of baronial and knightly robbery which for ages existed there, have left deep traces in the moral constitution of the inhabitants; and throughout Germany the Germans themselves protest against the Rhine country being taken as exhibiting a fair specimen of German character. They hardly allow that the Rhine people are genuine Germans. The cities, moreover, are not first-rate cities in themselves. They do not offer the advantages of capitals, but they offer more than their expenses; they press upon you their social corruptions, more markedly and more nearly as they are more confined, with the addition of the greatest curse of social existence, the most rampant gossip, scandal, and personal interference of small towns,- that social pestilence which the Germans call Kleinstädterei, or Little-town-ism. The language in these towns is, too, to a certain degree, corrupt. Even Frankfort, one of the very best, most respectable, and most expensive of them all, has this fault in a high degree.

If, therefore, you seek economy, you must advance farther; for the highest degree of cheapness, into Bavaria. Even in Munich, with all its advantages of good society, splendid displays of ancient and modern art, excellent opera, and good university and schools, you will find houses, and the whole material of living, greatly cheaper than in those towns. But if you would choose such a city as Nüremberg, a city full of the picturesqueness and

the antiquity of art, a city still famous for its active spirit of trade, and for the richness of its handicraft productions, for its moral tone, and the cordiality of its inhabitants, you would be astonished at the extreme cheapness of every thing. A furnished house, which in a Rhine town would cost you 901. a year, would not cost you in Nüremberg more than 40%., or even one in every respect superior, more than the half, 451. Many men of note and stand, live there in good and roomy houses of from 67. to 101. a year rent. Living is on the same scale: the schools are excellent, and masters for music and modern languages, of first-rate accomplishment, are to be had at a most moderate rate. As Nüremberg may now be reached by steam up the Main from Frankfort, we may confidently calculate that in a short time it will become a great resort of English families, who are proposing an abode of some years for the education of their children, and seek at the same time, quiet, good, intelligent society, cheapness, and a pleasant country.

But where people wish to secure all possible advantages, including even cheapness and a charming country, these are to be found in the very capitals themselves. Where can people find more charming countries than those in the neighbourhood of Vienna or Dresden? In the one you have the hills of the Alpine range stretching from the city on to Baden, and quite away into Styria. You have these full of the most delicious retreats, or

scenes of rural gaiety. You have a rail-road to whirl you away to any of these scenes in a wonderfully short space of time, or you have the Danube inviting you with its daily steamers to trace it upward, amid its mountains and wild forests, its antique towns and villages, its old castles and hanging vineyards; or downward into Hungary, or to Constantinople itself. In the other you have the gladsome Elbe, inviting you to a three-hours' sail into its delightful Saxon Switzerland, or to the ancient splendours of Prague-villages and vineyards scattered in a smiling country around it, enough to lure away young hearts, or poetic ones, for many a joyous day's ramble. Either of these cities is as cheap as any Rhine town, and even much cheaper. And even if you obtain those two important benefits, economy and the enjoyment of a delightful country, what do you not in a capital obtain besides? The whole mass of advantages is on your side. You have whatever you seek-diversion, society, music, public spectacles, public gardens, operatic and theatric representations, schools, and teaching in every department, of the very highest quality. It must be recollected that a German capital is not like a London. It is in population but like one of our provincial towns; you can escape into the country in a few minutes on any side, and have besides such public gardens and walks as no English town has. It must be confessed, that those little but gay capitals are the very per

fection of the combination of life's pleasures and advantages. They have all the gaiety and charms of a capital, with the enduring freshness and suburban leafiness and retirement of a village. In point of amusement, you have all the highest class of amusements, those which at once blend the wonders and charms of art with the pleasures of rural life and the sweetness of nature, in the highest grade of excellence, and lying within so easy a reach both of person and purse. From your tea-table you may walk forth into the most charming gardens, where the first masters of Germany are giving public concerts, and where, to use our newspaper phrase, all the beauty, rank, and fashion of the capital are to be found. Your entrance-fee to this brilliant magic circle is four pence! and you may at the same time enjoy coffee or ices, or other such refreshments, on the same moderate scale. If you turn your steps in another direction, and prefer for the evening the gay circle of the theatre or the opera, to the lamp-hung trees and the happy-looking groups seated beneath them, at their tables covered with refreshments, coffee, or wine, you step into a bright and gay scene of social elegance, scenic and artistic brilliance. You listen to the grand compositions of Beethoven or Mozart, to the singing of Staudigl, Lutzer, or Schroeder Devrient, or to the comic humour of Schoultz, the Liston of Germany. You can enjoy all this for twenty pence, in the most fashionable part of the house, or can

for five pence, if you choose to stand in the aisles. If you prefer the private dance, or the private social circle, there you can find them in the highest rank of fashion, in the selectest gathering of literary and intellectual eminence. If the still selected circle of closer friendship be your choice, it is there that you can build this circle from a wide choice and a higher class of mind and accomplishment. If you prefer utter seclusion, the only place where you can enjoy this, independent of impertinent curiosity, is the capital. The means of education are opened before you here in the same abundant quantity and preeminent quality. What has the the provincial town to offer you in comparison? Every thing of a lower grade. The higher genius, the higher intelligence, the higher artistic excellence it does not possess. Its masters, its public walks, its galleries of art, are wanting, or are of an inferior order. But while it has not those to give you, what does it not force upon you that the capital frees you from? It forces on you actual increase of expense. You have not the same ample choice of house or lodging. The number of these in an ordinary German town is limited, and the habitual caution of the Germans will not allow them to increase the number at the risk of lowering the price. This caution is often carried so far as to keep away many families which would otherwise have settled there; but at the same time it has the effect of maintaining the rental at an extravagant