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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23,

REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.

The Earthquake: a Tale. By the author of "The Ayrshire Legatees." 3 vols. Edinburgh. 1820.

ration (if not unnatural distortion) in several
of the dramatis personæ.

ing him for Francisco. Robbers and monks,
friends, and a score or two of other characters,
fill up the canvas.

1820.

PRICE 8d.

wandering about for some time, he burst into tears at finding himself a bewildered stranger in his native city.

The Earthquake at Messina throws, rather "He had passed churches which the peoforcibly together,a number of personages, who had been previously connected, but separated ple dreaded to enter, for the vaulted roofs by the current of worldly adventure. Among were riven asunder, and the pillars that these, the most prominent are a Count Cor-supported them overhung their pedestals in The Ayrshire Legatees is a story, some-neli, a Sicilian nobleman of large posses- the very act of falling. In one he saw the what after the Humphrey Clinker manner, sions, and a villain and murderer; Castag- body of the officiating priest crushed beIn others, which has been continued through several nello, the son of an English lord and a Neo- neath the statue of a saint that had been Numbers of Blackwood's Magazine, and politan actress, a voluptuary with good dispo- cast down from its niche while he was elepossesses so much merit as to have excited sition, but led astray by his passions; Lord vating the host at the altar. in us considerable expectations about any Wildwaste, his half-brother; Lady Wildwaste, where the people crowded during the conwork from the same pen. These expecta- a noble dame; Bellina, daughter of a Neo-vulsion, and from which, while the walls tions have not been fully realized by the vo-politan grandee, and the first love of Cas- were splitting, they had as madly attempted lumes before us; for though they display tagnello; Baron Alcamo, a pseudo philoso- to escape, he witnessed the most frightful talents above the common order, they are pher, whose sister (the wife of Corneli) had spectacles of the dead and living, so locked disfigured by blemishes which detract much mysteriously disappeared; the Baroness and grasped, and kneaded, as it were, into from their general merit. Among these we Alcamo, a fat lady; Francisco their son, masses together, that in many instances the might specify the striking instances of haste an ingenuous young man acting on preter- persons employed in separating them were and negligence with which the Tale abounds; natural fancies; Adelina his sister, a devotee; obliged to cut the dead bodies to pieces, before but our chief objections are of deeper roots, Alicia, sister to Lady Wildwaste, seduced they could get the survivors extricated. and all springing from the want of nature. and poisoned by Corneli; the lady of the But of all these terrible sights none affected We are so tired of having human beings same Count, a nun; and his son Ferdinando, him more deeply than the scene around represented as acting from mystical percep-whom he stabs to death in the end, mistak- the corpse of an old man, which his family tions, and on resistless as they are irrational seemed to have been depositing in a cadashaken asunder. The roof had fallen in inulses, on unaccountable sympathies and very at the very moment when the city was morbid nothings, on imaginary destinies and The story is too complicated for us to un- upon them as they were bringing the bier inconceivable linkings, that the very approximation to such "pribbles and prabbles" ravel within the compass which we can af-into the middle of the charnel-house, and all We shall therefore the mourners were killed on the spot, while (as Sir Hugh Evans would call them) sickens ford to such a task. us to the soul. We would cheerfully allow content ourselves with quoting a few pages the body remained uninjured; and the difas large a quantum of sensibilities and fated to show the abilities of the author in many ferent skeletons stood around unmoved and circumstances as any poet or novelist could ways, though obscured, as we think, by the entire, except one, which a little boy belongreasonably ask; but is it not monstrous to prevailing clouds of carelessness and mys-ing to the funeral had convulsively seized have fictions, presumed to be pictures of ticism. We begin with the Earthquake at life and society, entirely founded, and de- Messina. pending in every incident on fripperies of this sort, while common sense and all the ordinary incentives to the actions of mankind are placed hors de combat? Certainly The Earthquake,' is very far from being the worst book we have seen of this class; but it belongs to the school, and the school is offensive to our ideas of right reason and adequate motives. The nec Deus intersit ought to be applicable in degree fully more than in mythological reality, as a sound canon on which to frame a likeness of the affairs of intelligent creatures; and the rule of no effect without a cause, is as german in all its extent to morals as to physics. Vague and incomprehensible grounds of action ought therefore, if not discarded, to be sparingly employed in delineating human character; and it is in our opinion, not only absurd, but dangerous, to draw men and things as if they were governed by indefinable and predestinated necessity, instead of free will illumined by the light of the understanding. So much for the principle to which the leading circumstances in this novel may be traced need we add, that the consequences are improbabilities in the fable, and exaggeVOL. IV.

ruins which had crushed himself to death.
by the leg and drawn across the heap of

"In several places He passed knots of little "Dreadful as the convulsion was which, in the course of less than half a minute, children, sitting with their heads together, shook the splendid city of Messina into crying for their parents, and shivering with fragments, and buried thousands of the in- hunger. In others, he saw helpless old habitants beneath the ruins, the silent hor- men who had lost their all and survived all rors of the scene next morning were, to the their friends. When he first found himself humane heart, still more appalling. During at a loss to know his way, he enquired of a the earthquake the cries and distraction of lady who was sitting gaily dressed at a the people were overwhelmed in the thunder window, and, as she did not answer, he of the falling edifices, and the roaring of the thought she had not heard: he spoke to her sea that fled and returned with a furious again, and she looked at him. He addressviolence. The presence of the destroying ed her a third time, but she only glared angel was veiled in the clouds of dust which wildly, and raising her hands, shook them filled the mid-day air with suffocating dark-fearfully, and, turning her head away, made It was only by looking at the print of no reply. ness. his steps when the clouds had rolled away, that the terrors of his might and wrath could be duly appreciated.

"Francisco rose at day-break with the intention of ascertaining what had been the fate of his different acquaintances, and particularly of a young man of the name of Salvator Pratano, his most intimate companion, who lived in a distant quarter of the town. But the streets were choked with rubbish, and the face of every object so changed that he lost his way, and, after

In many instances the sufferers were more distressing, and he passed an old wostruck with a permanent consternation_sti'l man who was dangling the mangled body of her grand-child, and bestowing on it all the epithets of endearment. He stopped fascinated by the perfection of her misery, and she noticed him. In the same moment, an afflicting ray of reason seemed to dart across her mind, and, glancing a terrified look at the corpse to which she was singing so fondly, she dashed it from her with a

scream of horror and disgust, hiding her face in her hands against the refted walls of her roofless house. Francisco himself ran from the spot, but he was soon stopped by a crowd round a crazed paralytic friar, whom the police patrol were dragging to prison. He had been discovered in the act of robbing a church of the relics of a martyr, celebrated for their miraculous efficacy. They had been enclosed in a golden casket, which the priests belonging to the church accused him of attempting to steal, as he had burst it open; but it was only the sacred bones that he wanted, and he held them still in his hand.

The emotion arising from so many successive scenes of madness and affliction became insupportable."

Sicily, any more than those of other coun- was, not sensible himself of these peculiar
tries, to affect this pompous negligence, but drawbacks on his beauty, he rendered them
Signor Corbo had experienced the grandeur more conspicuous by his fondness for danc-
of its effect in the hollow familiarity of his ing, although he had no natural teste for the
intercourse with the great of Palermo.
in the chair of state, he threw a glance of dance, attracting attention to his legs, and
"When Signor Corbo had taken his seat that what with his blunders as to time in the
art, being destitute of any musical ear; so
supreme discernment at the prisoner, and his inordinate conceit of his person, causing
over the multitude, and turning to the se-him not only to hold his head up but to hold
cretary, said with a significant smile, draw-it back in dancing as in walking, he was
ing his hand over his mouth, A bad coun- really a very ridiculous figure.
tenance,' and in the same breath raising his
voice and looking from under his brows, he
addressed the prisoner,

say for yourself?'
Well, friend, what have you got to

66

on good terms with themselves, had a little Signor Gaminetti, like all those who are in consequence regarded as agreeable conspice of satire in his disposition, and he was Father Leonardo, not understanding gentlemen of Sciacca, who in a sociable manpany by many charitable minded ladies and Nothing.' the import of the question, answered timid-ner delighted to pity the faults and misforling-and the clerk recorded the word, that with a pleasant topic. It was however ob'Nothing!' echoed Signor Corbo chuck-Poty and his shell had often furnished him tunes of their neighbours; and the story of is worse than I expected.' often invited to parties, he never gave any in served that although Signor Gaminetti was return; perhaps he thought the invitations but a just tribute to his singular merits."

The author's great felicity lies in briefly, introductions of his characters: we have never read a book in which this difficult task was more tersely and happily performed. We take two or three examples. The head of a Sicilian town

power was never

To match these genuine traits, we give
same country.
the portrait of a medical practitioner of the

66

and laudable for the naïveté of the touches. We consider these to be spirited sketches,

"Signor Corbo, the Prefect, was one of those personages, who have a mighty notion of the importance of office, and especially of black and yellow apothecary, whom his There lived at this time in Sciacca a little magisterial dignity, and he conceived that friends styled Il Medico Gabinetto, but he but in proportion as it was done promptly. Poty Gabi. so wisely administered was more generally known by the epithet of three, and fatigues the reader with a tedious The second volume is the dullest of the Having been once deputed to the capital to it lay as smoothly on his head, as if it had Here new persons start up, figure, and vanish His hair was jet black, and journal of travels in the regions of Caucasus. obtain the modification of a local tax, in been dressed with some of his own ointment. like the shapes of a magic lantern; and as which the members of government took no He commonly wore other interest than as it was productive, waistcoat, speckled with gold, green inex-interest, and disappear without regret on they, at his suggestion, changed it to ano- pressibles, a sky blue silk coat, with large the part of the spectators. We shall not a purple velveteen they rise without effect, they pass without ther, but levied both the original tax and yellow buttons, and a cocked hat that might dwell on such visions, but proceed to the the new one next year. This mission, with have served a grenadier. His watch chain, third volume, for the purpose of extracting the official civility that he had met with, long and dangling, was adorned with many one of the most vigorous and pleasing desturned the head of Signor Corbo, and he trinkets, among others with a small shell, on criptions in the tale-it is that of Castagfancied himself from that time, qualified to which he set great value, as it had been nello's return to his native place. be a minister of state; so that when he re- brought from the West Indies; and when turned home, he conducted himself in a he walked abroad, or to visit his patients, he manner perfectly suitable to this high con- usually carried a silver headed cane, consiceit, making fine speeches that made him-derably taller than the man who grasped it self very ridiculous." by the middle.

"The Prefect, on seeing the crowd approaching, ordered as many to be admitted, as his saloon could hold, and retired to an inner chamber, where his clerk or secretary was sitting paring his nails, having previously mended his pen, preparatory to the important investigation.

"At the upper end of the saloon, into which the officer dragged the innocent capuchin, stood a large marble table, with an inkstand and a brazen lamp on it, at the one end was a chair of state, behind which, and under a canopy, hung the portraits of their Sicilian Majesties, under the right hand side of the table a rush bottomed chair was placed for the secretary.

hotel where he intended to stay, and he felt
so overpowered by the heat, that he stretched
"It was about noon when he reached the
himself on a sofa and fell asleep. When he
as he did of himself: he allowed however of his childhood, he hastily changed his
Nobody thought so much of Poty Gabi, was anxious to revisit the well-known haunts
awoke the day was far declined, but as he
that there might have been doctors who dress and went out.
treated their patients with more success, but be recognized by any of his former acquaint-
was quite sure none carried to the couch ance, for twenty years had passed since he
He did not expect to
of disease more skill, or sent so much medi-had seen any of them, nor did he wish to
patients unaccountably died."
cine, notwithstanding which many of his make himself known.

accounts for the incidental appearance of an-anxious to ascertain if she was still living,
Poty Gabi is robbed of his watch, which villa, which overlooked the town. He was
"His first course was towards his mother's
other character.
and anxious, and reluctant.
house by a painful feeling at once desirous,
but was deterred from going directly to the

seemingly most fervently condoled with "Among those who most frequently and Poty Gabi on the irreparable loss which he had sustained, was a young man of the streets and buildings had universally become As he walked along, he thought the fied with himself than the doctor with his was touched by the hand of time, and wore name of Gaminetti, who was not less satis- of a meaner appearance, and that every thing was indeed a very remarkable person, or several houses where he had been an occaown medical knowledge. Signor Gaminetti an air of decay. He recognized in passing rather, as he thought himself, he possessed sional visitor, and he lingered as he passed, a remarkable person, and that a very hand-in the hope of seeing some one belonging to some one. cheeks were so prettily dimpled, and he the inmates that came from them, were His face was beautiful, and his them, but the guests that went in, and knew this so well, that he constantly ap- strangers. peared with a smiling countenance, but his legs were round and not well formed, and, being inclined to corpulency, his belly was larger than became his years. But as he

66

ed, in all respects, the same as when he left | sion to go to the villa. He did not wish to
it on the fatal evening of his departure for be known: he was desirous to avoid those
Rome. Servants, in the same liveries, stood congratulations which might naturally be
at the portal; the very awnings which were expected on such an occasion, and to shun
extended from the windows, seemed to be enquiries that he could not answer without
the same. Had he, however, enquired, he | equivocation and shame.
would have been informed that the master
was changed; but such is the habitual sys-
tem that grows up with hereditary wealth,
that the characteristics of a great family
often remain for ages unaltered, while the
individuals that compose them fluctuate
with the common tide of life, and are lost
and forgotten in the general stream that has
passed away.

"The first thing that he entirely missed, and it had been long removed, was a little rude shed, attached to a garden wall, immediately without the city, on the road which led to the hill where his mother's residence was situated. Under this shed, an old woman of a singularly neat appearance, and of a mild obliging disposition, was wont to keep a stall for the sale of fruit. She was a great favourite with the neighbouring children, and often in the cool of the shed he had sat in the hot weather with his playmates beside her. But she was dead many years, and a vile assemblage of docks and nettles, and rubbish, occupied the scite of this favorite haunt.

and by the rich pendants of diamonds that sparkled in her cars-a tribute that had been paid to the matchless beauty of her youth -he recognized at last his mother. While he looked with anguish of heart on this fantastic spectacle, and saw that her mind, With a palpitating heart, he went to whose fine natural intelligence had once the gate which led to the garden where the delighted and charmed the most polished musical party were sitting, in an alcove co- spirits of Europe, was even more impaired vered with vines. It was open, but he hesi- than her person, he could not suppress his tated to enter: a young man, of a genteel tears. At that moment the boy who bore air, however, on observing him, invited him his name came to her, and on her attempt to come in. We are celebrating,' said he, to caress the child, she seemed to forget a little festival in honour of a relation who he was, and to address him as her own whom we have not heard of for many years. Castagnello. The boy laughed at her misIt is his birth-day, and he was my benefac-take, and with an arch and playful look, tor; as he is among strangers, strangers are asked her to sing one of her airs. The poor with us to-day most welcome; I therefore weak and vain old woman was pleased with pray you to join our party.' the knavish flattery of the urchin, and began to scream one of her once-admired bravuras, which threw the child into an extacy of laughter-Castagnello could not withstand this: he started from his seat with indignation, and shaking the boy furiously, darted out of the garden, and ran to his lodgings agitated with the bitterest grief he had ever experienced."

Castagnello recollected that it was his own birth-day, a circumstance which he had forgotten; and he could not be mistaken that the youth before him was the child of his sister, for whose education in England he had provided, when in that country. This was the only moment of pure delight that he had ever enjoyed, and it was at once the just and natural reward of the kindness that he had shown to the orphan.

'He accepted the invitation of his nephew, but he was more than ever resolved to remain unknown.

We need add no other proof of the talents of the writer, if more properly directed, and less crudely developed thin in these pages. He appears to us to be a young writer, (though report ascribes the work to Mr. Wilson, "While he was looking at this little scene the Professor of Moral Philosophy) and of desolation, a beautiful girl with a light "The party consisted of about twenty his work to have been cast out without unstep, bearing on her head a basket of flow-persons, besides a number of boys and girls, dergoing that polish, which deference to the ers, came gaily down the hill, singing with the children of his contemporaries. As the public, and a regard for his own fame, ought the jocund carol of youthful animation. He sun was set before he reached the gate, when to have suggested. A little attention would thought he recognized the voice, and when he entered the alcove, it was so obscured by have prevented the occurrence of such vulshe came nearer, he was convinced, in the the umbrageous leaves of the vines, with garity as the mention of ladies setting on a feeling of the moment, that it was Brunetta, which it was covered, that the faces of the sofa; of such blunders as Tartar for Tatar, a the daughter of his nurse, a happy tem- company could not be easily distinguished. Turkish courier; and of such contradictions pered girl, who had often taken pleasure in This afforded him an opportunity of know-as that a prisoner was detained several teasing him while a boy, and he actually ran ing which of his relations were present, but hours' in a room where he was not allowed forward several steps towards her, when he as he heard nothing of his mother, he began to remain long.' (page 269, vol. 2.) These, perceived it was another. He, however, to conclude in sorrow that she was gone to it is true, are but trifles; but it seems too spoke to her, and heard, as if it had been a that country from which no traveller ever much the fashion of late, for able writers to misfortune, that she was the daughter, and returns. He observed, however, an aged fancy that any thing they do is good enough not the eldest, of Brunetta. He thought her lady at the upper end of the alcove, seated on for publication, and therefore they may spare beautiful, but far less so than her mother, an armed chair, which was adorned with themselves the trouble of correcting errors. and turned from her abruptly, while she pur-evergreens and garlands, and raised on a Of the graver fault, generated between the sued her way to the city, and resumed her heat of the mystagogue and the vapour of song with the gaiety of a bird at liberty the pedagogue, we shall offer but two very amidst its native bowers. short examples. The effects of a religious admonition are thus painted :

"As he approached the villa, he heard the sounds of elegant music in the garden, performed with all the skill and taste which, in happier days, distinguished the concerts of his mother's little parties, after her retirement from the stage. He listened with inexpressible delight the whole painful interval since he had last been on that spot seemed cancelled, and when the sonata was ended, he heard his mother call him by name, and chide him as an unruly boy, for having disturbed the performance. But it was another Castagnello, the son of one of his sisters; and it was not his, but the mother of that Castagnello, who chided with so much tenderness.

platform. It was evident that she was the
queen of the festival, and when he reflected
on the other changes he had seen, he thought
that she could be no other than his mother,
but she sat silent: no one noticed her, nor
did she appear to notice any one.

"His observations however had taken a strong hold of the outcast's mind, which in "Soon after he had taken his seat, the the whole course of the journey from Calaservants distributed coloured lamps amidst tabellota to La Catholica, wandered as it the branches of the vines, and by their light were in a chaos of conjectures, and vague he contemplated this figure at leisure. She imaginings. His spirit was like the soul of appeared to be about three-score, and she an Atheist immediately after death, when it was bent into a hoop, but with infirmities finds itself in the eternal regions, and still more than old age. Her figure was mea-doubts if the things and elements around gre, her arins skinny, and her head, which are ever-lasting truths, or the phantasia of drooped and projected over her withered a dream." ! ! ! bosom, shook with palsy. The expression The resolution to change the character of her countenance indicated the last extre- of his actions stood like a beautiful rainbow mity of imbecility and dotage, and a drive-in the clouds that spread darkness over his ling sinile, that mocked all mirth, wavered among her features, as she endeavoured to look round on the lamps as they glittered among the leaves.

"The emotion which this little incident and discovery produced, quite overcame him, and he retired to a distance dissolved in tears, but the sound of music was renewed in a Castagnello perceived that her grey cheerful strain, and he acquired self-posses- | hairs were adorned with a coronal of flowers,

future destiny. As often as he thought of the reception which his brother might give him, a fierce glance of despair flickered like lightning over the prospect, and a deep and aimless misanthropy rolled a peal of terrible and universal vengeance.”

Yet this misanthropical scoundrel is decked out with a hundred virtues by the author. This mode of Nature's journeymen making men,is of evil tendency; for it perplexes and confounds the palpable relations of innocence and guilt.

We shall say no more, but that in the end all the characters die or are executed, having each reached the respective climax of becoming driveller, recluse, or assassin.

Picturesque Tour from Geneva to Milan, by way of the Simplon; illustrated with Thirty-six coloured Views of the most striking Scenes, &c. Designs by the Lorys of Neufchatel: Particulars, historical and descriptive, by F. Shoberl. 4to. pp. 136. London, 1820. The distinction of a work of this class residing in the plates, it is impossible for us to convey to our readers an adequate impression of its nature. The praise of the pen very imperfectly illustrates the merits of the pencil and graver; and we can only state that these plates are generally characteristic, pleasing, well chosen, and ably executed. The work is therefore recommended by beauty in its ornaments; and indeed nothing of the kind can be more remarkable, nor afford a more distinct idea of the extraordinary scenery and stupendous forms of Switzerland; of the magnificent galleries and bridges belonging to the greatest work of Napoleon Buonaparte; and of the glowing loveliness of Italian landscape, than is here presented.

of

"During_the_march of the army of re- part of his property. In this dilemma, Baserve under Buonaparte, when consul, across ron Stockalper had recourse to stratagem: the Great St. Bernard, 1,000 French and he buried large sums under the altar upon Helvetic troops were sent on the 27th May, which he was directed to deposit his fortune, 1800, under General Bethencourt across the and swore that all he possessed was under Simplon to secure the pass of the Yeselles the hand which he extended over the altar. and Domo d'Ossola. Falls of snow and It would be difficult to decide what degree of masses of rock had broken down a bridge, credit ought to be given to this tradition; but and the way for a space of sixty feet was in- from a custom formerly prevalent in the Vaterrupted by a tremendous abyss. A bold lais, it may be presumed to be founded on fellow volunteered to make the following fact. When any individual became too hazardous attempt. Setting his feet in the powerful, a log of wood was exhibited to the holes made in the perpendicular rock to re- people, and each of those who designed to ceive the timbers of the bridge, and stepping associate against him who excited their from hole to hole he fortunately reached the alarm drove a nail into it. The form of this other side. A rope which he took with him log was subsequently changed; it was carv was now stretched at the height of a man ed into the figure of a man, and the head against the rock; General Bethencourt was was adorned with cocks' feathers. Such of the first who holding by this rope, which the citizens as had at heart the maintenance was of no great strength, and pursuing the of the liberties of their country carried this steps of the first adventurer, crossed the statue into a public place. Here they stood chasm. He was followed by all his troops round and asked it questions, but finding that it encumbered as they were with their arms remained silent, they appointed one of their and knapsacks. To commemorate this dar-number to be the interpreter of its will. ing enterprise, the names of all the French When this was made known, the most eloand Helvetic officers are engraven in the quent of the company exhorted the people to rock. There were five dogs with this bat- preserve their ancient customs, and to defend talion. When the last man had got across, the public liberty; the day of execution was all these animals plunged at once into the fixed, and if the unfortunate person against abyss; three of them were immediately car- whom the storm was gathering, could not ried away by the impetuosity of the glacier find means to appease the fury of those who torrent; but the two others were strong were leagued against him, or was unable to enough to contend with the stream and to resist them by force, he was obliged to flee climb the steep rock on the other side, and to leave his possessions at the mercy where maimed and exhausted they made the incensed people, who, headed by the shift to crawl to the feet of their masters." wooden statue, the signal of disorder, broke Near Gondo, (of which a very striking into his house, which they pillaged, and deview is given) "The traveller, as he pursues stroyed all his effects. This custom origi the route, soon observes a large crection of nally instituted for the defence of public simple but gloomy architecture, which ad-liberty, afterwards degenerated and was renmirably harmonizes with the general nature dered subservient to personal or party aniof the surrounding scenery. This is an inn mosity; so that by degrees it fell into disbelonging to the Barons Stockalper, who are use." the proprietors of several buildings of singu lar architecture along this route. It is composed of eight stories, but only two of them "The Library, which owes its origin to are habitable; and here travellers overtaken the illustrious Bonnivard, prior of St. Vic- by a sudden storm find a welcome shelter. tor, at the time of the reformation. It con- A chapel, and some inferior buildings, detains 50,000 printed volumes and 200 ma- pendent upon and belonging to this inn, nuscripts, among which are 24 volumes of form the village of Gondo, which belongs to sermons by Calvin, collections of letters of the Valais, though the Italian language is Calvin, Beza, Bullinger, and other reform-spoken by its inhabitants. ers; sermons by St. Augustine, written "A little to the south of this inn, on the on papyrus, of the 6th century; and a frag-frontiers of the Valais, at Zwischbergen, a ment of the accounts of the expenditure of gold mine was formerly wrought by the Philip the Fair, of the year 1314, consisting family of Stockalper. The gold was found of six small wooden boards covered with a in pyrites, embedded in quartz. M. Maffioli wax-like substance, upon which the letters has for some years been working three perare engraved. In one of the apartments of pendicular veins, and has opened a shaft on the library are deposited optical and mathe- the other side of the river, having reason to matical instruments, anatomical prepara- suppose that the veins are continued so far. tions, antiquities, among which is a circular The stream which comes from Zwischbersilver shield, weighing 34 ounces, with em-gen, and forms a fine cascade opposite to bossed figures, and the inscription:- Lar- Gondo, carries gold sand along with its curgitas D. N. Valentiniani Augusti. It was rent. found in 1721 in the old bed of the Arve. "The family of Stockalper, mentioned No more than two other shields of silver above, posseses extensive property in the from the the time of the Romans are known Valais. It is related that one of its ancestors, to be extant; both are in the royal library by erecting buildings on various hills, awakened the suspicions of his countrymen, who were extremely jealous of their independence, and who sentenced him to forfeit

Mr. Shoberl has also acquitted himself with great ability in the letter press. His recollections are judiciously made, and entertainingly put together, to enhance the interest of the pictures. Of this we shall annex a few instances, and with these recommend the volume to the public. At Geneva, it is stated

"