consequences, than the Reform Bill itself. Upon these, and many other subjects of a political and historical nature; upon public and private, noble and ignoble life, social manners, national virtues and vices; works, resources, and power; and, in short, upon every topic which attracted the notice of a singularly inquisitive, excursive, and sagacious genius, who for the first time traversed our richly varied and curious country, has Raumer turned his attention and employed his pen, in these Letters. And in so doing, he has displayed surpassing vivacity, ardour, and affection, along with profound knowledge, rare wisdom, and engaging candour-the fruits of well and extensively directed observation, and of admirably adapted mental powers.

We have not opened these volumes at any one page, and read a paragraph, without the conviction being forcibly conveyed, that the words came from a person of such accomplished authority, as to entitle him to the title of Oracle. Not that he can be said to be faultless, or devoid of prepossessions, such as he would have detected, had he remained in England as many years as he spent months; but the grounds of his opinions and criticisms are so honestly and clearly stated, and the spirit with which they are detailed so beautiful and kindly, that it seems the easiest, the most natural thing possible for him to dispose of abstruse doctrines, or such as have been perplexed by less skilful teachers; in short, to be like his meat and drink, to combine profound speculations, and arduous exertion, in sweet and charming style.

Instead, however, of attempting to characterise and describe the general tenour of our author's Letters, we shall present a few notices of his history, and afterwards a more copious selection of extracts than is our wont from the works of visiters and tourists; thus enabling our readers to arrive at a much more correct estimate of his genius, doctrines, and acquirements, than any laboured portraiture could offer.

From a memoir of Frederick Von Raumer, in the "Conversations Lexicon," we learn that he was born near Dessau, in 1781. His father was a person of some official eminence, and had the means and influence whereby the subject of the memoir in question obtained a University education-the study of law and economical science being the objects particularly contemplated, together with a practical knowledge of rural economy. From the year 1801 to 1811, he held certain situations under the Prussian government; in 1810 being employed in the office of the Minister of Finance. At this period, Prince Von Hardenberg, the Chancellor of State, not only entrusted him with the transaction of important business, but received him into his house, and admitted him to familiar intercourse. But the man of business passed into the man of letters for, while amid the former, he found time to make considerable ad

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vances in his favourite studies, viz. those of an historical nature, even giving lectures on history, he discovered that he must relinquish the one or the other pursuit to do justice to either. Accordingly, it is said, that he himself drew the Cabinet order, by which the king appointed him a professor at Breslau in 1811, where he devoted himself to science and his friends, until, in 1815, a journey to Venice served still more to convince him of the necessity of undertaking a longer tour in quest of historical information. And in the present work, he says, that when he gave up the career of public life, it was with the view of devoting himself to the science of history, but by no means to remain immovably fixed in one place, giving lectures; being convinced that this study requires a much more varied and abundant life, and that both men and events appear in a different and juster light, than if the inquirer should always sit in his chimney corner, live in one circle, or examine the most voluminous records from the pens of others.

In his journey to Venice, in 1815, the king gave him leave of absence, and furnished him with the means of travelling. He afterwards extended his excursions throughout Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France. He has more than once visited France, and was an eye-witness to the great catastrophe of the Three Days, in like manner as at a later date he has been an overlooker of less sanguinary, but perhaps more effective changes in England. It was in 1819 that he was called to Berlin as professor of political science, where, however, he has chiefly confined himself to historical lectures, at the same time cultivating those lighter and more graceful tastes which fit a man for society.

Raumer's writings are already numerous, among which are the "British System of Taxation," and "Illustrations of the History of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," which evinced, as regarded this country, a profound and antiquarian research into her annals. But he is something more than can be known from his writings alone, for his political life becomes their best commentary. He is described as having shewn himself pre-eminently to be a man of perfect independence; at one time his opposition to absolutism, and at another to liberalism, exposing him to many misconstructions and resentments, though the result has been that his vote, thrown into the scale of any party, now gives it a weight in Germany, and we may add throughout Europe-for his reputation is not less extended-which no partisan can bestow on any cause. Although he has at various times, and in different works, expressed himself strongly but with dignity regarding some of the measures of the Prussian government, still he enjoys the respect of all independent men, and of the whole nation. He is a man and a politician, a statesman and a lover of art. He is, we learn from the memoir, a member of the Academy of Sciences. In the Academy of Sing

ing he is regarded as the champion of classical music, and in the Court Theatre of Berlin, he is a councillor. Many of his letters in the work before us evince his taste and knowledge in these departments, equally with his discernment and research on more abstruse and weighty subjects. But the whole performance, as our extracts will immediately shew, are filled with a continuous and spontaneous outpouring of generous, elevated, and enlightened sentiments, in which political economy, legislation, social life, and private feelings, are beautifully, because naturally blended, but in which the freedom of literary correspondence never violates what is due to hospitality, or the confidence reposed in him by strangers.

The author's first letter from London is dated March 23rd; in which he shortly describes, in a felicitous manner, the objects that attracted his attention particularly in his approach to the metropolis up the Thames, and the emotions of his heart. His recollections of the progress "by which this happy island had for eighteen centuries been advancing to a pitch of elevation unmatched in the history of the world," with many individual points in its annals, we are told, came crowding upon him, and his whole journey seemed to be justified and rewarded by that single hour, because for years he had been at home in England, and had attuned the strings of his head and heart for the Æolian touch of external impressions, by solitary historic labour. The vessels swarmed around him like sea-birds, increasing and crowding till he was overcome by wonder and emotion, and forced to declare, by the time he had gained the docks, that anything of the kind he had ever seen at Havre, Bordeaux, or Marseilles, was like a single room cut out of this immeasurable palace; and that though Paris be more pre-eminently the Town, and Germany the Country, London alone is entitled to talk of being the World.

In such a mine of riches, and interesting variety as these volumes present, it is impossible for a reviewer to please himself in his endeavour to give the most effective or characteristic specimens. But there is this satisfaction, that it is equally impossible to pounce upon any thing that is tame or trashy. We may therefore set ourselves at ease as respects our selected specimens, only observing the principle of quoting something of what our sagacious and kindly German advances on a variety of topics of a public, as well as more restricted and less important nature. Accordingly, we give his outline and comparative view of London, in the earliest letter where the subject is handled.

"I cannot give you much information at present on other points, for today the delivery of my letters of introduction begins. As to the first impression made by the city, the houses, the shops, &c., I

can tell you much, and of a very favourable kind. Extent, circumference, quantity, are certainly by no means the measure of value or of excellence (either in cities,

or în art or science); but, in this instance, the quantity, which surpasses that of all other cities in Europe, or indeed in the world, is of itself in the highest degree remarkable and imposing. Add to this, that in, and with, the quantity of London, the quality also displays itself. Thus, for example, you perceive wealth growing out of the most varied and complicated activity, which demands and exercises both body and mind; you perceive the talent of acquiring and of enjoying; the security of property, widely diffused and deeply rooted amid these masses. Destruction and decline are indeed the lot of everything human; but oaks take root, grow, and endure somewhat differently from mushrooms. Does not Rome still stand, after thousands of years of decay?—was not her second life still more pregnant and powerful than her first? And what has not Paris withstood? whereas London has hardly known the touch of calamity. When our Radicals and our Conservatives prophecy England's decline with such easy confidence, because they have no other measure than the false one they take from France, an Englishman, nay, even I, may say, Stat mole sud; and may add the prayer, Esto perpetua!

"There are fools in all parties, but the genuine Tory is right in opposing the destruction of the Christian Church; and the genuine whig is right in affirming that it is not the mere reading of a liturgy which constitutes a Christian Church, but the careful training and instruction of youth. God grant that these opposite lines may at length produce the true diagonals of the forces, the just mean motion! I have no inclination to meddle with revolutions, but it is my hope and my faith, that mind is more than body, knowledge better than ignorance, civilization than barbarism, freedom than slavery. Would Britons change for the better by becoming Kalmucs and Bashkirs; by learning to acknowledge, not the Ruler of the Universe, but the knout, as their immediate sovereign and lord? People cant a great deal (even in England) about election by grace; but is it not the most profound and inexplicable of all mysteries-yet to be received with humility and gratitude-that man should be born endowed with all the powers and faculties of humanity; boru a Briton or German, and not a Kamschatkadale; born in our often-calumniated days, and not under the Seleucidæ, the Roman Emperors, in the time of the migrations of nations, of the Mongolian devastations, of the Thirty years' war? Nobody has a greater horror than I of the excrescences of the French and other revolutions; yet the truth of what I say is incontrovertible, in spite of all malcontents, whether saints or sinners.

"At the first glance Paris appears more brilliant, elegant, and attractive than London; but, on the other hand, that impression is to this, what the substitute is to the reality; what the tastefully and skilfully plated ware is to the noble metal in the ore. These dingy walls bespeak far greater riches; perhaps, too, an indifference to all the small expedients by which comparative poverty strives to diffuse an air of competence and of elegance around it by dint of care and ornament. In like manner the noise and bustle of the streets has a totally distinct character in London it is always the tumult and clamour of business; in Paris, the obtrusiveness and petulance of vanity; in Naples, the throng of idleness; in Berlin, at the utmost, the naughty boys: suum cuique."-vol. i, pp. 8-10.

Does not every Englishman's heart begin to glow and bound upon the reading of these paragraphs? and does not the hand and head of a master triumph in every sentence? Yet, without falter or fail, Raumer thus narrates, elucidates, and embellishes every matter of which he treats; filling the mind not merely with new ideas, and well-defined conceptions, but communicating to the reader something of the genius, the talent, and the manner of the author, by means of which the pupil may clear a way for himself. But whence has he derived all this light, and all these riches of mind and art? His answer is, that from his earliest youth his eyes have been directed towards the great stars of history, such as Alexander the Great, Charles V., William of Orange, and a Hohenstaufen emperor and pope, and that he has imbibed life from these and such like magnificent spirits, without being a morose and detracting censor, or a mere parasitic plant. Still, it is not every one that has such eyes as to discover what is great, or a capacity to appropriate its language and spirit. But to leave the contemplation of these magnificent landmarks of past time, and the manner of studying them, to the consideration of enlightened students of history, let us see what the author has to say of other brilliant subjects belonging to the present.

"Mrs. A- had the goodness to invite me to come to her at eleven o'clock in the evening, that she might take me to the Duke of D— -'s. This, therefore, was my first English rout.' For any one who knows the persons present, it must of course have a very different degree of interest from that which a stranger can feel. On the other hand, novelty has an interest of its own; and from this superficial but natural point of view, I shall tell you what struck me, though it is indeed but a repetition of what I have often heard. The rooms and decorations vast and magnificent; but such as are suitable for a man of vast fortune to possess for his whole life, without regard to little variations of fashion, changes of taste, and such-like French prettinesses. The space sufficient for the guests; but here, as elsewhere, excessive heat and crowding in the neighbourhood of the ball-room. Almost all the men were dressed in black coats and pantaloons, black or grey stockings, black or coloured waistcoats, black or white cravats. Nothing remarkable, or different from our usages.

"The women in general very simply and tastefully dressed; ornaments rich, but not overloaded, neck and shoulders bare. Some with long pendant locks, none à la Chinoise, or with forehead entirely bare; most of them with curls on both sides, as we see in their engravings. Hardly anything was danced but waltzes, for which the crowd of spectators left very little room. And now-how stands it with the main point-Beauty? The task of Paris, who, with his three goddesses, won his fame at so easy a rate, was a light one compared with that before me. Although very few men in London wear spectacles in company, I took heart, put on mine, and began my investigation like an experienced and severe connoisseur and amateur, as I am. But when I thought this was the most beautiful,