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At the conclusion of his history, Dr. Halliday gives an interesting account of the present state of the kingdom of Hanover. The inhabitants are still in some degree suffering under the effects of the late war, but agriculture and commerce are again beginning to flourish amongst them. The taxes are said to be light. By the last accounts, the revenue amounted to a million and a half of dollars (two hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling), while the charges exceeded that income by about eight thousand pounds per annum. The government is at present carried on by a committee of five of the king's ministers, under the Duke of Cambridge as president. Three of these ministers, with his Royal Highness, reside constantly in Hanover. In 1819 the king granted a new constitution to the country, consisting of a representative government, in many respects similar to that of Great Britain. In each province the former local government is continued, and its affairs are managed by a legislative assembly of its own, consisting of representatives chosen from the clergy, nobles, and towns of the district; and it is a certain number of deputies from these provincial assemblies that form what is called the General States of the kingdom. In the code of Hanoverian law, which is composed of the Roman and canon law, modified by the peculiar customs of the country, there are some features which are well worthy of observation and praise. The practice of imprisoning a debtor, and thus depriving him of the means of liquidating his debts, which is so great a stain on our system of English jurisprudence, does not exist in the Hanoverian dominions. A creditor can sequestrate and sell the goods of his debtor, but cannot incarcerate his person, unless he makes it appear that he is about to fly from justice. The system of prison discipline also is humane and sensible, and the prisoners and criminals are treated with great humanity. The house of correction at Celle, and the house of industry at Hildesheim, are mentioned as excellent institutions. The convicts, when their services are not required by government, are wisely and benevolently allowed to work for the inhabitants, and are regularly paid a fixed sum per day. In criminal matters, the code of Charles the Fifth, called the Carolina, forms the basis of the law of Hanover. A highly commendable liberality is shewn towards the professors of different religions, and all denominations of Christians are eligible for the highest offices of the state. Jews are, indeed, in some degree, restricted as to residence, but they are equally under the protection of the laws. The Lutheran is the established religion of the country, though two of the States still adhere to their ancient faith. Education receives much encouragement in Hanover. Almost every parish has its school; and there is an establishment in the city of Hanover for the gratuitous education of all such as are desirous of becoming the instructors of youth. The merits of Göttingen as an university are

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well known: the celebrated Blumenbach is still the ornament of this place.

The ambition of Bonaparte destroyed the constitution of the German empire, and the Emperor of the West was compelled to assume the title of Austria only. The present constitution of Germany was settled at Vienna in 1815, when various principalities, which had previously been sovereign dominions, were incorporated with the Austrian empire, Prussia, Hanover, or others of the newlyformed kingdoms, while the princes have sunk into the first class of nobility. The states, which were not sufficient to form a kingdom, were made Grand Duchies; and the ruler of Hesse Cassel is the only prince, who now retains the title of elector. The diet of the confederation sits at Frankfort, and each sovereign prince has a representative at that assembly. The confederation of the Rhine included only a few of the minor states; but the present confederation comprehends the whole of Germany.

LETTERS FROM SPAIN, BY DON LEUCADIO DOBLADO.

MR. EDITOR,-The letter I have the honour to inclose was found by a friend of mine among some papers belonging to a lady, who had requested his assistance to arrange them. The packet contained two other long epistles, forming part, it should seem, of a considerable series, under the title of Letters from Spain, written between 1798 and 1810, by Don Leucadio Doblado. Knowing how intimately acquainted I had been with the writer, my friend obtained leave to make me a present of the manuscript, promising that he would endeavour to find the remainder, which, the lady was confident, had never been lent or destroyed.

I trust that the entire series of Doblado's letters will be in my possession, before they are wanted for insertion. But I have laid before you the circumstances of the case, that you may either delay the publication, or take the chance of the first three letters being left to stand by themselves as a mere fragment.

B.

Seville, May 1798.

Dear Madam.-I am inclined to think with you, that a Spaniard, who, like myself, has resided many years in England, is, perhaps, the fittest person to write an account of life, manners, and opinions as they exist in this country, and to shew them in the light, which is most likely to interest an Englishman. The most acute and diligent travellers are subject to constant mistakes; and perhaps the more so, for what is generally thought a circumstance in their favour-a moderate knowledge of foreign languages. A traveller who uses only his eyes, will confine himself to the description of external objects; and though his narrative may be deficient in

many topics of interest, it will certainly be exempt from great and ludicrous blunders. The difficulty, which a person, with a smattering of the language of the country he is visiting, experiences every moment in the endeavour to communicate his own, and catch other men's thoughts, often urges him into a sort of mental rashness, which leads him to settle many a doubtful point for himself, and forget the unlimited power, I should have said tyranny, of usage, in whatever relates to language. I still recollect the unlucky hit I made on my arrival in London, when, anxious beyond measure to catch every idiomatic expression, and reading the huge inscription of the Cannon Brewery at Knightsbridge, as the building had some resemblance to the great cannon-foundery in this town, I settled it in my mind that the genuine English idiom, for what I now should call casting, was no other than brewing cannon. This, however, was a mere verbal mistake. Not so that which I made when the word nursery stared me in the face every five minutes, as in a fine afternoon I approached your great metropolis, on the western road. Luxury and wealth, said I to myself, in a strain approaching to philosophic indignation, have at last blunted the best feelings of nature among the English. Surely, if I am to judge from this endless string of nurseries, the English ladies have gone a step beyond the unnatural practice of devolving their first maternal duties upon domestic hirelings. Here, it seems, the poor helpless infants are sent to be kept and suckled in crowds, in a decent kind of Founding Hospitals. You may easily guess that I knew but one signification of the words nursing and nursery. Fortunately I was not collecting materials for a book of travels during a summer excursion, otherwise I should now be enjoying all the honour of the originality of my remarks on the customs and manners of Old England.

From similar mistakes I think myself safe enough in speaking of my native country; but I wish I could feel equal confidence as to the execution of the sketches you desire to obtain from me. I know you too well, dear Madam, to doubt that my letters will, by some chance or other, find their way to some of the London Magazines, before they have been long in your hands *. And only think, I intreat you, how I shall fret and fidget under the apprehension that some of your pert newspaper writers may fill up a whole column in some of their Suns or Stars, which, in spite of intervening seas and mountains, shall dart its baneful influence, and blast the character of infallibility, as an English scholar, which I have acquired since my return to Spain. I have so strongly

Poor Don Leucadio! how mortified he would feel could he know that the letters to which he attributed so much importance, have lain forgotten for years, and that it will now cost me, his old friend, a world of trouble to give his posthumous work to the public!

rivetted the admiration of the Irish merchants in this place, that, in spite of their objection to my not calling tea ta, they submit to my decision every intricate question about your provoking shall and will and surely it would be no small disparagement, in this land of proud dons, to be posted up in a London paper as a murderer of the King's English. How fortunate was our famous Spanish traveller, my relative, Espriella* (for you know that there exists a family connexion between us by my mother's side) to find one of the best writers in England, willing to translate his letters! But since you will not allow me to write in my native language, and since, to say the truth, I feel a pleasure in using that which reminds me of the dear land which has been my second home-the land where I drew my first breath of liberty-the land which taught me how to retrieve, though imperfectly and with pain, the time which, under the influence of ignorance and superstition, I had lost in early youth-I will not delay a task which, should circumstances allow me to complete it, I intend as a token of friendship to you, and of gratitude and love to your country.

Few travellers are equal to your countryman Mr. Townsend in the truth and liveliness of his descriptions, as well as in the mass of useful information and depth of remark, with which he has presented the public f. It would be impossible for any but a native Spaniard to add to the collection of traits descriptive of the national character, which animates his narrative; and I must confess, that he has left me but little room for novelty in the selection of my topics. He has, indeed, fallen into such mistakes and inaccuracies, as nothing short of perfect familiarity with a country can prevent. But I may safely recommend him to you as a guide for a fuller acquaintance with the places whose inhabitants I intend to make the chief subject of my letters. But that I may not lay upon you the necessity of a constant reference, I shall begin by providing your fancy with a "local habitation" for the people whose habits and modes of thinking I will forthwith attempt to pourtray.

The view of Cadiz from the sea, as, in a fine open day, you approach its magnificent harbour, is one of the most attractive beauty. The strong deep light of a southern sky, reflecting from the lofty buildings of white free stone, which face the bay, rivet the eye of the navigator from the very verge of the horizon. The sea actually washes the ramparts, except where, on the opposite side of the town, it is divided by a narrow neck of land, which joins Cadiz to the neighbouring continent. When, therefore, you begin to discover the upper part of the buildings, and the white pinnacles of glazed earthenware, resembling china, that ornament the parapets with which their flat roofs are crowned, the airy structure, melting at

* See Espriella's Letters from England.
+He visited Spain in the years 1786 and 1787.

times into the distant glare of the waves, is more like a pleasing delusion-a kind of Fata Morgana-than the lofty, uniform massive buildings which, rising gradually before the vessel, bring you back, however unwilling, to the dull realities of life. After landing on a crowded quay, you are led the whole depth of the ramparts along a dark vaulted passage, at the farthest end of which new-comers are delivered into the hands of the inferior customhouse officers. Eighteen-pence slipped into their hands with the keys of your trunks, will spare you the vexation of seeing your clothes and linen scattered about you in the utmost disorder.

I forgot to tell you, that scarcely does a boat with passengers approach the landing-stairs of the quay, when three or four Gallegos, natives of the province of Galicia, who are the only porters in this town, will take a fearful leap into the boat, and begin a scuffle, which ends by the stronger seizing upon the luggage. The successful champion becomes your guide through the town to the place where you wish to take your abode. As only two gates are used as a thoroughfare-the sea-gate, Puerta de la Mar, and the land-gate, Puerta de Tierra-those who come by water are obliged to cross the great Market-a place not unlike Čovent Garden, where the country people expose all sorts of vegetables and fruits for sale. Fish is also sold at this place, where you see it laid out upon the pavement in the same state as it was taken out of the net. The noise and din of this market are absolutely intolerable. All classes of Spaniards, not excluding the ladies, are rather loud and boisterous in their speech. But here is a contention between three or four hundred peasants, who shall make his harsh and guttural voice be uppermost, to inform the passengers of the price and quality of his goods. In a word, the noise is such as will astound any one, who has not lived for some years near Cornhill or Temple-Bar.

Religion, or, if you please, superstition, is so intimately blended with the whole system of public and domestic life in Spain, that I fear I shall tire you with the perpetual recurrence of that subject. I am already compelled, by an involuntary train of ideas, to enter upon that endless topic. If, however, you wish to become thoroughly acquainted with the national character of my country, you must learn the character of the national religion. The influence of religion in Spain is boundless. It divides the whole population into two comprehensive classes, bigots and dissemblers. Do not, however, mistake me. I am very far from wishing to libel my countrymen. If I use these invidious words, it is not that I believe every Spaniard either a downright bigot or a hypocrite: yet I cannot shut my eyes to the melancholy fact, that the system under which we live must unavoidably give, even the best among us, a taint of one of those vices. Where the law threatens every dissenter from such an encroaching system of divinity as that of

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