
this story be apochryphal or not, the fact remains the
same, that after many years preservation, the result
produces that nectar of nectars, as it is called, the Syr-
mian ausbruch. This superior sort is called, par excel-
' lexce, the ' essence.' "

After quoting one most beautiful sentiment, we
must take leave of these instructive and interesting
volumes :

" Elevated views have always the effect of elevating
the spirits; at least I find it so. Generally speaking,
let those who are accustomed to clamour loudly over
their woes, go out into the great temple of Nature, and
into what insignificance will they feel their [sorrows
shrink : surrounded by the magncence of heaven and
earth, the wailing over every petty misfortune of life must
appear like the pain, cry of a child, amidst the choral
organs and devout aspirations of the pious in an immense
cathedral."