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the greatest possible happiness, merely because we find them contented with their condition. Ignorance and superstition may make a people contented with slavery. Of this we have, unfortunately, examples among the European nations. Sloth, and a low state of moral feeling, may render men contented with beggary and wretchedness, in a land the most favoured, where plenty might reign, and luxury revel: but the Engadine is not so situated; and in place of grieving, as the patriot or the philanthropist may, at the spectacle of contentment, where contentment is indicative but of degradation, this general contentment among the Grisons of the Engadine is not to be deplored, for there is neither ignorance nor superstition, beggary nor wretchedness among them; and the Engadine is not a country where discontent could produce any advantage to its inhabitants, because nothing can change their condition. The country is incapable of greater cultivation than it has received. All has been done for it that industry and an extreme love of gain can devise. Wherever an ear of rye will ripen, there it is to be found. But in a country lying three and six thousand feet above the level of the sea (and this applies to the bottom of the valley, not to the mountain sides, which are greatly more elevated), industry wages an equal war against the elements. Summer does not begin till June, and ends early in September; and even during its continuance, the diligently cultured fields are often laid waste by a desolating storm of hail, or entirely swept away by the resistless torrents that descend from the mountains."

The road to Ardetz follows the course of the Inn, which murmurs below in a deep narrow channel, heard but not seen, "From Ardetz (over which hangs, upon a lofty rock, a ruined castle called Steinberg) I descended," says Coxe, "along a very steep craggy path to the river Inn, which I crossed, and mounted a rapid ascent, leaving on my right hand the valley of Scharla, in which there are silver mines belonging to the House of Austria. They were formerly very rich, and yielded a considerable advantage, but are now exhausted. I passed through the straggling village of Trasp, and close to a castle of the same name, situated upon the highest point of a perpendicular rock. Count Dietrichstein, as lord of the castle, is a prince of the German empire; it was given to his family by the emperor Leopold, on condition that its possessor should always vote in the diet of the empire for the House of Austria. The formality of a garrison is maintained in this castle by a single Austrian soldier."

A very lofty chain of mountains, called the Bernina, separates the valleys of the Engadine and of Bregaglia, on the north, from Valteline on the south. They are of various elevations. They are crossed by several arduous paths, but the most frequented is the Bernina pass. "It is a wide path," Murray says, "practicable at its two extremities for cars, and traversed annually by seven hundred or eight hundred mules.”

It is a truly pleasing incident of travel, when enjoying the scenery of such a land as that we are now about to leave, we are associated with those who sympathise with our feelings, and heartily respond to our expressions of delight. But to prevent frequent i disappointment, it is well to remember, that many seem to go abroad for no such purpose to say they have been at any place of which they hear, or they think it desirable to mention, appears to be their chief object, and only associated with another, whose claims must not, on any account, be set aside. Many a traveller might have sat for the picture which Mr. Noel has very vividly sketched :

"On board a certain steam-boat, a traveller, while we were dining at the table d'hote, paced the deck with apparent indifference to the entertainment; but nothing was farther from his thoughts; his sagacious eye was marking some dishes which experience or an intuitive knowledge of good cooking led him to regard as promising. His choice being made, he waited patiently till the bustle of twenty voices vociferating garçon, and five or six waiters, with the rapidity of lightning, flying from point to point, had subsided into the loquacious contentment which marks that a large company have dispatched a good

dinner. And now his turn was come. The day being fine, and the scenery beautiful, every one was on deck, and the Englishman was almost as solitary in the cabin as Virgil's bird upon the sea-shore, which

"Sola in siccâ secum spatiatur arena.'

But the Englishman did not mean to waste his time by strutting like the bird: the air had made his appetite keen; a purple rotundity of visage marked that he was not indifferent to good cheer, and he was there for nothing else than to feed. There was remarkable deliberation and order in the proceedings; which were thus opened:"Waiter, garçon, bring me some dinner: comprenez?'

"Very well, sir.'

"Cutlets, pommes de terre au maitre d'hotel, and sliced carrots.'

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"In a short time the cloth was laid, and the napkin was on his knee, three dishes smoked under his nose, and his plate before him invited him to action. But before the waiter could retire, he exclaimed, Bring three plates.' The waiter stared. Trois assiettes, I say.' The waiter was confounded: what could he mean? Upon which the Englishman, seeing that neither his English nor his French was understood, rushed to the steward's room, seized three plates, returned to his table, followed by the waiter, whose imagination was completely baffled by this rapid movement, and, placing the three plates upon the three dishes, exclaimed, Comme ç'a; voila.'

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"There was still another preliminary to be settled.

"What wine, sir?' said the waiter, putting the list into his hands. His eye glanced over it with contempt. The most costly Burgundy, champagne mousseux, the Johannisberg, and the Hockheim solicited his palate in vain; and he replied, 'Have you got a bottle of porter?'

"What, sir?'

"Have-you-got-a-bottle-o-porter, I say? Comprenez ?'

"Alas! the waiter did not comprehend one word that he said; but happily, it being a time of profound repose in the vessel, a second waiter was at hand, to whom the question was repeated.

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"Why do you deceive people by putting it in the carte? Bring a bottle of ale, then. Comprenez ?'

"After this the Englishman, lifting up the cover of each dish for a moment, took from it some of its smoking contents, and then closed it again as carefully as a miser would relock his hoard. Just then the waiter re-appeared with the bottle; and was in the act of inserting the corkscrew, when the Englishman, starting up, exclaimed with energetic indignation, 'If you draw it, I will not pay you one farthing. Comprenez ?' If his words were unintelligible, the waiter could understand the deepening claret of his cheek, and the keen sparkle of his eye, and was arrested in a moment; when the other, snatching the bottle, and placing it still corked by his side, muttered something about 'spoiling the thing altogether.' But now his energy and decision had triumphed; `and I left him in his spacious cabin, with plenty of time before him, with his hot dishes within reach, and his ale ready to foam at his command, beginning to replenish the interior void with a profound contentment, which the fine scenery through which we were rapidly gliding could not for a moment disturb.”

CHAPTER XXXV.

CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE-ARTS AND MANUFACTURES-FINE ARTS-INSTITUTIONS

RELIGION.

It is desirable, before we proceed to the north of Italy, that we should now dwell briefly on the condition of the people of Switzerland; and more particularly on those circumstances which, as yet, we have only too slightly touched, or altogether passed over. This will, therefore, be our present purpose.

Switzerland is a country of various races, and this circumstance, as well as the difference of situation and climate, and of institutions, language, and religion, contribute to give distinct moral features to the various parts of the population. Generally speaking, the western Swiss bear a certain affinity to their French neighbours of Burgundy and Franche Comté, being like them, chiefly descended from the Burgundians, whose kingdom extended on both sides of the Jura; while the eastern and northern Swis resemble their German neighbours of Suabia and Tyrol. The inhabitants of the central Alpine cantons have peculiar features, physical as well as moral, and they have remained more unmixed from foreign irruptions and immigrations than the rest.

According to Olivier, a Swiss contemporary writer, the inhabitant of the Alps is strongly attached to his native locality, firm and tenacious even to obstinacy, proud and single-minded; his feelings are deep and energetic; he is prone to enthusiasm, and to a kind of poetical abstraction. The inhabitant of the regions of the Jura is more civilised, more developed, more industrious, more progressive. In politics, liberty in the Jura is of the modern kind, the offspring of reasoning and of speculation; in the Alps it is a natural and individual sentiment.

The Swiss are generally fond of their country, and feel proud of being Swiss. Amongst all, both in the mountains and the plains, may be observed a frank, bold bearing and gait, and a freedom of sentiment which proclaim them as citizens of a free country. There is also a love of domestic comfort, propriety, and of the decencies of life among all classes, and in a greater degree than is found among the corresponding orders in France or Italy. The differences in the appearance of the country and the houses, the superior cleanliness, tidiness, and care, forcibly strike the traveller who crosses the Jura or the Alps into Switzerland. The feeling of order, the habit of reasoning and discriminating, the steady, slow perseverance, the disposition to grave and serious thoughts, the shrewdness and humour, distinct from cunning and wit-all which are qualities generally characteristic of the Teutonic nations-have been regarded as belonging in great measure also to the Swiss, who are for the most part descended from Teutonic races.

In the western part of Savoy the people are chiefly employed in agriculture, but in the great valleys, the principal of which are Faucigny, Tarentaise, and Maurienne, the rearing of cattle is the chief resource of the inhabitants.

Besides the nobility, which is numerous but not rich, there are three classes of people in Savoy. The first class consists of bourgeois, or citizens, who are freemen of the

different towns, and who are generally proprietors, having an income sufficient for their subsistence. The freedom may be purchased, on certain conditions; the purchase money goes to the support of the hospitals, and other public uses, and part of it serves to defray the expenses of a city feast on the reception of the new member.

The second class consists of farmers, whether tenants or proprietors, cultivating their own land: they live frugally, but are generally comfortable. The third class is composed of artisans and agricultural labourers; the former are mostly foreigners, or the sons of foreigners, and they are well employed and paid; but the agricultural labourers are generally poor, and live wretchedly. It is from this class that travellers derive their notions of the misery of Savoy; but it is not so great as is commonly supposed. With the wages he receives, the labourer can purchase sufficient wholesome food for himself and his family, according to the frugal manner in which they live. But then he has to deduct about seventy days in the year, consisting of Sundays and other holidays, as he is paid by the day; and during winter he either has no employment, or works at reduced wages. These difficulties induce many to emigrate. The inhabitants of the mountains are in better circumstances than those of the towns and valleys, owing to the rich pastures which the Alps spontaneously afford.

Emigration during winter is general among the poorer peasantry of the higher valleys. The men leave their homes in the autumn, and proceed to France or Italy in quest of work, while their wives take care of the house, and spin and weave during the long winter evenings, for they make all their clothing at home. At the beginning of spring, the men return to work in the fields, or drive the cattle up the Alps. The younger emigrants wander further, and remain sometimes absent for years. They proceed to Lyons and Paris, where they find employment as chimney-sweepers, shoe-blacks, hawkers, and errand-boys, and are to be seen at the corners of the streets of the French metropolis, where they are said to bear a good character for honesty and sobriety.

There is a difference remarked between the emigrants of the different valleys. Those from the Maurienne, which is the poorest, are the most numerous, and also the humblest in their vocations. They are chiefly chimney-sweepers, or shoe-blacks. Those from the Tarentaise, though they begin with the same callings, often raise themselves in some branch of trade; aud many have established houses in various parts of France. The emigrants of Faucigny are mostly carpenters and stone-masons. They possess much mechanical ingenuity, and are the best informed among the mountaineers of Savoy. The best chamois-hunters are also to be met with in Faucigny; and they follow that dangerous sport with an ardour only extinguished by death.

The people of Faucigny export cattle, cheese, butter, flax, and honey-which last is very much esteemed. Those of Maurienne and Tarantasia export likewise cattle and mules to Piedmont and to France; they supply the markets of Turin with butcher's meat, hides, butter, and cheese. Most of the cheese said to be from Mont Cenis, and somewhat resembling Stilton, is made in the Maurienne. The cheese of Tarantasia resembles the well-known Swiss cheese called Gruyere. The people live chiefly on the produce of their dairies they cat rye-bread, or cakes made of oatmeal and rye, which are baked twice in the year, chesnuts, and now and then a piece of salt meat. The attachment of the Savoyards to their native mountains is a feeling which continues during life. In almost every little town or village there are gifts left by natives-as may be seen in the churches-natives who, after many years' residence in distant countries, have returned home in their advanced age.

The Savoyards take particular care of their churches; which even in the forest and most mountainous parishes are neat, and often handsome, though their own habitations are rudely constructed, and often dilapidated. The parish church, often at a great distance from the various hamlets scattered on the mountain sides, is the only place of

meeting in these districts. There, once a week, the various families see each others' faces. After a week's separation from all the rest of mankind, amidst wild solitudes, where nothing is heard but the noise of the torrent, and the roar of the storm, the meeting at church must excite peculiar emotions.

The arrangements for marriage are not a little singular. When a young man is first admitted to spend the evening at the house of a maiden to whom he wishes to pay his addresses, he watches the order of the fireplace, where several billets are blazing. If the fair one lifts up a billet, and places it upright against the side of the fireplace, it is a sign that she does not approve of her suitor. If she leaves the blazing wood undisturbed, the young man may be sure of her consent. The preliminaries of the contract are soon arranged. The bridegroom makes a present to his betrothed as a pledge of his sincerity, and the following Saturday the contract is signed. At the marriage festival, twentyfour hours are passed in rejoicings, for this is the most important event in the simple history of these mountaineers.

The pastoral populations of the Waldstatten have been free from time immemorial; they enjoyed liberty, indeed, while the rest of Switzerland was cultivated by serfs. The plateau or table-land of the country, which lies between the two mountain regions, is the scene of agricultural labours; it also contains the largest and wealthiest towns; it enjoys a greater degree of ease and comfort; and the inhabitants are more fond of material enjoyment; they are less shrewd and ingenious, more satisfied, and less anxious about accumulating wealth than the mountaineers, either of the Jura or the Alps. The inhabitants of the mountain cantons are fond of money, which is scarce in their country, and travellers have complained of their grasping disposition, especially the innkeepers, muleteers, and guides. Gross cases of imposition, accompanied by rudeness, now and then occur, for which there is little chance of redress, as the local magistrates are connected with the innkeepers, or are innkeepers themselves, and the local courts in the small democracies of the Alps are not very scrupulous or just.

A recent traveller says: "It is a pity that the inducement to travel through a country so interesting as the Grisons-interesting from the grandeur of its scenery-interesting from the peculiarities of its natural and moral aspect-should be in any degree counterbalanced by the unpleasant knowledge, that every man's object is to cheat you; and that, moreover, any attempt to resist even the grossest robbery will be followed by abuse and insult, sometimes even by violence; and yet such is the state of things throughout the country of the Grisons. I do not allude to what I would call simple imposition. Overcharges a stranger must submit to; and the traveller will do wisely in making up his mind to bear these quietly. But the imposition practised upon travellers throughout the Grison country is of a different kind, and amounts to robbery. This is less excusable, too, among the Grisons than in any other part of Switzerland, and must be attributed amongst them to an innate want of honesty. In the more travelled parts of Switzerland, intercourse with strangers may have corrupted the natural simplicity of the natives. When the continent was first opened to the English, they scattered their money with the most lavish hand, measuring their bounty, not by the wants of the natives and the scale of things abroad, but by the high war-prices of England; so that, upon the principle that a thing is worth what it will bring, the Swiss adapted their demands to this rule; and, even at this day, although the majority of travelling English act with greater prudence, there are still many exceptions; and when you offer a Swiss something reasonable and just for his services, nothing is more common than to be told, that un Monsieur Anglais gave so and so the other day for a similar service, naming a sum two or three times greater than you have offered. But the Grisons have no such examples of folly to bring in support of their extortions; and these extortions are, besides, far greater, as well as of a different character. I scarcely ever changed a piece of money in

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