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Fall of the Rhine.

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fall. Here, in a wilderness of waves, we pice; and mills and huts are suspended saw throngs of currents shocking against over the waters; the seeming danger of or undermining each other; these joining which adds to the horror of the scene." and shot like battering-rams against the On the opposite side of the river is a crags; those again followed close by others pavilion on the Lauffen bank, that ap--and all with irresistible sway rapt down. pears, in that distance, of the exact size There is an ample reservoir formed and shape of a ship-lantern. From this by Nature for the waters after their de- pavilion there is a bird's-eye view of the scent; for their impetuosity carries them river. You see it after its descent sliding straight-forward, a great way, to a rock swiftly forward, brushing along the edges on which a tower stands. This divides of that whirlpool, and overtopping it at them in two one part recoils off to the the same time: it is diffused along it in left, and pursues its course-the other continued boughs that blossom the seapart is turned round to the right in a pro- green deeps with foam. The eye broods digious whirlpool, slowly but irresistibly with a pleasure that nothing can glut, on kept in motion by the column of water the rich and sparkling sea-green shuffled which darts for ever from the fall. This among the foam and smoke that balfwhirlpool would be fatal to any boat, for smother it; as well as on the globes and the upper current is drawn round again pyramids of mists spun up perpetually under the lesser falls: the force of which, from the smaller masses. In some parts equal to many pile-engines, jars the the water springs and bubbles up in jets, waves, so that in their re-action they rise from the smaller masses only; the main up, and beat against the shores at that one being hid ever in impenetrable part like a furious surf of the sea. In gloom.-The paintings, that one sees the mean while, as the reservoir is fresh commonly, do not express any thing of supplied, it communicates with the lower this; but still less the colours, whose channel by an under-current, and pursues freshness, to say nothing of their incesits way. sant shifting, surpasses any pencil. The

In front there is a view of the Rhine artist ordinarily confuses them together, for some way before, and for a conside- as if he had flung a sponge upon the picrable way after its fall, when it bends off ture from incapacity and despair; so in a sharp angle to the left by Lauffen- clumsily is it done.

Castle; and enters into a forest. Here, At first the waters, standing high above indeed, I saw Sir William Chambers's the precipice, lap over it, smooth as a fiction realized. "In one place a whole piece of blue marble. In a moment they river is precipitated from the summits are snatched down-then begin the veins into the valley beneath; where it foams of foam, over which, if the sun shines, is and whirls among rocks till it falls down dropped a rainbow. They do not in other precipices, and buries itself in the any part drop plumb down: but are gloom of impenetrable forests. In ano- fretted over an obliquely-winding precither place the waters burst out with vio- pice full of gulphs. And, at the very lence from many parts, spouting a great point where they begin to shelve down. number of cascades in different directions; they are divided by immense crags into which, through various impediments, at three principal masses (one of these maslast unite, and form one grand expanse ses is larger than the two others together— of water. Sometimes the view of the this next the Lauffen side.) The dividing cascade is in a great measure intercepted crags are covered on this side with moss by the branches which hang over it. and shrubs; they have evidently been Sometimes its passage is obstructed by reft asunder by the currents. They do trees, and heaps of enormous stones, that not stand in a line-and one has been seem to have been brought down by the hewn across, so that a transverse passage fury of the torrents. And frequently is afforded to a part of the stream. Anrough wooden-bridges are thrown from other of these crags has been bored thro' one rock to another over the steepest part and hollowed out, serving as a muzzle to of the cataract. Narrow wind ng paths a column of the torrent that bursts thro are carried along the edge of the preci- it like a cannon-ball.

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pendous scene we had just witnessed, our ears still ringing with the roar of waters, and our eyes still figuring them

So that there are several smaller mem- time be undermined and carried away. bers of the cataract, besides the three The Rhine, for some way below the fall, main ones; all together putting you in dashes upon a rocky bottom, and renders mind of Virgil's Folic cavern, through the navigation impossible for any kind of the crevices and doors of which, the vessel: the whole bottom indeed of the winds rush in every direction. But the river is rock as far as Schaffhausen." lodge (at the bottom of the Lauffen bank) After having mused upen it for a conis advanced out and held close to the siderable time, giving ourselves up to a principal cataract, which rushes by it like pleasing sensation of amazement and tera mountain-blast! flinging off eternal ror, we returned to Schaffhausen by a clouds, whose impetuosity, not yet spent, private path, along the bank of the river: bears them up a long time forward in the recalling to our imagination the stuair, in a deep-moving body. The eyes and ears are incapable of following any thing distinctly you pant for breath while the lodge beats and rocks violently in their thousand forms: just as the sento and fro under you. In a word, this ses, when strongly impressed with any fall is a combination of all the cascades object, retain the appearance of it, and and falls in Switzerland, and is well wor- hold it up to the mind, for a considerable thy of the time and fatigue it cost us of time after it is removed from view.-Gecoming a journey of four days to see it neral Outline of Swiss Landscapes. and nothing more. "It is probable," German papers state, that the fall of says Coxe, that the space between the the Rhine continues to excite admiration, banks was once a level rock, and consid- and to present a most magnificent scene. erably higher; that the river has insensi- The height of the river is at Schaffbly undermined those parts on which it hausen almost equal to that in 1770, broke with the most violence: for, with- when people traversed in boats the plain in the memory of several inhabitants of of Rorschach. In Appenzel, the this town, a large rock has given way, mountains are covered with snow at the which has greatly altered the scene. The season when the flocks usually cover the fall is diminished every year by the con- rich summer pastures. At Geneva, the tinual friction of so large and rapid a body waters of the Lake and of the Rhone of water; and there is no doubt that the have not been so high for these fifty we crags in the midst of the river wl in years.-Eur. Mag. Jan. 1817.

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FRENCH ANECDOTES, 1815-16.

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From the Monthly Magazine.

PROVINCIAL MANNERS.

ical light and natural barbarism; of the is ever matter of especial wonder softest humanity and every social feeling, among the generality of readers and and of the most revolting indifference enquirers, that such anomalous and even and savage hardness of heart; of the opposite accounts should be given of the most exalted and universal sense and same people, upon equal authority; but perception of political liberty and peradmiration is often a superficial thing, sonal independence, that have ever posand recourse to a certain ancient axiom sessed the heads and hearts of any peowill materially help to solve the difficul- ple, ancient or modern, amid the most ty-nothing is, but which also is not. debasing voluntary humiliation and vivid No country or people upon the face of affection for tyranny; of the most splenthe earth furnish a more apt exemplifi- did and effectual efforts in the cause of cation of this truth than France, the luxurious accommodation, and miseragrand theatre of ne-plussage, of ultra-ism, ble failure in the ordinary conveniences of extremes of every kind--of philosoph- of life as an attempt at some kind of Eng. Mag. Vol. IV.

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French Anecdotes, 1815-16.

FARM-HOUSES.

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finish to a picture yet incomplete, the and a breed of granivorous dogs. An French are scientifically the cleanliest, orphan bitch, rescued from the field of and, practically, among the nastiest, of Waterloo, has since produced a litter of all civilized people; and have had more milk without puppies; and has, at the genuine nonsense written concerning suggestion of nature, obviated the danger them, both in visits and revisits, than of inflammation, by sucking herself night any other; to the mass of which, I, at and day. any rate, shall make but a small addition. It is a hopeful scheme, no doubt, to The superior classes of the French form an estimate of the French morale, people not being particularly nice on the by the standard of English affection and score of lodging, much delicacy on that prejudice; and a fair comparative state- head cannot be expected among the orment of national demoralization (such is dinary inhabitants of the country; nor the modish phrase) in the aggregate, is that land of taste and refinement overmight occasion a strange and unlooked- laden with a scrupulous personal fastidifor discovery.

SHEEP.

ousness. The common farmhouses are mean and inconvenient hovels, having no Merino sheep seem not to have ex- upper-story, but a suite of four or five tended much to the northern departments rooms, with earth or brick-floors, like a of France, where the climate is said not range of stabling. It would be an Ento be favourable to them; their price, so glish or a Dutch idea, not a French, to high previously to the invasion of Spain, suppose these floors are ever washed. has since accommodated itself to the or- The stoves in common use, do not say dinary price of sheep. In the above much in favour of French skill in the departments, the sheep are of the long conveniences and comforts of life. When and coarse-woolled breed, are housed any article of cookery is to be placed every night, and fed upon straw and cut upon the fire, it is necessary as a prelimartificial grasses, green or dry. The inary, to take off the whole top of the mode of shepherding in France, where stove, when out rushes flame, smoke, and the whole country is open field, forms a ashes,as from a volcano,covering the whole curious instance of primitive simplicity room. The French generally contrive to and ingenuity, and, perhaps, of the su- croud all their beds into one room, each perior docility of the continental dog bed being placed in a close recess in the sheep are depastured in the lanes and wa-a description of lodging with ditches, and upon the partition banks, which they ought to have no asthmatic the flock being always attended by a patients. As a characteristic anecdote shepherd and three or four dogs; the of these children of Nature,-in the same duty to which these dogs have been es- room and adjoining beds, were lodged pecially trained is to prevent the sheep the father and mother, and twin sons of from straying out of their bounds, and five-and-twenty years of age. trespassing upon the corn; to this end, two dogs are stationed, one at each extremity of the boundary upon which the sheep feed, the dogs parading continually at a double quick march between the sheep and the corn, meeting each other half way, and never failing to seize the straying sheep.

The dress of these people is said to be very well represented upon the English stage; they have little variety in their habiliments, wearing no stockings but on holidays, when women, who have the means, put on a cotton gown and a cap full of large staring flowers, having be neath, a caul of pink glazed cotton to flash them. According to ancient French Of curiosities, to which I was before usage, young children are still bedizena stranger, I find the following-a breed ed in the adult fashion, female infants of tail-less fowls of beautiful plumage, being put into a burlesque full dress of the cocks of which are crowned with a gowns, caps, and aprons; but that which large and bright red turban. Another is far more to be regretted, the children breed of fowls which will not eat corn, are generally found rude and untaugh',

CURIOSITIES.

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and too often troublesome, spiteful, and cruel, as young demons.

[146 console myself, that the following cannot be a general specimen of the vulgar mind in France. My friend had a mare beating herself to pieces, under the tortures of the disease, vulgarly called the mad-staggers. Unable to endure the sight of such an extremity of animal

The diet of a French farm-house would be thought any thing rather than luxurious in an English one. Indeed of tea and coffee, the French will slop down their primitive throats, as a breakfast, a bouilli of cabbage and all kinds misery, he sent for a proper person to of vegetables, well larded with a large put a period to the poor creature's sufferdab of fat pork; and beyond that there ings, by cutting its throat. It was nearseems little variety in any other meal, ly night, and the man used a thousand fat pork being their standard flesh viand, plausible arguments for deferring the buonly that they are far more economical siness until the next morning; but what of it than we of this country. The wo were the astonishment and indignation men wearing no stays, and living chiefly of my friend to find, that the motive for on soup and a loose vegetable diet, their delay of this insensible hell-hound, was, form, as may be expected, is usually of the expectation that the mare would live a full Grecian size; and some of them until the morning, and that her skin are said to be as coarse and uncouth in would be taken off with less labour while their manners as in their persons. French she was yet hot! Thus the Spanish women, I find, characterized generally hunters in South America, according to -fascinating as angels, and artful as the writer of Anson's Voyage, suffer the devils; the wives holding an absolute cattle which they have noosed to perish dominion over their husbands, and hav. in agonies, which bursts the fleshy fibres ing very few ideas in common with the and loosens the hide. English ones, on the subject of decorum. The manners and language of the stage at Cambray, it is presumed, would not be tolerated, for a moment, at any play house in England.

INHUMANITY TO BRUTES.

FRENCH GRENADIERS.

Theophilus Malo Carres de la Tour d'Auvergne made the campaign of Savoy in 1792, at the head of the grenadiers of the regiment of Angoumois. In the army of the Western Pyrennees he comJustice towards brute animals, with manded all the companies of the grenacompassion and solicitude for the hap- diers who formed the advanced guard of piness of every living thing, being a vital the army, and this column, surnamed the part of the religion of me and mine, who, Infernal, generally gained the victory. sooth to say, are not overburdened with before the body of the army came up. the common-place and artificial kind, In 1793, he commanded a reconnoiter induced me to request a strict inquiry ing party; on a sudden they found theminto the treatment of animals in France. selves before 10,000 Spaniards; fearless, I had been accustomed to see much they instantly began a destructive fire, kindness in the French emigrants to- but, ammunition failing, he ordered them wards beasts; but a French writer on to cease firing and halt. Some instantly Egypt, whose name hangs at my pen's cried out, "He is an old royalist and will point, I recollected, gave a distressing betray us." "Soldiers," he instantly account of the unfeeling and barbarous exclaimed, “you know me, I am your usage of cats in his country: and Miss comrade and your friend, despise these Williams has denounced the torture of foolish cries, I will bring you off." He calves in France, inflicted by two-legged waited till the enemy came within pistolbeasts, who, unfortunately, have never shot, as they fancied he had surrendered; themselves experienced what it is to be he then ordered his men to fire and indragged for hours together in a cart, stantly charge; the Spaniards were disover a stoney and jolting road, with their persed, and several prisoners taken. Afheads hanging down. I regret to say, tor the affair they begged him to punish that the enquiry has not proved altogeth- the seditious; I neither know them, er favourable to the character of my old nor wish to know them," he exclaimed, Javourites, the French people; I yet this lesson will be a warning to them,

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Picturesque Survey of Water, Wood, and Mountain Scenery.

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they will be more docile and have more tired to Passy; but, the son of one of confidence another time." his friends being drawn as a conscript, The government informed of this, and (the son of M. Lebrigant,) he insisted several other heroic acts, gave him the on supplying his place, and as a private rank of colonel of another regiment. On grenadier carried his musket and knapreceiving it, he assembled the grena- sack, carefully concealing who he was. diers; "My comrades, (said he) I want On the 21st June, 1800, at the head of your advice and counsel:" they smiled, the 46th. demi-brigade of grenadiers, he "It is very true" (said he) “I have often charged the enemy on the hill of Obergiven you good advice, and I now ask hausen; and, rushing before the rest to it of you. The government has sent me cut down a Hhulan, who bore the colours, the brevet of a colonel, shall I accept it, another stabbed him through the heart. my lads, what think you?" Melancho- For three days the drums were covered ly sate on every countenance; at length with crape, and on the 1st Vendimiare one said, "Certainly, captain, for even a his sword of honour was suspended in higher rank is due to your merit; but the church of the Invalids, and the 46th pardon our tears, we shall lose our demi-brigade carry his heart in a little father!" "Then, my boys, you are leaden box, suspended to the colours satisfied with me?" "Satisfied is too of the regiment; and on every muster weak a word," was the reply." And his name is re-called in these terms→→→ I, too, my brave lads, I love you like La Tour d'Auvergne, mort au Champ my own children; I wanted to have d'Honneur.-Mon. Mag.] your opinion, I know it, I will send back my commission." "But, captain ," "Not a word, I will do it; you must all dine with me to-day." After the frugal dinner, "Now (said he) let us swear never to quit each other." The oath was repeated with the most tumultuous joy.

PROPORTION OF PARISIAN MORALITY.

The small Almanack of the Board of Longitude presents this year much additional interesting matter. Besides a short and curious treatise on Finances, it contains tables of population which may furnish matter for singular remark. That entitled Progress of the Population of He was modest as he was brave; the Paris during the year 1815, is a small first consul specially created the title treatise on morals; a balance-book of for him of first grenadier of the French morals for 1815, and gives a sketch of army. He alone was afflicted at the morality with a sort of mathematical event; the word "considering," in the precision. Of 22,612 children born brevet, shocked him. "I am only proud that year, 13,630 were born in wedlock, (said he) of serving my country; I care and 8,982 out of wedlock; which proves not a straw for praise or honours; and by simple arithmetical proportion that thus to be praised to my face, I don't morals are to corruption in the ratio of like it; this considering' will be the about 13 to 8, or that there are nearly torment of my life." two honest women for one loose one.

On the cessation of hostilities he re- Lit. Pan. Jan. 1817.

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PICTURESQUE SURVEY OF WATER, WOOD, AND MOUNTAIN SCENERY.

From the New Annual Register, continued.

ilics.

"T HE use,which the poets have made and renovation of great and ancient faniof trees, by way of illustration, are moral and-important.-Homer frequent- "Illustrations of this sort are frequent ly embellishes his subjects with referen- in the sacred writings. I am exalted ces to them, and no passage in the Iliad like a cedar in Libanus,' says the author is more beautiful than the one, where, in of Ecclesiastes, and as a cypress tree imitation of Musæus, be compares the upon the mountain of Hermon. I was falling of leaves and shrubs to the fa!! exalted like a palm tree in Engeddi, and

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