rests of stunted firs, now over a matting of and now over the bare debris-strewn scal The convent bells followed us with their s hill, and formed a link between us and the The echoes of our voices were strangely lo in the thin elastic air, as if all we said had repeated by some invisible being,-some tains. The hours wore away; and so deli the novelty of our position,-climbing the at midnight,--that they seemed but so ma

Ere we were aware, the night was past, upon us; and with the dawn, new and burst forth. How fresh and holy the yo aside the curtains of the east, and smiled The valleys were buried under a fathon but the pearly light, sown by the rosy ha the mountain ridges, and a multitudinous spread out around us. The dawn stole tarily; and the great white Alps, which all night around us so silent, and cold, in their snowy shrouds, now began to gr dream-like. The stars put out their fire light mounted into the sky. Each success -inexpressibly lovely,-but momentary could have stereotyped it till we had ha but while we were gazing it had passed the other glories of the world. But, Mighty torch-bearers run before his cha rocks, the pine-forests, the torrents, the g vales, the flower-enamelled glades, the r their king is coming. Awake and worsh whose loftier stature or more favourable

start of all the others, has caught the first ray; and suddenly,
as if an invisible hand had kindled it, it rises into the fir-
mament, a pyramid of flame, soft, mild, yet gloriously bright,
like a dome of living sapphire. While you gaze, another
flashes upon you, and another, and another, and at length the
whole horizon is filled with gigantic pyres. The stupendous
vision has risen so suddenly, that you almost look if you may
see the seraph which has flown round and kindled these
mighty torches. The glory is inexpressible, and on a scale so
vast, that
no words to describe it. You can scarce
have
you
believe it to be reflected light which gives such glory to these
mountains. They are so rosy, so vividly, intensely radiant,
that you feel as if that boundless effulgence emanated from
themselves, were flowing forth from some hidden fountain of
light within. It is like no other scene of earthly glory you
You can compare it only to some celestial city
which has been let down from the firmament upon the tops
of the mountains, with its glittering turrets, its domes of
sapphire, and its wall of alabaster, needing no sun or other
source of earthly light to enlighten and glorify it. But while
you gaze, it is gone. The sun is up, and the mighty moun-
tain-torches which had carried the tidings of his coming to the
countries beneath are extinguished.

ever saw.

It was now full day, and we had reached the summit of the pass. Above us were still the snow-clad peaks; but the road does not ascend higher. We now crossed the frontier, and were in Italy. A little rocky plain surrounded by weatherbeaten peaks, a deep blue lake, and a sea of bare ridges in front, were all that we saw of Italy. The road now began sensibly to decline, and the diligence quickened its pace. We soon

reached the ridges before us, and began to descend over the brow of the Alps, which are steep and perpendicular as a wall

almost, on their southern side. You firs covered with immense lichen-clothed bo stretches of heath; then stunted firs: by forest trees begin to make their appearan lovely acacia; and last of all the vine, tall ing the peasant's cot with its shadow. Th series of hanging stairs, which zig-zag do mountain. At certain points the rock is p it is hewn into terraces; and at others th substructions of masonry. Now an imm the road, and now you find yourself on the ful precipice, with the gulph running righ sands of feet, and a white torrent at the struggling, but unable to make itself hear the mountain. The turns are frequent heavy, overladen vehicle, in its furious do a swing at each, as if it would cut short th and land the passenger, sooner than he w At length, after four hours' riding, the des The scene has changed in the twinkling o is as level as a floor. The warm sun,-th luxuriant vines,-the handsome architectu costumes, the dark oval faces, and bla natives,-all tell you that it is a new w have entered, that this is ITALY.

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RISE AND PROGRESS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN PIEDMONT.

First Entrance into Italy-Never can be Repeated-The Cathedral of Turin-The Royal Palace-The Museum-Egyptian Mummies-Reflections-Landmark of the Vaudois Valleys-Piedmontese House of Commons-Piedmontese Constitution-Perils that surrounded it-Providentially shielded from these-Numbers and Wealth of the Priesthood -Want of Public Opinion-Rise of a Free Press-Its Power-The Gazetta del Popolo-The Bible quoted by the Journalists-The flourishing State of the Country-The Waldensian Temple and CongregationWorkmen's Clubs-The Capuchin Monastery-A Capuchin FriarSunset.

ONE can enter Italy for the first time only once. For, however often we may climb the Alps, and tread the land that lies stretched out at their base, it is with a cold pulse, compared with the fever of excitement into which we are thrown by the first touch of that soil. The charm is flown; the tree of knowledge has been plucked; and never more can we taste the dreamy yet intense delight which attended the first unfolding of the gates of the Alps, and the first rising of the fair vision of Italy.

In truth, the Italy which one comes to see on his second visit is not the Italy that first drew him across the Alps. That was the Italy of history, or rather of his own imagination.

The fair form his fancy was wont to com the glowing recollections of empire and of passed with the halo of heroic deeds, he There meets him, on the other side of very unlike this. The Italy of the Ca where she sat is now a poor, naked, cow chain upon her arm,-the Italy of the P cination attends the traveller some short Indeed, he is loath to lose it, and wou through the warm colourings of history, an her as she i his own fancy, than look

I shall never forget the intense excitem when I found myself rolling along on the of pollard-elms, that runs all the way fr The voluptuous air, which seemed to fill a dreamy gaiety; the intense sun-light, wh ject with extraordinary brilliancy, from th head, to the burning domes of Turin in of the natives, which flashed with a fervou own sun; the Alps towering above me, vast unbroken line of glittering masses,form a picture of so novel and brilliant lutely produced an intoxication of delight

I passed a few days at Turin; and the was much enhanced by the society of my Bonar, whom I had met at Chamberry We visited together family, for Malta. interest in the capital of Piedmont. The And though we had been carri the Alps, and set down in the cathedral ary alone would have told us that we most unpractised eye could see at once t