and his étiquette, to enjoy himself en égal in the midst of his subjects. His affability

"Like mercy, is twice bless'd;

It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes."

He might have added, too, that both the Duke and his illustrious family mingle with the lowest of his subjects, on terms that recal the patriarchal times to memory. Witness the fêtes sometimes given by the good townsmen of Wiesbaden, at their own expense, to him, and those given by him in return, at which, without distinction of rank, all classes are invited to attend.

" Nor do I deny," says this critic of Sovereigns, that he (the Duke) is a very constant husband; a kind father; and that high-bred sportsmen are permitted to range over his hunting grounds."

Pretty well this, in favour of a man whom he is going to abuse; and we must expect, therefore, something terrible to be coming; something precise, and anything but vague; something also well sifted, and particularly well proved, to be able to deteriorate, as is attempted, from the character of a Prince allowed by his accuser himself to be in so many points so worthy. And what does the reader think is the accusation, and how proved? Why, the Statist, in ascending a mountain, met a

woman who was carrying dinner to her family, who were at work too far off to come for it themselves. So far, not much harm. But then this woman, and other labourers too, not only corn-growers, but vine-dressers, did―(Heaven defend the Duke!)— did live in the midst of a most plentiful country upon meagre diet, compared to the Flemings, or even the French.

This might be questioned as a fact, even if it were anything to the purpose. There is, perhaps, no tract of country in Europe so abounding in crops of all kinds, as the region between Cassel in Picardy, and Brussels. And yet never were peasantry so squalid, through want and destitution, as the objeets (from misery scarcely human,) who cultivate that plentiful region. But what is even the Statist's proof of the wants he so deplores in the peasantry of Nassau? They had only, he says, "a little animal food, stewed with vegetables, potatoes, herbs, or boiled grain; rye or barley-bread, milk, stewed or roasted apples, and on Sundays a very little butter and cheese. This forms their ordinary meals.” Why, the very enumeration makes one's mouth water, though an Englishman; and the Statist himself confesses, that by his boiling grain with milk, and stewing herbs with butter, the Nassau peasant

makes more of what is within his reach than the Irish cotter." If so, and the Duke so much to blame, how infinitely worse must be the King of Ireland!

Well, but the winter is very dreary in Nassau! So it is everywhere, though not the Duke's fault. But it is even bitter cold! and snow covers the ground! This, too, is a misfortune that happens sometimes, without a Sovereign being to blame. Yes! but in Nassau it is "scarcely within the power of the peasantry to get sufficient fuel to cook their simple food." Then, it seems, they do get something towards it, though not sufficient; which is often not the case in England, Scotland, or Ireland. All this, however, is made the fault of the Duke, and does away, in the mind of our tenderhearted traveller, the impression made by his personal virtues, so ignorantly lauded by others. For, after having mentioned them as above stated, he adds, with most logical inferences, "But I cannot forget my conversations with, nor the poverty and mud-built habitations of, his vassals, the peasantry, nor that Nassau abounds with maize, vines, tobacco, buckwheat, and has wood and coal, &c. &c. &c.

Well! has not England, and still more Ireland, mud-built habitations, and, God knows, poverty enough! And do not they both abound in farming

produce, and in wood and coal? To be sure, a house built only of mud, to one who had never stirred out of Cockney-land, gives no idea but of the kennel; and to live even in a clay-built cottage very little better. But surely not so to this our enlightened searcher after realities. He might, or ought to, tell you that a clay-built wall is, by the method called Pisé, as strong as stone; that many of the houses of the metropolis of Nassau are of clay, or unburnt bricks, almost without cement, but coated with mud, well dried, and whitewashed; nay, that a poor man's cottage, composed of stout wattles, and coated in the same manner with mud, is no such uncomfortable abode, as many houses of substantial tradesmen prove in Wiesbaden itself *.

* A gentleman who resided many months in that town was much struck with this, but suspecting such a mode of building could not be lasting, took an opportunity of the pulling down a large old house, to ask how long it had lasted. To his astonishment he was told, at least a hundred years, possibly a hundred and fifty. It was exactly as described-hurdles plastered with mud, and whitewashed.

We wonder the traveller, with the mud discomforts, did not mention another miserable want, to the inculpation of the Duke; for most of his female subjects, of very respectable rank, though under the highest are, in the severest weather, without caps or bonnets.

N.B. The King of Great Britain and Ireland reigns over myriads of subjects without shoes or stockings. Who can allow him any personal merit?

Even the fact, then, of the misery is disputable, both from this account of their habitations, and the bill of fare for the poor, which the Statist himself has furnished. He ought also, as a just Statist, to have added, (as he no doubt would, had he known it,) the wages of the poor he describes as so miserable, compared with the prices of things. The truth is, a labourer in this oppressed country can obtain, all the year round, nearly seven shillings English a week (seven shillings during nine months, and twopence less during the three winter months). Many in England have little more, and are reckoned well paid indeed at ten shillings: but then the English labourer buys his meat at from fourpence to sixpence and sevenpence a pound; the Nassauer at from twopence to fourpence. Bread, a small loaf in England at twopence; in Nassau, about the same quantity, not quite three farthings. The best wheaten flour, at five farthings, and excellent brown bread at a halfpenny a pound.-So much for the fact.

O! but the Duke is a holder of the tithes of corn, is the proprietor of the mineral waters, and all that can be made out of the territory, after barely supporting the peasantry, who shiver fireless in winter, is his."

Does this mean in the mind of the traveller, that