SECTION THE LAST.

"How like you the young German, the Duke of Saxony's nephew ?"

My travels and their object had now become so interesting, and had filled my mind with so much useful observation, that I protracted them to a considerable extent, and went over to the Continent in the pleasant pursuit. This opened a new world to me, and was made still more interesting by the contrast it enabled me to form between Englishmen and foreigners.

Shall I confess that, with all our boasted superiority in laws, in government, in commerce, in the spread of knowledge, arts, and manufactures; in the genius of some, the learning of others, and the independence and comfort of all; the balance of happiness, in my mind, was greatly in favour of the

people I visited. Without diving very deep into moral or political philosophy, to ascertain the cause of this would not be difficult. It lies altogether on the surface, like the happiness itself which I sought.

Thank God! have I often said, when I have seen a German peasant, with his wife, his pipe, his brown bread, and his sour krout, the picture of health and good-humour, notwithstanding mathematical demonstrations, by various apostles of liberty, that he ought to be the reverse; thank God! I have said, I see in this all the power of practical feeling over the whole array of theoretical reasoning. These people know nothing of Socrates or Cicero, or Jeremy Bentham, or the Edinburgh Review; nor even of the Penny Magazine, nor Reform; they are ignorant alike of Epicureans, or Stoics, Whigs, or Tories; they work for their bread, and get it; and their constitutional good nature does all the rest. Again, when I have seen the females of the same degree in the same country, with an erect look, and elastic tread, under burdens that would break the back of many a London footman, yet all the while giving a nod of good-will, and wishing their " guten morgen," and "guten tag's," to all their fellow-creatures, whether known to them or not; when universal cheerful

ness and alacrity, and desire to do good turns to strangers, as well as to one another, accompany the whole population, who at the same time are as orderly as good-natured ;—when I compare this with our growling countrymen at home, who even seek to be crammed with discontent by those who well know how to cram them-who shall say that the balance of comfort is with our vaunted England? Even in morals and obedience to the laws, on which we formerly used to plume ourselves, we are exceeded by these simpler Germans, among whom I never witnessed (in Nassau at least, to which I chiefly confine these observations), a street quarrel, a failure of respect to their superiors or to one another, a drunkard, a common prostitute, or a beggar.

But this is nothing to what prevails in the interior. More family happiness (if so much,) I never saw. Husbands and wives, parents and children*, relations, distant as well as near;-they seem always together, as forming the purest source

A mother's love for her infant children need scarcely be mentioned; but what struck me most in this respect, was the fondness and intense pleasure of a German father to his infants. It shone out in his eyes, and he seemed never tired of contributing to their amusement.

of their pleasures; and nothing so common in their daily walks, as to see them grouped as preferred companions. Nay, I have seen young married people dancing together at public balls! What would be said of them in London or Paris? Thus, I should say that not to enjoy conjugal felicity was to be out of fashion. But can I then omit also to say, that the most attractive example of these domestic virtues is to be found in the palace of the sovereign; where, from affability, accomplishments, good humour, and good sense, princes and princesses are, what they ought to be-models for the imitation of their subjects.

Political economists have sometimes made the clothing and taste in dress of the lower orders a test of the ease and comfort of a population. If this be so, these Germans are eminently fortunate, though under apparent poverty. The labour and industry of the lowest females is most extraordinary. They are emphatically of all work; hewers of wood, drawers of water, and diggers of earth; they seem above corporeal rest, or they find it only in the spinning-wheel. Their wages are a seeming nothing; yet all are decently, I had almost said tastefully clothed. There is even an air of something approaching to elegance in their figures, and

the light and well fitted jacket and petticoat which set them off. They are in general bien chaussé ; and, above all, the reeking horror of a black worsted stocking is unknown. Their drapery owes much also to a pleasing contrast of variegated colours (the rich crimson predominating,) in the apron and handkerchief, fancifully disposed. This is at once imposing and picturesque. But this is even exceeded by the form and decoration of the head, if the mere disposition of tresses, without the slightest covering, can be called decoration. The hair, however, is generally of the darkest hue, and in the commonest, lowest creature, in her dirtiest attire as to other points, is pinned or plaited, not merely with spruceness, but elegance, and invariably, in the very poorest, crowned with a high-backed tortoiseshell comb. This gives to their small and well-shaped heads the outline of a gem; and their figure, as they approach you from a distance, tall and well-proportioned, their water-pails on their heads, with one arm elevated to support them, and the other in a curve to the side, give really the idea of something Etruscan*.

*This is not too strong. Sir Walter, in Waverley, felt almost the same thing as to the Scotch peasants, even in so dirty a place as Tully Veolan. "Three or four village girls, returning