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FACTS AND OCCURRENCES RELATING TO LITERATURE, THE SCIENCES, AND THE ARTS.

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Fifth Edition, 2s. 6d., with Notes and Comments,

MR. BARBER'S CASE REVIEWED by SIR GEORGE DR. CORNWELL'S EDUCATIONAL WORKS:—

STEPHEN.

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"A very useful series of Educational Works, of which Dr. Cornwell is author or editor. It (the Geography for Beginners) is an admirable introduction. There is vast difficulty in writing a good elementary book, and Dr. Cornwell has shown himself possessed of that rare combination of faculties which is required for the task."-John Bull.

GEOGRAPHY for BEGINNERS. 6th Edition, 1s.
A SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY, 29th Edition, 3s. 6d.; with
Maps, 5s. 6d.

A SCHOOL ATLAS, 2s. 6d. plain; 4s. coloured.
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2s. red; Is. Od. cloth.

GRAMMAR for BEGINNERS, 36th Edition, 1s. cloth; 9d. sewed.

THE YOUNG COMPOSER, 23rd Edition, 1s. 6d.
SELECT ENGLISH POETRY, 11th Edition, 48.
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ARITHMETIC for BEGINNERS, 4th Edition, 1s. 6d.
London: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, and CO.; HAMILTON, ADAMS,
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This day, in a Popular Form, price 1s., with Portrait,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President Elect of the United

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Plates. 30s.

BANCROFT'S HISTORY of AMERICA. Library Edition. 8 vols. 8vo, £5.
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SAMPSON LOW, SON, and CO., 47, Ludgate-hill.

[FEBRUARY, 1861.]

6, Gate-street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London.

MESSRS. DAY AND SON,

LITHOGRAPHERS TO THE QUEEN,

Have the pleasure to submit the following List of splendid Books for the present Season.

PARADISE and the PERI. By THOMAS MOORE. Illuminated and Illustrated by OWEN JONES and HENRY

WARREN. Price, gilt edges, cloth extra elegant, and bevelled boards, £2 2s.; or calf in relief, gilt edges, £2 12s. 6d.

KEBLE'S "MORNING HYMN." Illuminated by B. B. B. Size, small 4to, containing ten pages beautifully illumi

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LOVED and LOST BY LOUISA ANNE MEREDITH. A sift-book for children, alike novel, instructive,

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elevating. Small 8vo, sixteen tinted Plates, and thirty Wood Engravings, elegantly bound in cloth, price 7s. 6d.

embodying simple Scriptural lessons in verse. A beautiful gift-book for children, and at the same time presenting on every page a study for the practical illuminator. Elegantly bound, price 5s. Will be ready in January.

THE CHURCH'S FLORAL KALENDER. Compiled by EMILY CUYLER, with a Preface by the Rev. F. CUTLER.

Size, 4to. 36 laminated Pages, by W. R. TYMMS, Author of The Art of Illuminating, etc. Each page of the Work will be Illuminated with Initial Letters and suitable Floral Devices; the style of the Illuminations ranging between the Fourteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. The Work will be elegantly and appropriately bound. Price 21s. [Will be ready in January

THE BIRTHDAY GIFT; or, Thirty and Oce Texts Selected from the Old and New Testaments. By Miss S. HUGHES.

Size, 4to, with Six coloured Plates. Price 10s. 6d.

THE FOLLOWING WORKS HAVE BEEN BUT LATELY PUBLISHED.

THE ART of ILLUMINATING, as practised in Europe from the Earliest Times. Illustrated by Selections from the

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A

DESCRIPTION of the HUMAN BODY; its Structure and Functions. Illustrated by Physiological Diagrams, and designed for the Use of Teachers in Schools, and Young Men destined for the Medical Profession, and for Popular Instruction generally. By Jour MARSHALL, F.R.S., F.R.C.S., Surgeon to the University College Hospital, London, and Lecturer on Anatomy in the Science and Art Department, South Kensington. 260 quarto pages of Text, bound in cloth, and 193 Coloured Пlustrations, arranged on nine Folio Plates, in a Portfolio. Price, complete, 218.

INDIA, CHINA, our VARIOUS COLONIES, and all Parts of the WORLD. Numerous Works and Illustrations of

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THE FOLLOWING WORKS ARE IN PREPARATION.

A HISTORY of the RECENT DISCOVERIES at HALICARNASSUS, CNIDUS, and BRANCHIDA By

C. T. NEWTON, Esq., M.A. Being the Results of an Expedition sent to Asia Minor by Her Majesty's Government in October, 1856. The entire edition to be printed of this Work will be limited to 300 Copies, and the stones will then be destroyed. A large portion of these Copies have been rapidly subscribed for; it would be difficult to find another instance wherein such extraordinary interest has been evinced: the list is headed by Her Majesty for the Royal Library, and H.R.H, the Prince Consort, followed by Imperial, Royal, and other august and eminent personages throughout England and Europe, who have thus marked, by their support, the value attached by them to the publication of this Work. The Publishers look to complete the list of 300 Subscribers considerably before the time at which the Work will be published. Detailed particulars will be found in the Prospectus, which may be had on application to Messrs. DAY and BoN.

THE COLOURS of the BRITISH ARMY, By R. F. M'NAIR. To be published Fortnightly, at 5s. per part of Six

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SP PECIMENS of MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE in FRANCE and ITALY. By W. E. NESFIELD, Esq., Architect. Publishing Monthly, at 3s. 6d. per Part of Five Folio Plates; to be completed in Twenty Parts. The complete Volume will contain 100 Plates, half-bound morrocco, price £4.

ILLUMINATED PSALTER.

By OWEN JONES. 100 Folio Pages in Colours and Gold. Messrs. DAY and SON, Lithographers to the Queen, have the pleasure to announce that they are preparing for publication a Work which, they believe, will take the highest rank amongst the artistic publications of the day. They have in the Chromo-lithographic Press an Illuminated Psalter, or the complete Psalms of David, from the Authorized Version, every page of which will be enriched with Initial Letters and Borders by Mr. OWEN JONES, and the whole resources of their establishment will be taxed in its production. It will consist of 100 folio pages, and it will be published Fortnightly, in Parts, containing three magnificent folio Plates, for 56. The First Part will be published in the course of January.

THE SERMON on the MOUNT. Illuminated by W. and G. AUDSLEY, Architects. Is in preparation for publication,

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BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.

Illustrated in a Series of 30 Original Water-colour Drawings, by the

Celebrated Artist JOSEPH NASH.

ANATOMY for ARTISTS. By JOHN MARSHALL, F.R.S., F.R.C.S. Embodying and amplifying the substance of

the well-known Lectures on the Human Form, delivered annually by the Author at the Government School of Art, formerly at Malborough House, and now in the Theatre at South Kensington. The work will consist of 224 pages imperial 8vo, and will contain about 120 original Illnstrations drawn on wood by Mr. J. S. CUTHBERT. It will be published in Four Parts, at 5s, per Part." Part I. will appear in the Spring.

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THE REGISTER.

FEBRUARY 1, 1861.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

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Of the books published since our last issue which are not noticed at length in subsequent pages, only a few call for "The Diary and Corresponprominent record. These are dence of CHARLES ABBOTT, Lord COLCHESTER, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1802-1807," edited by his Son, CHARLES Lord COLCHESTER; "Carthage and her Remains; being an Account of the Excavations and Researches on the Site of the Phoenician Metropolis in Africa, and other Adjacent Places, conducted under the Auspices of Her Majesty's Iceland; Government," by Dr. N. DAVIS, F.R.G.S., etc.; its Volcanoes, Geysers, and Glaciers," by CHARLES FORBES; "The Lost Tribes and the Saxons of the East and of the West, with New Views of Buddhism, and Translations of Rock-Records in India," by GEORGE MOORE, M.D.; " Correspondence Between the Bishop of EXETER and the Right Hon. T. B. MACAULAY, in January, 1849, on certain statements respecting the Church of England in the first chapter of his History of England;'" "British Artists, from "Six years Hogarth to Turner," by WALTER THORNBURY; of a Traveller's Life in Western Africa," by FRANCESCO VALDEZ; "Paul the Pope and Paul the Friar: a Story of an Interdict," by THOMAS ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE; "Social Aspects of the Italian Revolution," being a reprint of a number of letters contributed recently to the Atheneum by THEODOSIA TROLLOPE; "Songs of Labour, Northamptonshire Rambles, and other Poems," by JOHN PLUMMER, the lame working shoemaker of Kettering: "The Worn Wedding Ring, and other Poems," by W. C. BENNETT; a second volume of "Legends and Lyrics," by ADELAIDE PROCTOR; and "Garibaldi, and other Poems," by M. E. BRADDON.

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Mr. TROLLOPE, to be published in shilling monthly parts by
Messrs. CHAPMAN and HALL, is also announced. The first
part is to be published on the first of March. On the evening
of Friday, January 4th, Mr. TROLLOPE inaugurated a course
of lectures in connexion with the "Post Office Library and
Literary Association," the subject of his discourse being
"The Civil Service as a Profession." The lecture was
delivered in the Dead Letter Office, St. Martin's-le-Grand.
The second lecture of the series was delivered on the 18th, by
Mr. EDMUND YATES. Both Mr. TROLLOPE and Mr. YATES
are Post Office employés, holding responsible positions.
Mr. J. A FROUDE, the historian, is said to have succeeded
the late Mr. J.W.PARKER as editor of Fraser's Magazine. There
was a rumour a few weeks ago that another shilling magazine
was about to be started, to be published by Messrs. HURST
and BLACKETT, and edited by Miss MULOCH, the authoress of
"John Halifax, Gentleman." It is now stated that this is
not the case, but that a shilling ladies' magazine, to be edited
by Mrs. S. C. HALL, and to number Miss MULOCH among its
contributors, is in contemplation,-by what publishing house
we are not able to say.

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The Oriental Budget, a monthly literary journal published by Messrs. SAUNDERS and OTLEY, asserts that a new Conser vative weekly newspaper is to be commenced immediately. "The price of the new paper,” adds the Budget, "will be a penny, while the size will be as large as that of any existing weekly. It is to occupy the vacant place, no doubt, of the Weekly Mail, which its constitutional supporters have suffered to drift into the Court of Bankruptcy. A substantial sum of money, it is said, will be 'posted' to inaugurate the undertaking, and the conduct of the whole matter will be 'broad, liberal, and, while instinctively Conservative, thoroughly independent.' One thing appears to be decided upon, that those in whose feeble and inexperienced hands the superindence' of the journalism of the party has hitherto been Messrs. LONGMAN and Co. announce that they have invested shall have no power or control in any department of preparation a fifth volume of the late Lord MACAULAY's the new venture.” "History of England." It will be edited by his sister, Lady TREVELYAN. The Publishers' Circular states that volume will probably be not quite so large as its solid predecessors, but as far as it extends it will be found that it had received from its illustrious author all the care and finish Other bestowed upon the earlier portions of the work." notable announcements are those of the "Life and Correspondence of Admiral Sir CHARLES NAPIER, from his Private Papers," by Major-General C. NAPIER; a volume of essays contributed to the Quarterly Review by Mr. JAMES HANNAY; new novels by Mr. LAWRENCE, the author of " Guy Livingstone" and "Sword and Gown," and Mr. GEORGE MACDONALD, author of "Phantastes" and " Within and Without;" the first volume of the long-promised " History of the Invasion of the Crimea," by Mr. A. W. KINGLAKE; "Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of WILLIAM IV. and VICTORIA," by his "Serbski Pesme, or grace the Duke of BUCKINGHAM ; National Songs of Servia," by Mr. OWEN MEREDITH; "The Tragedy of Life, being Records of Remarkable Cases of Lunacy;" and the long-announced "Life of Edward Forbes, the Naturalist," by the late Dr. GEORGE WILSON, Professor of Technology in the University of Edinburgh. Messrs. CHAPMAN and HALL announce the commencement, on the first of February, of a new illustrated library edition of Mr. CHARLES DICKENS's works, to be illustrated with the whole of the original plates, and to be completed in twenty-two monthly volumes at seven shillings and sixpence each; and Mr. H. G. BOHN announces the commencement on the same date of a series of monthly volumes, to be called "Bohn's English Gentleman's Library," the first work published in which will be Mr. PETER CUNNINGHAM'S edition of the Correspondence of HORACE WALPOLE. The "getting up" of this new "library "will be more costly than that of the "Standard Library," and its selling price will be nine shillings per

Messrs. W. and R. CHAMBERS have commenced two new Family Edition" of SHAKSPEARE, and a series serials,the of "Social Science Tracts." The "Tracts" are under the designed to diseditorship of Mr. W. CHAMBERS, and are seminate useful information among the working-classes on subjects connected with social, political, and sanitary economy. Each tract will consist of a distinct subject, and be adapted, as far as possible, to be read as a popular lecture; by which means it is anticipated that some of the objects sought to be attained by the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science may be brought conveniently before the operative and less affluent classes." The tracts are to be published quarterly.

volume.

Mr. ANTHONY TROLLOPE, the author of " Framley Parsonage," ," "Barchester Towers," etc., has commenced a series of stories in the London Review,-which has now raised its price from threepence to fourpence, and is no longer announced as conducted by Dr. CHARLES MACKAY." A new novel by

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The first of the series is on "Co-operation, in its Different Branches," and embodies the substance of a lecture recently delivered in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Paisley, by Mr. W. CHAMBERS.

"The newspaper press of London," a provincial contemporary recently wrote, "appears to be at present in a transitory state. Ever since the repeal of the compulsory stamp, changes and innovations have been of daily occurrence. The latest novelty is a proposal on the part of Mr. REUTER to do the Parliamentary reporting for the London morning journals. He has already completed his negotiations with seven or eight of the papers, and when Parliament meets, probably only two sets of reporters will appear in the gallery,-the Times' staff and Mr. REUTER'S. The saving to the proprietors will be great. Mr. REUTER proposes to do for £450 what has hitherto cost each paper £1,250. The temptation is too great to be resisted, and the consequence will be that many hardworking, intelligent men will very soon be out of employment. Under Mr. REUTER'S system it might be expected that there would be too great sameness in the reports, but this will be avoided. Nearly everything will be reported verbatim by Mr. REUTER'S staff, and the manuscript will be condensed after it has been received at the newspaper offices, and, of course, each paper will make such a selection as may be most suitable for its own columns." We believe that the arrangements here spoken of have, for the present, fallen through; but the plan possesses such manifest advantages that it can scarcely fail to be adopted eventually.

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It has been stated that when "Framley Parsonage ' is completed in the Cornhill, it will be succeeded by a tale from the pen of Mrs. HARRIETT BEECHER STOWE. Meanwhile, a tale by this lady, called "The Pearl of Orr's Island," is in course of publication in Cassell's Family Paper.

In noticing the publication of the issue for 1861 of Messrs. LONGMAN and Co.'s "Annual List of Periodicals and Newspapers," the Publishers' Circular remarks upon “the notion which this list affords of the activity and enterprise of the projectors of this class of publications." Our contemporary proceeds :-"The list is, from its length, somewhat bewildering, and at first sight suggests the inquiry of how a man of speculative and deliberate character could ever make up his mind what magazine out of the multitude would be best to take in. If he determined to trust no one's authority, but to take in all, for, say a twelvemonth, on trial, the experiment would be costly. We calculate indeed that, exclusive of the Transactions of the Learned Societies, and many other publications which are strictly serials, it would cost about four hundred pounds, of which about fifty guineas would be laid out in quarterlies, one hundred and thirty in monthlies, and two hundred in periodicals published at shorter intervals, being of course principally weeklies. Nor could he buy one single copy of each for much less than thirty pounds; of which more than eleven would be spent in the monthlies, about thirteen in the quarterlies, and about five in the other kinds. However familiar with our London periodicals, a reader who had not glanced at this list would perhaps hardly guess that they number altogether, varying in price from a halfpenny up to ten shillings, nearly seven hundred, of which the weeklies and dailies are about two hundred and thirty, and the monthlies more than three hundred and fifty. The number will probably go on constantly increasing. "There are always new fields for those who have the wit to find them."

A GLIMPSE AT NORTHERN ITALY.

BY THE COUNTESS MONTEMERLI.

MAJESTIC Alps! attired in your stately mantle of ermine, reverend is your form, and reverently would we salute you! When the winds agitate your silvery locks, they fall into the valleys below in terrific avalanches. During December's blasts, the awe-stricken traveller avoids raising his voice while in your dread precincts, lest the echoes should arouse your wrath, and he be overwhelmed by the mighty fragments hurled from your frozen regions. His lip quivers, his limbs are benumbed, and vague terrors seize him as he marks your fierce eagles perched above his head, and hears the cry of your vultures greedy of carnage. From time to time, his companions in travel address him in a whisper, and point out the spot where men perished a few days agone, buried in snow drifts or attacked by the ice fiend, Sleep, whose invariable attendant is death. The heart of the wayfarer seems relieved of a burden as he reaches the plain; he feels to have renewed his life's tenure when, instead of the sledge which toilfully bore him through the midst of perils seen or imagined, he becomes the occupant of a vehicle that speeds him over a macadamized and well-guarded road, and conducts him in safety to Piedmont.

Here the stranger asks himself what is the language spoken by the blouse-clad men who surround him? At first he thinks it is Italian, but quickly changes his opinion. He is sure it is French, and yet does not know what is said. By the difficulty he experiences in understanding the discourse, he is made aware that a patois is spoken in Piedmont. He makes the circuit of Turin, and according to his wants is addressed in French or Italian. His interlocutors, he perceives, are neither members of the Institute of France nor compilers of the dictionary della Crusca; they express themselves badly, but with facility, in both languages,-to him an inestimable boon. As all know, Turin is a beautiful, clean, and symmetrical city. The Turinese are mild, sensible, amiable, industrious, and friendly to free institutions. Pious without being bigoted in religion, and liberal without being fanatic in politics, they respect that which is worthy of respect, and admire a Garibaldian soldier more than a monk; yet they peacefully leave the latter to pursue his profession of men

dicancy, and ungrudgingly bestow upon him the alms by which he lives.

The

In the kingdom of Piedmont the abolition of special costumes is complete. The prosaic railway carries French fashions to every corner. Did that myth, the shepherdess of the Alps, exist, the graceful invention would be seen attired like a modern housemaid of Westbourne-terrace. women of the lower class generally appear with uncovered heads in summer, and armed with green paper fans. In winter, their beautiful hair is partially concealed by silk or cotton handkerchiefs. In other respects, nothing original marks their attire; nothing of that picturesque and bizarre style which formerly indicated different races and peoples, and separated them into friendly and unfriendly provinces. Dress once greatly served to strengthen and perpetuate municipal hatred; now the law of unity is making such progress as almost to destroy all distinctions. People are clad heavily or lightly according to the variations of climate, and dress in silk, wool, or cotton, in accordance with their means; but the make of the poor woman's dress is almost identical with that of the rich. Crinoline is worn on the Sunday by the Piedmontese girl, who has spent the week in spinning to earn fifty centimes a day.

If you enter Lombardy, Milan will appear to you like a large French town, and nothing will strike you as strange in the appearance of the inhabitants. The men are handsome, the women graceful, and the nobleness of the race will remind you that you are in Italy; but here, as at Paris, you will see well-filled cafés, you will find fashionable loungers, pleasure seekers, and bon vivants. The manners are gentle and polished, the address frank and open. At Milan as at Turin, you see splendid palaces belonging to noblemen of fortune. All the Lombards have travelled more or less, for the sake of inhaling the breath of freedom, and it is difficult to distinguish a Milanese from a Parisian. Austria, so clever in producing that void which nature shuns, rendered Milan a deserted city. If you wished to find a Milanese professing liberal views, you must seek him in Turin, London, or Paris. It was considered little less than a dishonour for a Lombardian seigneur to have his house open at Milan. How Austria could so long resist the crushing demonstrations made against her rule is utterly inexplicable!

In this part of Italy agriculture is at its apogee. Nothing can be finer, more abundant, or better arranged than the Lombardian agricultural exhibitions; nothing more admirably kept than the dairy farms; no system of irrigation superior. The fertility and prosperity of Lombardy need, however, excite no surprise. It was the direct interest of its Austrian rulers to favour the increase of its productions. The government of Vienna depended upon the millions produced by the province itself to pay the army, which kept it under the yoke.

The Lombard peasant is active and laborious, and only followed out his own tastes and instincts in cultivating the fertile soil which God placed beneath his feet. His sole thought was to maintain his family in comfort, and lay by a little for future use. In general, he was unaware that his labour tended to the support of Austria.

The women share the field labour with the men, and you see them, almost throughout Italy, placed on a footing of perfect equality with the rougher sex. The wife is the soul of the family, takes part in the cares of her husband, knows all his affairs, and is his best support and counsellor. Interest in politics is innate in the Italian woman's breast, and like that felt by Italians in general, consists in love of country and hatred of slavery and foreign domination, the desire to see Italy a strong and compact nation, and the ardent wish to enjoy those benefits which can alone be possessed in a free and independent country.

Religious education is much neglected in this province where, from the great number of ecclesiastics, it would be expected to be the most extended. The bonds which should attach a people to their religion and its ministers have no existence here. Priests are looked upon simply as the actors who represent the Catholic worship. Their ministry is confined, in the main, to exterior details. The sacerdocy of the towns have little or no ascendency over their parishioners,

while those of the country are treated with the most perfect familiarity by their flock, and seldom take the trouble even to pretend to explain the Gospel to them.

A moonlight religious procession in the rural districts is extremely picturesque; but the people who take part in it do so, apparently, with no other object than to amuse themselves. All idea of piety seems banished from the ceremony, and persons meet to enjoy each other's society, indulge in a pleasant walk, see the fireworks, and admire the illumination of the church in honour of the Virgin or our Lord, while the village and neighbourhood are gay as a fair.

The clergy of Lombardy and Piedmont exercise no retrograde influence over the masses, for the reason that, like the Italian clergy in general, they possess neither the external dignity nor the moral force required to inspire confidence in the people. The priest is treated with consideration and respect only if he holds liberal views; not a word will be listened to from him if he is known to be of the Pope's party in politics. The people, enlightened by the ever brightening ray of progress, are throwing off the superstitions and prejudices with which the clergy filled their minds for ages. They now want that true and pure, that elevated and spiritual teaching which alone can satisfy man's heart and intellect.

Upon quitting Lombardy and entering Tuscany, it will be found that no distinctive apparel exists in this state any more than in the two which we have already visited. Large straw hats at Florence, black or white veils at Leghorn, gold and silver pins in the women's hair at Lucca, immense gold crosses covering the breasts of the peasantesses in the environs of Pisa, and coral and real pearls adorning the necks of the common people in the city; such are the only objects which strike the stranger's eye as peculiar. The young peasant girl consecrates a portion of the fruit of her daily toils to laying up a sum of about ten or twelve pounds sterling for the purchase of her wedding jewellery. No little farmer, hidden among the mountains and gaining his bread by the sweat of his brow, even though he had seven or eight daughters, would allow one of them to marry until she had saved enough to buy her marriage adornments. It is to be hoped that this custom, which dates from time immemorial, may always be preserved. Not only is it a pretty sight to see the women wearing their golden ornaments and cherished trinkets on the Sunday, but these form, so to speak, a certificate of morality, are the proof of long and assiduous toil, and bear witness, besides, to the general welfare of the Tuscan peasantry.

A little serves to satisfy the wants of the country people, who are sober, economical, and tidy. Their natural gaiety endows them with a degree of philosophy which renders life easy and enjoyable, and the domestic virtues seem to be of spontaneous growth among them.

The rural districts of Tuscany still offer to the eye and heart of the observer much that is poetic and impressive, many striking customs and ceremonies which excite a species of languid, pensive, soothing sadness altogether indescribable. On passing the door of a humble cottage at dusk, you may see the floor strewed with flowers, like a magnificent carpet. As your eye penetrates to the extremity of the room into which the door opens, you see four tapers burning. A young mother, surrounded by a few friends, is weeping over the mortal remains of her beloved infant, which, crowned with roses and reclining upon a bed of flowers, is peacefully sleeping during the first hours of its eternal slumber.

It was a pleasant moonlight evening. A mournful company pursued their way along a cross road, which wound in and out among clumps of trees, and meadows, and fields, like a drive in a park. The church and convent bells sounded the Ave Maria. The air was calm, the clear sky illumined by stars; a hymn for the dead was heard; voices grave and sonorous intoned the Dies ira; a choir boy carried the cross with the long silver foot. Four monks in brown robes and with sandalled feet followed, their bald foreheads and long beards contrasting with the youthful countenances of two boys who accompanied them bearing tapers. Then came the parish priest in surplice and stole, and behind him a bier, carried by four young girls, bearing the stiffened corse of a companion of eighteen. The long hair of the departed was left loose to hang down on either side of the body, like the two ends of a

long black veil, which extended to the knees, in striking contrast with the white robe which it covered. The wax-tinted hands, crossed upon the breast, held an ebony crucifix. A bridal bouquet adorned the waist, and the pale, senseless brow was crowned with orange-blossoms. Bunches of white flowers and green leaves placed round the body imparted to it the effect of a picture in its cornice; a veil of white net covered it from head to feet.

Several children carried tapers on each side of the bier. From time to time the cortège halted, and four young girls, who had previously walked behind, came forward to relieve their young friends and take their turn to carry the remains. The mother of the departed followed in the attitude of utter despair. Her eyes were fixed upon her daughter's head, to which the movement of the bearers imparted a regular oscillation, strangely contrasting with the rigidity of the rest of the body. It seemed as if the mother sought to detect a sign of reanimation in her child's face. When the evening breeze agitated the abundant hair, she stepped rapidly forward, perhaps hoping that the fresh air might restore her lost one to life. Each time the procession halted she fell on her knees in the dust, and her piteous sighs were heartrending. Her strength seemed utterly to fail at these moments; but when the bier was again carried forward, she suddenly started up as if touched by a spring, and with haggard face and feverish step, pursued the route which was to terminate at the grave, where she must lay that beloved one whom she had fondly hoped would be the support of her own infirmities, and close her eyes when her earthly race was run.

Death thus arrayed, with uncovered face, under an Italian sky, amidst flowers and torches, seems less lugubrious than in northern climes, sewn up in a shroud, carried in a dismal coffin, covered with a funeral pall. Yet a mother's despair will be the same in every clime. None but she who has lost her son at Palermo or Castelfidardo has the courage to speak with pride of her loss. A mother is resigned when she can say, "My boy was with Garibaldi; he is dead now!" "Another hero to add to the list!" is the response; and those whom she addresses wait until she has retired to sigh and ejaculate, "Poor woman! poor, poor mother!"

The event of the moment is the return of the volunteers from the south. They may be seen traversing the roads and crossing the mountains, and when a red shirt is espied in the distance the people rush to their cottage doors to see which of their relatives or friends is come home. Look! a woman is running down a steep path in a copse of olives and chesnuts. Though very old, radiant joy is depicted on her withered face. Where is she going in such haste? She has heard that her son is on the point of arriving at the village, and in her excitement, forgets the years which have blanched her hair, and flies down the steep descent, like a young girl, to clasp her son to her heart.

The returned volunteers, few of whom have reached adolescence, narrate splendid stories of their last campaign. They tell how intensely they suffered, and each says how nobly his comrades fought; but they feel amply repaid by the delirious shouts of welcome accorded to them by the populace as their liberators; by the heart-stirring cry everywhere aroused by their presence, Viva l'Italia! They speak with the warmest enthusiasm of their king and Garibaldi, and are ready to take up arms again when their general shall say, Come! Their countenances, bronzed by the burning sun of Sicily, wear an expression of inspiration and glory, which makes it a pleasure for the eye to rest upon them. Victory is personified in them, and their looks testify that the cause which animates them, and for which they fought, is one which must render them invincible.

They are determined to be a great people, inhabiting a great kingdom, and they will realize their determination. The barriers of tyranny and superstition have nearly all been swept away, and the waves of freedom and progress will continue to flow steadily onwards, in spite of all opposing obstacles, until they have reached their destined level of unity and nationality. Italy is now the Italy of the Italians, whose talents, good sense, reason, and virtue render them worthy of the privileges to which they aspire.

Pisa, December, 1860.

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