alone he was accredited by his own country. He gives a vivid picture of the state of society and of the anarchy of political parties in Guatimala and around it-and what a picture it is! Tumults, seditions, conspiracies, domestic wars commenced without cause or object, and only ending in one place to be renewed in another; each year, almost each month, a new knot of ambitious fools and scoundrels presenting themselves upon the stage, each in his turn filling a large space in the public eye for a bloody moment, and then swept away into oblivion. The mind recoils with sickening disgust from the details. Were not all lighter feelings subdued by the horrors which mark every page in the annals of Central America, there would be ample scope for ridicule in contemplating the succession of ignorant, remorseless demagogues, scarcely removed from savages, exalting themselves into heroic sages and deliverers of their country playing at freedom like a set of mischievous schoolboys, and calling on all the world to admire their philosophy and self-devotion.

Although no direct admission of the kind escapes our author, we cannot but suspect, from more than one casual expression, that his enthusiastic admiration of Republican governments was a little disturbed when he found himself surrounded by these clumsy imitators. In the preface to this work, which bears date so late as May, 1841, he adverts with much satisfaction

to

'late intelligence from Central America, which enables him to express the belief that the state of anarchy in which he has represented that beautiful country no longer exists; that the dark clouds which hung over it have passed away, that civil war has ceased, and Central America may be welcomed back among republics.' Preface, pp. iii. iv.

The hope has, alas! proved fallacious. Still later accounts speak of renewed commotion and bloodshed; and we predict with sorrow, but without a grain of doubt, that this fair, this magnificent country is doomed to a long period of civil war and all its attendant miseries. We predict this from our conviction that its population is very far removed from that state of intelligence and advancement which alone can fit a people

to receive free institutions with advantage to themselves, to adopt them with moderation and wisdom, and to use without abusing them. Even amongst the most philosophic and enlightened people, dabbling in republicanism has always proved a dangerous amusement. When men but just removed from barbarism, and who are degraded and oppressed by popish bigotry and superstition in their worst and most revolting forms, attempt to do so, the experiment is nothing short of madness. We will not dwell on those parts of Mr. Stephens's work which are devoted to political events: they are detailed concisely and clearly, and with his accustomed vigour of description: we will also pass over, as lightly as he himself does, all his diplomatic doubts, difficulties, and annoyances. The tone in which he jests on his fruitless search for a government before which he could represent his masters, is judiciously adopted, as it disarms the ridicule which might otherwise have attached to his official failure; and indeed, as we have before remarked, we are inclined to believe that as long as volcanic mountains and ruined cities were within his reach, his political cares sat very lightly upon him.

In preference to all such matter, we shall take our readers as rapidly as we can to the next scene of his antiquarian labours; though there are some passages of so much merit, and which stand so much in our path, that it is with difficulty we can pass them by. His discription of lazzoing, of the fête of La Concepcion, and of a novice taking the black veil, are masterly. The latter subject is a hackneyed one, but we have never met with it so simply and so effectively given; and we would recommend its study to all the novel-writing public as an example how much picturesque power is gained by an absence of exaggeration, and ambitious labouring after point.

After remaining a fortnight at Guatimala, Mr. Stephens sets out on a short excursion to the shores of the Pacific; and in his route ascends the Volcano de Agua, the height of which is 14,450 feet above the level of the sea. On his return to the capital he was alarmed by the receipt of a letter from Mr. Catherwood, dated from Esquipulas, and informing him that he had been robbed by his servant; had been so ill as to be obliged to leave the ruins and to take up his abode at

the churlish Don Gregorio's, who, however, had at length softened down into some degree of hospitality, and had treated him well; and that he was then on his journey to Guatimala. Greatly distressed by this news, Mr. Stephens resolved, after a day's rest, to set off in search of his sick friend; but the next day he made his appearance, armed to the teeth, but looking pale and thin, and just in time to partake of the Christmas gaieties of Guatimala.

On the 5th of January, 1840, our author set out with the intention of going to San Salvador, which was formerly, and still claimed to be, the capital of the confederation; or rather to Cojutepeque, to which place the seat of government had lately been transferred, on account of the earthquakes at San Salvador. The disturbed state of the country, and the jealousies of the contending factions, rendered it advisable that he should go by sea; and he therefore a second time proceded to Istapa, to which place Mr. Catherwood accompanied him; and thence, after suffering severely from ague and fever, the effect of the almost pestilential climate, he went on to Zouzonate. There, as he facetiously expresses it, he stumbled upon the government he was in chase of, in the person of Don Diego Vigil, the vice-president of the republic.' The information he received from this gentleman induced him to give up his intention of visiting San Salvador for the present, and he determined to proceed by sea. to Costa Rica, the southernmost division of the confederacy, the state of his health rendering a sea voyage desirable; and thence to return by land and explore the line of the projected canal between the Atlantic and Pacific by the lake of Nicaragua.

Landing at Caldera, he proceeded in the first instance to San José, which he notices as being the only city which has grown up or even improved since the independence of Central America, and which has now superseded Cartago as the capital of the new State. On his route he inspected the works of the 'Anglo-Costa-Rican Economical-Mining-Company,' and its 'New German machine for extracting gold by the Zillenthal patent-self-acting-cold amalgamation-process.' The mine, it appears, had been in operation for three years without losing

VOL. II.

11

anything, which was considered doing so well that it was about to be conducted on a larger scale. He visited the old capital of Cartago for the express purpose of ascending the volcano, at the foot of which it stands the especial attraction being the hope of beholding from its summit, at one glance, the two mightiest waters of the globe :

....

'The ascent was rough and precipitous; in one place a tornado had swept the mountain, and the trees lay across the road so thickly as to make it almost impassable: we were obliged to dismount, and climb over some and creep under others. Beyond this we came into an open region, where nothing but cedar and thorns grew; and here I saw whortleberries for the first time in Central America. In that wild region there was a charm in seeing anything that was familiar to me at home, and I should perhaps have become sentimental, but they were hard and tasteless. As we rose we entered a region of clouds; very soon they became so thick that we could see nothing; the figures of our own party were barely distinguishable, and we lost all hope of any view from the top of the volcano. Grass still grew, and we ascended till we reached a belt of barren rock and lava; and here, to our great joy, we emerged from the region of clouds, and saw the top of the volcano, without a vapour upon it, seeming to mingle with the clear blue sky; and at that early hour the sun was not high enough to play upon its top. . . . The crater was about two miles in circumference, rent and broken by time or some great convulsion; the fragments stood high, bare, and grand as mountains, and within were three or four smaller craters. We ascended on the south side by a ridge running east and west till we reached a high point, at which there was an immense gap in the crater impossible to cross. The lofty point on which we stood was perfectly clear, the atmosphere was of transparent purity, and looking beyond the region of desolation, below us, at a distance of perhaps two thousand feet, the whole country was covered with clouds, and the city at the foot of the volcano was invisible. By degrees the more distant clouds were lifted, and we saw at the same moment the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This was the grand spectacle we had hoped, but scarcely expected to behold. My companions had ascended the volcano several times; but on account of the clouds had only seen the two seas once before. The points at which they were visible were the Gulf of Nicoya and the harbour of San Juan, not directly opposite, but nearly at right angles to each other, so that we saw them without turning the body. In a right line over the tops of the mountains neither was more than twenty miles distant, and from the great height at which we stood they seemed almost at our feet. It is the only point in the world which commands a view of the two seas.'-vol. i. pp. 364-366. (To be continued.)

ENGLISH LITERATURE.

PART V.

WORDSWORTH.

To appreciate rightly the character and merits of any school of poetry, to estimate the effect it may produce" in its own, or to calculate its probable chance of endurance and immortality in future ages, it is not sufficient to examine it as a single and unconnected phenomenon. The Apostle tells us that one star differeth from another in glory; and it demands the eye of the Astronomer, educated by the sublime science which furnishes him with a scale deduced from the position or the revolution of the bodies he is examining, to marshal the celestial host in its different ranks and orders, where the gaze of the benighted peasant beholds only a multitude of luminous orbs, glimmering with an equal radiance in the dark expanse of Heaven.

That class of poetry, of which Lord Byron was at the same time a chief leader, and a true type, viewed in this light, may be said to have originated in the convulsions and violence of the times-that «Sturm- und Drang-Periode," to use the expression of a great German philosopher-in which it appeared. Society was, by the tremendous events which preceded, accompanied, and followed the wonderful career of