FRANKFORT is said to derive its name from the Franks, who assembled there in the fifth century, when preparing to pass over into Gaul. It is one of the Hanse, or Free Towns of Germany, and constitutes a small republic, almost in the centre of the Germanic Confederation. It is the seat of the Germanic Diet, but it is to its extensive commerce that the town owes chiefly its importance and prosperity. The Two Frankfort fairs, in spring and autumn, bring together more than 1600 merchants from different parts of Europe. MUNICH, capital of Bavaria, has a fine gallery of pictures, and the most extensive antiquarian Museum in Germany. STUTGARD, capital of Wurtemberg, is situated on the Nesenbach, a few miles above its influx into the Neckar. CARLSRUHE, capital of Baden, is one of the most regularly built towns in Europe: all the streets diverge from the castle in straight lines, like the rays of a star. DRESDEN, capital of Saxony, the smallest kingdom in Europe, is one of the finest cities in Germany: the bridge over the Elbe consists of sixteen arches, and is 1420 feet in length. Leipsic is celebrated for its fairs, which are frequented by upwards of 2000 merchants. The annual commerce is estimated at L.3,000,000, that in books alone amounting to L.200,000. Hanover is situated on a sandy plain, on both sides of the river Leine.

X.-Belgium.

BELGIUM was a part of ancient Gaul. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it fell under the dominion of the powerful house of Burgundy, from which it passed by marriage to the House of Austria, about the commencement of the sixteenth century. At the division of the Austrian family into two branches, it became part of the immense possessions of the Spanish, or elder branch. It failed to acquire its liberty, when the seven more northerly provinces threw off the Spanish yoke, and remained part of the Spanish monarchy, till the war of the succes sion in the beginning of the eighteenth century, when at the peace of Utrecht, Belgium became part of the posses

sions of the German branch of the House of Austria. With that family it continued till conquered by the French in 1795, and with them it remained as part of the French empire, till the downfall of Napoleon's power in 1814. It was then annexed to Holland, but revolted in 1830, and is now a separate kingdom.

BRUSSELS was founded in the eighth century. Otho II. chose it for his residence, and it was successively that of the Dukes of Lorraine, the Dukes of Brabant, and the Austrian Governors. Joseph II. transformed its fortifications into a fine promenade. It has many fine build ings of various kinds of architecture, Spanish, Flemish, and Gothic; the principal is the Hotel de Ville in the centre of the town. The interior of the edifice is still in the same state of decoration as when Charles V. abdi-. cated the sovereignty. Brussels is celebrated for its manufactures of lace. Antwerp was once a great commercial city, containing 200,000 inhabitants, but fell into decay through the jealousy and opposition of the Dutch, so that it now contains only about one-third of its former population. Its cathedral is one of the finest Gothic buildings in Europe. Its magnificent harbour was the work of Napoleon. Ghent was once the capital of Flanders, and is still a considerable city: it was the birth-place of the Emperor Charles V., and also of the celebrated Duke of Lancaster, hence called John of Gaunt.

XI.-Holland.

THE most ancient accounts of Holland represent it as one extended swamp, alternately covered and relinquished by the advancing and retiring waters of the ocean. From the mouth of the Maese to the Helder, dykes or embankments have been erected, and are kept up at great expense, to prevent the encroachments of the sea. These dykes are generally about 30 feet high, and 70 feet broad at the bottom. It is believed that so early as the first century of the Christian era this great work was begun, and since that time there has been a contention between

the inhabitants and the ocean, which has ended, however, in placing in comparative safety a flat tract of country, which industry has brought to a high state of cultivation. At different times, indeed, the ocean has burst the barriers raised to control his waters, and, on such occasions, the effects have been disastrous in the extreme. The Zuyderzee was originally a lake, but in 1225 an inundation produced that gulf which now connects the Zuyderzee with the ocean. Dollart Bay was formed in 1277, by an inundation which swallowed up several villages. But the inundation of the 19th of November, 1421, was the most calamitous: seventy-two villages, and a population of about 100,000 persons were submerged. So flat is the country of Holland, that to those approaching by sea, the spires and trees appear to rise out of the water.

AMSTERDAM is a great commercial city, built entirely on piles. It stands on ninety Islands, which communicate by 280 bridges. The Town-house, the most splendid building in Holland, occupied eight years in building, and cost L.2,000,000. The bridge over the Amstel has 36 arches, and is 600 feet in length. Rotterdam is also a town of great trade, and like Amsterdam is traversed by canals, bordered with trees; so that the intermixture of houses, trees, and masts of ships, presents a strange and picturesque scene. The Hague, the royal residence, is one of the few towns in Holland where the soil is dry. and the air pure and healthy.

XII.-Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

THE three northern kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were anciently denominated Scandinavia: and the inhabitants of these countries, known in the early periods of modern European History by the general name of Normans, were for many centuries remarkable for their warlike and piratical enterprises, and for their fierce invasions of the southern countries of Europe. They founded two kingdoms in England-established themselves under Rollo on the coast of Normandy-peopled the Feroe Is

lands the Orkneys-Shetland-Iceland-and a part of Ireland; and even carried the terror of their arms as far as Spain, Italy, and Sicily.

Canute, the most illustrious of the Danish kings, accomplished the conquest of England in 1016, and conquered the whole of Norway in 1030. Canute died in 1036: England shook off the Danish yoke in 1042, and Norway soon afterwards followed the example. Valdemar the Great, Canute VI., and Valdemar II., extended the power of Denmark, by their conquests in the twelfth century. In 1388, the crowns of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, were united; Sweden chose its own King in 1448, but Norway continued attached to Denmark till 1814, when the congress of Vienna compelled its cession to their ally the king of Sweden. Previously to 1665, the crown of Denmark had been elective—since that period it has been hereditary.

COPENHAGEN, the capital of Denmark, is one of the finest cities in the north of Europe; and it owes its superiority in a great measure to three great fires, which, in the last century, consumed a large portion of the town, since rebuilt with much neatness and elegance.

Norway is a country of mountains, interspersed with romantic glens and fertile valleys: it abounds in forests of pine and fir-trees; and cataracts, precipices, and glaciers, give a character of grandeur to the scenery. Christiania, the capital, was founded by Christian IV. in 1624: it is regularly built, and has a considerable trade in timber. Drontheim, the former capital, is still a flourishing town.

The northern part of Sweden is an inclined plane sloping from the Norwegian mountains to the gulf of Bothnia. Lapland is dreary and barren, but the southern provinces contain some fertile tracts. Stockholm is beautifully situated, at the junction of Lake Maelar with an inlet of the Baltic. Many of the streets in the suburbs are mean and dirty, and the houses constructed of wood; but the central part of the town contains many magnificent buildings. Near the royal palace is a fine bronze statue of Gustavus III., raised on a pedestal of polished porphyry.

XIII.-Russia.

RUSSIA is a level country, abounding in vast forests and extensive steppes. Some of these steppes are level plains resembling deserts, others are savannahs waving with luxuriant grass.

The Nomade, or wandering tribes of barbarians, which, under the appellation of Scythians or Sarmatians, occupied the provinces of the present empire of Russia, were at an early period formidable to the civilized countries in their neighbourhood. Ruric, a Varangian chief, fixed the seat of government at Novgorod in 862, whence it was transferred by his son, Ighor, to Kiow. Moscow was built in 1147, and became the capital in 1296, Daniel, son of Alexander Newsky, having assumed the title of Grand Duke of Moscow, and founded the palace of the Kremlin in that city, in the year 1300. The Monguls had nearly annihilated the Russians in 1238, and after many wars with the Poles and Lithuanians, they found a new enemy in the Osmanli Turks, who had become their neighbours, and contested with them the possession of the Ukraine. Michael appears to have been the first who took the title of Czar in 1613; and Peter the Great, who succeeded to the throne in 1689, and laid the foundation of the present greatness of Russia, took the title of Emperor in 1721. The Russians conquered Siberia, about the middle of the sixteenth century.

ST PETERSBURG.-The modern capital of the Russian Empire is at no great distance from the polar deserts. The soil is barren and the climate is cold, but palaces and temples are built on fens and marshes; and merchant fleets, and naval squadrons, are seen from the neighbouring rocks. The Russian cabinet, enveloped in fogs, or covered with hoar frost, forms its political schemes, and extends its sway on the banks of the Danube, and the central regions of Asia. The heroism of Charles and Gustavus, of the Valdemars, and the Teutonic Knights, has passed away; and the Czar of Muscovy, issuing from his unknown forests, has seized the fruits of their enterprise, and, by successive encroachments on his neighbours, has erected the largest empire ever known in the world.