this question. I committed my fragments to the flames; and now there came, indeed, upon me a despondency I had not felt before. I saw myself in the condition of one, who, after much travail in the world, has found a retreat, and built himself a home, and who in the moment he says to his heart" Now thou shalt have rest!" beholds himself summoned away. I had found an object-it was torn from me-my staff was broken, and it was only left to me to creep to the tomb, without easing by any support the labour of the way. I had coveted no petty aim-I had not bowed my desires to the dust and mire of men's common wishes-I had bade my ambition single out a lofty end and pursue it by generous means. In the dreams of my spirit, I had bound the joys of my existence to this one aspiring hope, nor had I built that hope on the slender foundations of a young inexperience I had learned, I had thought, I had toiled, before I ventured in my turn to produce. And now, between myself and the fulfilment of schemes, that I had wrought with travail, and to which I looked for no undue reward-there yawned the eternal gulf. It seemed to me as if I was condemned to leave life, at the moment I had given to life an object. There was a bitterness in these thoughts which it was not easy to counteract. In vain, I said to my soul, Why grieve?- Death itself does not appal thee. And after all, what can life's proudest objects bring thee better than rest?"—But we learn at last to conquer our destiny, by surveying it; there is no regret which is not to be vanquished by resolve. And now, when I saw myself declining day by day, I turned to those more elevating and less earthly meditations, which supply us, as it were, with wings, when the feet fail. They have become to me dearer than the dreams which they succeeded, and they whisper to me of a brighter immortality than that of Fame.*

THE MONTHS.

JANUARY.

SHAKSPEARE declares that there are, books in brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing;

Which is to say, that he who wisely looks

At Nature, will find pegs whereon to string

Maxims and thoughts, and make each scene prolific
Of useful instruction,

Could Janus, January's Sponsor, speak,
As once he did to Roman and to Greek,
His spouting statue might impress on
His auditors a very pretty lesson,
Supposing it were thus imparted.-
"Mortals! like me be single-hearted,
Although you look two different ways,
Not in a double-faced deceit,

But turning with a vigilance discreet
Upon the past and coming year your gaze,
Obtaining forethought from reflection,
And render'd provident by retrospection."

Thou 'rt right, old Janus! but I will not garble

Thy two-mouth'd speech, which none can give entire,
So turn we, since the weather's cold, from marble,
To yonder log of wood upon the fire,

Which bickering and flickering,
Whizzing, hissing, and fizzing,

Chattering, bespattering, dirt-spitting near and far,
Like any other Orator that's brought up to the Bar,-
Thus in the thoughts that breathe and words that burn,
Addresses those who wish to live and learn.-
"Beneath my spreading branches once was found
For man and beast a wide and cool retreat,
While now in winter I diffuse around

A cheerful light, and acceptable heat ;-
Learn hence in every season how to give
Pleasure and aid to all within your sphere,
Dispensing happiness while yet you live,
Bequeathing solace even from your bier."
Oh! had the fabled royal Log

That Jove deputed to the croaking nation,

Been eloquent as this, each loyal frog

Had hail'd him, not with croaks, but acclamation!

For lessons such as these no careful suitors

Need seek in vain, where'er their looks may centre, When sticks, and stocks, and stones become our tutors, And every reptile is a sort of Mentor.

The Ant, whose wants her winter stores supply,
Teaches us forethought and economy;
While universal Nature, which beneath
External coldness and apparent death,
Is warm at heart, preparing summer shoots,
And all her garniture of flowers and fruits,
Preaches from every source, to every sense,
Unostentation and beneficence.

Even the voiceless birds may teach our reason,
That silence has its season,

A hint that may afford me good occasion
For coming to a peroration.
Nature is never harsh, for love and grace
Hallow each change of her maternal face.
Thou art not, January! cheerless, dull,

Unprofitable, cold;-but rightly view'd,
Thou 'rt quicken'd with a genial warmth, and full
Of moral fruits, in all directions strew'd,
For those who trudging through thy frost and snow,
Wish to pick pleasant wisdom as they go.

H.

ITALY IN FEBRUARY 1831.

Naples, Feb. 20, 1831.

I WROTE to you from Paris an account of the extraordinary state of that city, and I now find that every other capital, from thence to the utter extremity of Italy and Sicily, is nearly in a similar state of ferment. A detail of some of the prominent facts which I witnessed en passant, will convey to you some idea of what is to be shortly expected in this fair portion of Europe.

As we passed through France, the whole population seemed a moving military mass; every commune was turning out its contingent of conscripts, and everywhere on the road we met crowds of young soldiers, not marching “à la gloire pour le grand Monarque," as in the days of the old regime, but shouting "Vive la liberté à bas les tyrans!" As in the first burst of the French Republic, they were uncommonly fine young men, with ruddy cheeks and vigorous limbs, not in the least resembling the soup maigre recruits we have been in the habit of representing them since the days of Hogarth. If they pour down another revolutionary inundation on Europe, it will be still more resistless than the last, and sweep away all that remains of the feeble barriers of despotism.

The alarm which this state of France has excited was visible the moment we crossed the frontiers. The doganiers of the Sardinian Government are everywhere on the alert, examining with the greatest rigour, not only the persons and passports of travellers, but ransacking their luggage-not so much for prohibited merchandise as for that which is now the more immediate object of their concern, prohibited opinions. Woe be to the careless man who wraps up a pair of shoes in a sheet of a French or English newspaper! One of our companions had been so incautious as to use an old "Moniteur" and a " Constitutionnel" for that purpose; all his books were immediately seized and strictly searched, and though they were found to be nothing more than common Itineraries of France and Italy, they were not restored till after a severe reprimand for his past, and a caution for his future conduct. As we entered the mountains, they were in several places choked up with artillery, which even in the midst of winter, and through roads nearly impassable by any carriage from the depth of snow, were hurried on to the fortresses on the French frontier, as if they thought they had not a moment to lose. On the summit of Mount Cenis, we left behind us several pieces buried in the drift, which the exhausted artillerymen found it impossible

to move on.

On our arrival at Turin, every thing wore the appearance of some apprehended calamity; all the people were silent and looked suspicious, and severe precautionary measures were already taken: among others, the college was closed and the students dismissed. It seems that here, and in several other towns in the Sardinian territories, the young men of the Universities had shown too great a degree of sympathy with their brethren in France, and the lads of the schools of Turin and Genoa had expressed a high degree of admiration at the conduct of the elèves of the Ecoles du Droit and Medicine at Paris; the Police, therefore, came one morning while they were attending their respective classes, and without ceremony turned them out and locked the doors. The old custode led us silently through the empty rooms, shrugged up his shoulders and expanded the palms of his hands, but would not commit himself by uttering a word. The streets and squares were filled with soldiers and drilled recruits, and the whole had the aspect of a place where one part of the people kept down the other with the point of the bayonet.

When we entered the territories of Modena, we were soon convinced that it was not without reason the Sardinian Government adopted precautions on the principle of Horace-"Nam tua res agitur dum paries proximus ardet." The Revolution had here already commenced, and the fire was now blazing on both sides of the partition walls of its neighbour. Matters had been for some time in a state of preparation for such an event, when a slight incident accelerated it. young man of Reggio was arrested for some incautiously expressed political opiMay.-VOL. XXXI. NO. CXXV. 2 E

A

nions; he was popular with his companions, and they assembled tumultuously and demanded his release: the troops were ordered under arms, but by a sudden movement the people came on them before they had formed, and they passively suffered themselves to be disarmed. The inhabitants then sent a deputation to the Duke, that if he attempted to make any farther arrests, his soldiers would be put to death with their own weapons. The Austrian Gazette at Milan immediately published a proclamation that the Modenese Government had completely detected and defeated the conspiracy, by the arrest of thirty revolutionists taken flagrante delitto, at the house of Menotti, a rich merchant, where their meetings were held, and that they were immediately to meet with condign punishment. The Duke, however, thought it more prudent to abandon his capital, leaving behind him a Regency to manage matters for him; this council also deemed it right to follow their master the next day, and the Revolution was completed, and a Provisional Government established, without farther opposition. Notwithstanding the state of excitement and alarm which pervaded every place where we passed, the roads were perfectly safe; all the respectable people seemed to have concurred in the measure; they expressed but one feeling of apprehension, and that was the approach of the Austrians.

It is impossible to describe the horror and detestation with which these people are regarded in Italy. Reports where everywhere spread by the agents of the late Government that they were at once to pass the Po in large force under General Frimont. If all the brigands and banditti of Italy had been about to be turned loose on the unarmed citizens, they could not have excited a greater feeling of horror, than was freely expressed to us. They were, however, consoled by the hope that the French would not suffer such a movement; and some of them declared that all the troops from Algiers were then riding in transports in the bay of Genoa, ready to land the moment an Austrian entered the Modenese territory. One of our companions was a Venetian gentleman; he was a tall, intelligent man, and spoke English. I asked him if he was not an Austrian subject. He replied, "I am, for my misfortune and that of my countrymen, but, please God, we won't be long so." I expressed my surprise at his speaking so freely, but he said he knew he might do so to an Englishman, and no one else understood the language he spoke. He then entered into a detail of suffering under their galling yoke, and uttered a bitter philippic against the Holy Alliance, who had handed over the free states of Venice and Genoa to create a naval power for the two most despotic and detestable Governments in Europe.

Included in their hatred of the Austrians is the Duchess of Parma, of whom they express the most undisguised contempt. As consort first, and then as widow of Napoleon, she excited the highest regard and sympathy among the subjects of the little territory allotted to her, and all the prejudices against her own country were lost in their respect and veneration for the great man with whom she had been connected; but when, forgetting her former husband, she made herself the instrument of Austrian intrigue, and married a German of the most disgusting aspect, and who to his other forbidding qualities added that of being blind of an eye, they could not conceal their dislike, and only waited an opportunity to show it. This now occurred: the moment a revolutionary movement began in Modena it was immediately followed up at Parma; the first act of the people was to seize on the person of the Duchess, and keep her as a hostage against the resentment of her father, and this our Veturino, himself a subject of Parma, declared to be a just and necessary measure.

When we entered the Papal States, we were stopped, at every mile, by soldiers, who came to search our luggage. On leaving a small town where we had slept the night before, we took the precaution of obtaining permission from the chief of the customs to be allowed to pass out of the gates at four in the morning, as in usual cases they are not open till six. When we arrived we were made to descend; our Veturino went on, but when we attempted to follow, the gate was shut in our faces, and we were given to understand that we must remain behind: for this vexatious and absurd proceeding they would give no reason, but that the order to pass was for the carriage only, and not the passengers which it might

contain. After two hours' delay we were at length released, and found our Veturino outside the gate in the hands of the soldiers, who had just commenced overhauling our luggage; one of them, however, hinted to me, that for a reasonable consideration we might go on without farther delay; this was paid, and we proceeded. In about an hour we met another party, who stopped us, made us get out, and proceeded also to search us; apprising us at the same time, like their predecessors, that for a reasonable consideration we might pass on. Again we paid it; but we had hardly proceeded a mile when a third party stopped us. It was in vain that we said we had already been twice searched, and offered the usual bribe; the corporal who commanded the party affected a rigid integrity, had the trunks all opened, and having turned out their contents on the road, left us to gather them up as we could, and went back to share with his companions what we had given them. Our Veturino, who was a Roman, could not contain himself; when they were gone, he burst out into abuse of the Government and the present order of things; and when he got into his seat, he turned to me and said, "Patienza, Signore, when you come this way again, you won't be annoyed by birbanti soldati."

We arrived at Rome in the midst of the Carnival. Whatever suspicion or anxiety was visible in other parts of Italy, here at least all was secure and festive. The new Pope had been crowned on the Sunday before, and illuminations, masquerading, and horse-racing, seemed to occupy the entire and undivided attention of every individual in the city. The morning after my arrival, I went to the post-office to inquire for letters. It is usually open at nine in the morning, but instead of this a notification was affixed to the window, that the letters would not be delivered till nineteen o'clock, that is, one in the afternoon. In the mean time groups were collecting in the Piazza Colonna, where the office is situated; among these cocked-hats seemed to form the majority; it appeared as if all the ecclesiastics in Rome, who are always distinguished in Italy by this form of hat, were collected there. In a short time the square was quite full of people, wondering and whispering, till at length the office opened and the mystery was explained. An express had arrived at full speed in the morning with despatches from Bologna, announcing that the flame of Revolution had spread from Modena into the Papal States; the issue of letters was therefore delayed till they were opened and examined, in order that Government might thus obtain a clue to any connexion between the insurgents and the people of the city.

When we were at Paris, a paragraph had appeared in all the French papers, that a revolution had been effected at Rome. This, however, was afterwards contradicted, and was soon supposed to be a fabricated rumour. It originated in the following incident:-It is always usual on the demise of a Pope for the people to consider themselves as enjoying a kind of saturnalia till a new one is elected, as if they were during that interval their own governors, and amenable to no other authorities; and they indulge themselves by dispersing satirical remarks on the Government. On this occasion, however, the squibs and pasquinades were more marked and licentious than usual, and the statue of Pasquin was covered with them.*

At the moment when this excited the uneasiness of Government, they received secret intelligence that a conspiracy was formed to seize on the castle of Saint Angelo, and that the conspirators would be found there, sitting, at a place which was pointed out. A detachment of soldiers was immediately sent off to the

I had great curiosity to see this celebrated person, and found him out in his obscure piazza. He is a mutilated marble figure, with a cap over a curly head, sitting on a tall pedestal, with two stumps for arms. The sides of the pedestal were covered with fragments of paper, but the writings were illegible, as they had all been torn. I found his respondent, Marforio, was no longer a public character; he is the recumbent statue of a river god, who had suffered no mutilation; and to preserve him, he had been some years ago removed to the Museum of the Capitol, in the Campidoglio, where I afterwards saw him. Pasquinading had fallen into disuse, till it was thus revived on this occasion.