slow caution of the German drivers? At every little descent on the road, that would almost require a spirit-level to discern that it is a descent, he dismounts, and puts on his drag. On a road of the gentlest undulations, where a heavy English coach would go at the rate of ten English miles an hour, without drag or pause, up hill or down, he is continually alighting and putting on one or both drags, alighting and ascending with a patience and perseverance that amazes you. Nay, in many states, this caution is evinced also by the government, and is forced on the driver, particularly in Bavaria, Würtemberg, and Austria, by a post by the way-side, standing at the top of every little slope on the road, having painted on a board, a black and conspicuous drag, and announcing a fine, of commonly six florins (ten shillings), on any loaded-carriage which shall descend without the drag on. In every thing they are continually guarding against those accidents which result from hurry, or slightness of construction.

But this caution in other respects assumes a shape of apathy which is much at variance with their otherwise benevolent dispositions. No one can have been long in this country without having observed with astonishment the perfect nonchalance with which they will witness public accidents and outrages, without a soul moving from the spot, or shewing any anxiety to assist or rescue. Where in England hundreds would rush in a moment to help or save, in Germany, men stand only and wonder, or go by as if nothing were amiss. I should be sorry to be assaulted by robbers even in a city street, or to be upset in a boat, and be in danger of drowning, though scores of people were on the bank, for they would certainly stand and consider about it till it was too late. They think rather than act; and it was this, besides their country being divided into about as many petty states as there are days in the year, which gave Buonaparte such a decided chance against them. They stood in wonder to see him sweep through the country, and only thought of being up, and making an active resistance, when he was already master. An American gentleman gave us a curious example of this slowness of action, and in fact, introduced himself to us, on the occurrence of it. We were embarking on the Danube at Linz, for Vienna. The steamer had not been able to get up to Linz from the lowness of the

water. It lay at the distance of twenty English miles farther down, and we must be conveyed thither in a common Danube boat. The company had known this fact for three days, yet till the very morning not a stroke had been struck in order to put this boat in a fitting condition to carry down at least a hundred people, of all ranks, and in very wet weather. It had neither a cover from the rain, nor a seat to sit upon. These had to be hurried up at the last hour. As we went on board, they were still busy putting down the seats.

On the plank down which the passengers had to descend into the boat, moreover, stood up a couple of inches, a stout tenpenny nail. This nail caught the skirts of every lady that went down, tore several of them, and over it several gentlemen stumbled. The American was standing to see how long it would be before any one would conceive the idea that this nail must be knocked down. He said, he expected if they were all Germans, from what he had seen of them from a year's residence amongst them, it would go on to the very end of the chapter. And, in truth, so it appeared probable. One after another caught on the nail. Gown after gown went crash; but they were lifted off again, and the parties went forward. Gentlemen stumbled against the nail, and cursed it, and went on. At length Mrs. Howitt's gown caught, I disengaged it, and called to a man to bring his hammer, and knock it down. Though I said this in German, the American soon after came to me, and said, "Sir, excuse my freedom, but I know you are an Englishman." I asked him how he discovered that. He replied, "by the very simple fact of your having immediately ordered the driving down of that nail." And he then related what I have stated above. But I must give some instances in which this slowness amounts to a strange and culpable indifference.

One Sunday evening, as we sate in our house, we heard below the windows, a female cry out in great distress. The cry was repeated, and continued in a tone of the deepest lamentation and appeal. We threw open the windows. It was clear moonlight. We observed a fellow with a knife in his hand, who had hold of a young woman, and was using her very rudely and furiously. We called out to him, but he took no notice. Numbers of persons were coming along the opposite side of the road, but not a single

person stopped, nor seemed to regard the woman's cries, which became every moment more vehement and imploring. We shouted, "Will nobody help the girl?" There was no answer, all marched solemnly on. It was a circumstance which in England, on a public highway, and at the entrance of a city, would in a moment have assembled a crowd. The fellow would have been seized and well chastised on the spot, or handed over to the police. Indignant at the indifference of the people, I rushed down stairs, and out of the house. As I went on, three students passing at the time, said laughing, "See, he is going to this man!" and then stood smoking their pipes to see the issue. As I ran towards the fellow, our neighbours cried from their windows, "O! don't go there, sir! don't go there! The man is known for a great villain, and he has generally a knife in his hand.”

My indignation was only the greater. I ran on, when up came a troop of ruffians, the fellow's accomplices, with the fiercest threats, and flung themselves into a posture of defence, crying "Off! off! keep back at your peril!" The students hearing this, now turned back to my assistance, but none of them having any weapon of defence, and the rapscallions showering on us a tremendous volley of stones from the heaps by the way-side, we were obliged to flee for our lives into the house. Here all the women were in the greatest alarm, the cook saying, "O Sir! why would you risk your life in that way? They are desperate fellows, and they carry knives, and the woman is most likely a bad one." I replied I did not care if she was the worst creature on the earth. I would never hear a woman cry out so pitiously for help without trying to aid her. I insisted on going to the city with the three students for the police; but on opening the door, we found that the scoundrels had posted themselves in a strong body between us and the city gate, armed with sticks and stones, while the poor girl kept crying for help in God's name to all the passers-by, who marched solemnly on, without deigning to stop a moment or utter a word of expostulation.

There was but one chance, and that was to get out at a back window, and up through the wood to the city, in which way the rogues could not perceive us. But before we returned, the fellows were gone; and we learned that the girl, who had come out of a

dancing-room near to cool herself, had been pursued by these fellows, and had finally, probably through their alarm, made her escape from them again to it.

Through the whole affair the conduct of the passers-by was most disgraceful. They truly deserved the appellation of phlegmatic Germans, for the piercing cries of a woman in distress, which will excite even a savage, could not the least move them. Their habitual caution totally overcame their better impulses, so far as to lead them not to interfere. Yet these same people, though of the ordinary class of the citizens, would probably be ready in common. life, to render you any civility; or when thoroughly roused by any national, or other cause of high interest, be ready to sell their own lives for the preservation of the public and the social good.

Singing and drinking are the speediest means of exciting and causing them to throw off their habitual caution. A song will thrill through the heart of the whole empire like an electric stroke, and produce the most instantaneous and universal enthusiasm, as was evidenced by the new Rhine song, on the threat of invasion by the French in the autumn of 1840. Travelling once in the Black Forest, we had one of the most solemn and cautious of coachmen. He seemed as if he could as soon perpetrate a murder as a smile or a joke. He was perfectly tiresome with his everlasting putting on of his drags, and the slowness of his driving down the most insignificant descents. But, while we stopped in the Murg-Thal to dine, he had found what he called, "ein liebes gutes herz," a dear good heart. It was a gesell, or journeyman, who had been treating him to beer, on condition that he should allow him to have a seat with him on his box. Not being aware of these circumstances, though we saw that the coachman's face was unusually red, we granted the request he made for the youth, who appeared a very respectable one of his class, and much wearied. We had not proceeded far, however, before our coachman became very talkative. Said he had gone with many English families into Switzerland. That he had learned some English, which amounted to so much as this: "Dis is goot road. Goot fur die hosses, goot fur die cutchman. Viel promenade!" This he spoke continually, with much laughter, thinking "Viel promenade!" also was most excellent English.

From talking English he proceeded to ask our permission to sing. He said he had learned to yodle in Switzerland, and if we would allow him, he would yodle us some Swiss songs; for that when his heart was glad he must sing. It was evident that the man was well primed, for his whole manner and countenance was changed. He was full of smiles and nods; his face was like one of molten copper; the veins of his neck and temples seemed as if they would burst. But trusting to his German caution, we did not fear. We let him sing, and he sung most excellently, though with many nods and winks and quavering of his hand to his companion. He made his sonorous yodlings resound in these black pine woods; and even through the villages he did not cease. But we soon, to our alarm, observed that while flourishing with his right hand, his left, in which were the reins, insensibly drew the horses to that side of the road. I called to him, and bade him desist with his singing if he could not keep the middle of the way. He only turned round and said, "Ah, sir! when I overturn you tell me of it. I have driven on all sorts of roads these thirty years, and never yet had the spoke of a wheel broken." At this very moment we approached the edge of a precipice descending into one of those deep glens in the Black Forest out of which rise so gloriously the splendid stems of the silver fir, many of them two hundred feet high; and it seemed as if the man had resolved to shew us that he could drive to a hair, for to our horror, and spite of our loudest shouts to him, he whipped on his horses; they drew, under the guidance of his reins, to the very brink—the wheels entered a ditch, and the carriage went over! Luckily there was a wall of loose stones built on the margin of the precipice, and against this the carriage fell. The fear was that it should give way, and then we must all spin down together. We managed to burst open the carriage-door on the side next the road, and leaped out in safety. The man was sobered; but it was not so easy a matter to extricate the carriage; any plunging of the horses might yet throw down the wall, and the whole equipage go together. There were peasants at work in the field opposite and about us. They saw the accident, but they only stood to watch it, though there was one within twenty yards of us. We called loudly to them to come and assist us to lift out the carriage, but not a creature moved; nay, the man near