GLIMPSES OF GERMANY, WITH A GLANCE AT FRANCE.

BY A TRAVELLING SATELLITE OF QUEEN VICTORIA.

WHEN Comets take their royal road through the heavens, a long bright train of light is left behind to mark where their course has been. When the kings and queens of this little speck called earth make royal roads in their sudden and erratic travels on its surface, they too shed an unwonted lustre on their way, kindling all into life and enthusiasm as they pass along. If ordinary monarchs, even, thus dispense the rays of their magnificence as they move, and leave their track still illumined with the recollection of their presence;-to the Queen of England this mighty power of attraction has been vouchsafed to a degree never enjoyed by even the greatest potentates before. Her sex, her reputation, the grandeur of her empire, the talismanic power which the very name of England has over continental minds, all these combined to render the visit of our Queen Victoria to the continent an object of interest so commanding as to draw to one great focus all the elements of grandeur and effect of which the courts and the people of the five great kingdoms through which she passed were capable. There was even a degree of the romantic in the magnificent courtesy with which she was greeted by princes, and the hearty, loyal, and chivalrous welcome she received from their subjects.

So much for a beginning; a flourish of trumpets to attract the reader's attention. Though it is very grandiloquent, it is quite true; but as it is not easy to keep up that sort of thing long-stilts are troublesome crutches-I shall subside at once into the ordinary chitchat style; because I am not going to weary the reader with a new account of the queen's late tour, (he must have been bored enough already by the newspapers,) but merely mean to use up a few stray memoranda, jotted down hastily without connexion or arrangement, some of which may and some may not be quite apropos to her Majesty's movements. At the same time, a few of the sights we saw were so remarkable, so unique, so unlikely to be ever seen again, that they will bear yet one more passing reference, notwithstanding all the newspapers have said of them.

Kings pay their compliments right royally, whenever it is their pleasure so to condescend. The whole series of scenes prepared for her Majesty by the King of Prussia, the King of the Belgians, the King of the French, the King of Bavaria, and above all by the dukes and dukelings of Coburg and Gotha, what were they but a continuity of graceful compliments? And on such a magnificent scale, too! reviving the reckless profusion of splendour which characterizes the middle ages, when all the power and wealth of kingdoms were staked to win a lady's smile. This was really the great and peculiar feature of the queen's tour. The Rhine scenery, exaggerated as the praise is that is bestowed on it, can be seen at any time. The lions of Antwerp or Cologne, or any other of the many towns visited by the queen, are ready at all seasons to absorb the money of the travelling English. Vast concourses of people, triumphal arches, troops and bands of

music, and royal personages, and receptions at railway stations-these can be had in England; nay, the queen must by this time be tolerably blasée of such sights in her own country; and all that was done of that kind in Belgium, Prussia, or Germany, was but a repetition of what we are here so familiar with. But the two grand illuminations of the Rhine were what perhaps no one will ever see again. To prepare such a sight for the queen was a proof of fine taste in the King of Prussia to repeat it would deprive it of half its fascination. Troublesome as it is to be a travelling satellite of Queen Victoria, that sight of the illumination at Cologne amply repaid me for all I had, and that all have to undergo whose fate compels them to attend on the queen. Such a combination of the grand and the beautiful was never before attempted, and certainly it could never have been realized. Long may the princes of the earth be in amity to give and to receive such compliments! Apropos of compliments-one of the neatest, nay, the most elegant national compliment I ever heard was paid through my insignificant self to the whole British nation. It was on board the vessel coming from France after her Majesty had left Treport; and the gentleman who paid it,-I wish I could associate his name with his compliment, was a Pole in the service of Louis Philippe. We were somehow or other talking of the favourite opera, "Les Diamans de la Couronne," some of the prettiest airs of which we were singing as we leant over the side of the vessel in the moonlight. Presently, our attention was attracted by the exquisite effect, phosphorus-like, of the light reflected on the water in the white foam of the quick-shifting waves. Each eddy sparkled with phosphoric light, till the sea seemed brilliant with myriads of diamonds. The Pole, with an instantaneous courtesy, pausing in the midst of an air from the opera already mentioned, pointed to the sparkling ocean, and cried "Voilà les Diamans de la Couronne Anglaise!" And it was said so gracefully, with so much true respect for the great nation it honoured! The scene would have given a French journalist a fit of the jaundice.

Talking of French journalists, they were almost as much the rage at Bonn as the royalties who were assembled to do honour to Beethoven. Almost the first question asked by a new-comer to the town was, "Which is Jules Janin?" And the same as to some other feuilletonistes who were supposed to be there. Well, like a great many other things that are talked much about in this world, the French journalists are best at a distance. Jules Janin is a sort of bourgeois dandy, with a great deal of consequence, and very little conversational wit to support his claims. He has mortally offended the whole German nation. Think of the exquisite coxcombry of the writer (none but a Frenchman would have dared to commit such a piece of impertinence), who could commence an article with the assertion, that the French had first taught the Germans to appreciate Beethoven! As well might a monkey spout Milton. But nothing is too absurd for a thorough-going French journalist. Putting aside all the nonsense they wrote about the Beethoven festival, (which by the way was a poor affair-all empty show, tinsel, and melo-dramatic display,) the way in which they collected together and republished all the calumnies they could hear or invent against the Queen of England, was utterly unworthy of the high and responsible function which they usurp. Regardless of probability, they printed every thing they heard. Not

active enough to keep up with the queen, they followed in her wake, and published, with their own ingenious additions and comments, the gossip of the table-d'hote. I will jot down one or two stories they tell, (or will tell as soon as they hear them, which is the same thing,) in order to give them a flat contradiction. You will observe, that they are all directed against the queen as a woman, and reflect personal discredit on her, as attributing want of courtesy, and a disregard of the ordinary decencies of life. To be sure they have this excuse-that the Germans (some of them only-as a nation they would be ashamed to slander a lady) tell these stories over their pipes and beer; but the French used to be the defenders of the sex, not their traducers.

Story the first:-You will remember that when the queen first arrived at Aix-la-Chapelle, there was a grand preparation to welcome her. There was the King of Prussia, and a grand procession of noblemen and gentlemen to escort her to the cathedral, and so forth. Well, among the rest, there were drawn up to receive the queen, a bevy of the prettiest girls in Aix, (and no place produces lovelier,) all: dressed in white, with ivy wreaths and chaplets. Now Queen Vic-toria is remarkable for one quality-extreme consideration for those who, on public occasions, come forth to see her, or who make prepara tions for her honour. The story told in connection with these girls at Aix, is, that Her Majesty in passing them treated them with marked contempt and disdain! And this is told as an instance of the innate and natural rudeness of the Queen of England. The affair is almost too ridiculous to mention; but it is gravely talked about, and the whole story commented on as true, and circulated in France, by people whose rank in Germany, and whose position in France, ought to make them ashamed of such folly. It was a remarkable fact, that not only did the queen treat these pretty girls of Aix with marked kindness, but she seemed to draw the attention of the King of Prussia to their gay and graceful appearance.

Story the second:-It is stated, that when the Queen of England arrived at the palace of Bruhl, the King of Prussia had invited a considerable number of the first noblemen and people of the kingdom to meet Her Majesty at supper. This is the custom of the country: and were the King of Prussia in England, he would be met by a similar company at Windsor, only that the supper would be called dinner.. Well, the tale-bearers say, that as soon as the queen found that these noblemen and gentlemen were invited to meet her, she took it " in ill part," was highly offended, and absolutely refused to meet them. It is added, that she and the prince, with the King of Prussia and some of the suite, supped alone, leaving the noblemen to make merry with each other as well as they could under the circumstances. I am really ashamed to mention such absurdities as these, nor would I, except to laugh at them, but that scarcely an Englishman who has followed in the wake of the queen can have failed to hear these talestold as truths. I am not quite sure that the French papers have got hold of this story; but, knowing their tricks so well, I don't think it amiss to anticipate them. There is no more foundation for it than for: the other story they trumped up about a quarrel between the Queen of England and the King of Prussia; or their elaborate fiction of a coolness between Lord Aberdeen and Prince Metternich, when the two statesmen were lavishing compliments and favours on each other.

Another story, much more rich than the others, is that when Queen Victoria arrived at Stolrenfels, the King of Prussia had caused to be hung up in her bedroom, portraits of the Prince of Wales and the other royal infants. The raconteurs add, that Her Majesty was so affected at the incident, that she rushed up (or down, as the case might be,) to the King of Prussia, fell on his neck, (rather a difficult thing to do, considering their relative height,) and, bursting into tears, kissed him affectionately, and daughter-like! How this squares with the stories about the quarrel with the king does not appear quite clear; but I myself heard the tale gravely related by a German nobleman of high rank, who had heard it from some other equally gullible person. It is better, however, that these stories should be invented and circulated to meet the demand on the lie market, than that there should be any attempt at giving a political turn to the queen's visit. A more purely friendly, social affair could not be. No doubt the Aberdeens and the Metternichs tried to oppose each other in the most friendly way in the world; or, perchance, their views may be so alike, that they were glad of the opportunity of disclosing them to each other; but, that the queen's tour had any immediate political object, I do not believe; nor is my unbelief the less strong because Messieurs the French journalists assert the contrary so stoutly and so ingeniously.

I am positively afraid to read what I have been writing-I know it is sad rigmarole; but then you must remember that my function is not to write. I am not apt at stringing sentences together, or making "points;" nor have I any design in what I write beyond putting on paper the passing thought of the moment. No doubt all we saw in Germany was couleur de rose: everything was dressed up in holiday garb for our amusement, and in our honour; but still it could not be all fictitious; the honest Germans are too slow to be able to ape enthusiasm at a moment's notice. Nor could all the semi-pastoral scenes we saw at Coburg be improvised for the occasion. The family-like way in which princes and people live there, and at Gotha, is positively delightful. There is no ostentation-no show-no sulky grandeur; the people and the duke seem born and sworn friends. I never was more agreeably surprised than by what I saw in the duke's dominions. We have been accustomed to look on the queen's German relations as a set of poor and hungry creatures, who were looking to their more fortunate relations in England for a share of the rich spoil they get from John Bull's liberality; no such thing. The Duke of Saxe Coburg is a man of immense wealth; lord of a territory teeming with the richest products of the earth, and master of an independent revenue, over and above the wants of the state, which places him in this respect almost" on a level with the sovereigns of England. Politically speaking, he may not be important, but in everything else that makes life valuable he is rich indeed. Among the many novel sights we saw in his dominions, the children's feast of St. Gregorius was the prettiest and most unique. I am much mistaken if we do not find the habits of royalty at home much altered by the effect of the example there set. The curse of royalty in England is that it is kept too much apart from the people. Queen Victoria is doing much to remove this evil; but still she is too much surrounded by state and ceremony when she goes among the people. At this feast at Coburg she was, perhaps, for the first time, a partaker in quite a new kind of royal life-dining and

taking part in rustic amusement in the presence of thousands of people. This was the other peculiar and remarkable feature in the queen's tour. All the particulars have been fully given in the papers; the moral of the thing is what I wish to refer to-that the more princes and people are brought into contact, the more the former are beloved and respected, and the more are the latter civilized.

In Belgium much the same kind of manners prevail; there the king and queen mix with the people, as friends and companions; and the Queen of England must here too have had the contrast between English and foreign court customs forcibly brought before her. Another change in this panorama of five weeks brought her to her old and af fectionate friend, Louis Philippe; here the same amiable freedom of intercourse between king and people was renewed. I could not help thinking that the scenes through which the queen had passed in Germany had prepared her for a great change even in her own habitsthat court ceremony and etiquette had become still more valueless in her eyes than ever. If something of the kind had not been going on in her mind, would she so readily have fallen in with, and so heartily have enjoyed, that ludicrous adventure of the bathing machine? Of all the grotesque sights I ever saw, that, taken with its associations, was the most perfect of its kind. And to see the agonies of the respective suites, compelled by etiquette to follow their royal leaders, and obliged to scramble (no, wade) to the shore as best they could. And to see the merry style in which the crowds who lined the shore greeted these new royal aquatics; the roars of laughter from the shore, and the peals. of the same that every now and then rang out from the bathing machine. A year ago, no two sovereigns of Europe would have done such a thing; but these royal visits and royal festivities are working wonderful changes in royal personages, and through them, in the people themselves. The English people particularly are imitative in their social relations. They do what the court and aristocracy do, at least as far as they can. The fashion of exclusiveness was set by the court and aristocracy; it was followed by the people, till the ambition of each grade in society, down to the lowest, was to be exclusive towards the grade below it. If the court, seeing the mischief done by this to the national manners and character, shall think fit to adopt a different course, the people will soon follow, and England will be relieved from one great disgrace under which she labours. English sterling qualities, with a dash of foreign freedom of manners, would make a character not to be surpassed in the world, either of men or of books.

Where will Her Majesty whirl us to next? St. Petersburg? Dublin? Berlin? Vienna? It is a paltry weakness of mine, but I really should like to date a despatch from Moscow. I believe Napoleon had the same little failing.

Φ.

VOL. VIII.