family, which was large, there were several visitors in the house, some who regularly resided there. One of these, a Spaniard, who had held high office in Peru during the rule of Spain, was indeed a favorable specimen of the cavaliero-a thorough gentleman of the old school. The quiet ease of his manner, his refined deference to ladies, his court made one sigh to think how ill all this is exchanged for the brusquerie of our modern school. Another, who officiated as priest to the family and as tutor to the children, was a Jesuit, I believe; and if amenity of manners, great powers of conversation, infinite knowledge of men and countries, could have won, his must have been a successful ministry. There was a soft persuasion, a seeming deep serenity in his words, very difficult to withstand. He had travelled much, and seemed to have culled fresh experience from each journey. Well read, he brought this knowledge to bear on his own experience most wonderfully; and all along there was a humility, a deference to the opinions of those whom he conversed with, inexpressibly charming. Father, the memory of our intercourse will long be engraven on my mind; and if sincerity is to be ever judged by outward show, you were, I hope, sin The abaltross is more wary, and affords better | so felt quite fit to join them at once. Besides the sport. Its bill is very peculiar, large and flat, and terminating in a formidable hooked point. It is a curious fact that his bones are quite hollow and empty; a beautiful provision of nature. His enormous wings mark his vocation to be a wanderer of the trackless ocean, no part of which is too distant for his inspection: be where you will, there, like a guardian, he is with you. In the heaviest gales hely mien, reminded one of what one reads of, and seems perfectly at home, swooping about, now up to windward, now going down on the very whirlwind; now high above, without motion, save a turn of his head as he surveys you with his fixed imperturbable eye; anon he walks up in the very teeth of the blast, and disappears. It seems odd, but really I am half-inclined to think they return to land every night they always flew that way at sunset, and even on the clearest nights I never saw one. In the morning, also, they always rejoin the ship a short period after daylight. When you mark the incredibly short time they take to reach you from the verge of the horizon, this seems more probable than at the first mention of it. Well, but spite of his riding the tempest and not caring for the blast, he has loved, not wisely but too well, a small bit of pork so well, in fact, as not to notice a cod-hook and line attached to it. Repentance comes too late; but with an attempt to better him-cere. self as the line is gathered in, he puts his huge web feet and enormous wings out; so the odds are even he breaks away. Slack the line, however; suddenly man's cunning overcomes brute strength, and, falling head over heels, he is on board before he knows anything more about it. And now, freed from the hook, see what a poor figure he cuts in the leescuppers! not being able to stand, the wind catches him under the tail and throws him nearly over there he sits, like a great booby, snapping his bill this way and that in impotent rage! "Ne sutor ultra crepidam." Albatrosses may be fine fellows in the air, but they have not good sea-legs. The different places visited along the South American coast, from Valparaiso to Monterey, exhibit sketches equally smart and clever with those we have quoted. The account of Chili is of a fuller and more informing nature. Besides his sojourns at the port and the capital, our author made excursions in various directions, sometimes to pay visits, sometimes to the smaller towns, and sometimes in search of sport or the picturesque. The following is a picture of country life among the wealthier Chilian land-owners. My guide, who, as he lived at his own expense on the road, had neither eaten nor drunk, but had taken out the halts I made in sleep, rushed away in search of a meal that should cost him nothing, leaving my cattle alone. The boys belonging to the establishment, however, advanced, took off the saddles, and with a lash dismissed the tired animals to the outside, where all was pasturage; and there I found they were to rest till I left. The saddles were quickly transferred to other animals, tied to rails opposite my bedroom-door; on my saying I should not want them, it was answered, "Oh, sir, there they can remain till you do ;" and during my stay a fresh horse was always ready for instant mounting within five yards of my door. On industrial practices of any kind it is hazardous for strangers to pass an opinion, since what seems bad on the view may be found by experience to be adapted to the circumstances of the country. Many of the South American mines yielded a profit by the cheap and rough method of native working, that under the improved system of the British companies absorbed the profits in the expenses. So it is often in agriculture. That which horrifies the English farmer, is found, if not the best, yet the best that can be done. The plan of threshing in Chili, though an improvement in point of rapidity upon that of Palestine, looks a strange wasteful method; yet Mr. Walpole seems to intimate that not much loss attends upon the process in the fine climate of Chili. The threshing-festival stands in the place of our harvest-home. The court-yard was very large. On two sides of it were the apartments of the family. The sittingrooms alone had glass in the windows, the other rooms had merely wooden lattices; but the weather was so delightful, who would have required more? Huge trunks of trees hewn square, served for seats under the verandah, the large roof affording ample shade. On the other two sides were granaries and offices of all sorts; being far from any resources, each house must be complete in itself. All stores are brought in wagons from the capital. About In a far off part of the plain, the vast crops of our forty horses were picketed round, many ready sad- host's corn had been collected; and all the family dled; there were also veloches, all dusty as if fresh-some on horseback, some in carriages-proceeded from the road. Though it was but eight in the at an early hour to the grand function of threshing morning the young ladies were up and dressed, and looked as fresh and handsome as fine country air, early hours, and health could make them. I had luckily performed an elaborate toilette by the river. it out. The trelia, as this process is called, is a rural feast. We rode over the track of stubble from whence it had been cut, putting up partridges in numbers as we cantered along, till shouts and a crowd showed us where the entertainment was to A huge circle was railed in by enormous posts, the interstices fenced with bushes; this was filled with the straw unthreshed, to a height of full six feet. all at some period of their lives undergo this work. They come down fat and full from the rich pastures of the valleys, and this labor generally quite uses them up. Mr. Walpole was at Monterey during part of the Mexican war; and he gives a slight account of the goings on there. Here is his picture of Fremont and his band of explorers; though, as it turned out, of soldiers, either by secret instructions or implied understanding. During our stay Captain Fremont and his party arrived, preceded by another troop of American horse. It was a party of seamen mounted, who were used to scour the country to keep off marauders. Their efficacy as sailors, they being nearly all English, we will not question. As cavalry they would probably have been singularly destructive to each other. Their leader, however, was a fine fellow, and one of the best rifle-shots in the states. Fremont's party naturally excited curiosity. Here were true trappers, the class that produced the heroes of Fenimore Cooper's best works. These men had passed years in the wilds, living on their own resources; they were a curious set. A vast cloud of dust appeared first, and thence in long file emerged this wildest wild party. Fremont rode ahead, a spare, active-looking man, with such an eye! He was dressed in a blouse and leggings, and wore a felt hat. After him came five Delaware Indians, who were his body-guard, and have been with him The approach of our party seemed the signal for through all his wanderings; they had charge of two operations to commence, and the horsemen drove baggage-horses. The rest, many of them blacker the herd of horses up a lane formed of empty wag- than the Indians, rode two and two, the rifle held ons into the corn-ring. At first they could only by one hand across the pommel of the saddle. get on by furious jumps, but ere the whole drove Thirty-nine of them are his regular men, the rest were in, half the grain at least was trodden down. are loafers picked up lately; his original men are Several horsemen now stood in the entrance, and principally backwoodsmen from the state of Tenthe rest, dividing the horses into droves, withnessee, and the banks of the upper waters of the shouts, yells, and whirling lassoes, began to make Missouri. He has one or two with him who enjoy them gallop round. In the centre was an enormous high reputations in the prairies. Kit Carsons is as pile, which, as that on the sides became trodden well known there as the Duke is in Europe. down, was hove on to them. Every two or three dress of these men was principally a long, loose minutes the whole body turned and galloped a concoat of deer-skin, tied with thongs in front; trousers trary way; to avoid giddiness some of the old of the same, of their own manufacture, which, when stagers ran into the centre, and were only compelled wet through, they take off, scrape well inside with to leave after many cuts and shouts. a knife, and put on as soon as dry; the saddles were of various fashions, though these and a large drove of horses, and a brass field-gun, were things they had picked up about California. The rest of the gang were a rough set; and perhaps their private, public, and moral characters had better not be too closely examined. They are allowed no liquor, tea and sugar only; this, no doubt, has much to do with their good conduct, and the discipline too is very strict. They were marched up to an open space on the hills near the town, under some large firs, and there took up their quarters in messes of six or seven in the open air. The Indians lay beside their leader. One man, a doctor, six foot six high, was an odd-looking fellow; may I never come under his hands! The fatigue to the poor animals must have been tremendous, and the horsemen at the entrance had frequently to stand back and allow some poor weak foal to go out. This opportunity was generally taken advantage of by others also; and then began a hunt; the horsemen who were outside were in instant pursuit, and with wild shouts, flying ponchoes, and unerring lasso ready, galloped after them. Few, I noticed, ever allowed the lasso to be thrown, but when they found speed would not clear them, resigned themselves to their fate, and came sulkily back. In fact, all allow that such is the severity of the shock occasioned by being caught, that an animal who has once felt it never forgets it. This can easily be believed, and the very boys in driving cattle can check the most refractory horse by merely a whirl or two of the long thong they have at the end of their rein. After the animals had, with a few short intervals, been driven about for three hours, they were let out; nor did any seem anxious to wander far, so exhausted and done were they all. When it is considered that these animals are principally mares and young foals, the smallness and weedy appearance of the race of horses in the country is easily accounted for; as, with few exceptions, The The party, after settling themselves, strolled into the town, and in less than two days passed in drunkenness and debauchery, three or four were missing. Sharp is the knife, and sudden is the stroke, And sorely would the Yankee foemen rue If subtile poniards wrapt beneath the cloak Could blunt the sabre's edge or clear the cannon's smoke. They were accordingly marched away into those wilds of which they seemed much better citizens. In justice, however, to the Americans, I must say they seemed to treat the natives well, and their | water, what soon reäppeared, a man or woman. authorities extended every protection to them. One of the gang was very uncivil to us, and threw on us the withering imputation of being Britishers, with an intensity of scorn that must have been painful to himself; on inquiry, he was found to be a deserter from the marines. In fact, the most violently Yankee were discovered to be English fellows, of high principles, of course. These ledges are fifty or eighty feet high; yet none seemed to regard it as a feat, and the merry laugh told you it was done but to surprise the European. We appeared contemptible in our own eyes as we skurried from the rain with our umbrellas; but we soon yielded to wiser teaching, threw care away, got wet and dry again without minding it, swam, and enjoyed it as much as they did. From the Examiner, 18th August. LAND-TENURES IN HUNGARY. There are some very striking descriptions of scenery in the different groups of islands visited by Mr. Walpole, and interesting accounts of the peoTHE Hungarian cause is steadily progressing ple and their kindness, mingled with some political reflections. One of these, a wonderful exhibition in England. As the questions involved in it are of natatory powers, we will quote; for the remain-more and more subjected to discussion, it becomes der we must refer to the volumes. The scene of the feat is the Sandwich Islands. One of the greatest attractions was a waterfall, about three hundred yards up the river. It needed not the feats done there to make the fall of the more and more evident to all thinking Englishmen that the cause of the Hungarians is not merely that of liberty against oppression, but that of constitutional legality against the revolutionary encroachments of despotism. Earnest and thoughtWailuka or River of Destruction worth looking at. ful men, in all parts of Great Britain, now perThe river ran for some hundred yards or so in rap-ceive that the Hungarians resemble ourselves more ids, over rocks and stones, the banks, crag, and than any other nation, in their views of governprecipice, two hundred feet high, whose rudeness ment; and that they, more than any other nation was softened and refined by tendrils and creepers, on the continent, have gone through a school of that hung down to the foaming water, which ill-political training which enables them to comply naturedly jerked them as it rushed by. A huge rock with the requirements of the age, by reform not divided the stream, one half of which dashed petulantly on, and met a noisy fate down the fall; while the other, of a milder, gentler nature, ran along a How the Hungarians have carried out the most channel of solid rock, and fell in one heavy stream comprehensive changes, without departing from a depth of about twenty-five feet, joining the rough the strict path of legality, may be excellently waters below. A little turmoil succeeded the junc-illustrated by the mode in which they have dealt tion; then they flowed quietly on, like brothers, with one of the most perplexing difficulties of conarm-in-arm, till they fell again, and soon were lost tinental Europe. We allude to the tenure of land and the semi-ownership by the unprivileged occupiers of the land they held. in the salt waters of the ocean. The great delight of the natives is to go down this fall. They sit in the channel I have described; they utter a shout, a scream of joy, join the hands gracefully over the head, and, one after another, the girls of Hilo descend, emerging like sea-nymphs in the eddy below. The figure, as it gleams for an instant in the body of water, appears to those standing below quite perfect; and the gay shouts and laughing taunt to follow, has led to the death of many; for there is some secret current that not only drowns, but carries away the body too. The feat was attempted by three of our men; but none, I think, did it twice. revolution. The tenures of land which at one time prevailed over almost all Europe, still subsist or were subsisting up to a late period in many parts of Germany, Poland, Russia, and Hungary. On the settlement of Europe after the great migrations, the free citizens (or nobles as they are still termed in Poland and Hungary) received allotments of land (the hyde of the Anglo-Saxons) on condition of performing military service; the chiefs received large grants of land of various extent, but such as could only be cultivated by numerous hands; lands were also granted to the church and to cor An individual or corpora The descent of the lower fall is a lesser feat, and the sensation of going down it head foremost delightful; even that, however, is often fatal; and during our stay here, a man was lost merely through mak-porations, and other estates were retained in the ing a false step from the bank. The surprising hands of the crown. agility of the women especially baffles description. One will sit by your side on the high bank, and remain so till you throw a stone into the water with all your force; then down she jumps, straight as an arrow, her feet crossed one over the instep of the other, and emerges with a laugh, holding up the stone. tion, lay or ecclesiastical, in those times had only one means of rendering such a grant of land available. This was to regrant portions of it to tenants mostly of unfree or servile origin, peasants as they were termed; on condition that they On first attempting to rise to the surface should give, by way of perpetual rent, not merely after going down the fall, the water seems, from a proportion of the produce of their own crops, the force of the current, to be matted overhead, and but also the labor necessary for the cultivation of it is only by striking out into the eddy that you can the domain land, which was retained by the seigrise; this the girls manage to perfection. They neur or lord of the manor in his own hands. kick out their feet both together, and replaiting When this system first originated, it was the only their hair with their hands, they float about the one practicable; but with the spread of commerce edge with a grace that is beautiful to see. Then the water is clear and blue, not cold, frosty, half- and civilization its defects became more glaring, thawed. As lazily one watched the stream, down and its extinction was demanded by motives of dropped from the ledges overhead, and cut the bright | political economy as well as of humanity. In England the system gradually disappeared by the proposed change. The motion was seconded by commutation of the labor rents and services into Kossuth, who made an eloquent and comprehenmoney payments; and any equal burdens that sive speech on the subject, and supported by Szent press upon copyhold property are easily calculable, Ivanyi, the present civil governor of Transylvania; and its value in proportion to freehold readily de- who particularly dwelt upon the atrocious manner terminable. In other countries a more abrupt in which the Austrian government had, in the change was effected. In France the first revolu- neighboring country of Gallicia, excited the peastion swept away all services and dues on such tenures, without giving any compensation to those to whom they were due. In Prussia a measure was adopted in 1811 by the government, which if it satisfied the claims of equity, was far from satisfying those of political economy. It was decreed that there should be a compulsory commutation of services to take place in the following manner. The dues and services were to be abolished; and the landlord was to be compensated by receiving, once for all, an equivalent portion of land taken from the peasant's holding and added to his own domain. By this arrangement the landlord gained an additional quantity of land, whilst he lost the labor required to cultivate it; and the peasant, who now became master of all his own labor, found the extent of his land on which he was to employ that labor, reduced. In Hungary the system pursued has been different. Since 1832 the efforts of the National Hungarian party have been directed not merely to remove the civil disabilities of the peasant, but to render the tenure of his land equivalent to freehold or noble tenure. Even long before this period the same object had, in many instances, been effected by private contract between the landlord and his peasants; and although not then sanctioned by the law of the land, such contracts were faithfully observed, and the communes where they prevailed were among the most flourishing in Hungary. The plan adopted was this. The commune agreed to redeem its services in perpetuity by the payment of a sum of money; to be paid either down, or at certain periods extending over a number of years. In this manner a change would gradually have taken place similar to that in England, had the Hungarians not felt that it was necessary to accelerate the march of events, in order to become a wealthy, strong, and united nation. In the diet of 1832-36 a law was passed, declaring directly a qualified property of the peasant in his land, and sanctioning the plan of the commune coming to terms with the landlord, if both parties were willing. But this was not considered sufficient to meet the exigencies of the case. Some further advantages were conceded to the peasant by the diet of 1839-40. In that of 1843-44, he was allowed to acquire freehold or noble property. In 1847, one of the main points of the programme put forth by the liberal party was the compulsory abolition of labor rents and dues, with indemnity to the parties interested, In November, 1847, the diet was opened; and in December a motion was made in the lower house to the above effect by Gabriel Lonyay, a great holder of manorial rights, and whose interests were consequently affected to a great extent by the ants to the murder of their landlords. The motion passed the lower house by a large majority; and on the 4th of February, 1848, the upper house. On the 11th of April this, with other enactments, received the sanction of the sovereign (for at that time there was a legitimate King of Hungary ;) and thus a measure of the highest importance, which gave a great majority of the inhabitants an interest in the existing order o. things, and which was opposed to the prejudices, and the immediate, though not the remote, interests of the legislative class, was brought into operation by constitutional means with the same adherence to parliamentary forms that is observed in passing a railway bill. The peasant thus became a freeholder, and that too without any payment from him for the redemption of his labor rent and services. The state charged itself with indemnity to the landlords. At the same time all class distinctions have been removed, and the peasant is now on a perfect level with the former nobles. No wonder that he is ready to shed his blood as freely as they are in defence of their common country. The first act of the commissioners of Prince Windischgrätz was an attempt to reintroduce these dues and services. At present the Austrian government makes specious promises of respecting this particular enactment, although it sweeps away, by the charter of 7th March, the whole Hungarian constitution. But the Hungarian peasantry, Slovack as well as Magyar, are perfectly capable of judging of the value to be attached to the promises of the Austrian government. From the Examiner. 18 August. IS PRUSSIA TO BE FREE? ARE the Prussians to have a constitutional government? That is a question for the king of the country to answer for the present, and for him alone to answer. For his majesty is at present in the possession of the most absolute power to do what he lists. His army is stanch, his finances copious and unembarrassed, and the people of Prussia have donné leur démission, resigned all participation in politics, and, refusing to vote at the hustings under the electoral law that the gov ernment proclaimed, has left that government undisputed master of country and constitution. The king is thus undisturbed by either popular opposition or popular support. Popular opinion is kept pent up in every breast, and exists there fermenting in a kind of sour and secret enthusiasm, waiting for some remote opportunity to burst forth. All thorough liberalism having thus sunk out of sight, the Prussian king finds himself between two | adhesion of the German masses. These, however, classes of councillors. The one are the wild re- are apathetic, irritated, and contemptuous. Hence, actionary and despotic, who abhor constitutional government altogether, and, like the burly cavaliers of the First Charles, abhor Falkland and Hyde just as much, and even more, than they detested Pym and Hampden. The opposite class of councillors are the constitutionalists, moderate men and timid, but much desiring to have a parliament wherein to talk, and whereon to lean, against the influence of the mere courtier class. in his attempts to unite Austria, and to erect a German Confederation on a general representative principle, contradistinguished from a mere federation of princes, it is to be feared that the King of Prussia will fail. If he do fail, he can in that case only fall back upon absolutism and its alliances, when, if he does so, his people will inevitably fall back upon the hopes of another revolution. There is much cause in these views for extreme regret; they bode ill both to the Prussian king and the Prussian people. They fling the hopes of future liberty upon an alliance between the popular and the military power, which may prove fatal to the former. They portend either a fierce civil war, or, what is as bad, an eternal fear of, and preparation for, it. Communism, and other bad elements, are just as rife in Prussia, especially in its eastern provinces, as in France. And hence Prussia is just the country where a rational and liberal understanding between prince and people would be most to be desired for the sake of The King of Prussia leans to the constitutionalists, from a conviction that the age calls for such a change. But he is not the less desirous of exercising sovereign and personal sway himself, as long as he lives. For Frederick William thinks himself the wisest as well as the fairest man; and believes, with Louis Philippe, that however convenient an obedient parliament would be, a parliament or a public opinion dictating to him would be a kind of treason against his wisdom and royal will not to be suffered. It is, therefore, a very infinitesimal dose of constitutional liberty that his majesty would grant. He would not grant enough to satisfy such a statesman as a Casimir Perrier | Prussia and of Europe. was, and as Vincke is. His majesty of Prussia, As to absolutism, that can never again prevail like the late king of the French, would consent to in Germany, except under the most rigid and oprepresentative government could he find an obse-pressive rule. It is now certainly, in opinion, quious minister. But a De Broglie who would dictate to him, or a Thiers that would get him into scrapes, would not be to his taste. We doubt, therefore, that either the statesman class will accept, or the popular class adhere to, that measure of constitutional liberty which it may please the King of Prussia to give. Frederick William is a clever man, a most fully educated, indeed an over-educated man, a man of good intention, of piety and rectitude. But every one of these good qualities stand in the way of his being a good constitutional king. He has too much esprit, and too great a sense of superiority to wish to take a part; and his religious feelings are so much in his way, that it is believed he regrets the one great conquest of the revolution of Marchthe abolition of the state church, and the consequent equality of all creeds. In the opinion of everybody the new chamber has shown a decidedly constitutional majority--a majority more liberal than the present ministry, essentially a ministry of representatives. Its liberalism, however, seems more likely to show itself in German than in purely Prussian politics. And this seems to be also the king's own view; viz., to divert the current of liberalism from sapping the foundation of his Prussian throne, and turning it towards the great object of German unity. The Treubund, as the Berlin Carlton Club is called, is as much against this German amalgamation as it is against a Prussian constitution. It would be easy to overcome the Treubund at home and abroad, to overcome the skill of courtiers in Berlin, and of the princes of other states; but, in order to do this, it would be necessary to enlist the popular sympathies and command the the most liberal country in Europe. The Hungarian cause is a good thermometer of liberalism at present. In France the press is against the Hungarians as against the Romans, which says enough for the French. In Germany there is but one feeling of sympathy in every breast for the Hungarians. Even the official organs of the Prussian government dared not, and indeed would not, repeat the atrocious and despotic sentiments respecting Hungary which may be read in the Constitutionnel and the Débats. At present the greatest identity of feeling prevails between England and Germany. They seem almost one people, so similar are their aspirations. Some time since, indeed, the Germans entertained suspicions of the English government, suspicions warranted enough by the stupid toryism of British diplomatists in Germany; but the recent speech of Lord Palmerston comes to set all right; and it has been devoured throughout the whole of Germany, as a solid and satisfactory proof that the core of English feeling is still liberal and sound. From the Examiner, 18th August GOERGEY. WHEN Jellachich, on the 9th of September last year, passed the frontiers of Hungary with an army of 65,000 men, the affairs of Hungary appeared desperate. There was no army, no general. It is true that every one had faith in the energy of the people, and it was well known that they would resist oppression; but the generals who were to lead them were either known to be men without military talents, or such that the Hungarians could place no trust in them. Kossuth, who |