contemporary German author whose works are so widely spread as those of our own Sir Walter Scott, for they are to be found in almost every village throughout the Empire.

I would recommend travellers, before they leave Leipsick, to ascend the observatory, from whence the finest panorama of the town may be enjoyed; and which affords at the same time a most commanding prospect over that extensive plain, on which so many battles pregnant with the fate of nations have been decided.

To the north we perceive Breitenfeld, in whose vicinity Gustavus Adolphus, in the year 1631, vanquished the hitherto invincible Tilly. To the west lies the town of Lützen, memorable for another victory of the Swedes over the Imperialists, under Wallenstein, in the year 1632: this was dearly purchased, for it cost the conquerors the life of their beloved king. In modern days this fatal plain was again crimsoned with the blood of myriads; for, on the 2d of May, 1813, it was the theatre of a sanguinary contest between the allied armies and the French, when upwards of twenty thousand men were put hors de combat; but all these were insignificant skirmishes, when compared with the tremendous "Völker Schlacht," (battle of the people,) as the Germans emphatically term it, which took place on the 18th of October, in the same year, when more than half a million of men stood opposed to each other, serenaded with the infernal music of fifteen hundred cannons. But the palm of victory was deeply dyed, as it is computed that eighty thou

sand men covered the desolate plains, while the waves of the Elster and Pleisse were swelled with torrents of blood.

The inhabitants point out the spot near the town, which the hitherto invincible Napoleon occupied during the awful conflict; his demeanor had become singularly changed from the proud, cool bearing, which hitherto distinguished him: he was now nervous, desponding, and irritable. However favourable the battle of Leipsick may have been to the political liberties of Europe, the immediate consequences to the unhappy inhabitants of this plain were most disastrous. I cannot give a more vivid picture of their sufferings than that in the memorial they addressed, supplicating the aid of Great Britain.

"What the industry of years had acquired, has been annihilated in a few hours. All around us is one wide waste; our numerous villages and hamlets are entirely reduced to ashes. The fuel collected for the winter, even the gates, doors, and floors of the houses, have been consumed in the watch fires. All our horses have been taken away, our cattle destroyed, and thousands of families are deploring the loss of beloved relatives, or watching over them, sick and wounded, without the means of affording them shelter, or relief. In short, the misery that meets our view in every direction, no language can describe: the horrible spectacle wounds us to the very soul. Where, then, are we to look for relief? Where, but to the sea-girt Albion, whose wooden walls defy every hostile attack; who, uninjured, has maintained the glorious conflict, both by sea

and land? Ye free, ye beneficent, ye happy Britons, whose generosity is attested by every page of the annals of suffering humanity; whose soil has been trodden by no hostile foot; who know not the feelings of the wretch that beholds a foreign master revelling in his habitation-of you the city of Leipsick earnestly implores relief for herself, and for the circumjacent villages and hamlets ruined by the military events in the past month of October."

That England most munificently responded to the call, is now a matter of history; but how soon has our generous assistance, and extraordinary efforts in defending the liberties of mankind, and annihilating their common enemy, been forgotten! Let us listen to the manufacturers of Germany, particularly those of Saxony, and they will tell us, that our policy is narrowminded, and selfish; that we excite and foment rebellions, thereby plunging whole nations into misery, solely to increase the sale of our own manufactures, and destroy those of others. How unjust, how unfounded! If Germany is really aroused from her lethargy, it is a subject, not of regret, but of rejoicing, to England; for the efforts of her rivals only stimulate her to still mightier exertions. She is also assured, that the creation of wealth, even in those opposed to her, produces an increased demand for her manufactures ; and, notwithstanding whatever the venal press of Germany may propagate to the contrary, every Briton is anxious for her well-being, and desires to see her unshackled by the chains of Russia, or any other foreign

power.

But we fear that German prosperity will be of short duration; for, situated in the centre of Europe, she has been, in every period of her history, the arena of warthe theatre of devastating armies;—and is not futurity fraught with perils, having restless France on one side, and ambitious Russia on the other? This insecurity may account, in some measure, for the want of enterprise in the Germans, who, when possessed of a small capital, feel little inclination to risk it in a country where, at the first sound of a hostile bugle, legions of foreign foes overspread the land, and, like a swarm of locusts, devour its wealth; nor is their fate much better, when bands of their own soldiers are scattered over the country. Wanton desolation may then, perhaps, be spared, but spoliation is still the doom of the unhappy German; hence, we cannot feel surprised that he prefers his trifling independence to the uncertainty of commercial speculation.

Thuringia-Schiller-Göthe-Borna- Scene at the Inn-ChemnitzMining District-The Madonna of Culm-Egar-Wallenstein-Franzbrun-Valley of the Egar--Wunsiedel-Melancholy Fate of three Englishmen-Alexanders-bad-Ascent of the Louisenberg and Ochsenkopf - Berneck - Baireuth-Hermitage- Franconian Switzerland— Grottos.

BETWEEN Saxony and Franconia, some few leagues distant from Leipsick, lies the beautiful country of Thuringia, once an independent kingdom, but now divided amongst a host of petty princes, who, through family influence, or political services, have preserved their very unimportant independence. Besides the four small Saxon dukedoms of Weimar, Coburg, Meiningen, and Altenburg-Hilburghausen, and the principalities of Schwarzenburg and Reuss, the kings of Prussia, Bavaria, and Saxony, and the Elector of Hesse, have each their separate portions, and yet the population of the whole of Thuringia is under six hundred thousand. Although the mountains are inferior in altitude to the Fichtelgebirge, which they join, this, in no respect, detracted from the beauty of the country; and no district