tween these are bas-reliefs representing different periods in the life of Frederick: the Muse teaching him history; Mercury giving him a sword; walking in the gardens of his palace, surrounded by his favorite companions, greyhounds; playing on his flute; in the weaver's hut; drawing the plan of a battle after his defeat at Rollin. On the front tablet is the following inscription: "To Frederick the Great. Frederick William III., 1840, completed by Frederick William IV., 1851." The equestrian statue is seventeen feet high, and most perfect in all its proportions; a mantle hangs from the monarch's shoulders, his stick hanging from his wrist; all is most perfect and true to life. It is the production of Rauch. At the entrance to the Museum, which is rich in works of art, is the beautiful bronze statue of the Amazon, by Kiss. M. Laing says, "Berlin has the air of the metropolis of a kingdom of yesterday: no Gothic churches, narrow streets, fantastic gable-ends, no historical stone and lime, no remnants of the picturesque age, to recall the olden time. Voltaire in satin breeches and powdered peruke, Frederick the Great in jack-boots and pigtail, and the French classical age of Louis XIV., are the men and times Berlin calls up to the traveler. Berlin is a city of palaces, that is, of huge, barrack-like edifices, with pillars, statues, etc., etc." BERLIN. the town, and the money laid out in stucco-work and outside decorations of the houses would go far toward covering over their drains, raising the water by engines, and sending it in a purifying stream through every street and sewer. This, however, is now being rectified. It is a curious illustration of the difference between the civilization of the fine arts and that of the useful arts in their in fluences on social well-being, that this city, as populous as Glasgow or Manchester, has an Italian opera, two or three theatres, a vast picture-gallery, a statue-gallery, and museums of all kinds; a musical academy, schools of all descriptions, a University with 142 professors, the most distinguished men of science who can be collected in Germany, and is undoubtedly the capital, the central point of taste in the fine arts, and of mind and intelligence in literature for a vast proportion of the enlightened and refined of the European population. Berlin owes much to the taste and munificence of its sovereigns. The quarter called the New Stadt was built by the great elector, Frederick William, in the middle of the 17th century. He also planned Unter den Linden Street, and otherwise greatly enlarged and beautified the city. The succeeding monarchs, especially Frederick I., Frederick the Great, and the late monarch, have added many new streets, The fixtures which strike the eye in the squares, and suburbs, and have embellishstreets of Berlin are vast fronts of build-ed the city with many splendid buildings ings, ornaments, statues, inscriptions, a and monuments. The long bridge of stone profusion of gilding, guard-houses, sentry- which crosses the Spree has a fine equesboxes; the movables are sentries present- trian bronze statue of the great elector, ing arms every minute, officers with feath- Frederick William, and is considered a ers and orders passing unceasingly, hack- work of great merit. Opposite the Guardney droskies rattling about, and numbers house stands the bronze statue of Blucher, of well-dressed people. The streets are and on each side stand the marble statues spacious and straight, with broad margins of Generals Bulow and Scharnhorst, all by on each side for foot-passengers, and a band Rauch. of plain flag-stones on these margins make them much more walkable than the streets of most continental towns. The open kennels, which are boarded over only at the gateways of the palaces to let the carriages cross them, must be particularly convenient for the inhabitants, for they are not at all particularly agreeable. Use reconciles people to nuisances which might be easily removed. A sluggish but considerable river, the Spree, stagnates through The Unter den Linden is considered one of the finest streets in Europe. It is about one mile long, from the royal palace to the Brandenburg gate. The fine avenues in the centre are composed of chestnut, linden, plantain, acacia, and aspen trees, whose various foliage contrasts beautifully with the elegant palaces and public buildings that line each side of the street. Here are the palaces of the Queen of Holland, Prince William of Prussia (son-in-law of |