Herbert Russell is studying when they take place, we will give some fragments of a speech of the old gentleman touching monastic fraternities. He says,—

"The destruction of the Jesuits, who were accused of intermeddling in the operations of cabinets, admonished most other orders to occupy themselves solely in the management of their own affairs, and to expend their incomes without employing them, as of yore, in building, in agricultural improvements, or in the purchase of libraries; because such ostentation of wealth might, in our days, draw upon them government requisitions, or citations for forced loans; a species of contract which I judge to be unknown in your country, as being only possible in states where the government at one and the same time asks a loan and commands obedience. Never has the advantage been taken which these institutions might afford for the education of indigent youth; especially should the convents of nuns offer the most natural asylum for the reception of female orphans, and the daughters of the destitute poor. The Portugueze government, which, since the fall of the Marquez de Pombal, has united to its despotism a spirit of avarice and of profusion, considers the religious orders that possess established revenues, only as so many mines, whence to extract coin. **** It seems incredible how religious orders, whose basis is humility and the renunciation of human distinctions, should have taken the place of the Asiatic and African campaigns for maintaining amongst the Portugueze the spirit of distinctions of nobility. Our kings always distinguished the families to which bishops belonged, and upon them have fallen the rewards attached to important offices. I can assure you, that the honours borne by many families now in the class of nobility are due to reputations acquired by virtues practised in the silence of the cloister, and to learning cultivated in the seclusion of the cell. It is always useful that there should exist an open road by which the classes that do not belong to the nobility may lawfully aspire thereto.

To the want of such a road the speaker proceeds to ascribe the French Revolution, and the reader will, we doubt not, readily dispense with our translating the old gentleman's speculations upon foreign politics. As we think the writer has bestowed more pains upon the disquisitions of his own representative, we should gladly turn to the dialogues held in England, and complete this article in the lofty style of political discussion. But the selection of a proper extract does not prove easy. We have not room here to investigate the difficult question of whether John VI. or Pedro IV. be the monarch bound by the constitution of Portugal' to divide his two kingdoms between his children, and therefore we are unwilling to extract our author's eloquent declamation upon Dona Maria da Gloria's claims. The disquisition upon Pombal, the energetic minister of Joseph I., whose despotic measures have been yet more virulently censured than the patriotism of his views has been warmly eulogized, which we thought would answer our purpose, we find to be immode. rately long, and incapable of curtailment, without wholly destroying its peculiar character of discursive reasoning. We therefore abandon our ambitious designs, and shall content ourselves with offering a specimen of our author's descriptive powers.

"They (Albuquerque and his family) reached the quinta (villa or farm) upon the Douro just as the bustle was beginning which announced the approach of the great wine-fair at Regoa, whither, on that occasion, resort the greater part

of the landed proprietors, and of the labourers of the districts producing wine fit for exportation, and the merchants of Oporto. At no other period of the year do the banks of the Douro present to a stranger so much to admire. At this season the heat is not overpowering. Hardly may be found elsewhere such admirable views, or so many hills uninterruptedly covered with vines. Had there been as much skill and elegance as there was luxury and expense in the mode of constructing the dwellings, few European territories could contend with the banks of the Douro, either in magnificence of buildings, or in agricultural wealth, and the natural beauties, whereby these sites offer delicious abodes during most seasons of the year. Here, between mountains tapestried with vines, are cultivated orchards of exquisite fruits. Whilst by day, fig, pomegranate, and olive-trees, and thickets of fruit-bushes pleasingly variegate the hills, by night, the fragrance of the orange and its kindred trees, as the lime, the lemon, the citron, and other fruits with aromatic flowers, embalm the atmosphere from the moment the sun disappears, till on the following morning his rays dissipate the delightful freshness, preserved through the night by a dew, heavy in proportion to the vicinity of the river. *

"It is easy to estimate the influence of these sweets of life upon the manners of the inhabitants. Sociability is great; luxury in dress remarkable; the night is spent in sports, dances, and serenades of music, especially vocal. The ladies go to these parties, sometimes from distances of two or three leagues, led upon small ponies or mules, climbing roads opened by torrents of rain, not by the industry of man, descending precipices that fill them with awe and terror, for they do not familiarize themselves with these expeditions, though they brave the cold of early dawn, the noxious vapours of night, and often inclement showers. The priests of Esculapius denounce these excesses as the causes through which the thread of life of the nymphs of the Douro is so often shorn with cruel precociousness. ****

"Herbert was about to witness another peculiar scene upon the Douro, the Regoa wine-fair, and all thereunto pertaining. A train of cavaliers, with baggage, litters, and escorts of cavalry, appeared in the distance, recalling what travellers relate of the caravans of the merchants of Asia. Herbert hastened forward to see the entry of the Deputies of the Douro Wine Company. The deeply submissive gestures of the crowds waiting by the road side to salute them; a certain air of sovereignty in the aspect of these commercial kinglings, announcing them as the distributors of favours and punishers of any infraction of the immunities, prerogatives, and monopolies of their company; these are the first things that strike the disinterested spectator, the impartial observer of such scenes. This Regoa wine-fair is something more than a mercantile operation. Herbert, seeing such a display of power, and the civil magistracy with which the deputies of this trading company were invested, recollected the ancient merchants of Tyre, clothed in purple, &c. &c. &c.".

Of course, Herbert goes on to recollect first the Dutch, and then the English East India Company, to which thoughts we leave him, and, finding no further account of what the operations of the Regoa wine fair are, we were about to lay aside the Conto Moral and the pen together, when we were struck with a sense of remorse for our ingratitude to one of the very few foreigners who appear to have really studied and understood, and to appreciate English institutions, English liberty, and the English character. We have not room for a long extract, and think, of the few short ones we can find, the following, with which we shall conclude, is not the least gratifying.

"Every kind of labour by which riches can be honestly acquired is esteemed an

honourable occupation, because wealth, honestly obtained, is that which amongst this people gives real political importance. Fair conduct, independence, and polished manners, constitute the gentleman. Cleanliness, a certain elegance of dress suited to the age, a polite exterior, ever the offspring of good education, these signs are immediately recognized, and need no herald to proclaim the class to which he who is endowed with them belongs. Tailors, shoemakers, all whom he employs, acknowledge the gentleman. (The word is given in English and explained, rather than translated.) If we advert to the spirit of liberty and of independence actuating the lower classes in England, we cannot but wonder at the public consideration enjoyed by every person who fulfils the duties of a gentleman. When it is intended to crown the praise of many virtues honouring an individual, no other climax is sought than to say that he is a perfect gentleman. King George IV., at the height of his glory, was ambitious of nothing so much as the preservation of the distinction which his manners had earned him, of being the first gentleman of the nation whose chief he was born. * ** All aspire to merit this title, and the aspirants pay no small homage to virtue, since they enter upon the path of duties and obligations, especially with regard to the strict observance of promises, and both the being, and the passing for, men of honour. There is an illusion, a magic spell in the moral importance attached to the idea of a gentleman, which in England conduces to the preservation of good morals and manners, beyond what any legislation has ever been able to effect."

ART. XIII.-Sämmtliche Schriften von A. von Tromlitz. (Collected Works of A. von Tromlitz.) Dresden und Leipzig, 1829-1832. 24 vols. 18mo.

*

WITH the novels of countries where, as in France and, Germany, the press teems with works of fiction, it is not often our practice to trouble our readers. But we conceive that an author whose prolific brain yields twenty-four well-written volumes within the short space of four years, whatever be his native land, deserves to be generally known, at least by name. This, however, is not the only nor even the principal claim to notice of Herr von Tromlitz. Though we can scarcely perhaps call him a very skilful novelist, his twenty-four little volumes possess real merit, and for the most part take strong hold of the reader's fancy. His defects lie in the conduct of his stories, and in a scattering or diffusion of the interest amongst too many characters. His chief excellencies are, a singular talent for combining romantic interest with almost unprecedentedly close adherence to history, a just development of historical characters, a bold conception and felicitous exemplification of the influence of the circumstances and opinions of different eras upon the human mind, a vigorous and often dramatic embodying of incidents, and a powerful imagination, one fruit of which is the happy use of a slight touch of superstition, and occasionally even of the supernatural.

Tromlitz's novels and tales are for the most part historical, and by far the best are those founded upon the annals of Germany and Italy. Here he is at home, and complete master of his subject. When he

Since this article was written, six more volumes, which we have not yet had time to read, have reached us, raising the number to thirty.

wanders into other countries, his "art" is less prosperous; probably from less familiar acquaintance with the raw material, to wit, the superstitions, prejudices, feelings, and manners that are to be worked into the finished article; as, for instance, in the Lady of Mull, he betrays considerable ignorance of the peculiarities of Highland nature. His Jutta-by the way this is a Scandinavian, we believe, certainly not a Gaelic name-may be a very good German Witch, but she is no Highland Seer. Some of the short tales are modern, and these are decidedly the worst.

The first novel of the series we think one of the best. It is entitled Die Pappenheimer, (or the Pappenheimers,) which was the name borne by the regiments habitually constituting the division of the Imperial and Catholic army commanded by Count Pappenheim during the early part of the thirty years' war; and offers a lively and striking picture of the state of Germany during that disastrous period, which seems to be a favourite era with our author. Nor do we wonder at it. It would be difficult to select another equally rich in all that is valuable to the writer of fiction, so eminently combining marked variety of character and the violence of conflicting opinions and passions, with the capability of romantic adventure and the lingering remains of the superstitions of an earlier age.

But to return to Die Pappenheimer. It is no small proof of skill in Tromlitz that he has known how to awaken in his readers a real interest both for the bigoted, savage and cold-blooded Tilly, and for the equally bigoted, more ruthless, and recklessly licentious Pappenheim, or that he long holds us in doubt as to which of the hostile creeds he himself professes. We should much like to make some extracts from this production, but as we cannot afford many pages to Tromlitz and his whole four-and-twenty volumes, we deem it right to confine ourselves to one novel, and notwithstanding our liking for die Pappenheimer, we give the preference to the last of the set, Mutius Sforza. But before proceeding further, we must warn the reader against being bewildered, as we have ourselves been, by the recollection of the only Mutius with whom we are at all familiar, i. e. Mutius Scævola. The name of the first Sforza was Giacomuzzo Attendolo, Sforza being a nickname, or nom de guerre, given him for his great strength; and when the bold soldier's offspring became sovereign princes, flattery divided his Christian name into Giacomo Muzio, or Mutius, thereby satisfactorily proving the family's descent in a direct line from the Roman Mutius.

Mutius Sforza is a Neapolitan story of the fifteenth century, and is prefaced by a sketch of the calamities that befel the Angevine Kings of Naples, all of which our author regards as a just retribution upon the crimes of Charles of Anjou, his usurpation of the kingdom from the house of Hohenstauffen, and his judicial murder of the gallant boy Conradin, the last son of that heroic race. He thus considers the Angevine dynasty as in a manner predestined to crime and sorrow, and although this opinion be not referred to in the novel, it may serve as an illustration of the touch of superstition mentioned as one of his characteristics.

The novel presents us with that portion of the disturbed reign of the last Angevine sovereign of Naples, Joanna II., in which the able condottiere, whose name the tale bears, played a distinguished part, and adheres to history with the extraordinary fidelity of which we have already spoken. The development of Italian is often as successful as that of German characters. The author has been peculiarly happy in pourtraying the good-natured, but weak, and above all, tinder-hearted queen, and that far more remarkable personage, his hero. Sforza, who, born a peasant, raised himself by his abilities, political and military, to the rank of Lord High Constable of the Kingdom of Naples, and, dying at the age of fifty-three, bequeathed to his natural son wealth, reputation and troops, which, combined with hereditary talent, made him Duke of Milan, is described by the historian of Naples, Giannone, as naturally frank and very simple, (di natura aperto, e molto semplice,) and this strangely mixed character Tromlitz has wrought out with singular felicity. He exhibits to us the roughness, the blunt speech of the peasant, amidst the craft of the condottiere and the Italian statesman; an honest attachment to Joanna, in conjunction with a loyalty limited to the period for which he has hired himself and his bands; touches of strong and kindly affections, breaking through the hardness and selfishness of a soldier of fortune; and all so admirably adjusted and blended, that no one part offends us as inconsistent with the other.

The more skill was perhaps required to make us receive so uncommonly mingled a character as natural, because its gradual formation is not placed before our eyes, but it is first introduced to us in its full maturity. The novelist has taken for his subject the later years of his hero's life, presenting us with his struggles against the worthless and despotic favourites of Joanna; his efforts to emancipate that princess herself from the degrading thraldom to which her unbridled passions subjected her; his wars against her on behalf of her adopted son, Lewis of Anjou; and his death. All this is evidently not very romantic, still less, perhaps, novel-ish; nevertheless the narrative takes an almost irresistible hold of the reader, the interest excited being compounded of the different sympathies called forth by works of fiction and by biography. There are, indeed, love stories interspersed, and these severally interest but the interest of the work by no means hinges upon them; nay, we are not without a suspicion that they charm us less in the usual way of love stories, than as illustrations of the author's views of female character. The perfection of this he places so entirely in submissive resignation and enduring fortitude, that a small matter of tender frailty seems, in his opinion, to detract less from feminine excellence than any species of masculine energy. A few words concerning Sforza's illegitimate and long-neglected daughter, Margaritta, may give as much idea as we have room for, of these episodical, though thoroughly connected and interwoven love-tales and heroines.

us ;

At an early period of his soldier's life, Sforza had seduced Josepha, the daughter of his comrade Pietro, and refused the reparation of marriage; whereupon Pietro had prayed that the child of his daughter's shane might be the death of its guilty father. Sforza pursued his bril