darkness, upon the icy carpetless floor, to recover your detestable and accursed companion.

The furniture of the house is for the most part ill-made and badly put together, like the slop-work articles of our cheap upholsterers or furniture-brokers. Heads and points of nails and screws often project from chairs, tables, and sofas; as also splinters and sharp edges of badly-finished articles, to the frequent injury of the clothes, and the hands or other parts of the person. The sofas in the great majority of houses, and in all lodging-houses, are manifestly not made to lie or loll upon, because if you do so, you are sure to start a plank," or knock out the back or sides. Twice have I had the upper half of me deposited upon the floor behind, in consequence of sinking back with misplaced confidence upon my sofa, on returning home fatigued. The sofa-back fell out in an instant.

The Germans pride themselves very much on their tailors, and of late years they have claimed the honour of making boots equal to the Parisian cordonniers. Their clothes are certainly well made, and the fit excellent. You purchase your own materials, cloth and silk, and the expense altogether, at the highest, is yet one-third cheaper than the same article in "quality and cut can be obtained in England; in some cases (such as silk, satin, velvet, and other fancy waistcoats) the price is less than half. The boots made by the best bootmakers are also about a third cheaper, well made and durable. The objection to the shape which an Englishman would always make is that adopted in the toes of the boots, which extend two inches and more beyond the actual toes, and speedily acquire an upward direction, as if intended to cover some withered excrescence at the end of the foot. German gentlemen dress well, with great care and neatness, and with good taste, even on "the bright side of things;" a style which is always dangerous, and requires many additions to justify and carry off becomingly. Clean hands are an important addition, and certainly a very uncommon one. The ladies dress well; but, considering their station, no young women dress so well as the bonnet-makers, sempstresses, shop-girls, and that class. The prevailing characteristic of good dressing among the younger women of all ranks is the arrangement of the hair. This is generally dark and profuse, and the great beauty of it is displayed in a variety of graceful plaits, bands, rolls, or shell-shaped designs at the back of the head; and as they commonly have handsome necks and shoulders, the effect is quite beautiful, and

in many cases, no doubt, irresistible. The objectionable portion of women's dress of all ranks is the shape of their shoes. Nothing can exceed the uncouthness and ugliness. The shoe presents just such an appearance as would be obtained if a lady dipped her foot slowly into a bason of blacking as high as the ankle,—took it out carefully, and allowed it to dry and cake.

It is impossible to pass over German cookery. Many of their dishes are excellent; and of their three hundred methods of dressing potatoes, a very desirable selection might be made. A great many of their soups also, for flavour, wholesomeness, and economy, are not to be surpassed. But for originality, for inventiveness, for the bringing together of the most apparently uncongenial and incongruous materials, they certainly exceed anything that an Englishman could imagine. The table d'hôte of a good hotel always presents an agreeable variety. Pea-soup with slices of raw beef in it, or followed by raw herrings ("cured" in some way, but not cooked); baked beef with preserved plums, and hot yellow goose-fat laid upon slices of brown bread or toast, may seem rather startling to delicate stomachs. Baked ducks stuffed with chestnuts and onions, and garnished with a sauce of pickled cherries or very sour brandy-cherries; potatoes fried with vinegar and sugar; turnips covered with cinnamon; and black pudding" assisted" by baked pears preserved in syrup; potatoes stewed with onions and sugar; French beans fried in brown sugar; and boiled salmon smothered in custard, or a light batter pudding;-all these may appear ingenious, if not generally seductive. After a great many dishes of this kind, the last that comes before the desert, is almost always hot baked mutton with a rich brown sauce, made "thick and slab." The following specimens of Koch-Kunst will also be found interesting :-a duck stuffed with almonds and apples; raw ham with pancakes and salad; potatoes and caraway comfits; a turnip sliced, and made delicious with rock-salt, pepper, and caraways to be eaten with coffee; a hare stuffed with chestnuts, &c. In the matter of poultry, the German cooks have need of all their art, as there is really very little flesh upon the bones of their fowls; and a goose is commonly a mere skeleton, with a gristle and a thick yellow fatty tough skin over it; in fact, an English friend has truly designated it when he said a German goose was just like "a little fiddle in a leathern bag." The use of blood in many of their dishes is alarming to our notions of refinement, especially as it is made no secret of " the art," but is

openly carried in jugs and cups from slaughter-houses. The legs of mutton are also apt to be very muscular and pipy. The King of Prussia sends to Windsor for his mutton. How gladly would every Englishman in Prussia do the same.

The wines of the country are light, clear, wholesome, and very agreeable, when you get used to the peculiar flavour which most of the best possess. The red wines of Germany are commonly half the price of the white wines. Some of the former are really little better than a rough sort of red ink; others, however, are very good, and not without strength. The poorest of the white wines simply resemble bad vinegar, and a quantity of sugar is sometimes used in drinking it—not generally, though;— the eternal pipe qualifies everything. The best of the white wines, whether the high-flavoured hock or Moselle wines, are by no means cheap, in fact the same price as Champagne. The finest of all these white wines costs the merchant himself six shillings a bottle on the very vineyard of its birth. The price of these wines varies, not merely with the district and aspect of its growth, but even with the part of the mountain. Thus, the grapes are not of so rich a quality in the vineyards at the top of the mountain as at its foot, nor at its foot so rich as in the centre. The sun remains longer there, and consequently those grapes contain the most sugar. They draw distinctions in this matter between vineyards that are within a few yards of each other, and apparently with The Schartzberger has by no means the same fine flavour as the Schartzhofberger, though both grow upon the same mountain. We have seen the whole course of the vintage seasonwine-making and all-and feel convinced that the distinction is always well founded. Coffee in Germany is very good, and pretty well made; but the tea is always poor, if not detestable. The greatest portion of what is sold for tea, is not tea at all; we have often dried the leaves, and found them to be demonstrable hedge-row impostors. Besides, the water with which it is made does not properly boil; nor can you get really boiling water in Germany, unless you take out a tea-kettle (as they have none) and see to it yourself. The urn they bring you at the hotels never really boils.

reason.

Those hotels only which have been accustomed to the visits and residence of English people, are comfortably habitable to English people. This is the case now with all the principal hotels, and even those of the second class are now aware when they have got a troublesome customer. "We would rather have

ten Germans than one Englishman in the house," is a common saying, with reference to the trouble given. No wonder we give trouble where nothing is comfortable or "fit," according to our habits. They say we ought to “ conform," as Germans do when they go to England. Yes-well they may conform-it is easy to conform to a nest of clover, as they must surely find our houses after their windy abodes. But let us imagine an Englishman of the middle class, and accustomed-we will not say to the firstrate hotels, but to the best commercial hotels of his own country: let us merely imagine him entering his bed-room in a German inn, and discovering bare boards in the coldest weather, no sort of curtains or hangings to his bed, draughts from windows and crevices all round, a strong smell of stale tobacco-smoke, a towel the size of a shaving-cloth, and a jug and bason no bigger than a milk-jug and slop-bason-or else the water is contained in a winebottle, and to obtain more is of course one of the "troubles " given by an Englishman. Then the landlord and waiters place themselves at once on the most easy, familiar, and indifferent terms with you. We once called at an inn where a certain learned physician lodged. We met the landlord on the stairs. "Is Mr. Doctor L- within?" The landlord passed on, saying, as he disappeared through a door, "I haven't the least idea; you can go and look." Being very busily engaged one day in writing, we paid no attention to the entrance of the waiter, who came in to look after the stove, as it was a cold day at the latter end of autumn. He passed round behind our chair to do something or other, and we continued writing. Presently we began to feel horridly cold, and with a wind cutting into the back of our neck; when, looking round, there was my lord the waiter leaning out of the window, which he had opened for the purpose, laughing and chatting with a girl, who was leaning out of a window from the next house! These sorts of things are of daily occurrence. I allude to the regular German inns and ordinary hotels, which are the true versions of nationality in these respects. I do not allude to the hotels constantly frequented by English families and travellers, for these are "sophisticated." Yet these are all that are described by most of our tourists.

The manners of the Germans are polite, pleasant, cordial, and very ceremonious; not in all respects refined (the contrary in respect of "smoking and spitting," and in some habits at table &c.), but for the most part obliging, and without any of those airs of

pride and superciliousness with which Englishmen are so constantly and so justly taxed. A German, of whatever rank, is pretty sure to return a civil answer to any decent person who addresses him. They converse freely with strangers, and are never averse to begin the conversation, except with an Englishman, because they say, and very truly, that whenever a stranger, (his own countrymen included) speaks first to an Englishman, the "great man" immediately thinks the speaker wants to be acquainted with him, and therefore he will not encourage such familiarity! The German manners may be regarded on the whole as frank, unreserved, and pleasing; but we must except the ladies of the middle class, who are all rather reserved, and "out of doors abominably so. The style in which a lady of this class receives a salutation from any gentleman in the streets, of whatever country, is like the most chilling and repelling "cut." This is not intended; it is merely thought good style, especially in all small, and therefore scandal-talking towns. As for the younger girls, they pass you in the streets with faces as hard as if carved in wood, and even in cases where the wearers of these faces are well known in the town to belong to no such unimpressible and impregnable fortresses as they would have you believe.

The question of a nation's "morals" is rather a nice subject— in fact, it is always rendered a ticklish matter to discuss “morals" in our own country, by reason of the vulgar limitation of the sense of the term-which vulgarity has now become universal among us. It refers to just one thing. Justice, honour, truthfulness, fair dealing, charitableness, sincerity of feeling-none of these qualities are included. The one thing always meant by "morals is the legal or illegal commerce of the two sexes. Now, with respect to justice and even-handedness among the Germans, we should say that, as a national characteristic, they are more prevalent than in most nations; and the same may be said of honour and truthfulness; but it will be understood by all who have read the previous papers of this series, that we by no means include the Prussian government or its bureaucratical officers in this compliment.* Of

* A gentleman named Brooks (in all probability an Englishman), had written some account of the Prussian soldiery. He was accused of treachery ; seized, tried, and acquitted at Aix. The minister Kamptz (this was during the reign of the present king's father) said he was astonished at such a verdict; had him again seized and trought before the court at Magdeburg, which found him guilty, and he was imprisoned for more than a twelvemonth! But worse than all (as an insult to Justice and a free court), the minister ordered the court at Aix to reverse its decision,-which it was bliged to do!