ness resulting from it, and often at the expense of objects better worthy of pursuit. Fashion dominates in this, as in other things. Of late, its dictation has been to cradle children in French; often, even to prohibit English in the nursery and school-room; and, frequently, at a later time, to detach our youth from their own country, for the sake of forwarding the same object in foreign pensions, or schools. We have seen this fashion extending itself to more mature life; and serious and discreet men, senators and judges, toiling painfully through elements, vocabularies, and rules of pronunciation, to acquire an amount of speech, sufficient to attract ridicule and produce inconvenience, but very inadequate to any useful or ornamental purpose. We have already noticed, what is rather a suspicious indication on the subject, that this fashion of speaking foreign languages prevails most in the female education of the day, where it may fairly be presumed to be least needed, and where, indeed, it is often of very doubtful utility. Here it has even disputed the palm of precedence with music, strong as is the tenure of the latter in the present system of education.

We are not behind others in estimating the value of an attainment, which can only be debased by being made the object of an idle and indiscriminating fashion. We would appeal to all who have candidly observed, whether there be not reason for the distinction, and cause for the censure of this excess? We assert merely that too much general value is attached to a degree of perfection in the acquirement, which can only be really important to a few. We deprecate not the knowledge itself, but, simply, the too great price paid for it, in a prolonged, and otherwise fruitless residence abroad. We seek not to abridge, in any respect, the familiar and intimate study of the French and Italian classics; but we would conciliate this with a precedence to English literature: and we the rather dwell upon this point, because we are convinced that the fashion of late years has tended to diminish the knowledge of, and veneration for, the great masters of our own tongue. We think that Spenser, Milton, and Dryden are altogether less familiar to the rising generation than they were to that which preceded it; notwithstanding the fashion of modern criticism, which, in default of fresher subjects, has so often gone back to explore the beauties of the earlier English poets. We will not say that our Shakspeare is neglected, for his age is ever fresh and green, and he comes reflected back to us from a thousand sources, whether in the tranquillity of home, the turbulent life of capitals, or the solitude of travel through distant lands.

Connected with the subject we are considering is a minor

abuse,

abuse, to which we may slightly advert. We allude to that tasteless practice, engendered by the vanity of foreign travel, of mixing French words and idioms with our own language; not in the legitimate way of quotation, to enforce or illustrate the sense, but as mere substitutes, without use or significancy. We must not, indeed, quote this as exclusively a folly of modern fashion, inasmuch as we find many notices of it in our older writers. Butler, in his satirical character of the Traveller, thus describes him :

'He hath worn his own language to rags, and patched it up with scraps and ends of foreign. He believes this raggedness of his discourse a great demonstration of the improvement of his knowledge, as inns of court men intimate their proficiency in the law by the tatters of their gowns.' And the following passage occurs in a writer of yet earlier date. Some far-journied gentlemen, at their return home, like as they love to go in foreign apparel, so they will powder their talk with over-sea language. He that cometh lately out of France will talk French-English, and never blush at the matter.'*

We do not think it necessary to vent any very grave indignation against the fashionable folly thus reprehended; even though we believe it to be much more general now than at any former time. Like most other similar foibles, it is, to a certain extent, selfcorrective in its excess. The man of highest taste and breeding will disdain to impoverish his language by such admixture, or to seek for fame from the refuse scraps of French and Italian speech. But as real taste is the quality only of the few, and the major part of mankind are imitators of each other, from fashion, vanity, or other idleness, we must be content to submit to a certain amount of this foible, as long as our intercourse with the continent remains on its present footing.

Before closing an article in which it has been our object to point out and correct what we deem to be abuses in the travelling and residence of Englishmen abroad, we feel it, in some sort, incumbent upon us to suggest an equivalent for the subtraction we are proposing. Upon the absentee proprietor we have already urged the duty and the happiness of giving more of his time to residence on his estates; and this even in cases where his means are so far abridged, as to compel him to contract his general mode of living into a narrower compass. We would further indicate to him, and yet more especially and strongly to our English youth, the equivalent they might find for foreign tours in the more complete and careful survey of their own country. If the question be broadly stated, how to employ the years between college and active life, we answer as distinctly-Let the continent be seen, but let England be seen and studied. We cannot

*Wilson's Art of Rhetorique.

understand

All

understand that person to have seen England, who is merely transported from place to place by four fleet horses, gaining thereby a competent knowledge of country-houses, watering places, race-courses, and the best manors for game. this is good in its way, but our meaning goes beyond it. We desire that England should be seen in that which constitutes her greatness and effective power; in her vast and numerous works of industry, art, and genius; of which we are persuaded that few, even of our most intelligent countrymen, have really an adequate idea. Elsewhere such works, being for the most part the creation of governments, are made the theme of public reports and official commendation. In Great Britain, they have been the silent, though rapid and vigorous growth of individual enterprise and ability; or of private associations, combining capital to enlarge the scope of its employment. Hence it is, that, although occupying every part and corner of the kingdom, these works are comparatively little known to public observation; and trophies of human art, which would call the English traveller, as a spectator, from one extremity of the Continent to the other, are passed unheeded within the limits of our own island. Instances of this ignorance often occur, where the condition of life might seem to render knowledge scarcely less than a positive duty. We do not hesitate to assert, that any young Englishman of intelligence and education would find ample resources in his own country, for occupying at least as much time as can be beneficially employed in foreign travelling; and with results, at least as favourable to the culture of his understanding. The two objects, however, are generally not incompatible, and we are far from seeking to inculcate any exclusive preference. What we contend for is, that such preference should be given where both are not attainable; and that, under all circumstances, a befitting proportion of time and attention should be devoted to the survey of all that England so largely furnishes to the eye of intelligent curiosity.

This latter topic is one upon which we might easily dilate; and the temptation is greater to do so from the want of some work which might serve as an adequate guide to the traveller in Great Britain. We should find pleasure, did our limits allow of it, in suggesting some form of outline for such a work. But as this would engage us too far on a new ground, we must be content to indicate merely a few of the greater objects of research to an English traveller in his own country.*

To

It is remarkable enough that there should not exist, at this time, one tolerable Guide Book to our own country. We have itineraries, indeed, which give faithful re

cord

To the geologist, Great Britain offers an epitome of the world. With the exception of actual volcanic formations, and certain subordinate members in the series of rocks, few points of geological illustration are wanting to us; and some, as in the case of the coal, oolitic, and chalk formations, are more abundantly afforded than in almost any other country. Our mining districts are remarkable for their number, and the variety of their products. Within the limits of the island, nearly twenty separate coal districts are known, and in actual working. The vast, we might almost say, vital importance of these mines to the prosperity of England, is too well known to need remark. Our mines of copper, iron, lead, tin and rock-salt have also an extent and value in the national economy, which render them well worthy of observation and we may further add, that no country has contributed more to enrich with the animal organic remains of former worlds, that great field of discovery, first brought to the character of a science by Cuvier, and since so zealously and successfully cultivated by British geologists.

To those interested in the mechanical sciences, and their application to manufactures and the arts, England offers larger scope of observation than any other country in the world. Throughout the vast establishments of our cotton, woollen, linen, silk, and hardware manufactures, there is even less to create astonishment in the multitude and variety of the products, than in the exquisite perfection of the machinery employed-machinery, such in kind, that it seems almost to usurp the functions of human in

cord of miles and furlongs, of market towns and country seats; and sundry neat volumes, which treat of the wells, and other wonders, of each of our many watering places; but a fair index to England, in its present state, we do not yet possess; although more objects, worthy of note and research, present themselves on this small surface, than on any equal extent in the world. If a young Englishman desire to see thoroughly his native country (a desire we would fain render more frequent), or an intelligent foreigner arrive with the same intent, we know no single work, scarcely any set of works, to which we could conveniently refer them, as aiding their object, The many volumes of tours, English, Scotch, and Irish, which appeared during our exclusion from the continent, even if possessing more original merit than they generally did, are already antiquated and useless. The growth of England in arts, manufactures, agriculture, and public works, has been far too mighty to be kept within the compass of these ephemeral writings; which, indeed, had chiefly concern with the natural beauties of the country. The works of an eminent foreigner, M. Dupin, which we have had occasion formerly to recommend to our readers, form, in fact, the best modern guide to the scientific traveller in England; limited, it is true, by the particular purposes of the author; but still affording a body of useful information, accurate for the most part and well arranged, such as cannot readily be found elsewhere.-This reproach ought, on every account, to be removed from us. Not, however, by a mere bookseller's compilation, the crambe recocta of obsolete volumes, but by an enlightened and scientific work, the fruit of intelligent observation, and collected from the best sources. We should desire to see a book, having the same excellence as a general English Guide, which Conybeare and Philips's Geology of England possesses in its particular department.

telligence.

telligence. No one can conceive its completeness, who has not witnessed the workings of the power-loom, or seen the mechanism by which the brute power of steam is made to effect the most minute and delicate processes of tambouring. Nor can any one adequately comprehend the mighty agency of the steam-engine, who has not viewed the machinery of some of our mining districts, where it is employed on a scale of magnitude and power unequalled elsewhere. In Cornwall, especially, steam-engines may be seen working with a thousand horse power, and capable (according to a usual mode of estimating their perfection as machinery) of raising nearly 50,000,000 pounds of water through the space of a foot, by the combustion of a single bushel of coals. No Englishman, especially if destined to public life, can fitly be ignorant of these great works and operations of art which are going on around him; and if time can be afforded in general education for Paris, Rome, and Florence, time is also fairly due to Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, and Sheffield.

Nor, speaking of the manufactures of England, can those be neglected, which depend chiefly or exclusively on chemical processes. It may be conceded, that the French chemists have had their share in the suggestion of these processes; but the extent, variety, and success with which they have been brought into practical operation in England, far surpass the competition of any other country. These are, perhaps, from their nature, and from the frequent need of secrecy, the least accessible of our manufactures to common observation; yet they nevertheless offer much that is attainable and valuable in research to the intelligent traveller.

Connected with our manufactures, are the great works of the civil engineer, which cover every part of England; the canals, roads, docks, bridges, piers, &c.; works which attest more obviously than any others the activity, power, and resources of the country. Amidst their multitude it would be impossible to pursue even the slight sketch we are now giving; and the less needful from the greater familiarity of the objects themselves. Yet even these, though more familiar to observation, are much less generally known than they merit to be. They are for the most part seen rather as matter of chance, than studied as monuments of

It is a remarkable proof of the amount of improvement effected in some of the Cornish steam-engines, that the result obtained from a given quantity of coal, estimated in the manner alluded to above, is nearly three times as great now as it was twenty years ago. Nor will the spectator find more cause for astonishment in the magnitude of these engines, than in the order, or even beauty, of every minute part pertaining to them. The furniture of a drawing-room is not more scrupulously arranged, or preserved in a state of higher polish, than are those buge representatives of human power.

art,