great magnitude. The principal houses are built of rod and white stone: the cassino, to which I was admitted by a card of introduction from one of the principal bankers, is very elegant. There are also several other clubs and assembly rooms. The theatre is spacious and very handsome, the performers were good, and the band is large and select. Opposite to the theatre is a mall, formed by several rows of trees, which in the evening is much frequented. A grand discharge of cannon one morning announced the ceremony of the members of the senate and the colleges being about to assemble in the Römer, or town-hall, to complete the investing the prince prirnate with the Sovereignty of the city, the keys having been delivered up before the representative of the prince, under a similar discharge of artillery, agreeable to certain provisions contained in the act of the Rhenish confederation.

Curiosity induced me to visit the place of this meeting, which is a very large and ancient Gothic pile, situated in a narrow street. The ceremony of the installation of the prince primate was over in a very short time; the mob, which was a small one, soon dispersed; and scarcely any one mentioned the matter three days afterwards.

The cathedral church of St. Bartholomew, which belongs to the catholics, is another venerable relic of antiquity: it is reported to have been built by Pepin, king of France, in 756, enriched by Charlemagne, and plundered by Lewis, of Bavaria, on account of its chapter adhering to the pope. Strange to relate, although the coronation of the emperor used to take place in it, there is not one object within its walls, either of sacred splendour, or monumental celebrity, worthy of notice. In the year 1792, when the French entered this city as conquerors, their commanding officers went with great military pomp to this cathedral; where, being attended by the senators, the commander in chief closed an address by ex

claiming, "Under the roof of this venerable temple have not many of you witnessed the coronation of the emperor of the Romans?" to which no answer was given. "I demand a reply to my question;" exclaimed the general with some warmth; "yes" was faintly answered; "then," replied he, "you will never see him more in this place." This prophecy issued from an oracle which possessed the means of consummating its prediction.

I was pleased with the fair, although it fell far short of my expectation; the principal booths which were erected near the Römer, and also parallel with the river Maine, formed a very agreeable and sprightly street, entirely covered with canvas awnings: here all sorts of goods, the productions of various parts of the globe, were exposed to sale; and here were also several booksellers' stalls, where the most eminent works are sold, folded in sheets, for the purchase of lesser merchants in the trade. I was informed that the fair had wasted almost to nothing, in consequence of the various injuries it has sustained from the war, and the severe policy of Buonaparte respecting the introduction of English manufacture, very little of which was to be found at this mart.

An excursion to the beautiful and elegant little sovereign town of Offenbach, about five English miles from Frankfort, enabled me to admire the great progress which the Germans have made in the tasteful art of carriage building. In a very large depot of carriages there, I saw several which would have been distinguished for their lightness and beauty in London. There are several other fabrics, viz. of jewellery, pocket-books, tobacco, toys, &c. The society of this place, where the prince who bears its name has a little court, is very refined and accomplished. The suburbs of Frankfort are formed of beautiful and romantic walks and vineyards, enlivened by handsome country-houses On the road near the entrance to the west, adjoining the spledid chateau of Mr. Beatham, the celebrated banker, at whose town-house the present king of

Prussia became enamoured with his queen, is a mo. nument composed of a helmet, a lion's skin, and em. blems of war, in bronze, made out of the cannon taken by the king of Prussia from the French at Mayence, mounted upon a stone pedestal, rising from an artificial rock, upon which are inscriptions commemorative of its having been raised by Prince Williamstadt to the memory of the gallant Prince of HessePhillipsthal and three hundred brave Hessians, who perished on this spot, when the French were obliged to evacute the town in the year 1792. The French had taken quiet possession of it a few months before, under the command of General Newinger and Colonel Houchard, when they levied two millions of florins upon pain of military execution on the opu lent classes of the inhabitants. The most distinguished personage in Frankfort was Mareschal Augerau, whom I frequently met. The heroic valour and skill which he displayed in the campaigns of Italy, particularly at the battle of Arcole and before Mantua, and afterwards in Germany, will render his name illustrious in the military annals of France: he is a highly polished and accomplished gentleman, and was equally admired and esteemed by the inhabitants of Franckfort: he lived in a style becoming his dignity, without ostentation, and was upon all occasions very accessible.

Linglebach, the celebrated painter, was born here, in 1625. His subjects were fairs, mountebanks, sea prospects, naval engagements, and landscapes, in which he eminently excelled. In company with my two friends from whom I parted at Rotterdam, and who rejoined me here, I set off for Darmstadt, about eighteen English miles from Frankfort. We crossed a noble bridge over the Maine, and passed through a considerable, and fortified town, called Saxenhausen. Our road, which was sandy, was for a considerablə way lined with luxuriant nursery-grounds and vines yards. About four miles from Frankfort, we passed plain oaken post, about six feet high, upon which,

under a painted star and crown, was written (in German), "Sovereign territory of the prince primate of the Rhenish confederation." Upon this road I saw, for the first time, a great number of little posts, painted white and numbered; they are called minuteposts, by which the pedestrian traveller is enabled to ascertain with great exactness the progress he makes in his journey. A very handsome avenue of stately poplars, of nearly two English miles, forms the approach to the city, which is nearly surrounded by a lofty wall, not capable of affording much protection against an enemy. The suburbs contain some handsome houses, in which, as the principal hotel in the city was full, we took up our quarters at the posthouse, a very excellent inn.

For a capital, Darmstadt is small, and its palace infinitely too large: of the latter the emperor Joseph sarcastically observed, that it was big enough to accommodate himself and the nine electors. However, very little of the internal part is finished, and most of the windows are boarded up. The grand duke and his family reside in a part of a new palace, projecting from the old one, looking towards the gardens. That immense structure is built in imitation of the Thuilleries, and surrounded by a broad deep dry ditch. The hereditary prince, who married the youngest daughter of the house of Baden, and whose sisters share the thrones of Russia and Sweden, has a large and handsome house at a little distance from the old palace; exclusive of this prince, his royal highness the grand duke, Louis the Tenth, has several other children. He is turned of fifty years of age, is an enlightened, brave, and amiable prince, and a celebrated engineer. He was the last of the German princes who in the last war sheathed the sword he had drawn against, the French; a power which the preservation of his dignity and his dominion compelled him to coalesce with. Baonaparte, when he was digesting the Rhenish confederation, wished to invest him AYOL, XXVII.

M.M

with the kingly dignity, but the grand duke declined the offer. Darmstadt has produced many valiant and distinguished officers. At the parade I had the pleasure of seeing general Von Werner, the governor of the city, who at the head of the chevaux legers, or light horse, performed prodigies of valour in the Netherlands in the last war, where in one battle he was surrounded by seven French chasseurs, from whom he received the most desperate wounds in va rious parts of his body before he surrendered. The late general Von Düring, a name, on account of the heroic courage of the person to whom it belonged, for ever embalmed in the memory of the English whỏ served in the last war in the Low Countries, in the years 1793, 4, 5, was born in this duchy. The troops were good looking men, and presented a very soldierlike appearance: the uniform of the officers of the infantry is a blue coat faced with scarlet, a large cocked hat, richly trimmed with deep silver lace, and has a very handsome appearance. The dragoons wear a casket, a light green jacket, and are well mounted. The pay of a soldier is about the value of two-pence a day. Several captains in the army are princes (princes appanages), or princes of a distant branch, who have but little property.

The principal object to attract the attention of a traveller is the Exercierhaus, or house for manoeuvring the troops in the winter: it forms one side of the space of ground allotted for the parade, is three hundred and fourteen feet long, and one hundred and fifty-two broad, and has been erected about thirtyfive years. The ceiling of this enormous room is selfsupported by a vast and most ingenious wooden frame work, without the assistance of either pillar or arch below. Above this ceiling are a great number of apartments. In a part of the room below, the artillery of the grand duke is deposited, which is kept in high military order. About four thousand troops can be manoeuvred in this room with ease. The gar

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