flight; but it was not till I was dressed, and had swallowed my hasty breakfast, that I remembered my cherished stamps, so carelessly left on the table the night before. Glancing round the room, I perceived no vestige of my album! Inwardly cursing my good landlady's officious tidiness, I rang the bell, summoning her to my awful presence. Vain were all my questions, abjurations, and, finally, threats. Mrs. Matson had not set eyes upon them: when she entered the room to set the breakfast the table was empty. After a vigorous and prolonged search, I gave up the stamps as lost, and consequently became exasperated and furious. I raged and stormed in, I am afraid, a very ungentlemanly way; but the woman's tale remained unaltered.

'I had been shamefully, disgracefully robbed; I would not remain in her house another day; I would send for the police; the utmost rigour of the law should be employed to enforce the restoration of my cherished property;' and at last (oh! reader, tell it not in Gath), blinded by passion and anger, I took my weeping landlady by her two fat shoulders, and pushed her violently out of the room.

The bold, impudent creature!' exclaimed I, loudly and indignantly, to dare to stand there and face me out that she knew nothing of the extraordinary disappearance of my stamp album. The wretch has dared to cast a covetous eye-to place a sacrilegious hand on the joy and pride of my heart; but she shall live to rue this day; I will sift this matter to the bottom; I will leave no stone unturned to fathom this perplexing mystery.'

It was not alone the loss of my stamps, but the cloud of obscurity which enveloped their disappearance, which provoked and puzzled me. My cunning was baffled; I hated to be mystified; and I also hated to find my penetration at fault.

In similar wild rhapsodies and absurd threats, I passed the ensuing half-hour; but after this I cooled down into a more rational, sensible frame of mind; and though neither my wrath nor annoyance had diminished, I decided, on calmer reflection, to let the affair rest as it was, until I saw my way clearly to the solution of the enigma; and I deter

mined, if the robber should ever prove other than my poor and widowed landlady (which probability, by the bye, I did not see the slightest chance of), it should be 'war to the knife,' as the Spaniards say.

There were several other lodgers besides myself in the house at the time; but as my rooms were reached by a private staircase, I had never come into contact with any of them, except occasionally exchanging little mutual civilities with a young accountant who lived on the floor above mine. He now and then borrowed my books, and sometimes lent me one of his; but these usually passed through Mrs. Matson's hands to reach their destination, and consequently I had only seen my fellow-lodger but twice or thrice, and knew his face but imperfectly.

Carrying into immediate execution my avowed and fixed resolve to leave Mrs. Matson, I quitted her house, and by nine o'clock the same evening was comfortably installed in some small but quiet and respectable apartments in the next street.

(To be continued).

GERMAN PRINCES AND POSTAGE STAMPS.

OUR readers, mature as well as juvenile, may be interested or instructed by a summary of the reigning sovereigns at present composing the Germanic Confederation; their titular designations, dates of birth, and accession to power; and the postage stamps employed in the several states, with their respective periods of issue. The principal referential authority is is the Saxe Gotha Almanack for 1863.

EMPEROR.

FRANCIS JOSEPH I., of Austria; born August 18th, 1830; ascended the throne, December 2nd, 1848. Austrian stamps first issued New Year's Day, 1852. Four sets, both for letters and newspapers.

KINGS.

FREDERICK WILLIAM, of Prussia; born, March 22nd, 1797; succeeded his brother, January 2nd, 1861. Prussian stamps, November 15th, 1850. Four issues.

MAXIMILIAN II., of Bavaria; born, Novem

ber 28th, 1811; succeeded, March 21st, 1848. Bavarian stamps, June 5th, 1849. Three issues.

JOHN, of Saxony; born, December 12th, 1811; succeeded, August 9th, 1854. Saxon stamps, June 22nd, 1850. Five types for labels, and two for envelopes.

WILLIAM I., of Würtemburg; born, September 27th, 1781; succeeded, October 30th, 1816. The oldest and longest reigning sovereign in the world. Stamps first issued, October 7th, 1851. Three sets.

GEORGE V., of Hanover: born, May 27th, 1819; succeeded his father, November 28th, 1851. First stamp issued, November 30th, 1850. Four types.

GRAND-DUKES

FREDERICK, of Baden; born, September 9th, 1826; succeeded, September 5th, 1856. Issue of stamps, May 1st, 1851. Two types, and frequent changes of colour.

LOUIS III., of Hesse Darmstadt; born, June 9th, 1806; succeeded, June 16th, 1848. Stamps of the office of Thurn and Taxis, numerical value in kreuzer, issued in 1850. Four sets, in the same pattern, but with variation in colour of print or paper.

PETER, of Oldenburg; born, July 8th, 1827; succeeded, February 27th, 1853. Started stamps, December 28th, 1851. Five issues of different devices in adhesives, and two in envelopes.

FREDERICK WILLIAM, of Mecklenburg Strelitz; born, October 17th, 1823; succeeded, July 18th, 1853. In this grand-duchy are employed those stamps of the office of Thurn and Taxis valued in silbergroschen, of which there have been three issues of similar pattern, but with variations in colour of impression.

One

FREDERICK FRANCIS, of Mecklenburg Schwerin; born, February 28th, 1823; succeeded, March 7th, 1842. Issue of stamps, both adhesive and envelope, July 1st, 1856. of the few states that have made no change. CHARLES ALEXANDER, of Saxe Weimar; born, June 24th, 1818; succeeded, July 18th, 1853. Silbergroschen issue of Thurn and Taxis.

WILLIAM III., of Luxembourg, King of Holland; born, February 19th, 1817; suc

ceeded, May 17th, 1849. First issue of stamps, November 1st, 1852; second, October 1st, 1859. The former series bore the sovereign's head; but since the partition of the grand-duchy between Holland and Belgium, the arms of the province are represented on the stamps.

DUKES.

FREDERICK, of Anhalt-Dessau-Cöthen-Bernburg; born, October 1st, 1794; succeeded to the government, August 2nd, 1817. The Prussian stamps are used in this duchy.

WILLIAM, of Brunswick; born, April 25th, 1806; succeeded, April 25th, 1831. Three issues of stamps, varying in colour only: the first was on January 1st, 1851. This state, as well as that of Mecklenburg Schwe rin, makes use of the singular contrivance of a stamp in four compartments, which can be cut so as to form the several values of or 1 silbergroschen.

1 1 3 4 2 4

CHRISTIAN IX., of Holstein and Lauenburg, King of Denmark; succeeded his cousin, November 15th, 1863. The succession is, however, disputed by Frederick, Prince of Augustenburg. For a brief period during the revolt in 1850, the duchy, in unison with Schleswig, started stamps for itself; but at present those of Denmark are employed.

ADOLPHUS, of Nassau; born, July 24th, 1817; succeeded, August 20th, 1839. The kreuzer series of Thurn and Taxis stamps serve for this duchy.

ERNEST II., of Saxe Coburg Gotha; born, June 21st, 1818; succeeded, January 29th, 1844. Same as the last.

ERNEST FREDERICK, of Saxe Altenberg; born, September 16th, 1826; succeeded, August 3rd, 1853. This duchy uses the silbergroschen issue of Thurn and Taxis.

BERNARD ERICH, of Saxe Meiningen; born, December 17th, 1800; succeeded, December 24th, 1803. Stamps of the kreuzer series of the Thurn and Taxis office.

PRINCES.

JOHN MARIA, of Liechtenstein; born, October 5th, 1840; succeeded, November 12th, 1858. The stamps of Austria do duty in this principality.

The

PAUL LEOPOLD, of Lippe; born, September 1st, 1827; succeeded, June 1st, 1851. stamps used are those of the silbergroschen issue of Thurn and Taxis.

HENRY XXII., of Reuss Greiz; born, March 28th, 1846: succeeded, November 8th, 1858. Same stamps as the last.

HENRY LXVII., of Reuss Schleiz; born, October 20th, 1789; succeeded, June 19th, 1854. As the preceding.

ADOLPHUS, of Schaumburg-Lippe; born, August 1st, 1807; succeeded, November 21st, 1860. As before.

FREDERICK GUNTHER, of SchwartzburgRudolstadt; born, November 16th, 1793; succeeded, November 6th, 1814. As before.

GUNTHER FREDERICK CHARLES, of Schwartzburg Sonderhausen; born, September 24th, 1801; succeeded, September 3rd, 1835. The stamps of Prussia circulate in this principality.

GEORGE VICTOR, of Waldeck; born, January 14th, 1831; succeeded, May 15th, 1845. The Prussian stamps are current here also.

In addition to these principalities, without any vote in the Diet, are those of Birkenfeld, which has been transferred to the ducal house of Oldenburg since 1817, and which employs the postage stamps of Prussia; and those of Hohenzollern Hechingen and Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, since 1850 under the sole possession of PRINCE ANTONY. The kreuzer stamps of Thurn and Taxis do duty in this small principality.

LANDGRAVE.

FERDINAND, of Hesse Homburg; born, April 26th, 1783; succeeded, September 8th,

1848. Same as the last.

FREE STATES.

FRANKFORT, employing those of the kreuzer series of the office of Thurn and Taxis. HAMBURG has half a dozen stamps, published January, 1859, for Holland, England, and transmarine correspondence, besides numerous private offices employing stamps similar in nature to those of some of the cities of the United States, for local purposes. This city has, moreover, six other post-offices; one, using the stamps of Thurn and Taxis, for Belgium, France, Italy, Spain,

Switzerland, and South Germany; a second, employing the Prussian stamps, for Prussia, Poland, and Russia; a third, the Danish, for Denmark; a fourth, the Swedish, for Sweden and Norway; a fifth, those of Hanover, for Hanover; and lastly, one using those of Mecklenburg, for that country.

LUBECK. The authorities of this city have given forth two series of adhesive postage stamps; the first, on New Year's Day, 1859; the second and a set of envelopes, last year. Like Hamburg, Lubeck also contains additional post-offices, viz., one, issuing the stamps of Thurn and Taxis; and another, those of Deumark.

BERGEDORF, a dependency on these two latter cities, gives us its singular and once recherché stamps, first issued November 1st, 1861.

BREMEN closes the list with half a dozen stamps, of elegant and various designs, the first of which was issued April 4th, 1855.

SKETCHES OF THE LESS-KNOWN
STAMP COUNTRIES.

BY C. W. VINER, A.M., PH.D.
I.-ROMAGNA.

HAVING previously insisted on the unfrivolous nature of the present fast-increasing and widely-spreading taste for collecting postage stamps, and its undoubtful utility as accessory to geographical and historical studies, we cannot do better than prove our proposition by some brief notices of those countries brought more prominently before view, by the rarity or singularity of their postal emissions.

The subject of our first article, for upwards of twelve centuries the appellation of one of the most beautiful and fertile tracts of the Garden of Europe, were we to launch out into any extended description of its geographical features, or endeavour to depict a tithe of the stirring events occupying its citizens and ennobling its cities for so long a period, would lead us to trespass far beyond the limits prescribed by the nature of our unpretending publication. Our object, then, is to afford a simple outline of the past and present state of the district under consideration.

The very name, Romagna, will probably, ere long, be merged in one united Italy, and preserved from oblivion only in the pages of the stamp-collector's album. This immortality it will owe but to the emission of a few postage stamps, whose official duration did not exceed a twelvemonth!

The term Romagna, bestowed when the Exarchates fixed their residence at Ravenna, the capital of the region, thereby rendering it a second Rome; and that of Romandiola, by which it is frequently distinguished by the writers on the middle ages; appear with very singular distinctness to identify the same portion of country for many centuries of history. As the usual and extreme boundaries, may be taken the river Po on the north, and the Tuscan Apennines on the south.

We remember, last summer, being ferried across that magnificent river at an unconscionably early hour in the morning, owing to the antiquated and absurd regulation prohibiting the entry into what used to be Papal territory after seven o'clock in the evening. This obliged ourself and companions to post from that very uninteresting Austri-Lombardo-Venetian town, Rovigo, at two in the morning, to avoid sleeping at a most dreary, wretched-looking place on the frontier, rejoicing in the name of Santa Maria Maddalena.

The stamps issued in 1859 by the Provisional Government of Romagna not only did duty in that part of the revolting provinces of the legations more particularly included in the terms Romagna and Romandiola-the inhabitants of which, viz., those of Ravenna and Forli, are still called by the Romans, Romagnoli-but in the remaining two legations of Ferrara and Bologna.

The general products of the beautiful region represented by the stamps in question are, wheat, rye, barley, maize, rice, hemp, flax, and exquisite fruits in abundance; delicious peaches and nectarines ranging from one to five or six for the value of an English farthing. Vineyards and oliveyards adorn and enrich the land; the tobacco plant is largely cultivated; melons and chestnuts abound; the silks and sausages

of Bologna are well known; and the fine buffalos of Ferrara are magnificent specimens of the live stock of Italy. The forests of oak, cork, ash, and elm are a valuable addition to the pictorial and fiscal riches of the country; and the fifteen miles of pine forest, part of which now lies between Ravenna and the sea, in the precise spot where the fleet of mighty Rome once lay at anchor, has been a theme for the descriptive powers of Boccaccio and Dante, as also of our own Dryden and Byron.

We

e may take a cursory view of the principal towns of the region under notice, before proceeding to touch upon its general history.

Ravenna, with the exception of the remains of the wall previously alluded to, has few Roman antiquities to boast of; but many of the churches founded in the early days of Christianity are objects of interest to the visitor. Here is shown the tomb of the wild and wonderful Dante; and here Byron resided some considerable time, and composed several of his plays, and other pieces, in frequent enjoyment of the solitude of 'Ravenna's immemorial wood.'

In the province of Ravenna is the city of Faenza, once the great depôt and place of manufacture of the celebrated majolica ware, or faience of the French.

The largest and most populous city of the Romagna in time present is Bologna, in which are at least a hundred churches. The university was once one of the highest rank in Italy, and has turned out many female professors of eminence. The wonderful Cardinal Mezzofanti, who spoke forty-two languages, was born in the humbler walks of life in this city. The two leaning towers are curious, but frightfully ugly. The colonnaded streets are both handsome and convenient as shelter from sun or rain. Α colonnade, three miles in length, leads from one of the city gates to the church of the Madonna di San Luca, at the top of a very steep and lofty hill. The fatigue of the ascent, to those who would not be attracted by the famous black image of the Virgin, the ostensible lion of the place, is well repaid by one of the most magnificent views not only in Italy but in the world.

Ferrara, in the middle ages styled 'Most Fortunate City,' and 'Lady of the Po,' is sadly shorn of its medieval glories. Its grassgrown streets, however, will ever be trod by the tourist for the sake of a view of the abodes of Aristo and Guarini, and the prison of the gifted and unfortunate Tasso. It is comparatively modern, dating only from the 5th century. It was for some ages under the dominion of the house of D'Este, till it passed to the Pope's authority towards the close of the 16th century. It was here that

'Parisina left the hall,

But not to list to the waterfall,'

and here too that she paid the penalty of her frailty by the severance of her beautiful head from her body. In the province of Ferrara, near Certo, is a small village in proud possession of the Assumption, by Guido. In 1797, the French wished to obtain possession of the prize, but the brave villagers one and all rose in arms, and successfully resisted the attempted brigandage.

In

Forli contains the town of similar name (a contraction of Forum Livii), founded after the battle of the Metaurus, and named after one of the consuls under whom Asdrubal was defeated there. Its citadel is one of those celebrated for its heroic defence by a woman, Catherine Sporza, in the 15th century. In this province is the Rubicon, ever associated with the name of Cæsar. Rimini still stands the habitation of the wretched Francesca, for ages famous or infamous in Dante's Hell. Rimini is celebrated also as the spot chosen for the meeting of the council held by the Arians and Athanasians in the middle of the 4th century, which eventuated in the drawing up and promul gation of the mysterious and much disputed Athanasian creed.

The history of the provinces of the Romagna is well nigh identical with that of their acknowledged capital, Ravenna. This town, although one of the most ancient in Italy, is little noticed by historians until the Imperial times, when conjointly with Misenum it became the great station of the Roman fleet. The arch of the Porta Aurea, still standing, is a remnant of the wall built by the emperor Tiberius.

Honorius the First, and his talented and

intriguing sister Placidia, made it their residence, and after them numerous less celebrated occupiers of the imperial bed of thorns.

In the middle of the 5th century the last Roman emperor, of similar name to the first king, was banished into Apulia, to make way for one who, without sufficient reason, figures as the first king of Italy, as he never professed to assume the regal power, nor were there ever coins or medals struck in commemoration of him. This was Odoacer, who also made Ravenna the seat of his usurped government, as a sort of consul-general of Rome.

Towards the close of that century, the great Ostrogoth, Theodoric, accompanied by the whole of his tribe, bringing with them their wives, children, cattle, and even furniture, advanced towards Ravenna; and having in the brief space of four years subjected all Italy to his yoke, entered Ravenna in triumph, the archhbishop at the head of all his clergy meeting him as if the chosen emissary of heaven. Odoacer, stripped of his power, was not long allowed to retain life.

Theodatus, the nephew and unworthy successor of Theodoric, soon terminated both his regal and mortal existence. During his weak rule, the emperor of the East, the great Justinian, had sent Belisarius, afterwards as famous for his misfortunes as for his prowess, to attack the shattered government of the West. The victories in Italy obtained by him, were afterwards consolidated by his successor Narses, who was rewarded for his conquests with the title of Exarch of Italy; and he also fixed the seat of his rule at Ravenna.

For upwards of two hundred years more the capital of Romagna may have been considered the temporal head of Italy, and the abode of a long line of Exarchs; till in the 8th century it fell into the possession of Astolphus, king of the Longobardi, the ancient Lombards.

He was, however, eventually obliged (although it proved but a nominal cession) to yield possession of his territories to the Papal See, by the coercive pressure of a large army of Franks, under the powerful guidance of little King Pepin' the great.