oppression, Hungary grants some privileges and exemptions, of which even certain free nations cannot boast. A neat map of the author's route is prefixed to these volumes, and a portrait of Semlin III. ART. XV. Travels through France and Italy, and Part of Aus'rian French and Dutch Netherlands, during the Years 1745 and 1746. By the late Rev. ALBAN BUTLER; Author of the Lives of the Saints. 8vo. pp. 472. "THE letters from which the present publication is formed, were written by the Rev. Alban Butler, (the author of the Lives of the Saints) during his travels with the Honourable James and Thomas Talbot. "On the perusal of them, with a view to the present publication, it appeared that they were not intended for the press, but rather as outlines for a more perfect work, being in many parts little else than mere jottings, the meaning of which it was frequently difficult to decypher; they are therefore printed with considerable alterations, which are however principally confined to variations in the style, and to the deletion of a few unimportant paragraphs. To render obvious the meaning of the author has been the principal aim of the editor, without attempting to render the phraseology agreeable to the modern standard." On reading the title and advertisement of this volume, we took for granted that a posthumous work, apparently never intended for publication, describing a journey performed near fifty years ago, through that part of Europe which is the most visited, and therefore the best known, must possess some rare me rit or extraordinary information, to occasion its being committed to the press under such forbidding circumstances. We have therefore carefully perused the work before us, and can pronounce it to be sufficiently well written, in the style and manner of other travels of the same period, but containing no peculiar information, except concerning the religious foundations and sacred reliques of the towns through which the author passed. The changes that have since taken place in Flanders, France and Italy, render this volume of no sort of use to the modern traveller: its value must therefore depend on its being a faithful history of the ecclesiastical state of these countries at the time when Mr. Butler visited them. Of its merit in this respect we are not very good judges, neither can we ascertain what degree of interest will be excited by this kind of information in those who are of the Roman catholic communion; but we fear that the protestant reader will not derive from this volume either much amusement or edification. As a characteristic speci men of the work, we select the following extracts: "Here also is shewn the head of St. Magdalene in the gold case above described, which is enriched with great jewels. Before it is the statue of Ann of Britanny, queen of France, of enamelled gold, very beautiful, though small. She is praying upon her knees upon a pedestal, upon which are two angels supporting the case: this was the present of that queen. The head of the saint, and all its bones, are prodigiously large. It has in its aspect an extraordinary air of majesty, very agreeable. On the left side of the forehead is a piece of flesh uncorrupted, which they call the noli me tangere; and say it was preserved incorruptible, because our Saviour touched it with his finger when he bid Mary not touch him. But for this circumstance no good authority is alledged. Two facts at least regarding this flesh are however well attested. A person being desirous to cut off a small piece of it, to put in immediately on being cut, appeared red with a reliquary, the flesh which before was dry, fresh blood; as the verbal process, and the attestations of the physicians called to examine it, confirm. The second remarkable fact alluded to happened thus: The Chamre de Comptes, at Aix, (a sovereign court) has upon the death of the king a right to examine all relics, to ascertain whether they are in the same condition as upon the last king's death. Three of these counsellors, prepossessed with the notion that the above circumstance was a cheat, resolved to discover and abolish it. Accordingly, on the death of Lewis XIV. making use of their privilege, they went to St. Maximin's with surgeons and apothecaries from remote towns, suspecting those of the place. These they commanded to examine the piece of flesh even by cutting, and to employ the the bone. But all had no effect; the surstrongest menstruums to separate it from geons cried out, "A miracle!" And the three counsellors were seized with so great fear, that they immediately begged pardon of the prior and the religious, and by way of reparation, or amende honorable, drew up and subscribed a judicial attestation of what they had witnessed, and became the most zealous defenders of the truth of these relics; as two of these gentlemen, yet alive in Aix, still continue to declare themselves on all occasions." "Near it is a church called the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, built by St. Helena after she had discovered our Saviour's cross, and restored by Gregory III. and Cardinal Mendosa, when the title of the holy cross was found under the tribune of the holy altar, in a cavity in the wall. Constantine the Great bestowed on it great riches and costly ornaments, chalices, censers, &c. of pure gold, fully enumerated by Onuphrius: Four marble pillars support the tribune, and under the high altar lie the bodies of SS. Cæsarius and Anastasius, martyrs; and behind it, on the vault over the choir, is painted, in various pieces, the whole history of the invention of the holy cross, by Perugini: The paintings are very good and fresh, though old: It is forbidden to any woman to enter the subterraneous chapel, except on the day of the dedication of the church, the 20th of March. We are informed by an inscription, that under the pavement of this chapel is deposited earth brought by St. Helena from Jerusalem and Mount Calvary, and which lay prin under the cross, and was moistened with our Saviour's blood;—whence this church is called, in Jerusalem, as standing on earth brought from that city. At the altar of this chapel nobody can say mass but the pope, nor does he himself use that privilege oftener than once a year. In a tribune on the right hand, are shewn on Good Friday, the cipal relics kept here; which are, a vial of our Saviour's blood, the sponge by which vinegar was given him to drink; one of the brass nails with which he was crucified; three pieces of our Saviour's cross, with the title in three languages, which was put over his head, adorned with gold and jewels &c.; also some of the cross of the good thief." of the account of Italy at least is transWe are inclined to suspect, that part lated from some French work, from the repeated mention of the emperor Gallien, and the ecclesiastical historian Rufin. ART. XVI. Journal of a short Excursion among the Swiss Landscapes, made in the Summer of the Year 1794. 8vo. pp. 132. "Left Lausanne on Tuesday morning the twentieth of May, before five o'clock, on a tour that I had often wished to take, merely to see the face of the country-The morning calm and fine; all the opposite side of the lake washed or thick-plated with sun-beams -The pea-green pastures of Savoy, its woods like the tufted moss, and its rocks above with their dishevelled snows all swelled out to view, seeming to have advanced nearer this shore than during winter-Pleasing state of mind from the recollection of the walks I ha! taken here, the tea-parties at the Champde-l'air, the dances, &c. at Lausanne the last season." 64 uncommon. of our lives. Thus we are constantly remarking, or expecting some height, length, or breadth; some rare apminent destruction to itself, as well as to the pearance; something that terrifies, as of inbeings on it; or traces of this in past times. And if upon occasion it presents the image of Paradise here and there, it is only to heighten by contrast the surrounding chaos. To form an exact idea of it, you must suppose any country whatever, disjointed and broken to pieces by an earthquake; then suddenly thrown together again in a heapyou must then fancy this heap to have become in process of time coated over with trees, mosses, and verdure of all sorts; while cabins, single or in clusters, have been crumbled over it-that the rivers after several falls have gained a more level channel, and passing in their course through several wide and deep chasmis, have filled them up, composing thus so inany extensive lakes; such is the country we have been going over these seven or eight days past, and are to expect for as many days to come; those rivers just mentioned serving as a clew to guide us, in a most wonderful manner, through this labyrinth of nature. 66 In these regions the traveller sees (or thinks he sees) the utmost violence done to be imagined-Clouds sinking or groveling the component parts of landscape that can on the ground; while whole plains are shung up several hundred fathoms into the air-On the topmost pinnacle of these again, a lake weaves its ample web. Precipices cut abruptly down under market towns, with their massive churches upon them, which however stand unshaken, and fearing no harm. Pastures, with their herds and fiocks upon then, hung up like a map; and rivers stag gering along at a height, that we must call philosophy to explain how they could ascend there; often convulsed and half-strangled between two rocks-often at a cleft abandoning their brittle fluid to the void, through which it passes to the bottom, where it is shattered into a cloud of fragments. "Sometimes he sees, the reverse to the poet's image of a downward sky, reflected from a pool of water, an upward earth, not fictitious like the other, but with real shrubs, if not trees, stooping down from it; or he hears a noise like artillery, or like subterraneous winds or waters, and a mass comes down along the valley, to which forests of fir are reeds only, and houses or villages but cobwebs. as "The works of nature in sport giving awkward and rude likenesses of the works of man: as when rocks take the semblance of Castles with turreted towers, or of obelisks, winding-stairs, domes, corridors: or when stuck round with pines that rise perpendicular like so many parallel columns, order above order, the whole forming a sylvan amphitheatre; above our road rivulets dropt straight down into the deepest valleys, fathoming them like a plummet line. "Various soils crowded together, various elimates suddenly succeeding each other mixture of seasons; snows rising refreshed from the bosom of summer; and in the lap of bleakest ice aromatic herbs and glad strawberries brightning-and of a sudden the ground gives way, when a river in its full magnitude sinks down; nor is its course to be followed but by the ear long afterward; late rising of the sun, and early setting of it. "Insulated spots of verdure enveloped by rocks; (so many sweet kernels within their shells) putting him in mind of Philip Quarl's fruitful islands, sequestered far in the solitudes of the ocean, and destined to remain for ever untouched by man." The account of the baths at Loercherbaden was new to us. "I saw numbers of men, women, and even children, that had come a journey of some days, and were here at a heavy expence, doing penance for their high living, and want of exercise. They must sit in hot water for three weeks; whoever first has red pimples breaking out upon them, and in the greatest number, is considered as having first found grace with the divinity here. (But what a worship this, for children to be initiated into!) By way of strengthening the constancy of these Gentoos, there are little floating tables contrived, on which they are presented (but not in the manner that Tantalus was) with fruit, wine, coffee, novels, and whatever meats they like best. The coming to these baths is at last considered absolutely as a party of pleasure. I own I could not but think this a strange refinement in epicurism, to be thus hugging its sin in the very act of chastising itself." We have no volume that communicates so lively an idea of Swiss scenery as this hasty journal. The author is a blind admirer of Rousseau, and a very indifferent philosopher. ART. XVII. A Tour through several of the Midland and Western Departments of France, in the Months of June, July, August, and September, 1802. With Remarks on the Manners, Customs, and Agriculture of the Country. By the Rev. W. HUGHES. Illustrated by Engravings. 8vo. pp. 238. THE last war had occasioned so long an interruption of intercourse between France and England, that when the door of communication was opened between the two countries, many would pass through it on business, and more from curiosity. To visit France was to visit a new country: the manners and customs of the people, and the appearance of towns and villages, were so changed by the revolution, that every one was eager to amuse his friends; and many thought themselves qualified to amuse the public with an account of modern France. In consequence of this communicative disposition, the press has teemed with " Trips," and Excursions," and "Parties of Pleasure" to Paris: Mr. Hughes makes his appearance under the graver and more comprehensive title of a tourist, and as he tells us that he passed four months in the country, if our expectations, therefore, were too highly raised, the fault was his own for letting us into the secret. By the preface, however, we are opportunely prepared for a descent, for the author says honestly, that his work" is neither more nor less than a series of memorandums and reflections penned sometimes upon the road, sometimes at the inns upon it, and that it commonly partakes of pain and pleasure, of admiration and disgust, and is tinctured with the lassitude and feeble exhaustion of the weary days on which it was written." We are moreover informed that it was intended for the fugitive pages of a magazine; and when it was afterwards determined to bring it before the public in a more grave and ceremonious manner, the author would have corrected his plan and rendered the construction of his sentences less faulty, had not the immediate return to the continent which he contemplated, rendered it utterly impracticable. All that Mr. Hughes has noted down must have been the result of mere observation, for we suspect he is utterly ignorant of the French language, and of course one fertile source of information was dried up, namely, conversation with the inhabitants. Mr. Hughes is fond of introducing French words and phrases; and we may fairly suspect his utter ignorance of the language, when we find that he does not spell the commonest words correctly, and that different genders are jumbled together with whimsical confusion. Among a great many other instances of false spelling and false syntax, we remember, aubugiste for aubergiste, captaine for capitaine, bon bierre for bonne bierre, bon eau for bonne eau, &c. Nor is the English itself at all times so accurate as it doubt less would have been, had Mr. Hughes corrected it at his leisure. Our tourist landed at Dieppe, which is represented as the sink of filthiness and the picture of misery. From Dieppe he proceeds to Rouen, where he staid a month, and of course had every opportunity of examining the city with attention. The only thing worth delaying us here is the description of a very singular floating bridge over the Seine. It consists of several barges of great burden, which are first arched over, and paved with large stones of granite, then towed into a right line and moored side by side, with massy chains to retain them in their places. It follows from this inconvenient construction, that if a vessel is bound up the river, or to sea, one of these barges at least must be displaced to give her a passage: this is the work of many hours, it seems, and consequently is performed but at stated intervals! There was formerly a bridge of stone across the Seine at this place, which was swept away by the floating ice, and repaired and destroyed again; these circumstances occasioned the adoption of the present cumbrous machinery: it is said that the annual expence of repairing these barges, would be fully adequate to defray at least one-third of the expence of replacing the erection which has been carried away. There are some noble buildings at Rouen; the churches of Notre Dame and of St. Owen are mentioned as particularly fine: the city itself is filthy, and the streets narrow. The markets are spacious and well supplied. From Rouen Mr. Hughes proceeds to Caen thence to Sable and la Flêche, where ANN. REV. VOL. II. ; he learned some interesting revolutionary anecdotes, which are detailed at very ample length to the reader. Angers is situated just below the confluence of the Sarte and the Mayenne: it is on the borders of la Vendee, and became the theatre of a most dreadful drama. "For a considerable space of time, not less than 30,000 cartridges were daily distributed among the inhabitants, hemmed in brink of famine;-from the windows of on every side, and absolutely on the very their houses, from the ramparts on which from time to time they took their busy stations, they gazed on the fields which their own hands had sown, on the vineyards which they had pruned and cultivated, loaded with the richest abundance, and serving, like water to Tantalus, but to aggravate the pining misery which consumed them! One mournful morning being driven to desperation by their necessities, they rushed furiously out of their prison upon their besiegersalas! a few of them returned again ere long leaving behind them the slaughtered remains of no less than 800 fathers of families, to say nothing of the youths and unmarried men who fell also in this day's horrible carnage!the dreadful distress of the evening can only be conceived by those who have witnessed similar scenes! within, without-all was horror and consternation!-one mingled uproar of heartrending cries and lamentations, and of triumphant shouts from which the shuddering soul of humanity recoils, filled the air;unsated with blood in the field the victors pursued the flying multitudes to the gates, and deaf as adders to the cries and groans hewing them down with relentless cruelty, with which they begged for quarter-multitudes were of course cut off from retreat, and had nothing to do but seek for refuge in the fields, the vineyards, and the woods!" "Look, (says Mons. La P-) across the Loire on which we are now stand ing! for twenty leagues square there is not a field in which human blood has not been shed!-Not a town, not a village, not a cabin, not a roof has been spared!-In one undistinguished desolation all is laid low!" Sincerely do we hope that the British governnient may not have been so deeply guilty as is here insinuated: but the testimony of one of our own county justices proves, that we were not guiltless of the mean, disgraceful, and nefarious forgery of French assignats. (See cases at Nisi Prius, by Isaac 'Espinasse, Esq. page 389, Strongitharm versus Lukyn.) From Angers Mr. Hughes proceeds to Tours, thence to Orleans, and Paris. G It will be recollected, says he, that, at Orleans, the British name was tarnished with indelible disgrace by the infamous destruction of the female enthusiast, Joan of Arc, who, being taken prisoner, was burnt in the market-place, &c. Mr. H. is as unlucky in his history, as he is in his French: the maid of Orleans was executed in the market-place at Rouen. At Paris, "The first business in the morning, after the traveller has somewhat surmounted the fatigues of his journey, is to find out Mons. Perageux, in order to change his paper into aurum palpabile. This gentleman is presently found out on the Boulevards, living in a palace, the view of which carries a sort of presentiment to the heart of the squeezing which awaits the purse. Papers being produced, and the accustomed preambles gone through, Mr. P.'s representative asks you in what you will be paid-paper, silver, or gold? Not being as yet up to the tricks of the trade, you incautiously reply "in Louis." Well, in about five minutes, my gentleman having gone to another office for the cash, returns. "The course of Exchange is so and so against you (about five per cent.); and, as for the fouis, we purchase them for the accommodation of travellers; you have, therefore, to lose one per cent. more on this account." To crown the whole, having been feathered thus of six per cent. you withdraw with your precious pieces; but, no sooner do you present one of them for payment, than out comes the scales and weights; they are generally light, and you have the further satisfaction of losing from threepence to fourpence-hallpenny more upon most of them." And does Mr. Hughes mean to bring forward, seriously and deliberately, such a charge of extortion against M. Perrégaux? We know that this gentleman is one of the first bankers in Paris, both as to reputation and to rank: his house is the resort of all those English who carry him letters of recommendation: he has acquired their confidence, and stands high in their estimation. His table is open to them; there they are received with hospitality and elegance, and enjoy the pleasures of his agreeable and sagacious conversation: where he can be of service, his attention to them is unremitted, and his influence at the offices which respect foreigners is always ready to be exerted in their favour. The manners of M. Perrégaux are polished, his mind is cultivated, and his judgment is matured: we know that he is respected in London, in Paris, and in several different departments of France, where he has connections. If Mr. Hughes asserts that he has himself been cheated by M. Perrégaux, we certainly are not prepared to contradict the fact, but we should be deficient in justice not to avow that we have several times exchanged the circular notes of Sir Robert Herries, for louis d'ors and six-livre pieces, at the bank of Mr. P.; that he never charged us one sous per cent. for the accommodation of louis; and that so far from his six and twelve livre pieces being generally deficient in weight, a single instance of such deficiency does not occur to our remembrance. Mr. Hughes leaves the task of describing the public buildings, the libraries, the galleries, the museums, &c. te others; and confines himself to a description of the filthy manners of the inhabitants. He seems to have been particularly struck with the indelicacies of the Parisians, and has related them with such careful minuteness, as to give no very high idea of the refinement of his own taste. We have remarked that Mr. H.'s descriptions are generally extravagant; he labours to be very droll and humorous, and occasionally succeeds in raising a laugh: but it is not unfrequently at his own expence. With some common-place remarks on the French hierarchy under the old regime, and a sort of comparison between the state of agriculture in France and England, evincing no extraordinary knowledge of the subject, this volume is brought to a conclusion. It is altogether a pert uninstructive performance: the style of it is very familiar and very vulgar. ART. XVIII. A Rough Sketch of Modern Paris; or Letters on Society, Public Curiosities and Amusements in that Capital, written during the last two Months of 1801, and the first five of 1802. 8vo. pp. 319. AFTER having accompanied Mr. Hughes in a barren, uninteresting tour, we feel quite revived at being introduced to the society of a gentleman whose taste is cultivated, whose mind is inquisitive, and who communicates the information he has acquired in an easy, graceful manner. The first objects of curiosity to which a man of taste directs his steps, after his |