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WITH the exception of those who go to Germany for the purpose of studying the language or carrying on some mercantile transactions, the English tourists and visitors go there either to "economise" for a few months, or to obtain relaxation and amusement. They find so much that is delightful in the Rhenish provinces that they seldom care to visit any part of Old Prussia. Besides the temptations offered by the scenery of the Rhine, the influence of the French still remains, and renders its inhabitants more disposed to be courteous, lively, obliging, and easy to deal with, than in the provinces which were never so directly and continuously under such influence; besides that the speaking of a little French is still prevalent all along the Rhine, and enables many of our countrymen to help out" their somewhat imperfect German, the study of which was far less common in their school-days. The English usually feel themselves pretty much at their ease in these provinces. True it is they indulge in various small complaints and grumblings, according to their celebrated habit of not conforming to the manners and customs of the foreign places they visit, but of requiring everywhere a resemblance to their own country; provided, however, they are not personally molested or troubled (for they care nothing about being laughed at, if it is not in their very faces), and on the whole well received and attended upon, they contrive to pass their time very pleasantly and find few faults of really serious consideration. Their worst grievances are of a petty, personal kind, and their severest animadversions confined to the mere annoyances and wants in travelling or domestic arrangements. As to the Politics, Religion, or Morals, they know nothing about them, nor think about them. For religion, they are contented with staring at religious processions, seeing the pictures, and hearing the music in the churches and cathedrals; for morals, they merely observe that there is no such laxity as in France and Belgium; and as for politics, the only opinion they form of them is derived from the trouble or no trouble they may have with reference to the examination of their passports. Of the real

political system of Prussia-the condition of the people, and the state of popular feeling and opinion-they know nothing whatever. Nothing appears on the surface, and how should tourists and ephemeral visitors see the truth or hear of it? They would not believe it if they did hear it. Even if some temeritous individual should venture to declare the actually-existing state of things in Prussia, scarcely any one who was merely passing through towns, or up and down the river, could credit his statements. Everything appears so calm, religious, and contented. Besides, therefore, the evidence of his every-day senses, the tourist would settle any accidental doubts that were presented to his mind by referring to the name of Cousins, and the excellent system of education in Prussia, and to the amicable reception of Friedrich Wilhelm IV. at the court of England, in which favourable impressions he would absorb all the unknown evils that exist. It will be the business of the "Englishman in Prussia" to display the true state of affairs in that country.

He, then, the above individual (and the word He may just as well be adopted as the word We), went to reside in Prussia-not with any definite object of studying German or music; not to seek amusement; and certainly not to write a book: he went there chiefly to rest himself after writing a book, and to take the chance of such additions to his stock of German and music as might be had without much labour, and such amusements as might be had without much seeking after. He associated very little with those of his own country whom he met there, but chiefly with Germans. Being thus open to the ingress of all predominant opinions and interests of the country, he almost unawares found himself, in the course of seven or eight months, in possession of political systems and secrets of a kind which he had never conceived to exist in so apparently single-minded and paternal a government.

No formal treatise is about to be written, and no regular and systematic development of facts or principles is to be expected from these papers. The writer did not, as he has previously said, go to reside in Prussia with any such intention; he kept no journal, ferreted out no dark plots and policies, and in his note-book he did not put down "everything," but only such impressions as presented themselves to him unsought for, and such statements of highly-educated Germans "made him prick up his ears." The first strong impression he received was quite a physical one, viz., that of extreme sickness and giddiness from the fumes of

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very rank tobacco; his second strong impression was that of astonishment at the unvarying ugliness of the faces of the Rhenish peasantry, male and female. These observations may not seem very philosophical to set out with; nevertheless the "Englishman" thought both these circumstances of further import than the immediate fact, and begs to offer a few words in excuse for the apparent levity. Many German gentlemen are by no means particular as to the kind of tobacco they smoke, and it is often so strong and rank as to be scarcely endurable in a room by an uninitiated foreigner; but as for the pipes of the peasantry, they are almost invariably filled with some of the rankest. The present sufferer had had sufficient experience of abundant smoking in the West Indies, the United States, Canada, &c., but he was not proof against poison for all that; and consequently, having mixed among the peasantry in the market-place, on the first market-day after his arrival, he received the very unpleasant sensations just alluded to, and subsequently among crowds upon various occasions the same result occurred. Well, here is a whole nation of constant smokers! Many gentlemen appear to have the pipes in their mouths during at least one-half of the day, and the majority of the peasantry the whole day. The labourers in the fields have all their pipes in their mouths while at work, and these pipes are only laid down a minute upon great occasions and emergencies requiring the highest efforts; the same thing is seen among all the working classes. If a house is being built, you see all the bricklayers with pipes in their mouths; the coachmen drive, the gardeners dig, the tailors stitch, the butchers "kill," all with pipes in their mouths. One can regard it in no other light than a national mania. Now, with this constant action upon the physical system, can anybody doubt that it must have a positive effect upon the mind? Unquestionably it has when not stupifying, it is narcotic, sedative, or "calming," a condition most congenial to endurance, and to the proceedings of priest-ridden and despotic governments. Physically, the effect is most probably injurious. The Germans say that smoking promotes easy digestion. It may be so; and after the extraordinary mixture of strange things, and the quantity that is eaten by nearly all who can afford it, this property of tobacco must be admitted as of great virtue; but the peasantry and working classes are not so circumstanced, as their food is much lighter and much less, and certainly is quite within the " " of the exercise of daily work. It may therefore be fairly assumed that

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their incessant smoking of this rank stuff, has a considerable share in the injury of bodily strength.

The working classes in Prussia are hardy, from early habits of privation or exposure, but scarcely ever possess muscular strength, and still seldomer activity. As for personal beauty, of form or face, in either sex, the absence of any signs of such things are very remarkable. Surely the fact of thousands of women, girls inclusive, passing along a street where the "Englishman," had planted himself with earnest eyes, and not presenting one single pretty face, nor one healthy, rosy, or ordinarily goodlooking face, is not a trifling matter, but to be regarded, in a national sense, as a very serious circumstance. Thousands, did he say? he has several times stood and watched the slow passage along a street, of five, ten, and twenty thousands of the Prussian peasantry, walking along, two, three, and four abreast, in a religious procession, and has not been able to discover a single handsome face or fine form among the whole of the adult men and women, nor one pretty or rosy-cheeked face among all the girls. Why should this be? Not only the upper and middle classes, but the humble classes, among the town's people, present many very fine forms and handsome faces. It cannot be the rank tobaccosmoking of the peasantry, because the young women, at least, do not smoke; and if their faces are smoke-dried by the pipes of the family, that would not, at the same time, wither up the juices of the body, and injure its development. Besides all this, there is the soul-and-body expression of the countenance in all those masses of people. In all it is one and the same-dry, withered, tawny, hard, dull, stupified, enduring; mentally prostrate, and prematurely old. Can all these come of rank tobacco? No; whatever share it may have in those characteristics, there are two other things— a hard life for the body, and gross superstition for the mind.

The diet of the peasantry is very poor, of little nutriment, and not enough in quantity. In the winter they undergo considerable privation; their houses, huts, and hovels, being ill-built,-fuel expensive, and their clothing not warm enough. As for work, the men do not work harder than our agricultural labourers; but the women and girls do, and at laborious work, of a kind only fit for men. It is true the women and girls in many of our districts throughout England, work quite as hard as those of whom we are at present speaking, and yet often present handsome faces and stout forms; but it will almost always be found, in such instances,

that their diet is better. The South Staffordshire colliers live upon the best of diet. Nor would a comparison with the women and girls in our manufactories be any nearer, as the characteristics are totally different. The women and girls of the Prussian peasantry are far from being weak, delicate, malformed, or sickly-they are simply ugly, hard-featured, and meagre. This appearance is confined to the peasantry, even in cases where they reside within a mile of the towns, in which no such characteristics prevail among the humbler classes.

The handsomest and finest girls in these towns, are the better sort of servant girls, and more especially the dressmakers. That these latter work hard from six or seven in the morning to six or seven at night, is undoubted; but there is no such thing as "night-work" in Prussia, and there are many Festtage and Feiertage (feast-days and holy-days), besides Sundays, when no sort of work is done; and "after Church" there is nothing but amusement. The poorest servants of all-work, or kitchen-maids, usually dance well; can read and write well; have their lovers, and, indeed, are very fond of writing love-letters. As for the milliner and dress-maker girls, and girls who serve in shops, their personal appearance, in all respects, is often of a superior kind. The diet of these classes is probably something better than that of the peasantry, and besides, their work being of a nature more suitable to females, they are not so constantly exposed to the weather, nor to the atmosphere of the rank tobacco of the little huts and cottages of the country-people. Moreover, the dress of the town's women is graceful and becoming, while that of the peasants is the most ungraceful and unbecoming that could well be invented. These differences of circumstance may still be thought hardly sufficient to account for the wonderful difference that has been stated to exist between the appearance of the above classes, living, as they often do, in such close neighbourhood. It is one thing to state a problem, and another to solve it. The writer, however, can do no more towards it, unless, indeed, the presence of a greater amount of superstition may help to account for the stolidity, or mental prostration, so visible in the face of the peasants.

Superstition is carried to the grossest extent among the Prussian peasantry, in the Rhine provinces. There is scarcely anything too extravagant or ridiculous for their belief. Even when the object they are called upon to worship, is a tangible, matter-of-fact absurdity, they worship it without hesitation. The instances that