A HAND-BOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN SPAIN AND READERS | opening; these docile pupils naturally caught some of the lingo of the
AT HOME. 2 vols.

12mo. 17. 10s.

Two squab little volumes, much of which is printed in double columns, and certainly containing a mass of useful information, but undigested, and in the worst of all possible styles. The great object of the compiler, or the compilers, seems to be the cramming into two ugly volumes all they have ever read, seen, or heard of, the "ùpropos des bottes" occurring in almost every

page.

The work being thus encumbered with all sorts of irrelevant things, it is absolutely a labour to wade through it, and this feeling is not at all lessened by the wretched character of the type, which makes it more resemble a Sunday newspaper than a volume for the library. Those, however, who have patience and perseverance enough not to mind such obstacles, will find themselves repaid by many valuable notices of the country and cities, the natives and their manners, the antiquities, religion, with some legends, fine arts, literature, sports, and gastronomy, brief sketches of Spanish history. It has also travelling maps and a tolerably copious index, which considerably enhance the general value of the work, by giving the reader some chance of being able to fish out from this mare magnum the particular article which he may happen to stand in need of.

ing extract will, we think, sufficiently establish our two points of praise and censure the amusement namely inherent in the subjects themselves, and the wretched taste and style of the compiler.

art: it was necessary for them to have an esoteric language, in which
they might plot against the victims, who could not understand them,
even betore their faces; they accordingly either adopted gipsy terms
or attached new and technical meanings to old words, just as English
lawyers have done amongst us, especially in the Court of Chancery,
This is the real distinction between Germania slang and Rommaný
which, on the same principle, those who grow rich in it call Equity.
gipsy tongue. The former is based on metaphor and allegory, the
giving a new cant meaning to an old word. Colegio, for instance,

a college, means in slang a prison, because young boys are placed
and come out masters of arts, in lying, robbery, and murder. Ger-
among the most hardened culprits, in order to learn their profession,
mania, now a little Babel of itself, is a purely artificial tongue, formed
for specific purposes: Kommany is the corrupted remnant of a
All this slang must be used like garlic,
genuine Hindostanee idiom.
It is more prevalent and allowable in flashy
with great caution.
Even in Sevilla, the capital of Majera, it apper-
Andalucia than in any other province, and is the least allowable in
the grave Castiles.
tains more to the short fur-jacket, zamarra, than to the dress frock or
to the long-tailed coat, the fraje or the levita, which argue a corre-
The majo dress, like a mask, is
sponding decorum in conduct.

hoisting the signal of licence: whatever be the rank or sex of the

Next to the skill

·

wearer and the highest nobility do wear it occasionally-all classes claim a right of passing their requiebro. This is always done and borne with good humour and good breeding. The follow-required in talking well, is the judgment of being able to hold one's tongue-mas vale caller, que mal hablar. However, all Spaniards relax a little in Andalucía-dulce est desipere in loco; and it is so climate.' The best method of acquiring the Spanish language is to catching in that province that it must arise from the quality of the establish oneself in a good casa de pupilos, to avoid English society and conversation, to read Don Quixote through and aloud before a teacher, of a morning, and to be schooled by bright eyes and female The female tongues of an evening, for in Spain-my Lady Morgan to the contrary notwithstanding-man has his master and mistress too. society is easy and most agreeable. The fair sex prove better mistresses, and their lessons are more attended to by their pupils, than the inflections and irregular verbs of a snuffy tobaccose pedagogue, a bore, and a button-holder, majadero y botarata.”

"We cannot dismiss the subject of language without saying a few This prowords on the Germania, the peculiar slang of Andalucia. vince is the El Dorado of the contrabandista, the bull-fighter, the bandit, and the majo, who is the gay, fancy, flash, and national dandy; his dress, manner, and conversation are the admired of all admirers in the lower classes of Spaniards, with whom the traveller cannot help being thrown much in contact. Alfarache is a Moorish castle near Seville, from whence Guzman, the hero of the picaresque, or rogue's-march novels of Spain, set forth. The readers of Don Quixote (part i. 3) will remember that the education of all his good-for-nothing heroes was finished at the Potro of Cordova, the compas of Seville, the playa of San Lucar, los percheles de Malaga, and other Andalucian localities of bad fame; the picaresque style was introduced from Italy, in the reign of Charles V., by soldiers and gentlemen who, in the dearth of higher but prohibited themes, recorded the low life of Spanish vagabonds and gipsies. The language spoken by these Picaros, Picaroons, has been reduced into a system: it is called in Spain Germania Gerigonza, Xerga-whence our word jargon it is the argot of France, the gauner Sprache, the Rothwalch, of Germany, the gergo of the red condottieri of Italy. Regular dictionaries have been compiled, in order to make readers fully to relish the low humour This Germania was long confounded of the picaresque literature. with Rommany, the gibberish of gipsies, until set at rest for ever by our friend Borrow, whose interesting Account of the Gipsies in Spain' is well worthy of forming part of every traveller's library who contemplates any lengthened sojourn in Andalucia, where these picturesque vagabonds play a first fiddle.

This wandering people "The Rommany is of Eastern origin. were a low, Paria caste, something of the Thug sect in Hindostan, from whence they either emigrated or were expelled. An infinity of Sanscrit words, more or less corrupted, is to be found in the language of gipsies, in whatever part of the world they are now met with. The Spanish gipsy shows moreover decided physical marks of his

The eye is languid, full, and almost
Hindoo blood and beauty.
glazed, the hair black, the teeth white, and forehead low, the frame
In their moral qualities they are marked
slight but elegantly formed.
by sobriety and singular chastity; by an unbounded love of their own
sect, their own blood errate (they dislike the name of Gitano), and
by an unextinguishable Thug-like hatred of all not of their blood, by
a total absence of any religion whatever, and by pride, avarice, and
falsehood. When they first appeared in Europe no one would receive
or employ these reputed infidels. Suspicion and oppression are sure
receipts for making a rogue; accordingly, from want of honester
occupation, they took kindly to tinkering, horse-dealing, inn-keeping,
Indian juggling, fortune-telling, and tumbling, by hereditary descent.
They are ignorant and illiterate, have forgotten their origin, and
have corrupted their language. In Spain they have lost their original
grammar, and have adopted that of the country; their dialect is fast
disappearing. These Indian jugglers changed the nature of European

robbery; they substituted for brute violence, cheating, and tricks
upon travellers. This art, this legerdemain, as well as the names by
which it is expressed, hoax, hocus, jockey, are all shown by Mr. Bor.
row to be derived from pure gipsy words. This mode of overreaching
is comparatively modern, even among the moderns.
seem to have escaped the small-pox and horse-dealing. Now, as the
gipsies dealt in horses, which everywhere presents an inexhaustible
fund for doing the simple and gentle, other rogues saw and seized the

The ancients

MINSTREL-LOVE. From the German of Fouqué. 12mo.

78.

SANGER-LIEBE, though about one of the worst of Baron de la Motte Fouqué's novels, was translated many years ago into Indeed the new translator seems on many English, and the present version is anything but an improvement upon it. occasions to have been indebted to his predecessor, though he has not had the grace to acknowledge the obligation. Even the rendering of the title is a plagiarism, unless we are to suppose that of the many ways of translating the compound word Credat Judæus. Sänger-Liebe into English, he should by mere accident have stumbled on the same happy version.

THE LAW OF RAILWAYS. By L. Shelford. 12mo. 16s.

THIS is a complete digest of the law respecting railways, including the three Consolidation Acts of 1845, and the other General Acts. Notes are appended containing the substance of most of the reported cases upon railways and similar undertakings, and of many statutes affecting them, in addition to those which form the text.

MY MARINE MEMORANDUM BOOK. By Hargrave Jen-
17. 11s. 6d.
ning. 3 vols. Post 8vo.

THE first volume of the Memorandum Book is filled up with
a nautical novel, that opens in the isle of Cuba, follows the
hero across the ocean, with a naval fight by way of interlude,
and finally lands him safely in Devonshire, where he is married
to the heroine, after having escaped a night-attack from his
rival. It now turns out that it is this same rival, Farmer
Lockwood, who, in the hope of getting rid of one preferred to
himself, had by means of his Spanish agent in Cuba set the
pirates upon him in the homeward voyage, and who makes this
last effort to destroy him when ashore. The other two volumes
consist of short nautical yarns, all sufficiently amusing.
JACOB'S LADDER. By the Rev. G. Oliver, D.D. 12mo.

MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF KING GEORGE THE THIRD. | epistles, existing in print, may testify. Some being penned on board By Horace Walpole. Vols. 3 and 4. 8vo. 17. 8s. of ship were literal verification of Lord Dorset's ballad,—

fresh stock of credit wherewith to meet their constituents. Į and narrowed to a single case, when many more accusations were It may perhaps be said in their favour that as they bought their voters, they had a right to sell them again; and certainly a people, who are base and vile enough to sell themselves, have no very good grounds of complaint if their purchasers follow their example. But turn which way we will in this disastrous reign, all seem bad alike; Wilkes and his brother demagogues by their own actions almost justifying the Court in their attempts to put them down.

But we shall greatly err if we imagine that the despotism of the Court was regular or constant whatever might be its inclinations. The king was too dependent upon the aristocracy to be uniformly absolute, and his power ebbed and flowed much as they were united or disunited amongst themselves. To such a pitch did this arise at times, that with all the general eagerness for place and emolument it was often not easy to form a ministry. This is repeatedly the case, and so much so upon one occasion that the poor Duke of Grafton, unable to get a chancellor, or to fill up the many vacant places, declares" that his head turned, that he could not bear it, that he was determined to resign." We have seen something very like this in our own days.

Another great obstacle to the full possession of that power which the king so much coveted, was to be found in the rashness of his advisers, sometimes the result of overweening confidence, and at others of timidity. The very violence of their measures would not unfrequently defeat itself, as in the case of the printers, and it is only by looking at these facts that we shall understand how the daring libels of Junius escaped the punishment that by law at all events, was due to them. The Court, by the aid of their ready tool, the infamous Lord Mansfield, sought "to stifle the liberty of the press without authority of the law, and without any new restrictions made by the legislature. He had, indeed, affected an aggravation of the excess, for his innovations had given such an alarm, that scarce a jury would find the rankest satire libellous; and that indemnity encouraged the printers to go to the most envenomed and unwarrantable lengths."

stirring against him. The proceeding itself, Lord Camden said, was most irregular, and the substance of the paper deserving particular reprehension. He had considered the paper with the utmost care, but had found it unintelligible. That if taken in one sense of the words, he understood, and should agree to it: but there was another would pledge himself to the House to prove them illegal and unconstitutional; and therefore he must desire to put to his Lordship some

obvious to which the words were liable; and if taken in that sense, he

interrogatories.

"Lord Mansfield, with most abject soothings, paid the highest compliments to Lord Camden, and declared how much he had always courted his esteem; and therefore from his candoar had not expected that treatment. He professed he had studied the point more than any other in his life, and had consulted all the judges on it, except indeed his Lordship: but that he must object to being taken by surprise, cried Lord Chatham, starting up, "was there ever anything heard nor could he submit to answer interrogatories. "Interrogatories !" so extraordinary? is it taking that noble lord by surprise who has just declared that he has studied the point all his life, and has taken the opinions of all the judges on it? And of all mankind does it become that Lord to refuse interrogatories, who has so recently imprisoned a man [Brindley] for a year or two, for refusing to submit to them ?" But the point, he gave the noble Lord notice should be fathomed, and he would bring it to issue. However, he would give his Lordship time, and would let the matter sleep till after the holidays: but he insisted that Lord Camden's paper of interrogatories should be left with the clerk, as Lord Mansfield's had been; which the House could not refuse.

"The dismay and confusion of Lord Mansfield was obvious to the

whole audience; nor did one peer interpose a syllable in his behalf;

even the Court (whom he had been serving by wresting the law, and perverting it to the destruction of liberty, and his guilt in which practices was proclaimed by his dastard conscience) despised his pusillanimity and meanness; for to avert the indignation of the other side, he had declared in his speech that he was not attached to the Ministry, nor had any obligations to the King. Lord Frederick Campbell, his friend, but hurt at his wretched shuffling, told me, the persecution had been stirred up by Mansfield's own tool and associate Sir Fletcher Norton, who hoped it would drive him to give up the vast post of Chief Justice, to which Norton, despairing of the great Seal, flattered himself he should succeed.

"So much consciousness of guilt on Lord Mansfield's part, with so much inveteracy on Lord Chatham's, promised a scene worthy of the public attention. Will it be believed that not a word more was said on the subject, either when the Parliament reassembled after the holi

And why was this? why was the great Lord Chatham so lenient to the culprit? simply for this reason—he had a

Hitherto we have considered Walpole's work only as it is a narrative of the principal events of the reign of George the Third, but the most interesting portion is his pictures of individuals, many of whom have been handed down to us as something very little short of demigods, by other and more favour-days, or during the whole remainder of the session? " able painters. In the main, we see very little cause to differ from him; if he strips these gay birds of their plumage, it will be found for the most part, it was only borrowed plumage, conferred in the first instance by party prejudice, and continued "Cause against Sir William Pynsent's relation, which the Earl had by the natural disinclination of mankind to judge for them- brought by appeal before the House of Lords, and had by them selves. Much, for instance, that he says of Edmund Burke, is been referred to the judges; it came on before their Lordships for the undoubtedly true, and in looking at his philosophy, a subject judges to make their report. They were preparing to give their which Walpole leaves untouched, we sound at once the depths Mansfield arriving, said a new idea had struck him, and he was sure opinions, five on one side, and three on the other, when Lord and shallows of a mind that was much more characterised by he could reconcile the sentiments of all the judges. He stated his ingenuity, and a specious eloquence, than by truth. Take, for in-position (which is not to my purpose to detail), they pocketed their stance, his so much lauded essay on the Sublime and Beautiful; briefs and notes, said they were persuaded they should all return the very basis of it is a miserable fallacy; he tells us that terror of one opinion the next day, and retired. They did return, and is a principal source of the sublime; yet an adder, a nest of gave the cause for Lord Chatham, not without censure from the wasps, a mad bull, are all objects of terror, the feeling varying public on the two Lords, the one, as men thought, buying his indemin intensity according to the nerves of the beholder, but who nity by the sacrifice of another man's property; the other waivever considered them sublime? following out this principle, the ing justice due to the public to purchase the decision of a suit in ocean in a calm, the starry heavens, the mighty ruins of the his own favour." past, or the solemn stillness of a Gothic cathedral, are none of them sublime, since they do not produce terror. But is it not evident that POWER, either active or passive is the real source of the sublime?-that is to say the object producing this idea must either have power in itself as a tempestuous sea-or must bear the impress of it,- -as the starry sky, which awakens the ideas of the might and power of Him who created it.

In the next picture we have the oppressive yet cowardly Mansfield, and the great Chatham, for to the epithet great he was undoubtedly entitled, notwithstanding the wretched figure he cuts in the present story. Lord Mansfield, it seems, had taken the extraordinary measure of delivering to the clerk of the House of Lords a paper containing the determination made by himself and the four other judges of the King's Bench on Woodfall's demand of a new trial, which they had refused to grant, and the reasons for which refusal they had read as their decree in court. After a few unimportant remarks, no further notice was taken at the time, but on the next meeting of the House, Lord Camden

"Severely censured Lord Mansfield's conduct in delivering the paper, which, in fact, was universally condemned as timid, wanting dignity,

Not the least curious part of these reminiscences is to see innovations introduced with doubt, and amidst direful prognostics as to the consequences, all of which have taken such firm root in the present day as to be as much matter of right as the enjoyment of the common air, and which certainly have produced none of the ill effects prophesied. Thus Wilkes "canvassed for popularity by ordering the irons of criminals to be struck off during their trials"-the phrase is Walpole's. We do not well understand how a man could be a criminal while he was upon his trial; that is, while the fact of his criminality or innocence was undergoing a solemn investigation. Then he allowed all people to enter the court without paying, which, according to Walpole, created so much crowd and disturbance, that the magistrates were forced to interfere; acute as he was, he could not see that all this crowding arose only from the novelty of the enjoyment, and that it would infallibly wear off with time. Again, for a whole sessions, strangers, as the Commons are pleased to call their constituents, were excluded from both Houses, simply because the two had quarrelled with each other. What would the various reporters for the press and their respective masters think of such a measure now-a-days? Or what would be said

We men at sea do write;

But first would have you understand
How hard 'tis to indite."

MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF King George tHE THIRD. | epistles, existing in print, may testify. Some being penned on board By Horace Walpole. Vols. 3 and 4. 8vo. 17. 8s. of ship were literal verification of Lord Dorset's ballad,"To you, fair ladies, now on land WORKS of this kind, though seldom possessing much value in a literary point of view, are yet infinitely more useful than history, which may give facts, but is much too dignified to enter into the causes of them. In memoirs on the contrary we are let completely behind the curtain; we see the real characters, and at once comprehend the motives of the parts they have been playing. These advantages are greatly increased in the case of Walpole, who, if not honest by disposition, is yet kept very much so by his irresistible propensity to satire; provided a truth be disagreeable, he cannot help speaking it whether of friend or foe, and thus if on the one hand he lashes the king and his favourites, on the other he shows no mercy to the opposition, or to the demagogue Wilkes, and his friends the mob. Ample, as it seems, is the justice he deals out to all, and such a general picture does he present of weakness and depravity on the throne, in the senate, in the city, and amongst the great body of people, that it is

enough to make one sick of human nature.

To begin with the Court. The Princess Dowager, if accounts are to be believed, was living in criminal intimacy with Lord Bute. "It must, I think," says Walpole :

Grievous censure fell on his governor and preceptor, Mr. Legrand and Mr. Charles, and not less on the Princess herself, so totally had his the Duke of Gloucester till the age of twenty-one, and thence had education been neglected. He had been locked up with his brother, sallied into a life of brothels and drunkenness, whence the decency of the elder, and his early connection with Lady Waldegrave, preserved the Duke of Gloucester. The younger was pert, insolent, senseless, and not unwillingly brutal. So little care taken of a Prince of the Blood did but confirm the opinion of the public, that the plan of the Princess, Lord Bute, and the King had been to keep down and discredit the King's brothers as much as possible. The Duke of Cum. berland, at least, did not disappoint the scheme, as will hereafter appear. As a dozen years after it was evident that no greater care,

though with still more rigorous confinement, had been taken of the

morals and style of the Prince of Wales, who issued from that palace
of supposed purity, the Queen's house, as if he had been educated in
a night-cellar, it gave but too much ground for suspecting that, unde-
terred by what had happened to his brother, the jealousy of his heir
had not been less predominant in the King than it had been in the
neglect of his brothers."
A

"Appear evident, from the scope of the reign, that the Princess Dowager and Lord Bute had assumed the reins with a fixed intention of raising The nobles of the day were well worthy of the Monarch; the prerogative, which they called restoring it to its ancient lustre: Tory or Whig, in place or out of place, they all have one but nothing would have induced them to specify at what period of its object, money and office; the only difference between the two influence they would have been contented to have stopped. The line being that those who were out of place tried everything, of Hanover having been advanced to the throne by the forfeiture of however base, to get in, and those who were already in, were the Stuarts, could not have the confidence to demand all the Sower that had been claimed by that House from which they descended, just as little scrupulous in the means they employed to retain whose maxims they secretly revered, and whose want of abilities they what they had got. And yet with all this eagerness for office, inherited. King William had been too much controlled by his paror rather in consequence of it, there were times when it was liaments to serve them for a precedent; and the beginning of this very matter of no little difficulty to get a ministry together, so reign had been too servilely copied from the conclusion of Queen numerous were the demands to be satisfied and so bitter the Anne's, and too ingloriously to be fit for quotation, though the doc-private feuds to be reconciled. As an instance we shall give trines of her last Ministers were the rule on which the junto had a single scene from the faithful pages of Walpole. intended to act, and did act whenever they found themselves strong enough. But, as recent provocations govern the actions of men more than maxims, it was the conduct of the later Ministers of George the Second that first inspired the Princess of Wales and her husband, Prince Frederick, with desires of emancipating themselves from such pupilage. I am persuaded that she, her husband, and her son (if the latter at first had any plan) meditated humbling the aristocracy, rather than invading liberty. Yet is every increase of prerogative so fatal, and so sure are the people of being trampled upon in such contest, whether the Crown or the nobility get the better, that it was true patriotism to resist the attack, and the people were in the right not to consider the motives to the attempt, since in general questions the privileges of all the subjects are equally concerned."

In these doctrines they had brought up George III., and his mind was of the right sort to profit by such an education. It is thus that Walpole characterises him :

"By aiming at power which he did not dare to exert, he was forced to court the most servile, and buy dear the most worthless, never conceiving that the firmest authority is that founded on character, and on the respect paid to virtue. He bought temporary slaves, who had the power of manumitting themselves the moment they wished to be bought over again. He lost his dominions in America, his authority over Ireland, and all influence in Europe, by aiming at despotism in England; and exposed himself to more mortifications and humiliations than can happen to a quiet doge of Venice. Another feature in his character was, that he could seem to forgive any injury or insult when the offender could be of use to him; he never remembered any service when the performer could be of

none."

It was still worse with the rest of the royal family, their education being not only totally neglected, but means taken by the Princess Dowager to prevent them from knowing anything. Walpole's account would be incredible were it not confirmed by other authorities :

"During the absence of her Royal Highness, was decided, against her youngest son the Duke of Cumberland, the suit for adultery with a

young woman of quality, whom a good person," moderate beauty, no understanding, and excessive vanity had rendered too accessible to the attentions of a Prince of the Blood. Their letters were produced at the trial, and never was the public regaled with a collection of greater folly! Yet to the lady's honour be it said, that, bating a few oaths, which sounded more masculine than tender, the advantage in grammar, spelling, and style was all in her favour. His Royal Highness's diction and learning scarce exceeded that of a cabin boy, as those eloquent

"On the 20th, a meeting was held at the Duke of Newcastle's of Lord Rockingham, the Duke of Richmond and Dowdeswell, with Weymouth, and Rigby on the other. Newcastle himself, on one part; and of the Duke of Bedford, Lord The Duke of Bedford had

Lord Rockingham re

powers from Grenville to act for him, but did not seem to like Lord
asking what friends they wished to prefer, Rigby said, with his cavalier
Rockingham's taking on himself to name to places. On the latter
bluntness, "Take the Court Calendar and give them one, two, three
nothing on measures; Mr. Grenville would insist on the sovereignty
thousand pounds a-year." Bedford observed that they had said
of this country over America being asserted.
plied, he would never allow it to be a question whether he had given
up this country: he never had. The Duke insisted on a declaration.
The Duke of Richmond said, "We may as well demand one
would yield. However, though they could not agree on measures,
from you, that you never will disturb that country again." Neither
as the distribution of places was more the object of their thoughts
and of their meeting, they reverted to that topic. Lord Rocking-
ham named Mr. Conway; Bedford started; said, he had no notion
of Conway; had thought he was to return to the military line.
The Duke of Richmond said, it was true Mr. Conway did not
desire a civil place; did not know whether he would be persuaded
to accept one; but they were so bound to him for his resignation,
and thought him so able, they must insist. The Duke of Bed-
ford said, Conway was an officer sans tache, but not a minister sans
tache. Rigby said, not one of the present Cabinet should be saved.
Dowdeswell asked, "What! not one?"-"No"-" What! not
Charles Townsheud?" "Oh !" said Rigby, "that is different; be-
sides he has been in opposition." "So has Conway," said Dowdes-
well ; "he has voted twice against the Court, Townshend but
once." But," said Rigby, "Conway is Bute's man." "Pray,"
said Dowdeswell, is not Charles Townshend Bute's ?" "Ay,

...

but Conway is governed by his brother Hertford, who is Bute's."
Lady Aylesbury is a Scotch-woman."
"So is Charles Townshend by his brother, who is Bute's." "But
this dialogue the assembly fell to wrangle, and broke up quarrelling."
"So is Lady Dalkeith." From

When the ministry and the nobility were composed of men of this kind there can be little wonder that America was lost by infamous judges like Lord Mansfield, and the liberties of to us, an enormous national debt accumulated, juries gagged the nation flung down and trampled upon. What better could be expected? and the scene just quoted does not stand alone; the greater part of the two volumes are filled with little else, and the House of Commons was just as bad; they never paid the slightest attention to the interests of the nation till the near dissolution of Parliament compelled them to lay in a

THE WORLD SURVEYED IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. | being able to reach the summit. He therefore determined to
By W. D. Cooley. Vol. I. PARROT'S JOURNEY TO
fix the cross here, on a spot where it might be seen from
Erivan.
ARARAT. 8vo. 148.