of Rudolph, Count of Hapsburg, the princes of that house, after the acquisition of Austria, still retained their dominion over a considerable portion of Switzerland, which they ruled with much severity. In 1307, the Austrian governor, Geisler, in the wantonness of tyranny, set up a hat upon a pole in the market-place of Altorf, commanding every person that passed to do it reverence. William Tell, having repeatedly passed without uncovering his head to this symbol of despotism, was seized and ordered for execution, unless he should cleave with an arrow an apple placed on the head of his own son. Tell's wonderful skill as a marksman enabled him to split the apple without injuring the child; and being asked by the tyrant what he meant by a second arrow stuck in his belt, seeing he was to be allowed but one chance, whether he hit or failed -"To have shot you to the heart,” replied the intrepid Swiss, "if I had had the misfortune to kill my son." For this boldness of speech he was seized and taken on board the tyrant's galley, to be conveyed a prisoner to the castle: but watching an opportunity, when the vessel approached a ledge of rock, he leapt ashore, and taking his stand in a ravine where he knew the vessel must pass on her way to the castle, he took aim, and killed Geisler on the spot. His countrymen flew to arms to recover their independence ; and in a battle that ensued in 1315, at Montgarten, a narrow pass on the borders of Zug, 1400 Swiss defeated an Austrian army of 20,000 men, leaving 8000 dead on the field. In 1444, a band of 1600 Swiss made a gallant and effective stand in a church-yard at Basle, against an army of 20,000 French. In 1476, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was totally defeated by the Swiss at Morat, a small town in the north of Fribourg.

Geneva, famous for literature, was long the residence of Calvin, the Reformer. Basle, noted as the place where paper-making was invented, was for a long time more famous for printing than any other town in Europe. Lausanne is admired for the beauty of its situation, and the charms of its polished society. Berne is a neat town refreshed numerous fountains.

VIII-Italy.

ITALY, with its azure sky enchanting climate and delicious fruits, may be regarded as the fairest portion of Europe. Its matchless pieces of art, and the still existing monuments of its ancient greatness, give it an additional interest. Italy produced the people that conquered the world. Rome was founded 753, B.C., and, gradually extending her territory by the subjugation of the neighbouring states, became at length the capital of Italy. Overstepping the Alps, her eagles continued their career of conquest, and subdued the nations in every direction, until the dominion of Rome extended from the Euphrates to the Thames, and from Mount Atlas to the Danube. The firm edifice of the Roman Empire, the slow erection of centuries, remained long in its strength, continuing to lord it over the nations of the world for many hundreds of years; but it was at last shaken, and finally overthrown by hordes of northern barbarians. Rome was taken and plundered by Alaric, king of the Goths, in 410-by Attila, king of the Huns, in 447, and by Genseric, king of the Vandals, in 455; and the empire was at last finally overthrown by Odoacer, General of the Heruli, in 476.

After the demolition of her temporal power, Rome, by a new species of supremacy, continued her sway over the nations. The Bishop of Rome claimed to be the successor of St Peter, and the head of the Church upon earth; he assumed the title of Pope; the acquisition of territory gave him the power of a temporal prince, and in the dark ages he became formidable to the most powerful nations and monarchs of Christendom. He even assumed the right of bestowing royal power, and of freeing subjects from their oaths of allegiance to their sovereigns. In these usurpations no Pope stands more pre-eminent than the famous Hildebrand, or Gregory VII. The Reformation deprived the Pope of the greater portion of his power.

ROME, though no longer the mistress of the world, is still an object of wonder and veneration, both on account of its vast and splendid ruins, and of the many elegant

modern buildings which it contains. It stands on the river Tiber, and is the resort of thousands of foreigners. who are attracted thither by the fame of its ancient glory, and its present magnificence. The most entire of the ancient buildings is the Pantheon, a temple erected by Agrippa to all the gods, now a Christian Church. The Col osseum, an amphitheatre of gigantic proportions, calculated to contain 80,000 spectators, was begun by Vespasian, and finished by Titus. The Capitol still stands, but it is no longer that Capitol which the masters of the world ascended to return thanks to Jupiter the Thunderer. It contains a square or piazza, the work of Michael Angelo, in the midst of which stands the bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, the finest ancient equestrian statue in existence. The master-work of modern Rome is St Peter's, the largest Christian Church in the world, 730 feet in length, 520 in breadth, and 450 in height. The building was commenced in the year 1450, and finished in 1606, at an expense of ten millions sterling. Adjacent to St Peter's is the Pope's palace of the Vatican, which covers a larger surface than both the Tuileries and the Louvre. Its library contains 70,000 volumes, and 40,000 manuscripts, and the collection of paintings and sculpture is the finest and most extensive in the world. The Quirinal palace, the summer residence of the Pope, is also much admired for the magnificence of the interior, the fine view from it, and the beauty of the gardens.

VENICE. A number of fugitives from the fury of Attila, who ravaged the finest countries of Europe, about the middle of the fifth century, took refuge in the lagunes at the head of the Adriatic, and founded a city, that afterwards became the far-famed Venice. The lagunes are soon confounded with the sea, and Venice is seen rising out of the ocean, the element of her former wealth and grandeur. The powerful republic of Venice owed her. prosperity to commerce, the trade between India and Eu. rope being carried on by her merchants by way of Alexandria. The discovery of a passage to the East Indies round the Cape of Good Hope, by the Portuguese under De Gama, in 1497, gave a fatal blow to the prosperity of Venice. From that time her power began to decline; and

in 1814, Venice was annexed to the Austrian dominions in Italy.

This singular city, founded in 452, is built on 150 islands, which communicate by about 500 bridges. Most of the houses have a door opening upon a canal, and another communicating with the street, by means of which and the bridges, a person may visit any part of the city, either by land or water. The streets and canals are generally narrow, but the Great Canal is very broad, and meandering through the city, divides it into two parts. The place of St Mark, the finest in Venice, may bear a comparison with any other in Europe. Two columns formed of two single blocks of granite rise near the quay: they were brought from Constantinople, but appear to be of Egyptian workmanship-the one supports the statue of St Theodore, the other, the winged Lion of St Mark. On the east is the palace of the Doge, which has something of the Moorish style. Adjacent to this is the costly church of St Mark's, with five brazen gates surmounted by a gallery, in which are placed the four famous bronze horses, of exquisite workmanship. The history of these horses is rather remarkable. From Corinth or Athens they were sent to Rome, where they adorned the triumphal arch of Nero. From Rome they were removed to Constantinople, and placed in the Hippodrome, where they remained till that city was taken in the 13th century by the Venetians, who conveyed them to Venice. Bonaparte removed them to Paris, where they adorned` the triumphal pillar in the Place Vendome. They were restored to Venice, in 1815. The Rialto, also a noted place in Venice, is a bridge of marble over the Great Canal near the centre of the city.

NAPLES, the largest city in Italy, is situated on a spacious and beautiful bay. Behind the town frowns the dark-coloured Vesuvius, menacing the city with its destructive fires. The Lazzaroni of Naples, forming a large proportion of the population, are idle vagabonds, living on charity, or theft. Ice is an article of necessity in this warm climate, and it is a principal care of the government to see that the people have it at a cheap rate.

MILAN, the capital of Austrian Italy, is a large and

splendid city: it has been forty times besieged and taken, and four times destroyed. Mantua, built on an island in the middle of a marsh, is one of the strongest places in Europe. TURIN, the capital of Piedmont, has been called "a little city of palaces." Genoa, built on a vast semicircular tract of rocks and declivities, was once a flourishing republic, and is still an important sea-port. FLORENCE, the capital of Tuscany, is famous for its paintings and sculpture.

Italy and Germany owe their weakness in modern times, to the same origin-disunion. Upon the fall of the Roman empire, most of its provinces crumbled down into petty independent states, each of the barbarous chiefs seizing what he could in the general wreck. But whilst the nations around them combined in later times, into powerful monarchies, the states of Germany and Italy, still dismembered, retain their disunion and their weakness. The northern parts of Italy are portioned out amongst six independent sovereigns; the centre forms the States of the Church; whilst the southern part of the Peninsula, with the adjacent island, constitutes the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Beggars and banditti are the scourges of the whole country.

IX.-Germanic Confederation.

GERMANY, if united, might be one of the most powerful nations in Europe, but being broken up into a great number of independent sovereignties, it has not that influence among the European Powers, which its extent and population might otherwise command. The eastern German States on the Oder, and the Elbe, subject to the king of Prussia, and the western States on the Rhine, subject to the same power, with the secondary States on the Lower Elbe and the Weser interposed; the German States subject to the Emperor of Austria, with the secondary States of Saxony, Darmstad, Cassel, Nassau, and others, which extend from the Elbe to the Rhine; and, lastly, the still better determined region of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden, make up the Germanic Confederation.