noticed in the mountains of Nepaul and Cabul, and has long characterised the Arabian tribes: and indeed it belongs generally to all classes of the people in those situations where the debasing effects of the progress of wealth and the division of labour have not been felt, and where, from whatever causes, the individuals of the lower ranks of life are called into active and strenuous exertion, and compelled to act for themselves in the conduct of life. If a stranger, however, behaves towards the Tyrolese peasantry with the ordinary courtesy with which an Englishman is accustomed to address the people of his own country, there is no part of the world in which he will meet a more cordial reception, or where he will find a more affectionate and grateful return for the smallest acts of kindness. Among these untutored people, the gratitude for any good deed on the part of their superiors, is not, as in more civilised states, the result of any habitual awe for their rank, or of any selfish consideration of the advantage to be derived from cultivating their good will. It is the spontaneous effusion of benevolent feeling of feeling springing from the uncorrupted dictates of their hearts, and enhanced by the feudal attachment with which they are naturally inclined to regard those in a higher rank than themselves. Though the Tyrolese are entirely free, and though the emperor possesses but a nominal sovereignty over them, yet the warm feelings of feudal fidelity have nowhere maintained their place so inviolate as among their mountains; and this feeling of feudal respect and affection is extended by them to the higher classes, whenever they behave towards them with anything like kindness or gentleness of manners. It has arisen from

the peculiar situation of their country in which there are few of the higher orders, where the peasantry possess almost the entire land of which it consists, and where, at the same time, the bonds of feudal attachment have been preserved with scrupulous care, for political reasons, by their indulgent government, that the peasantry have united the independence and pride of republican states with the devoted and romantic fidelity to their sovereign, which characterises the inhabitants of monarchical realms. Like the peasants of Switzerland, they regard themselves as composing the state, and would disdain to crouch before any other power. Like the Highlanders of Scotland, they are actuated by the warmest and most enthusiastic loyalty towards their sovereign; and like them, they have not scrupled, on many occasions, to expose their lives and fortunes in a doubtful and often hopeless struggle in his cause. From these causes has arisen that singular mixture of loyalty and independence, of stubbornness and courtesy, of republican pride and chivalrous fidelity, by which their character is distinguished from that of every other people in Europe.

Honesty may be regarded as a leading feature in the character of the Tyrolese, as indeed it is of all the German people. In no situation, and under no circumstances is a stranger in danger of being deceived by them. They will in many instances sacrifice their own interests rather than betray what they consider so sacred a duty as that of preserving inviolate their faith with foreigners. In this respect their conduct affords a very striking contrast to the conduct of the French and Italians, whose rapacity and meanness have long been

observed and commented on by the traveller. Yet amidst all our indignation at that character, it may well be doubted whether it does not arise naturally and inevitably from the system of government to which they have had the misfortune to be subjected. Honesty is a virtue practised and esteemed among men who have a character to support, and who feel their own importance in the scale of society. Generally it will be found to prevail in proportion to the weight which is attached to individual character; that is, to the freedom which the people enjoy. Cheating, on the other hand, is the usual and obvious resource of slaves, of men who have never been taught to respect themselves, and whose personal qualities are entirely overlooked by the higher orders of the state. If England, and Switzerland and the Tyrol, had been subjected, by any train of unfortunate events, to the same despotism which has degraded the character of the lower orders in France and Italy, they would probably have had as little reason as their more servile neighbours to pride themselves on the honesty and integrity of their national character.

Alison's Miscellaneous Essays.

THE NAME OF ENGLAND AND THE ENGLISH.

Two brothers and adventurers of an obscure Saxon tribe raised their sign of the White Horse on British land: the visit was opportune, or it was expected this remains a state secret. Right welcomed were they by the British monarch and his perplexed council amid their intestine dissensions, as friendly allies, renowned for their short and crooked swords called

Saxons, which had given a generic name to their tribes.

These descendants of Woden, for such even the petty chieftains deemed themselves, whose trade was battle, and whose glory was pillage, showed the spiritless what men do, who know to conquer, the few against the many. They baffled the strong, and they annihilated the weak. The Britons were grateful. The Saxons lodged in the land, till they took possession of it. The first Saxon founded the kingdom of Kent; twenty years after, a second in Sussex raised the kingdom of the South Saxons; in another twenty years appeared the kingdom of the West Saxons. It was a century after the earliest arrival that the great emigration took place. The tribe of the Angles depopulated their native province, and flocked to the fertile island, under that foeman of the Britons whom the bards describe as 66 The Flame Bearer," and "The Destroyer." Every quality peculiar to the Saxons was hateful to the Britons, even their fairness of complexion. Taliessin terms Hengist

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a white-bellied hackney," and his followers are described as of "hateful hue and hateful form." The British poet delights to paint "a Saxon shivering and quaking, his white hair washed in blood; and another sings how "close upon the backs of the pale-faced ones were the spear points."

Already the name itself of Britain had disappeared among the invaders. Our island was now called "Saxony beyond the sea," or "West Saxon Land," and when the emigrating Saxons had expatriated themselves from the land of their fathers, those who remained faithful to their native hearths, perhaps proudly distinguished

themselves as the "Old Saxons," for by this name they were known by the Saxons in Briton. Eight separate but uncertain kingdoms were raised on the soil of Britain, and present a movable surface of fraternal wars and baffled rivals. There was one kingdom long

left kingless, for "No man dared, though never so ambitious, to take up the sceptre which many found so hot; the only effectual cure of ambition that I have read." These are the words of Milton. Finally, to use the quaint phrase of the Chancellor Whitelock, "The Octarchy was brought into one." At the end of five centuries, the Saxons fell prostrate before a stronger

race.

But of all the accidents and the fortunes of the Saxon dynasty, not the least surprising is, that an obscure town in the Duchy of Sleswick, Anglen, is commemorated by the transference of its name to one of the great European nations. The Angles or Engles have given their denomination to the land of Britain. Engle-land is

England, and the Engles are the English.

How it happened that the very name of Britain was abolished, and why the Anglian was selected in preference to the more eminent race, may offer a philosophical illustration of the accidental nature of local

names.

There is a tale familiar to us from youth, that Egbert, the more powerful King of the West Saxons, was crowned the first monarch of England, and issued a decree, that this kingdom of Britain should be called England; yet, an event so strange as to have occasioned the change of the name of the whole country remains unauthenticated by any of the original writers of our