J827.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



.193 



to take a cruise by land, as he could no 

 longer at sea. The navy and its interests 

 were however still uppermost in his heart, 

 and a visit to the sea-ports was deter- 

 mined on to gain, he says, professional 

 knowledge, to view the interior of places, 

 the outside of which he had often con- 

 templated in blockading- service, and to 

 enjoy, on shore, and in peace, the society 

 of officers, whom he had known only in 

 war and at sea. 



In the details of his tour, he professes 

 to state nothing but the results of actual 

 experience. For scientific researches he 

 had neither time nor means which, being 

 interpreted, signifies, it may bs supposed, 

 no acquaintance with them. To scientific 

 readers therefore he does not address him- 

 self; and those who are in search of gene- 

 ral knowledge and information these are 

 the Captain's words may say that they 

 have them much better and more co- 

 piously from the travellers who have pre- 

 ceded him particularizing the " learned 

 and elegant" Dr. Clarke, the "accurate" 

 De Boisgetin, Dr. James, Mr. Hobhouse, 

 Mrs. Guthrie, and the "justly celebrated " 

 Pallas. To this he can only plead what 

 is no plea at all, but a sound reason for 

 sparing his own labour " little was left 

 for him to glean." But seizing upon this 

 chance metaphor of his, he tells us that 

 no field is so well cleared bat by diligence 

 and attention a sheaf may be collected. 

 A sheaf accordingly not a few straggling 

 ears he presents to his readers in these 

 two portly octavos. This brilliant figure 

 clings to his fancy, and bothers him a 

 little ; he refuses to let go his hold of it, 

 though manifestly he knows not what to 

 do with it the struggle is perfectly lu- 

 dicrousbut at last he babbles something 

 about gratitude to his learned predeces- 

 sors for dropping blades for the benefit of 

 after-comers, affirming, at the same time, 

 modestly but firmly, that whatever they 

 have thus benignantly dropped, he has not 

 failed to gather; and then, oddly enough, 

 he adds more thanks for what he has 

 taken, which, as it was done without con- 

 sent of the parties, must plainly be a 

 felonious taking. By degrees he comes 

 to a sounder so far as it is a truer rea- 

 son ; " many years (says he) have elapsed 

 since most of the above tourists published, 

 and we'know how greatly the features of 

 a country, and the character of a people, 

 may alter in the course of a quarter of a 

 century." 



To write a preface requires more tact 

 and wariness than the greater part of 

 scribblers possess. A preface usually 

 concerns self; and to run into absurdity 

 upon that subject is one of the easiest 

 things in the world ; it is a rock on which 

 thousands wreck their little barks, and 

 Captain Jones whatever may be his 

 MM. New Series. VOL. IV. No. 20. 



skill on his own seas was not seaman 

 enough to clear it. He has a profound ve- 

 neration for monarchs domestic and 

 foreign. The late Emperor Alexander, 

 and his amiable consort, were personages, 

 he firmly believes on very slight evi- 

 dence plainly for greatness and good- 

 ness never surpassed, and to their con- 

 descensions himself and a brother of his 

 were greatly indebted. To the Emperor 

 Nicholas also he feels " immense obliga- 

 tion ;" and for what does the reader sup- 

 pose ? Why, had it not been for his per- 

 sonal kindness, he and the aforesaid bro- 

 ther never having been presented would 

 have been absolutely cut off from all the 

 court fetes, and even from public notice, 

 till the Emperor's return from Verona, 

 which was only a few days before their 

 departure from St. Petersburg. This 

 personal kindness of the reigning em- 

 peror fills him with a fervour of admira- 

 tion and devotion, and he trusts he may 

 be allowed to say, without being charged 

 with flattery, that he appears to him to 

 possess every requisite quality to form a 

 great prince ; and moreover to express a 

 " sincere hope," that the said Nicholas 

 may reign, for ever and ever, we believe, 

 over his delighted slaves. As to the re- 

 quisite qualities of a great prince, Captain 

 Jones has probably thought little about 

 them ; and he will doubtless be surprised 

 to be told, that a " sincere hope" requires 

 explanation. 



But to turn to the tour, the reader will 

 find a plain and not altogether unattrac- 

 tive description of the countries he travels 

 through superior certainly to the au- 

 guries of the preface. He lands at Calais, 

 and .scampers through Ostend, Ghent, 

 Antwerp, Liege, Cologne, Hanover, &c. 

 &c. to Hamburg, where he stops to breathe 

 a little. He has a word or two for all the 

 intermediate places. At Ypres, he tells 

 us, diaper was first manufactured, and the 

 name is itself a corruption of Ypres. At 

 Tournay is made the Brussels carpeting. 

 At Ostend, the lower class of females are 

 very ugly ; but at Diuant he met with a 

 pretty girl the first he had seen since 

 he left England. At Ghent a place built 

 upon twenty-six islands, and connected 

 by 300 bridges Charles the Fifth, he 

 tells us, was born, who used to say of 

 Paris, he could put it in his Gand, allud- 

 ing to the French name for Ghent, and to 

 its standing on more ground than Paris. 

 At Aix-la-Chapelle, he visited La Salle de 

 Banque, or licensed gaming-house : 



The great room (he says) is one of the most ele- 

 gant in structure I have seen. Every description 

 of gambling is carried on, under the protection of 

 government ; and I could not help admiring an 

 ordinance to the following purport: 



" The city having, from time immemorial, de- 

 rived great benefit from a gambling-house, we, in 

 2 C 



