nature that the author has proved himself no common artist. The group, in front, of a distracted mother imploring a miracle in favour of her child, makes the spectator-for we fancy ourselves one of the crowd-serious, if not sad: we are tempted, for the first time, to venture upon an extract translated from the letter-press description :-. 'Among the poor, diseased, and infirm, who, on this occasion, had assembled to implore the favour of the miraculous Madonna, there was a beautiful girl, blind from her birth, who was kneeling, with her mother, on the steps of the altar; they were apart from the other supplicants, and their condition seemed to excite the sympathy of all around, who, forgetting their separate affliction, united to implore mercy for the mother and her child. The church resounded with sobs and groans-they wept-they kissed the earth-they beat their breasts. "Cruel Virgin!" exclaimed the mother aloud, "cruel!-dost thou refuse to hear me !-thou, to whom God hath refused nothing!" She then fell, fainting, on the steps of the altar. There was a dead silence— then the women and children raised their voices, tremulous with emotion, and sung a hymn-the deep voices of the men joining in the responses. At this moment one of the wax tapers, which had been ill placed in the candlestick, was seen to incline towards the young girlthe multitude shouted "miracolo!" The sacristan attempted to replace the taper-it again bent forwards, and the whole church resounded with shouts of triumph. The people pressed forward to behold the miracle, which they doubted not was performed. The poor mother, deluded by her own enthusiasm, and that of others, gazed in the eyes of her child with a momentary hope-was undeceived, and fell, senseless, at the foot of the altar.' We forbear to make reflections; they would lead us too far and too deep, for an article of this nature. The reproaches which the unhappy mother utters against the Virgin, are quite in character; we all know how the ancient Romans sometimes treated their gods, when the latter were inexorable; and the modern Italian uses not more ceremony with his tutelar saints. We once saw a man near the Ponte Rotta, buffeting a little leaden St. Philip he had taken out of his bosom, and, after loading it with such epithets of abuse as animalaccio!' (great ugly beast;) and porco di santo,' (pig of a saint,) hurl his saintship into the Tiber, into whose sandy bed many a cross-grained and refractory god had been flung before: Injustos rabidis pulsare querelis Calicolas solamen erat.' STATIUS. Another festival at Frascati, the Infiorata, or feast of flowers, in honour of the holy Virgin, is only a modern edition of the festival of the goddess Flora, celebrated about the same time in the neighbourhood of ancient Rome. The drawings, which attempt to to give us the volcanic ascent of two thousand sky-rockets, at once, from the summit of St. Angelo, and St. Peter's blazing away in the distance, are necessary failures. The roaring, thundering, crackling, flaming combustion-the unimaginable splendour of the whole scene, can only be remembered-not conceived, nor represented. A common illumination at Rome is, by the way, a grand thing and got up with a sort of wild magnificence; their great vases of fire ranged along the centre of the streets, and torches blazing through the night, throw such a broken, yet rich and fervid glare over the lofty buildings, with their long lines of architecture, that the effect is, in some situations, positively awful. In the seventh series, we have one or two edifying specimens of the style of husbandry in the neighbourhood of Rome. Four of those tremendous sized gray oxen,* indigenous to the country, with horns of a yard long, are dragging a diminutive plough, upon which stands the half naked ploughman to increase the weight of the machine (we fancy a Suffolk farmer looking at this set out, and holding his fat sides with uncontrollable laughter.) To the ghastly desolation of the Campagna, is added the spectacle-no uncommon one-of a murderer's limbs blackening on a gibbet. Oxen and horses are still used to tread out the corn, and the operation is carried on in the open air, no improvement having taken place either in the style of agriculture, or the farming implements, since the days of Virgil and Columella. A banditti scene, in a cavern, is feeble and bad, and will not bear a comparison with Pinelli, who certainly treated similar subjects con amore; but then the procession of Saint Anne dei Palafrenieri is delicious. Nothing can be better than the unhappy facchini perspiring under the shrine of the saint; the priests chaunting litanies to the accompaniment of a full military band, the laquais, in dress liveries, preceding the penitents, and the little boys in wigs and surplices, turning out their toes, are all in the spirit of the scene. Saint Anne and the Virgin are, on this ocassion, dressed out in their best; for the saints of modern Rome, like their predecessors the gods of the Capitol, have a change of wardrobe for state occasions. But we must proceed: the sports of the Giostra, which are given with detail, in several spirited drawings, are something like the bull-feasts of Spain-a remnant of the inhuman exhibitions of gladiators and wild-beasts, so much in fashion during the latter ages of Rome. The amphitheatre in which these amusements are given, is on the site, and forms part of the mausoleum of Augustus Cæsar; and being like the ancient amphitheatres open to the air, the tremendous shouts of the populace mixed with the roar of some infuriated bull or buffalo are some *Eight are sometimes used. times heard to a vast distance. A more agreeable recollection is the inundation of the Piazza Navona, during the hottest days of summer; this amusement recalls its ancient destination, that of an aquatic or naval amphitheatre which existed on its site. The three immense fountains in this Piazza are suffered to overflow till the water stands two feet deep or more, and it is then a fashionable promenade: mixed with the horsemen and carriages are groups of mischievous boys, and fine paddling, ducking, and splashing of water about, while the windows and balconies of all the houses round are filled with groups in holiday dresses, enjoying the coolness and the spectacle. Another summer scene, almost as refreshing, is the booth of Cocomeraro, or seller of water-melons, a favourite food of the ancient Romans, as it is of their descendants: the man on one side, with his face buried in a huge slice of the fruit, and the juice running down his fingers, and the hot look of the poor fellow shading his face from the noon-day sun, whom we imagine without a baiocco in his pocket, are very characteristic; and so is the burning pavement, and the glaring sunshine contrasted with the green looking pile of melons and the cool splashing of the fine fountain in the Piazza Colonna. We are obliged to pass unnoticed some capital figures of the Roman preachers, shouting, stamping, weeping, gesticulating—' o'erdoing Termagant:' Tears in their eyes-distraction in their aspect.' But, we must pause at a representation of the interior of the famous Santa Maria dei Voti, on the other side of the Tiber, (plate 52). This Virgin, and a certain cobwebby sister,' in the Pantheon, are celebrated for their miraculous efficacy, and are hung round with ex-votos in every form, as trophies of the gratitude or repentance of the votaries; here are legs and arms in wax and plaster, and even in silver; crowns and garlands; pictures representing hairbreadth escapes by fire and flood; some of which, daubs as they are, have considerable expression; the crutches of cripples miraculously restored, and the pistols and stilettos of penitent brigands. But the ex-votos we never could look upon without a touch of interest, were the hearts in every material, often accompanied with some little poetical inscription, and the long tresses of dark or fair hair, suspended by knots of riband: here we have the Madonna acting the part of Isis, Ceres, Vesta, Venus, Juno Lucina, and even the Naiads: Take, running river-take these locks of mine, The cemetery of the Santo Spirito, with the burial by torchlight of the uncoffined poor; and the dramatic representa tion of the Last Judgment, with real dead bodies brought from the hospital for the purpose, are striking but painful, and we gladly pass them over to come to a scene truly Italian -the festivals which generally accompany or follow the vintage in the month of October. The Monte Testaccio, near the tomb of Caius Cestus, is the favourite resort of the populace on these festive occasions. Drawing 55 represents one of the open carriages or light barouches (called at Rome caratelle), in which thirteen merry souls are crowded, after a fashion altogether indescribable in words; the man on the dickey singing to his guitar, the girl who accompanies him on the tambourine, another man draining a flask of wine, and the gaudy dresses and jovial looks of the party, are not only very gaily and prettily touched, but very true to nature. The Salterello, or national dance of the Roman populace, is given in plate 56; it is, in its intention and character, like the Neapolitan Tarantella, and the Spanish Fandango, a regular love-scene in pantomime, in which the men sometimes display considerable elegance and agility of movement, and the women no less grace and coquetry. Among the other scenes distinguished for national character or novelty of subject, we must point out the three old Capuchin friars, in their habits and hoods of ceremony thrown over their dirty woollen cassocks and cowls, assisting at high mass in the church of the Ara Celi, looking as solemn, grim, withered, passionless, and motionless as three dried mummies and a scene of a far different character, so well expressed and so peculiarly Italian, that it deserves a few words. At Christmas time the confectioners and the toy-shops are decorated like the same shops at Paris on new year's day,* with flowers, tapers, green boughs, tinsel, and various ornaments; in the centre is the Beffana, or goblin, (represented by an old man or woman, dressed up in black and daubed with rouge and soot,) who, according to the legend, came down the chimney on Christmas eve to distribute bonbons to the good children and whip the naughty little boys; the pretty aristocratic group of the mother and her two children, with the abbate their tutor; and the man and woman of the Trasteverini, lounging on the steps, wild and dark looking, but evidently enjoying the scene, are excellent. : On the whole, to those who wish to have an accurate idea of the present state of Rome and its inhabitants, or to revive halffading recollections in all their first vividness and interest, we can recommend this elegant volume, as the next best thing to visiting The Betfana appears to be heir at law of a certain heathen goddess called Strenia, who presided over the new year's gifts Strenæ, (i. e. les étrennes) from which she derived her name; her presents were of the same description as those of the Beffana;-viz. figs, dates, honey, &c.—So says Blunt, in his 'Vestiges'-see, however, among our shorter notices, for a fuller account of the festival, under the article of Simond's Italy.'—Ed. or (or revisiting) the scenes which it represents. The drawings are not all of equal merit, but we can bear witness to their general spirit and fidelity. The comparisons which they suggest between ancient and modern times are not always so unfavourable to the latter, as classical and antiquarian enthusiasts would fain make us believe. Instead of lamenting and sentimentalising over the fallen greatness of old Rome, we may wonder, with more reason, to see how little moral change the lapse of centuries has produced -the Romans of to-day are very like their barbarous, haughty, and luxurious forefathers, in spite of Forsyth's assertion, that the national character is the most ruined thing in Rome.' ART. X.-Entstehungsgeschichte der Freistaedlischen Bünde im Mittelalter, und in der neuern Zeit. Von Dr. F. Kortüm. Zürich. 1827. THE HE history of the middle ages gains a peculiar interest, if, after having ascertained the precise state and condition of the different people of Europe at that particular period, we watch the first dawn of a popular spirit, and endeavour to follow the gradual advance to civil liberty, by comparing the principles, tendencies, and results of the popular emotions, which took place either simultaneously or successively in different countries, and carefully examining all the circumstances which promoted or thwarted the efforts which the nations made towards civil improvement. We possess works of distinguished merit on various countries of Europe during the middle ages, more especially Sismondi's work on the Italian Republics, Hallam on the Middle Ages, and John Muller's History of Switzerland,' which, left by the author in an unfinished state, was continued by Robert Glutz-Blotzheim; and, after the premature death of the latter, by J. J. Hottinger, so that the work is now advanced as far as the time of the reformation. England and France can boast of a variety of works, which describe either the whole of that period or some particular portion; but we have not a work which embraces all the Republican Confederacies of the middle ages, in order to show that the spirit of freedom vibrated here with a strong, there with a languishing motion, from the beginning of the twelfth century up to our times, through the whole surface of Europe, and to afford us a vivid, faithful, unbiassed picture of all the contests, wars, negociations, which it carried on against terrestrial despotism and spiritual thraldom. The author of the present work, well known in Germany for his extensive and varied knowledge, with classical literature and historical |