CHARACTER AND MANNERS OF THE 

 TYROLESE. 



There is no country of Europe which exhibits both the beau- 

 ties of nature, and the character of man, in a more striking or in- 

 teresting aspect than the TyroL The events of the preceding 

 years have given an interest of a higher kind to its mountains and 

 valleys, than belongs to the theatre of any other warfare. Bold 

 as the spirit of resistance was which everywhere arose to resist the 

 progress of French dominion ; and vahantly as the people of every 

 country have struggled to preserve their independence, or re- 

 cover the national glory which their late misfortunes had suUied, 

 there is yet no country which has evinced so heroic a spirit ; there 

 is no people who have displayed so memorable a devotion as the 

 inhabitants of the Tyrol. The Spaniards had a great country, 

 and strong fortresses, and the powerful assistance of England, to 

 support them ; the Russians rested on the resources of a mighty 

 empire, and developed the military power which had so long 

 made Europe tremble, in defending themselves against the French 

 invasion : the Prussians rose against a weakened and dispirited 

 enemy, and shared in the exultation of unequalled triumphs 

 when they joined the victorious Russians in the pursuit of their 

 enemy. It was in the Tyrol only that the people rested on their 

 own courage and patriotism alone. It was there, that at the first 

 signal of war, its whole population flew to arms. They stopped 

 not to calculate the chances of success in the contest in which 

 they were to engage. They weighed not the weakness of their 

 own resources, and the small number on which they could de- 

 pend, when compared with the appaUing multitudes by whom 

 they were to be assailed. They heard only the voice of their 

 sovereign caUing them to arms, and listened to the dictates of 

 their own hearts in the answer which they made to him. 



Nor was it any blind confidence in success, or any presumptu- 

 ous contempt for the French armies, which induced the Tyrolese, 



