have grown very menacing for Europe; but she had no influence on his management of home affairs, which he neglected more and more. At Madame de Krüdener's he met other persons holding similar views-Bergasse, the old adept of mesmerism, and the talented, gentle Madame de Lezay-Marnesia, whose husband had been murdered when Prefect of Strasbourg. This lady had devoted herself entirely to religious duties, and believed with the Krüdener that Providence had paved the way for a holy alliance between France and Russia for the restoration of religion and piety. Louis XVIII. employed the Duc de Richelieu, a perfect courtier of attractive presence, to gain over the new Thaumaturge, and through her convince the emperor that Heaven expected from him the salvation and maintenance of France. Alexander's immediate entourage, Capodistrias, Nesselrode, and Pozzo di Borgo, who already mentally saw himself minister of Louis XVIII., gladly left their master exposed to such influences.

Alexander became a staunch friend of Louis XVIII., and, in concord with England, determined that no territorial diminution should take place. At last Prussia was isolated, for even Austria went over to the opposite side. Prussia then had the choice either to declare war against France, and thus dissolve the great alliance, or yield her own convictions to the wishes of her allies. Although this step was so hard, it was eventually taken, and the affair settled. A change of ministers took place in France, and on the 2nd of October the conference agreed to the following terms: France would revert to the frontier of 1790, so that Landau, Sarrelouis, Philippeville, and Marienburg, with Versoix, Savoy, and Monaco, should be given up, and Hüningen rased. On the other hand, Avignon, the Venaissin, and Mümpelgard would be left to France. The war contribution was settled at 700 millions, and seventeen fortresses, from Fort Louis to Cambray, would be occupied by 150,000 of the allies, at the expense of France. This measure was to last a maximum of five years; but at the end of three an inquiry would be instituted as to whether the security of France would allow the withdrawal of the troops. Out of the war contribution, each great power received 100 millions, while one hundred were divided among the other allied states, fifty being allotted for the English and Prussian armies. The Netherlands and Sardinia, which had received a territorial aggrandisement, gave up their 100 millions in favour of Austria and Prussia. The whole terminated by the drawing up of the holy alliance between Alexander, Frederick William, and Francis. In this document they agreed, in grateful remembrance of the successes achieved during the last three years through Divine Providence, to take the precepts of the Christian religion as the basis of their actions. Henceforth they would be united as true brothers, and regard themselves as the fathers of their subjects, and lead them in the same spirit of fraternal affection. Finally, all the other powers which did homage to the same principles would be allowed admission to the alliance. The idea of this treaty had emanated from Madame de Krüdener, and had been discussed in an interview with Alexander and Bergasse, the emperor himself drawing up the rough sketch. No secret agreement against the liberty of the people was connected with it, nor did the three princes entertain any designs for the injury of other states, though it is probable that Alexander's entourage, more especially Capodistrias, regarded the alliance as a weapon, which in good time could be turned against the Turks. Such apprehensions were, indeed, openly expressed

when the alliance was formed.

From these struggles and discussions, Germany gained the bitterly purchased lesson, that none of the great European powers conscientiously desires her salvation, safety, and strength; that each of them is ready, in any circumstances, to carry on war with German blood and German arms; that German powers, great and small, are, in the hour of danger, courted and encouraged to devote themselves by the most flattering promises, but so soon as German armies have gained the victory and the common enemy is overthrown, no German power, whether great or small, can calculate on just compensation or the necessary guarantee of independence, but, on the contrary, must anticipate that the other powers will rejoice over Germany's losses. Germany must found no hopes either on England or France, and must reckon solely on herself. And whenever the time arrives that no German longer humiliates himself to become the mercenary of the stranger-whenever all small passions, all subordinate views, are relieved by the feeling of nationality-whenever, in consequence of a unity of sentiment, one powerful will guides the destiny of Germany, she will again become, as in her former powerful era, strong, and feared in Europe-till then, she must endure

and be silent.

With the second restoration, Stein's political life, in so far as it possesses interest for the English reader, may be said to have terminated. For years he devoted himself to the welfare of his fatherland, and ever showed himself the sworn foe of oppression. At last, however, he retired almost entirely from the political stage, and devoted himself to literature. With indefatigable energy he roused the nation to a sense of the importance of its historical monuments, and spared no money or labour to collect the materials for a truly national work. To this is owing that splendid collection, the "Monumenta Historica Germaniæ," which has thrown a perfectly new light on the past history of a great nation. During the later period of his life, Stein was in constant correspondence with all the great men of his age, and the letters which have been preserved, written by such men as Blücher, Humboldt, Arndt, and Niebuhr, add a great charm to the work we have had under consideration.

Baron von Stein's long and well-spent life terminated at Cappenberg, in Westphalia, on the 29th of June, 1831, when in the seventy-fourth year of his age. His marble bust has been placed in the Walhalla by order of Louis of Bavaria, but his memory will live ære perennius in the hearts of his countrymen so long as one German is left whose aspirations turn to liberty and justice, and who thirsts for the grandeur and prosperity of his fatherland.

ALGERIA.

IT depends a good deal how a book of travel in Algeria is treated whether it will prove interesting or not. The picture of the extreme contrasts between French liveliness and Oriental reserve-between the froth of civilisation and the dregs of bigotry—a billiard-table in a fleabitten caravanserai, or a salle de danse in the date-grove of a ruinous marabut's tomb -are tolerably familiar to the minds of most, but it is still possible to pen some novel impressions, some graphic touches descriptive of a state of things which must ever be essentially picturesque, and, when not tragic, droll by their very nature; and M. Charles Marcotte de Quivières,* who, when landing at Algiers, embraces, French fashion, his dear friend De Codrosy-with all the more zest as, till he met with him, he declares he had seen nothing but figures that terrified him!—is just the man in whose company to seek for naïve and homely, yet truthful sketches of the actual state of things in the Franco-African territory.

First impressions are everything, especially where every day European civilisation gives an additional blow to the old foundations, and people must hasten who wish to see what remains of the original physiognomy of a country.

It is impossible (says our author) to depict the effect which the sight of this new world produced upon me; tortuous streets, little more than a yard in width at the base, and the houses literally coming in contact at the first story; passages into which I should never have dared to enter had I been alone, so dark, dirty, and sinister did they appear to be; swarms of Moors, Arabs, and Jews; Bedouins of the plain, with white, brown, and striped burnuses; some wearing turbans, others covered with the haïk, fastened with a camel's rope; dark, sunburnt faces; some walking silently and majestically, others mounting the narrow, steep streets like monkeys; some crouched down like wild beasts, others smoking their pipes with infinite gravity at the doors of their houses. A few Moorish women, clothed from head to foot in a long white garment, which only allows the dark pupil of their eyes to be seen, were slowly ascending, followed by a slave, the little pathways that led to the bath. The walls without windows; the holes that served to let the light in; the shops, little more than a yard square, in which a man and a boy managed to squeeze themselves behind dates, oranges, perfumes, and wax tapers; and, lastly, the absence of any Europeans (this was in the old part of the town) in these streets of so strange an aspect, altogether so filled me with surprise, that for a moment I fancied myself transported to the Cirque Olympique on the Boulevard du Temple.

The concluding comparison is a pure cockney antithesis, an unmitigated Parisian badaudism. We do not know anything more crushing than to compare the old streets of the citadel of the Deys of Algiers with the Cirque Olympique, except when a cockney is reminded by the Col du Géant of a scene in William Tell!

The natives sing out in the streets of Algiers "Guarda !" (take care), the French shout "Balek!" This is not an uncommon feature in hu

* Deux ans en Afrique. Par Charles Marcotte de Quivières, avec une Introduction par le Bibliophile Jacob.

manity. An Alexandrine will bully a donkey-boy in bad Arabic; the boy will reply in English. The bouricauts of Algiers, M. de Quivières informs us, are so small, that when an Arab is mounted on them with his burnuse, nothing is to be seen but a kind of animal with a man's head. Without being aware of it, the writer gives an additional force to the argument of the learned, that the invasion from the East by horsemen, on tzachons (Judges v. 10), or painted asses, was the origin of the fabled Centaurs.

M. de Quivières did not expect to find the Hôtel du Louvre at Cherchell, but he did not also anticipate the extremely remote counterpart to that renowned hotel that he did meet with: a house rent by earthquakes and time; a room with a bed of straw for its sole furniture; a window without glass; rats that ran away, and two scorpions that remained to be trodden under foot, were collectively not very inviting. Nor was he much more lucky when he went in search of refreshment. It was not till after some wandering about that he discovered an inscription, "Restaurant de la Colonie, on sert à la porcion." And he did get a porcion, but what it was he never found out, and is even still making the wildest guesses to discover. Add to all these grievances, the old port of Julia Cæsarea was garrisoned by "Zephyrs," so called from being as cunning as monkeys and as thievish as cats; so he had to sleep with pistols under his head and a drawn dagger by his side, to protect himself, not from the Arabs, but from his own countrymen.

Our traveller was, as a matter of course, initiated soon after his arrival into the mysteries of a wild-boar hunt. The results were as unsatisfactory as they usually are to a novice. First, when the Arabs beat the marshes of the Metidja, all that he saw issue forth were "two black masses, which appear to roll with the rapidity of a whirlwind." As to his companions, he was left so far behind that he actually lost sight of them altogether, and all he was able to distinguish of the hallali was a kind of mast with a flag, that seemed to move about in a very uncertain manner, amidst the dwarf palms. This was a lance fixed between the wild boar's shoulders!

He also went to see that which is of rarer occurrence since the indomitable Gérard has exterminated all the monarchs of the Atlas—a lion hunt. "Je ne voulais," he intimates, "me hasarder qu'en bonne et nombreuse compagnie." So particular was he indeed upon this score, that although he had ten men armed with pikes and rifles, and twenty picked riflemen who were to take up a position solely with regard to his safety while the others were hunting, he still did not feel quite secure, and he rejoiced exceedingly when a group of sailors came to swell up the numbers; their "allure solide et degagée nous donnait," he 66 says, en cas d'événement, une certaine confiance." Colonel Daumas was at the head of the hunt, which presented positively cavalcades of officers, chasseurs, and Arabs. Almost all were on horseback; few volunteered to be among the footmen; it was with difficulty that Colonel Daumas could muster twenty-four out of such a host. The colonel was so disappointed that he sent to the Maison Carrée for a detachment of tirailleurs indigènes. M. de Quivières had volunteered to be one of the twenty-four Gordon Cummings, so he extemporised an address to the remainder. He had not come, he said, with

the intention to act as tracker or beater, as people seemed to think; nor did he intend to penetrate into the cover; and his advice was that they should take up a position and stick well together. As none of the party cared for the lion breakfasting off their much-esteemed bodies, the address met with considerable applause, and was carried unanimously. This agreed upon, they followed the white banners of the horsemen. Not so the "tirailleurs" from the Maison Carrée: "when they learnt that they were expected to enter into the cover in order to drive the lion from its lair, they disbanded and took flight to the surrounding heights, without any one being able to prevent them."

Colonel Daumas was in the mean time disposing his forces to the best possible advantage, when suddenly a loud roar was heard. The effect appears to have been electrical. "Tout le monde resta muet: on se regardait avec effroi, sans oser bouger." The very horses trembled, and the dogs crouched between the legs of the gallant sportsmen. Every one seemed to say to the other, "The lion is there!" but no one took the initiative in moving towards the spot whence the ominous sound proceeded. The alternate entreaties and threats of the colonel failed to induce any of the Arabs to sacrifice themselves for the amusement of the others. At last the colonel himself got off his horse, and taking a rifle led the way. M. de Quivières was one of those who boldly followed. His hopes were that as there was a fat volunteer in front, the lion would prefer so well-conditioned an individual to himself, who was of rather spare habits. The party walked on tiptoe through the cover and gained an eminence on the opposite side, "le cœur dégonflé," he intimates-"wonderfully relieved." They then came to the heroic determination of making another trouée -for our author is himself ashamed to call a walk on tiptoe in a file through the cover a battue—and, Dieu merci! he adds, it ended like the first, without seeing the lion. This wondrous feat done, Colonel Daumas got on his horse, and recommended the sportsmen to follow him to the adjacent valleys. They did so, but they all felt quite certain that they were leaving the lion behind them in the cover, and after a long walk they returned on the road to Algiers "enchantés du résultat de la chasse,” which, we fear, would not have served to enhance their prowess as sportsmen among the Arabs. As to M. de Quivières, he declared that he had experienced emotions enough, which manifestly means that he was in a dreadful fright, and if ever he went lion-hunting again, he resolved that he would go on horseback as an amateur, and the only arm he would have should be a telescope. He was not, however, the only one who experienced emotions on the occasion. While the gallant little band of riflemen were treading their way tiptoe across the cover in as straight a line as they could find, a mounted officer, De Noue by name, seeing that nothing was on the move, ventured also to push his horse a short way in. He had not gone far, however, before his steed began to plunge and neigh, and its mane stood on end; at the same time he heard a hoarse noise, and saw an enormous beast of a reddish-brown colour moving in the shrubbery. Striking his spurs into his horse's flanks he turned its back upon the terrible apparition and galloped out of the cover, convinced that the lion was bounding after him. Once clear of the jungle he stopped short, and then found that it was a tame camel that he had to