Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1851-12-03

which contains 10000 volumes, they have
a Bible on parchment, which dates from
the ninth century. Americans are in the
habit of thinking that there is now more
liberty in France, since the Republic, thar
in some of its neighboring Kingdoms bu
in the kingdom of sa1i9ia there is more
liberty than in France. In the time Of
the last French revolution, the King
fearing the contagion Of republican opin
ions, granted the people a liberal constitu
ton, and thus saved his credit, because he
had the good sense to see that his fate
would be like the fate of Louis Philip un-
less he did. In Sardinia there are some
Republican journals Il at vHuld be suspen-
ded in the mock Republic of Fra "e, and
one sees books for sale in the vei f>w book
stores there are, that the censorship of
the French Republic would not permit to
be exposed for sale. In France, and all
the kingdoms and petty States of the con-
tinent, the theatre and the press are under
the supervision of censors, not for the sake
of public morals, but to prevent the Gis-
semination Of the republican sentiments
that labor to burst forth everywhere, and
break the chains that bind them In
France, it is common thing to suspend
the publication Of Republican journal
for a day or week, but Royalist or
Buonaparte journal is never molested.
During the month of September, three
Paris journals were arrested for rdiculing
the policy of the President, and the pub
fishers of them, as we'll as those who wrote
the Objectionable articles, were condemned
to nine months Imprisonment each, and
two or three hundred dollars fine. The
same happens in Sardinia, but not to the
same extent as in France, Austria, and
the other States of the continent.
On leaving Chamber, for Turin, one
passes the ruin Of an ancient city and cas-
tle Crowds of pilgrims come and encamp
there every Sth of October, to be cured of
diseases by the Virgin Mary, who, tradi-
ton says, once descended there. Ruins of
ancient forts are numerous here, on the
towers of which fires were built, to give
warning of invasion. This was the telegraph
of the middle ages, and this chain of old
castles and towers, extends far north and
south Tho s;ln Of the mountain which
faces Chamber, gave way in the year l24S,
and city, called Saint Andre, with seven
villages, were buried under the fallen mass
of rocks The traces of this catastrophe are
visible from the mounds and irregularity
of the soil, now covered with vineyards.
Montmelian is little city on the route, at
the junction Of four mountain roads and
four valleys. The castle of Montmelian
was long time the stronghold of Savoy,
on the side next France but in 1905,
Louis ". Of France, becoming master Of
it, demolished it. There exist yet some
fragments of the walls covered with briars
In coming out of this mountain city, We
cross the river Isere on high bridge,
from which we have a view Of Mount
Blanc.
At Alguebclle, the next town, the tray
elcr sees the ruins of church, and of
many houses, which were destroyed and
buried by an avalanche of snow, the Goth
of June, 1860 The tops of the noun.
tains are here covered with perpetual snow,
and we are among the central chain of the
Alps. 1t is somewhere near this village,
that the Allobroges gave battle to Hanni-
,al, the first battle in which he lost part
of the rear guard of his army. This place
is famous also for battle which the duke
Don Philip of Parma, at the head of the
French and Spaniards, had with the troops
of the King of Sardinia. In looking back
from Alguebelle towards Chamber, this
city seems placed at your feet you can
trace the road you have passed over and
the streams you have crossed, which look
like threads of silver in the vast landscape
On the spurs of the mountains you see the
ruins of ancient towers and castles which
formerly served for the defence of the
passes, underneath which may be seen
cultivated spets, hemmed in by enormous
masses of fallen rocks, that serve to prevent
the earth from washing away. This is the
region Of the high Alps. The mountains
are sleeper, and at every turn one sees
over his head enormous rocks that the
have detached from the mountain.
Fhe inhabitants, male and female, are
nearly all deformed with the goitrc, which
many attribute to the crude nature of the
snow water, the ordinary drink of the in
habitants. Others believe that the disease
is hereditory, or caused by the habits Of
the people. Among the Alps there is
another race Of people called the Cretons,
who, besides having the goitre, and being
otherwise de.ormed, are nearly all idiots