1829.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



213 



The panorama from the Niesen is one of 

 the most brilliant and graphic pieces of 

 description we remember to have ever 

 read : — 



I cannot I;ope (says he, remarking upon the 

 descii])tion he had given) to communicate to any 

 other bosom, by the mere details of description, 

 the glowing sensations excited by tlie contempla- 

 tion of scenes like these. It is possible to give the 

 outlines — to throw the sims^hine over them — to 

 separate the broader masses of light and shade 

 — to picture forth the wide expanse of smiling 

 country, stretched like a map bejieath, farther and 

 farther, to the dim horizon — the glistening river, 

 and white-walled town — the blue lakes embosomed 

 in hills, and piled-up mountains, overtopt by the 

 vast glaciers ; — but to describe the height, the 

 depth, and space of the vast picture — to paint the 

 blending of innumerable colours, and of lights 

 and shadows — to embody in words the spirit and 

 the feeling that rest upon the whole, and to give 

 it its harmony and beauty — Ihat neither the 

 tongue, the pen, nor the pencil can do adequately. 



We had worked a passage of some power 

 on the feelings, excited by the last short and 

 tranquil days of autumn ; — but this must 

 give way to one of another cast, awakened 

 by Tell's Chapel :_ 



There is something in the grandeur and magni- 

 ficence of the scenes which surround you in this 

 classic country, which gently, but irresistibly, 

 openB the heart to a belief in tlie truth of the 

 page upon which the events which have hallowed 

 tliem are recorded. Whatever a man may think, 

 and however he may be inclined to question the 

 strength of the evitlence upon which the relation 

 of these facts rests, while in his closet, I should 

 think tliere are but few sufficiently insensible and 

 dogmatical to stand firm, and bar their hearts 

 against the credulity whicli steals over them, 

 while contemplating the spots themselves. You 

 feci that those deeds and those events are in 

 strict keeping with the scenes around you, and 

 are precisely of the kind you would look for in the 

 history of the country, whose stern and awful 

 features are presented to your eyes. You feel that 

 the air you breathe, the lofty mountain-pastures 

 above you, those gloomy forest', the blue, unfa- 

 thomable lakes, and the sweet, smiling valleys, 

 which ever and anon peep out from the deep re- 

 cesses of the mountains, must indeed have nursed 

 and cradled heroes. I own that this feeling was 

 warm within uic as our boat touched the rock. 



Except in the more remote and unfre- 

 quented districts, the author, however, 

 found the people of Switzerland fast de- 

 parting from their ancient simplicity and 

 independent spirit. Tlie country — wherever 

 the main roads pass — throngs with beggars, 

 tempted obviously by the effects of impor- 

 tunity upon passing travellers. In tlie Ca- 

 tholic cantons — from a ilitlerent cause — 

 misery a])ptars in its worst extremes. 



Neufchatel is the only town and district 

 of which he speaks in detail. 11 is winterings 

 there, with his personal activity, gave him 

 abundant opportunities of becoming tho- 

 rouglily acquainted v/itli its concerns. Even 

 the common political circumstances of these 

 rountries are liiile known ; and any thing 



coming authentically has novelty as well as 

 value. We quote his account of the actual 



government : — 



The King of Prussia, as Prince of Neufchatel 

 and Count of Vallengen, has a resident governor 

 at the castle, the nomination of the mayor, and of 

 a resident chaplain. The governor may be a 

 Prussian, at the king's pleasure : the two latter 

 must be natives of the canton. He has not the 

 power of putting any foreigner in office in the 

 country; and, except the presence of his gover- 

 nor, a yearly levy of a certain number of men for 

 military service at Berlin, and a few trilling im- 

 posts, there are but few marks of his sovereignty. 

 As a member of the body of confederate cantons, 

 the Neufchatelois send a representative to the 

 Diet. The weightier processes are determined at 

 general councils, called " Les Trois Etats," held 

 periodically at Neufchatel and Vallengen. The 

 districts into which the open country is dirided 

 are governed for the time being by baililfs, or 

 Chatellans, who decide all trilling causes. The 

 town itself has its Grand and Petit Conseil ; the 

 former holding its sittings at the Hotel de Ville, 

 under the presidency of the mayor : and the latter 

 at the castle, under that of the governor. The 

 population of the canton is between fifty and sixty 

 thousand; — one fourth, descendants from refugees 

 or foreigners, settled in the country. 



We have no space for the blanchisseuses, 

 and the repasseuses of Neufchatel— two pri- 

 vileged, or at least quite uncontrollable bo- 

 dies : the author's account of them is 

 humorous enough. 



In his roamings to the head of the Sim- 

 menthal, his encounter of a family party 

 will give no unfavourable impression of his 

 descriptive powers in another walk : — 



Just before I reached Seven Fountains, I met 

 an English party, with their halos of guides and 

 provision bearers, on their return. John Bull 

 marched in the van with a kind of pet air, as if he 

 thought be had been humbugged, and had not 

 seen enough for his money and extra exertion ; 

 — no salutation, except that conveyed by a stare, 

 passed b.'tweeji u?. Ten paces behind him came 

 my lady's maid, hopping, and slipping, and sliding 

 among the loose fragment*, with her under-lip 

 thrust out, and every mark of offended delicacy, 

 as she accepted the service of a brawny Swiss 

 guide, to make this or that unusual bop or stride. 

 About ten paces farther appeared the rear of the 

 party, in the person of a young lady, probably the 

 daughter of tlie elderly gcjitloinan. Had I fol- 

 lowed the humour in which I happened to be, I 

 should perhaps have passed by the daughter with 

 equal nonchalance with the father; but when I 

 cau;!ht a glance of a clear, bright, speakinir Eng- 

 lish countenance, beaming with that beautiful ex- 

 presbiun of vivacity and sense whicli characterizes 

 my countrywomen, I could not avoid tendering 

 my homage, by tnoving my cap ; and when our 

 backs were turned, after our mute salutation, I 

 can hardly say why or wherefore, hut my heart 

 ached with the remembrance of my distant homo 

 and country. It seemed to me unnatural, too, 

 that those to whom God had given a common 

 country, language, and perhaps feelings, should 

 thus pass each other, in the wilderness of n fo- 

 reign land, nith indifTerenrc, 



