affluent circumstances; but few condescend to resort to commerce; preferring, in the true chivalrous spirit of their ancestors, the profession of arms, and entering into foreign military service rather than degrade their hereditary rank by mercenary occupations. There is something noble and respectable in this sort of feeling which induces men to submit to personal privations and sacrifices from what they conceive a point of honour to their families and themselves. Aristocracy at Berne is, in fact, the stern ancient warrior's feeling, full of pride and patriotism, but in no way sullied by pomp or fastidious luxury, or frittered away by foppery and fashion. The simplicity of life in all ranks is most remarkable. All the town, from the Avoyer downwards, dine from twelve to two. No carriages or equipages, or laced liveries, are to be seen. Except one of the Spanish Minister, I never saw a coach in the streets of Berne. The first dignitaries and nobles are to be seen driving themselves in a humble char-dbanc with one horse. The "Persicos apparatus" of the table are not attempted, and a man servant is a rarity even in the best houses. Society was described to us by the Bernese themselves (for we were at Berne in the heat of summer, when "the season" was quite at an end) as rather of a stiff old-fashioned character. The coteries are divided strictly according to ages-the old, the middle-aged, and the young, form entirely distinct parties, and rarely mingle together. Till a certain age, a young lady or gentleman belongs to the youthful squadron -at a precise period they quit this and enter into the next division. At the casino to which we were introduced, the same regulation prevails there is the young men's room, and the elderly gentlemen's room-they can by no means read the papers or play billiards in the same apartment. Various other etiquettes of the same sort prevail in the best society. If a husband and wife go to the same party, they cannot possibly go together; the wives go about an hour beforehand, and then the husbands appear. Swiss society does not appear, in general, to afford very brilliant resources of conversation, or the graces of court breeding; but, when you stand in a circle of Swiss gentlemen, their plain and simple manners and appearance vouch for the manly strength and virtues of their character: you feel that you are among honest men and gentlemen in feelings and in birth. Their conversation is that of agricultural gentlemen-the patricians of a pastoral state: the vintage, the crops, the barometer, the foreign news, are discussed with unpretending good sense; then a rubber at whist is resorted to; and waltzing is the never-failing resource of the young people. Politics are naturally enough rather a sore subject at Berne; the wounds of the Revolution were too deep, and are still too fresh, not to smart on touching. At Berne these are naturally felt with peculiar acuteness. In one day the glory and pride of three centuries were tarnished. On the 5th of March, 1798, Berne was entered by French troops. This stern oligarchy, which had been the fulcrum and shield of the Swiss Confederation for centuries, preserving neutrality and peace to Switzerland, and ruling its subjects with a paternal and tranquil authority, was broken and overthown with insult. Its treasure, to the immense amount of fifteen millions of francs, was pillaged; its venerable dignitaries insulted-its brave defenders slaughtered-its arsenal, with 40,000 stand of arms, plundered-and even the antique armour of the warlike forefathers of the state carried off by a rapacious soldiery. It is now, indeed, restored to peace and to much of its ancient condition; but its treasure, accumulated by the frugality and honesty of its rulers for centuries, has been squandered by the French armies-its armoury is despoiled-it has lost two of its fairest provinces, the Pays de Vaud and Argovie-the charm of long unbroken peace and security is dispelled; and what is, perhaps, as disagreeable as all to the upper ranks, the frame of its venerable institutions has been shaken, and their pure aristocracy compelled to endure a coalition with some democratic elements. Before the Revolution the eligibility to all offices was vested in 236 ancient families, among whom about seventy, in fact, monopolized all honour and consequence-for honour, and consequence were every thing their emolument was little more than nominal. Their Excellencies the Members of the Sovereign Council had none at all, and the President of the State (the Avoyer) had about 400l. per ann.—and this with fifteen millions of francs in the public treasury! Since the Revolution, the door has been opened to a considerable number of families of the upper peasantry, who are now eligible to public offices, but in such a number as still to leave a decided preponderance among the old aristocratic families. Taxes were absolutely unknown in Berne before the Revolution, thanks to peace and frugality: they are now very trifling in amount. The hospitals are admirably administered. Beggars are unknown: every individual has a claim on some commune or parish for support; and if ever peasants appeared well-fed, substantial, proud, and opulent, certainly it is the peasantry of Berne. The old government of Berne, according to the general confession of friends and foes, afforded one of the most remarkable instances in history of a long course of spotless integrity, and wise and temperate administration. The people, it is true, had no influence in it; the oligarchy of old families were absolute rulers. But for five centuries the people had lived prosperous, powerful, and happy, without a single tax, with little either of poverty or crime, with justice open to all, a public granary full of corn provided for emergencies, and a treasury overflowing with money, for which there was absolutely no use in a state where the rulers were unpaid. The best representative government that ever existed never secured so long and plentiful a result of happiness to a people, as had been produced by this absolute oligarchy. It is no proof of the advantage of such a form of government in the abstractbut it is a proof of the honour, benevolence, and patriotism of the Swiss aristocracy, which will in all history redound to their glory. Nor is the fact to be considered as imputing blame to the advocates of some kind of change. Even had the French not introduced their own principles as usual at the point of their bayonets, the people were, perhaps, fairly entitled to demand some innovations suited to the spirit of the times and their own increased lights and knowledge. They began to see, that, without a single important grievance to complain of, they held their freedom and prosperity only at the pleasure of the Sovereign Council: they had no securities but their rulers' integrity and conscience. They began to theorize as well as their neighbours, and in theory they had neither rights, nor freedom, nor security of any kind. They cannot be blamed for having urged a claim to some guarantee of the permanence of those blessings of good government which they had enjoyed for cen turies. The means by which their object was effected were, indeed, bitter and galling to Switzerland; but French ambition and avarice, and the imprudent zeal of some Swiss reformers, must take the blame of these excesses. Notwithstanding the successful defence of their liberty and neutrality for three centuries against ordinary attacks, it is, perhaps, doubtful whether Switzerland, even had she been firm, united, and undivided by French principles and views of reform, could have withstood the overbearing torrent of an invasion by Republican France. Her reformers and revolutionists certainly did not allow her the trial, and gave France assistance; but they were the dupes of that which duped some of the greatest and wisest men in Europe-the prefidious hypocrisy and profligate ambition of the agents of the French Revolution. D. SONG. THE DEVIL AND THE NUNS. THERE once was a convent of beautiful Nuns, Like a minstrel he once clamber'd up to their wall To his stews and his fries went the father of lies, Till they grew by degrees, from pale meek devotees, Into bouncing and brave gormandizers. Such laughing and roistering soon made the cloister ring, Lord knows how their diet had set them a-riot, But they romp'd like a parcel of tomboys. And I wish, merry Fair, that your tricks had stopp'd there, Torn leaves, as by chance, from old books of romance, Like tinder each poor little heart caught the spark, Singing rapturous songs from the dawn to the dark, When their Cónfessor scolded, they pull'd both his ears; Put his tongue in his cheek) I forgive you, my dears, C. ON THE GAME OF CHESS IN EUROPE DURING THE § V. The Roc. THE name of this piece is also derived from the East; the Arabians called it Rúch, and the Jews Rûk or Rok, both words signifying a Camel or Dromedary. I shall not dwell longer on this piece, as its movement on the board has never varied, since the introduction of the Game into Europe.† § IV. The Poun. بيدق The Eastern name given to this piece was Beidak, a word which signifies in the Turkish language a foot-soldier: the Jews called it Rugal. The Pawn has never undergone any variation in its powers of moving and other prerogatives, and therefore it will be Continued from page 130. + In Aben Ezra's little Poem on Chess, already quoted, the moves of the or Rok are thus clearly explained; רוק Ruc recta incedit in via sua, In campo per latitudinem et longitudinem ejus; Et vias obliquas non quærit, Semita ejus non est torta nec perversa. The elegant treatise on Chess of Rabbi Aben Jachia, is still more explanatory on the movement of the Rok at this game: i. e. Et coram Ruchis iter ipsorum directum est: nam via eorum est recta. Et uniusmodi motio est quatuor illis : non enim circumeunt in incessu suo, sed in omni via quæ est ante se, incedit unusquisque ipsorum, si per virtutem suam valet; et nemo dicit ei quicquam. Tantummodo si aliquis ex Principibus aut servis Regis steterit coram eis, tunc non est iis potestas transeundi per illos (ne quidem per tumultum suum nec per strepitum suum) à termino ad quem hactenus processerat quilibet eorum solus.-The move of this piece is thus described in MS. Bibl. Reg. 12 E. xxi. : Rochus qui cernit prope ut longe ut sternit, Nec est in bello quisque velocior illo ; Si nihil obstiterit hostes tunc undique quærit, "Rochus est justiciarius perambulans totam terram directè cum linea; itaque nec obliquè capiat corruptis muenribus, sed omnia justè corrigat nulli parcens, &c." Moralitas Innocentii Papæ. needless to enter into a description of them here; but the reader is requested to refer to the note below.* Having thus described the powers of the various pieces, we next * Mr. Twiss, in his entertaining work on Chess, describes the wood engravings inserted in an ancient Italian edition of Jacobus de Casolis (the treatise printed by Caxton, in 1474); after mentioning the King, Queen, and Bishops, &c. he comes to the Pawns: "The first Pawn which stands before the King's Rook is a husbandman, with his bill in his right hand, and in the left a wand, to guide his oxen and flocks, and a pruning-knife at his girdle. The second Pawn placed before the King's Knight, is a smith with a hammer in one hand, and a trowel in the other, clothed in a seaman's jacket. The King's Bishop's Pawn, is a man with a pair of shears in one hand, a knife in the other, an inkstand hanging at his button, and a pen stuck behind his right ear. The King's Pawn has a pair of scales in his right hand, in his left a measuring wand, and a purse of money hanging at his waistband. The Queen's Pawn is a man seated in an armed chair, with a book in one hand, and in the other a vial; various chirurgical instruments are stuck in his girdle. This personage represents a physician, who to be perfect, as the book (of Jacobus de Cœsolis) says, ought to be a grammarian, logician, rhetorician, astrologer, arithmetician, geometrician, and musician. The Queen's Bishop's Pawn is a man standing at his own door, with a glass of wine in one hand, a loaf of bread in the other, and a bunch of keys at his girdle; representing an innkeeper. The Queen's Knight's Pawn, with two large keys in one hand, a pair of compasses in the other, and an open purse at his waist. The eighth and last Pawn, is a man with his hair dishevelled, ragged clothes, four dice in his right hand, a crust of bread in his left, and a letter-pouch suspended from his shoulders."-Vol. 1. pp. 43, 44.—Caxton, in his edition of this very early writer on Chess, gives the following names to the eight Pawns just described: Phisicyens and cirugiens, and apotecaries Gardes of the cities and tollers and customers Ribauldes players at dyse and the messagers. I have already commented on the absurdity of our ancestors in compelling the Pawn to change his sex, and from a soldier turn into a woman, and marry the King in reward of his valour; but it appears that his promotion to the dignity of Ferz or Ferce, was a very ancient prerogative of this piece. The poem of La Vieille, before cited, says:— Et quand le Peon fait sa trache. The Poem on Chess among the Bodleian MSS. also says, Cum Pedester usque summam. venerit ad Tabulam. Ejus interim Reginæ. gratiam obtineat. An ancient Poem on this game, quoted by Dr. Hyde, likewise states that the Pawn Tendit in obliquum cum fallere vult inimicum, "Pedinus vero The Pawn is thus described in the "Moralitas Innocentii :”pauperculus est qui incedendo semper vadit directè in sua simplicitate, sed quum capere vult obliquat. Sic homo semper quando in sua consist at paupertate, directè venit; sed cum quærit aliquod temporale vel honores consequi, statum mendaciis, perjuriis, favoribus et adulationibus obliquat, quousque ad gradum superiorem scaccarii mundi perveniat, sed tunc de pown fit fers et per 3 puncta pertransit," &c.-Bibl. Reg. 12 E. xxi. MS. |