Hand-book for Northern Europe.-This is one of Mr. Murray's excellent series of guides, and it is far from being the least useful and the least interesting of them, though it will perhaps not for some time command attention from so large a number of readers, on account of the comparatively unvisited and less accessible routes to which it refers. It supplies every species of travelling information concerning Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Russia, besides affording a large mass of minute details touching the capitals of each of those important countries. It is enriched by many maps, one of which, the general one of Northern Europe, is printed on glazed linen—a plan of which we strenuously recommend the adoption in all maps appended to works of this nature. Jesse's Hampton Court.-We have still another guide to notice this month, and one which, in virtue of its pretty embellishments, and the local interest of its subject, will perhaps command more immediate popularity than either of those we have previously referred to. Nothing can be better in its way than Mr. Jesse's "Summer's Day at Hampton Court," as few things can be better in its way than the “summer's day" through which it so pleasantly leads us. The volume includes all that can be sought for in a work of this nature, including a catalogue raisonnée of all the pictures in the Hamptom Court gallery, and a brief but comprehensive historical sketch of what must be considered as one of the most truly interesting localities connected with English domestic as well as political history. Analysis of One Hundred Voyages, &c. By H. Wise. 1 vol.-This is, fin its way, a curious and valuable publication. Its object is to demonstrate the advantages to be derived, during the voyage to India, from Mr. Melville's new invention for the purpose of propelling vessels during calms; and one of the means by which it aims at this object is, an analysis of a hundred different actual voyages which have been performed at different periods, and the details of which are set forth with the view of showing the immense loss of time, and consequently of every other valuable consideration, which is caused by the average amount of calms experienced during the voyage. Navigators to India will find the volume highly useful and interesting; and to all others connected with naval enterprise it will be acceptable. Pretronj and Davenport's Dictionary. 2 vols.-This new dictionary of the Italian, French, and English languages, offers advantages that we do not remember to have met with in any other pocket dictionary of any language. The chief of these, and one which students have always felt the want of hitherto, is the introduction of the different persons and tenses of the irregular verbs, and the doubtful terminations of certain plurals. This dictionary is abridged from the large work (in 3 vols. 8vo) of the same editors; the only material difference being, that the portion commencing with the French, has been omitted. The present publication has evidently cost great labour and care, and the result will be found entirely satisfactory to students of the Italian and English languages respectively. Tegg's Handbook for Emigrants.-This is a singularly useful little volume for the class of persons to whom it addresses itself, and there can be little doubt that when it is fully known, few of them will even contemplate, much less undertake emigration without applying themselves carefully to its pregnant and comprehensive pages. It treats succinctly of every topic that can interest the emigrant, whether in posse or in esse, and whether before, during, or after the voyage, and its size and price bring it within the means of all. Letters from Germany and Belgium. By an Autumn Tourist. 1 vol.-These are pleasant and sensible letters, the result of the most pleasant and sensible step a man can take, who has no more peremptory calls on his attention during any given autumn of any given year-namely, that of becoming an "autumn tourist" in Germany and Belgium. We have no wish or reason to doubt the author when he states that these letters were written at "the request of friends;" for the simpler this kind of composition is, the better in every point of view, and especially in that which is the most important-namely, the reality of the impressions sought to be conveyed. As most of the letters have appeared in periodical works, we need only add that they form a pleasant volume, which makes no pretensions beyond those it is capable of maintaining. THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. FOREIGN MORALITY. BY THE EDITOR. ENGLAND is not the region of romance-young ladies say, moreover, that sentiment is no longer indigenous. Hence we presume the favour that foreigners find in their eyes. At all events England, although distinguished too frequently by the commission of horrid crimes-and latterly more so than usual-is a moral country. In fact, it may fairly, justly, and without an imputation of partiality on the part of the English writer who says so, be proclaimed the most moral country in Europe. M. Gayot de Pitival, in reporting the case of the condemnation. of "Charles I. by the English," makes some observations upon our national habits, manners, and customs as they exhibited themselves in his time (that of M. Gayot, not of King Charles), in 1742, which he prefaces by observing, "I have thought the reader would feel curious to know something of the manners of a nation to which is justly imputable such a proceeding as the condemnation and execution of their king." Here, in 1742, the writer speaks of us as some modern voyager would speak of a race inhabiting some newly-discovered island. Little did that excellent man, in the ardour of his loyalty and true devotion to the monarchy, think that in little more than half a century from the time when he felt bound to oblige his polished countrymen with "some particulars" of our savage race, their descendants would have entailed upon themselves a similar claim to distinction, and have followed the example which the "liberty boys" of England had set them nearly one hundred and fifty years before. M. Murat, the author whom M. Gayot quotes, says, that England is a country of liberty and independence, to which is owing, in a great degree, the good sense which so generally prevails in all classes of society, and which so remarkably distinguishes that country from any other. "The people," he writes, "are not imbued with any blind respect for the aristocracy." An English peer says, "I cannot be arrested for debt-but then I cannot get credit. Instead of swearing, in law, my affirmation upon my honour' is valid-but then few people believe me. A law exists protecting my order from abuse; yet there is nothing to prevent my being thumped black and blue by the first broadshouldered coalheaver whom I may happen to offend in the streets." Dec.-VOL. LVII. NO. CCXXVIII. 2 F "The English," says M. Murat, "are highly successful in the arts and sciences-they have amongst them able writers they consider themselves witty and wise they think deeply; but, generally speaking, they want delicacy and playfulness. Their clergy are idle, but their sermons are sensible and judicious-they mix commonly with fashionable society in their coffee-houses and assemblies. "The tradesmen disdain small profits, and live profusely-their workmen are excellent-their peasantry are less coarse and better informed than those of other countries—their women are all fair and white-they have handsome faces, to which nothing seems capable of affording animation-amongst a hundred fine women, there are not ten pretty ones. They are remarkably modest and sweetly timid; they blush and look down if the slightest indelicacy is even hinted at. They are tall and slender, but not symmetrical-they take no care of their teeth, and old or young cover their faces with patches. They are at first cold and reserved, but this wears off-their passions and feelings are strong, but by habit they are idle and acccustomed to do nothing. "The English possess great virtues and great faults—their good sense is disfigured by whims and peculiarities, and their imaginations resemble their own coals, which are strong rather than bright; they speak little, but all they say is full of sentiment. Their characters exhibit a curious mixture of carelessness and good sense-in good, as in ill, they always run into extremes. Every Englishman who chooses to be religious, has a religion of his own-many of them have none-Avarice is not an English vice-Their eating and drinking and their women cost them much. They prefer Comus to Cupid. They have a character for inconstancy-unequal marriages are common amongst them. There are many rich girls, who when they come into possession of their property, make a vow to marry the first man they meet in the streets; and they marry accordingly. They combine in themselves a variety of national attributes. They drink like Saxons, and hunt like Danes. Their trickery and bad faith they derive from the Normans. From the Romans they inherit their love of sanguinary exhibitions and a contempt for death. They are at once eminently charitable and exceedingly inhuman. As they fly to extremes in all things else, so at times they hate foreigners too much, and at others admire them excessively, with no better reason. 66 "Wine, women, and gaming constitute their pleasures. Wine they love, and women-but not such women as are worthiest to be beloved. They consider the power of drinking to excess a great merit, inasmuch as it enables them to continue their excesses the longer; and when they have carried those excesses to their full extent, they sally forth with a determination (equal to that of the rich girls to marry) to kill the first man they meet in the streets, and they kill accordingly. "The English women are remarkably susceptible-they make no disguise of their affections, and are capable of making great sacrifices for a lover-their sweetness of manner is rarely alloyed by finesse or coquetry-they are natural in conversation, and are not spoiled by the flattery of the men, who are not addicted to any idolatrous worship of their charms and attractions. "The Englishman seldom takes any trouble in his love affairs-dark men are preferred by the women to fair ones—but when they do fall in love, it is a very serious matter, and if crossed, madness and suicide are the results. "English women are totally indifferent to the infidelities of their husbands, and make no difficulty in associating with the objects of them. Both men and women kill themselves upon the slightest provocation, caused by evils which are irremediable-of this there are many examples. "The English are taciturn in society from an unwillingness to talk about nothing. "In England the law is administered so strictly by the letter,' that a man having married three wives, pleaded that he had not violated the statute, which provided that he should not marry two-and it became necessary to pass a new act of parliament to remedy this defect. * "The torture for the purpose of extorting confession is abolished in England, it being held there a barbarous invention to sacrifice innocent persons of weak constitution, in order to save culprits of superior bodily strength. "The inhabitants of London are not much accustomed to the light of the sun. A Spanish ambassador at the court of St. James's, during the reign of Queen Anne, in sending off a courier to Madrid, charged him specially to present his compliments to the orb of day.' It is six months,' added his excellency, since I have got sight of him."* "The English have entirely banished from their conversation all protracted compliments in which the heart has no share-in fact they have abolished all those civilities of manner which are so customary in France; misanthropy is the predominant natural character. The plain-spoken sincerity of the English knows no bounds, they abuse and defame each other without the least ceremony, and ridicule the follies of the greatest and gravest without the slightest reserve-no one is exempt from public censure. "The PEOPLE, as they are called, are guilty of the greatest imaginable inconsistencies-acting upon the most violent and contending influences, they will cheer a man to the very echo in the morning, whom they will at night drag to the scaffold. They delight in changes of ministers, and of measures-they like that every one should have his turn upon the stage of public life-a sameness would tire them. "A taste for sanguinary revolution is predominant in the English-it characterizes even their amusements; a bear-bait, or a boxing-match, in which the combatants knock each other to pieces, is a sight to which they flock in crowds, and they proportion their plaudits to the extent and severity of the wounds the fighters receive, and calculate the amount of their gratification by the quantity of blood they see shed. "In their theatres the same disposition manifests itself; their tragedies contain neither manners nor characters. One of their plays may be, perhaps, the history of thirty or forty years-histories more fabulous than those of our old romance-writers; all their heroines go mad, and There is another anecdote, similar to this on record, of much more recent date. When the Persian ambassador, some two or three and twenty years ago, was all the rage in London, Lady M. said to him one day, "Sir, I am told that you worship the sun in your country."-" True, madam," said his Excellency in his engaging broken English," and so would you here if you could ever see him." all their heroes are killed. When we add to these painful incidents a funeral procession, and a battle, we have arrived at the secret of the construction of English tragedies, which are praised and applauded to the very echo. "English comedies are more endurable-they are enlivened by a great variety of character, but debased by gross expressions and vulgar jokes, which delight the mob. "The English pass their lives in their coffee-houses; these abound in all varieties of ranks and conditions-there the newspapers circulate the last absurdities which have enlivened society. Nothing escapes the journalists, and the follies of the town, the day after their occurrence, are exposed to public laughter; while Reason revenged, delights in finding the fools of the beau monde unmasked, and handed over to the tender mercies' of the sensible portion of the community. "Amongst the sect called Quakers, women preach; and nothing is more common than to see a really pretty female deliver a sermon; but the tone of voice, the manner, the action, all render the exhibition truly ridiculous. "Elle s'anime et s'agite. Puis avec un air hypocrite Forçant sa voix, roulant ses yeux "Fanaticism burns more brilliantly in England than any where else in the world. Ignorant, illiterate, vulgar, stupid, and depraved people, without one single idea, or the remotest notion of truth or decency, believe themselves inspired; and accordingly hold forth to listening and admiring crowds, to whom their absurdities appear sensible and their folly reasonable." This is the opinion of our country and its inhabitants, manners, customs, &c., as delivered by M. Murat at the beginning of the last century the changes which have since taken place must be obvious, changes ordinarily speaking for the better. The patches are gone; the rich girls who ran out into the streets, and married the first man they met, have vanished, in company, perhaps, with the convivial gentlemen who habituated themselves to immolating, with equal playfulness and vivacity, the first man they encountered, after sallying forth from their taverns. The regulation of female teeth is considerably amended, and the amiability with which ladies made allowances for the foibles of their husbands, is at least put upon a better footing. What, however, is quite changed, is, as we started with saying, the "sentimentality" of society, of which, however incompatible its existence may appear with the manners and habits he describes, M. Murat speaks as peculiarly characteristic of English women. The picture, though old, is striking, because it so unquestionably breathes the spirit of ridicule and contempt with which our foreign friends have been, time out of mind, pleased to cover us, even when most friendly, and even at a time when the great object of their lives is to copy and imitate all the absurdities which they profess to laugh at and despise. We, on the contrary, have no such prejudices-the days are past when it was held that all Frenchmen were cowards-that one Englishman could beat six of them, and for all that was known to the contrary, |