tors; they often fell into want from carelessness, or into extreme distress from temporary scarcity. They were a race among whom improvement in habits took place very slowly. But, on the whole, in the enjoyment of physical comfort, no less than in that of the jewel independence, theirs was probably a superior condition to that of landless labourers, even in the most advanced and opulent communities. The average price * of an acre of land was, towards the close of Elizabeth's reign, about twice what it had been half a century earlier,' while real wages had certainly fallen in the interval. Pauperism had perhaps increased; crime, we suspect, had diminished,` notwithstanding the facts adduced by our authors at the close of their second volume, from which, they say, it will be 'perceived that the merry England of the days of Elizabeth 'was, in some respects, rather a terrible country to live in.* But crime is not always the barometer of the physical wellbeing of a people. It is noticed as It is noticed as a curious fact, that in the reign of James the First, while drinking had become a much more prevalent vice among the higher classes, the com'mon people had become more temperate than formerly; but, adds Stow to this assertion, it was not from abstinence but necessity, ale and beer being small, and wines above their reach.'

It is perhaps more amusing than profitable, to theorize on a subject so difficult to be accurately estimated, as the fluc tuation in the quantity of comfort enjoyed by the labouring classes in our community; but, as far as such speculations can be formed, we are inclined to imagine that the agricultural labourers (still the mass of the people) had reached the lowest point in their condition, generally speaking, by the end of the period which we are now considering; and that the long space of time which elapsed from the reign of James I. to the accession of George III., at which this history terminates, was marked, in general, by increasing prosperity for them as well as the other classes. Some who have entertained the same opinion, have attributed this gradual improvement to the poorlaws; and although we may think that their effects have been much exaggerated, there can be little doubt that, as they were

formerly administered, they checked the undue increase of population in particular spots. If we were inclined to fix upon any particular period as representing the happy age of Old England-which still the most uncertain age appears'-perhaps the reign of George II., as Mr. Hallam observes, would as nearly fulfil the requisites as any. There was then a singularly long and continuous succession of good seasons, together with a steady increase of employment; and the consequence was, that real wages, according to Mr. Malthus's estimate, were higher in amount than at any other time since the fifteenth century. There was neither civil war nor tumult to ruffle the general composure; there was no rapidly increasing population of artizans, with its turbulence and immorality; numbers were augmenting very slowly, and so as not to outrun employment. Our authors, adopting the pictures drawn by Fielding and others, appear to imagine that it was a period of much disorder and irregularity in the police of the country. We question the fact; and believe that, if future observers were to take their premises from such revelations, for instance, as those of the recent Constabulary Force Committee,' they would come to the conclusion that our own was quite as bad. Crimes of violence were much rarer than in earlier times; crimes against property were little known in many parts; and were far indeed from having attained to that frightful multiplication which has characterized our own. It was a breathing-time between two periods of storm-an age in which there was little of excitement, little of strong popular agitation: fanaticism was at rest for a season, and dreams of political regeneration were only prematurely born in the brains of a few prophetic visionaries. To many, such times present no pleasant retrospectappearing dead, apathetic, slothful; and wanting altogether in that earnestness and zeal in which alone they find the true exercise of the human faculties. In our view, they are blessed periods of calm, peculiarly suited for the growth of the household virtues of order, subordination, and practical religion; and absolutely necessary, in order that the seeds of those sterling qualities, which alone can carry a nation triumphantly through times of greater trial, may take root and thrive. Called to

take our part in the conflicts of a more eager age, and without undervaluing its peculiar advantages, it is not always without envy, we confess it,' that we look to this portion of the past; and feel sometimes tempted to exchange all our refinement and luxury, all our vast wealth and outward civilization nay, even the opulence of imagination exhibited in our era, and the ardour of purpose which belongs to it-for the quiet industry, the rude plenty, the tasteless habits and unpoetical cast of thought of the first Brunswick reigns. But there is, undoubtedly, much to set on the other side of the balance; and, after all, we will leave the case to the reader in the language in which our authors sum up the results of their protracted labours, although we do not entirely agree with it throughout :

'We look at it,' (the state of society in any past age) only, as it were, through so many long narrow tubes irregularly disposed, which permit us to see through each of them little more than the small insulated portion of the field that chances to be directly opposite to it. Doubtless, what is strictly and distinctively to be called civilization, has now been carried to a very considerably higher point in this country than it had arrived at by the middle of the last century; that is to say, along with a greatly improved condition of all material and mechanical arrangements, the moral dominion of law and order is more firmly established; crimes of violence, and violence in every shape, have diminished; human life has come to be held on all hands in higher estimation; great economical irregularities, such as famines and pestilences, have been much reduced in frequency and severity; the general rate of mortality has been lessened; in short, the whole system of circulation upon which our existence as a community depends, has been brought to act both with more freedom and more efficiency. But our existence as a community is a different thing from our existence either as individuals or families; and an advance in civilization is not necessarily the same thing with advance either in happiness or virtue. It does not even follow, as a matter of course, that, with a more submissive obedience to the law, and with actually a lower amount of what the law calls crime,' (the authors must mean this hypothetically, we suppose,) we are in a more healthy condition, either socially or politically. With less crime there may be more vice; the spirit of legality, to borrow a phrase from the theologians, may have weakened the spirit of li berty. At the same time, while it is but fair to the past to keep these possibilities in mind, it would be the most fatal of all errors to assume that liberty and order, civilization and morality, might

not all exist in the highest degrees together and in harmony. And certainly, in the case immediately before us-the comparison between our present condition and that of our ancestors of the earlier part of the last century-it would be very difficult to show that the higher degree of morality and liberty really went along with the lower degree of civilization and order.'-(Vol. IV. p. 856.)

(EDINBURGH REVIEW.)

THE TOWER OF LAHNECK :

A ROMANCE.

Amongst the many castled crags on the banks of the Rhine, one of the most picturesque is the ruin of Lahneck, perched on a conical rock, close to that beautiful little river the Lahn. The Castle itself is a venerable fragment, with one lofty tower rising far above the rest of the building-a characteristic feature of a feudal stronghold-being in fact the Observatory of the Robber-Baron, whence he watched, not the motions of the heavenly bodies, but the movements of such earthly ones as might afford him a booty, or threaten him with an assault. And truly, Lahneck is said to have been the residence of an order of Teutonic Knights-exactly matching in number the famous band of Thieves in the Arabian Tale.

However, when the sun sets in a broad blaze behind the heights of Capelles, and the fine ruin of Stolzenfels on the opposite banks of the Rhine, its last rays always linger on the lofty towers of Lahneck. Many a time, while standing rod in hand on one or other of the brown rocks which, narrowing the channel of the river, form a small rapid, very favourable to the fisherman - many a time have I watched the rich warm light burning beaconlike on the very summit of that solitary tower, whilst all the river lay beneath in deepest shadow, save the golden circles that marked where a fish rose to the surface, or the bright coruscations made by the screaming

swallow as it sportively dipped its wing in the dusky water, like a gay friend breaking in on the cloudy reveries of a moody mind. And as these natural lights faded away, the artificial ones of the village of Lahnstein began to twinklethe glowing windows of Duquet's hospitable pavilion, especially, throwing across the stream a series of dancing reflections that shone the brighter, for the sombre shadows of a massy cluster of acacias in the tavern-garden. Then the myriads of chafers, taking to wing filled the air with droning-whilst the lovely fireflies with their fairy lamps began to flit across my homeward path, or hovered from osier to osier, along the calm waterside. But a truce to these personal reminis

cences.

It was on a fine afternoon, towards the close of May, 1830. that two ladies began slowly to climb the winding path which leads through a wild shrubbery to the ruined Castle of Lahneck: They were unaccompanied by any person of the other sex; but such rambles are less perilous for unprotected females in that country than in our own-and they had enjoyed several similar excursions without accident or offence. At any rate, to judge from their leisure steps, and the cheerful tone of their voices, they apprehended no more danger than might accrue to a gauze or a ribbon from an overhanging branch or a stray bramble. The steepness of the ascent forced them occasionally to halt to take breath, but they stopped quite as frequently to gather the wild flowers, and especially the sweet valley lilies, there so abundant, to look up at the timestained Ruin from a new point, or to comment on the beauties of the scenery.

The elder of the ladies spoke in English, to which her companion replied in the same language, but with a foreign accent and occasional idioms, that belonged to another tongue. In fact she was a native of Germany, whereas the other was one of those many thousands of British travellers whom the long peace, the steamboat, and the poetry of Byron had tempted to visit the "blue and arrowy blue and arrowy" river. Both were young, handsome, and accomplished; but the Fraulein Von B. was unmarried; whilst Mrs. was a wife and a mother,