Madame E―, a very fine singer, once a great beauty, and still a very handsome and agreeable person. Madame B-, a very amiable person, and one who, spite of all the prejudices which would have crushed her talents, is a poetess of merit, and who has printed, if not published, two very pretty poems, on the domestic lives of Reubens and Rembrandt; she is a fair proof that literature does not unfit a woman for the management of a household, for, while cultivating many elegant talents, she is a better manager than any ignorante among them; and, finally, about three miles from Winterthur, through a most romantic forest, an arcadian valley, and perched on an almost inaccessible mountain, we have the inhabitants of the old Castle of Kibourg. The Count and Countess S-, distinguished Poles, devotedly attached to their unhappy country, in the cause of which they have perilled all. They are young, handsome, accomplished, and most hospitable; and they have two lovely

little boys, with long golden hair, and faces such as Raphael gave his cherubs. One cannot look on these children without an inward prayer, that beings so beautiful may not always be exiles, but that Poland may yet be free, and their birthright restored...

"You would love these boys, Julian. They are indeed 'beautiful exceedingly,' and full of early daring, intelligence, naïveté, and affection. The elder, about eight years of age, is already his little brother's protector; there is a pensive grace, an almost prophetic melancholy, about the delicate features and earnest eyes of this child, which make one feel beforehand a deep interest in his destiny. The little fellow Isidore, or as he is called in fondness, Sisi, is a dear, consequential, merry, important little being, who fancies he can do every thing; so much so, that a very young and very beautiful widow having been seen by him in tears, at some allusion to her lost husband, he, with an expression announcing some

mighty conception, disappeared, and when I next saw him, he told me with great mystery -shewing me a piece of wood he had been fashioning- J'ai voulu refaire un mari pour cette jeune dame qui a tant pleuré je l'ai essayé, mais cela n'a pa reussi, je crois (with an ineffably pretty shrug) je crois que ce sera un peu difficile.' On one occasion, when he saw the great, tardy, Swiss Diligence rolling along,

Ah! ah! ma foi! he cried, 'voilà enfin cette grande négligence!' Such remarks-and he is always making them-from the cherub lips of a darling scarcely three years old, are interesting beyond all power of my feeble pen to describe.

"With the friends I have named, and our own circle, you see we have not lived quite the lives of hermits; we have had concerts amateur concerts (for the German Swiss have the German love, and much of the German talent for music). It is rather strange that the most prudish of the ladies, who would not much like a party where strangers were invited,

stand up and sing before a crowded room. Their voices are generally good, but they sing intolerably loud, and they have more science than taste. Here every one is compelled by law to learn music; a system that does not contribute to general harmony, and which is one of the absurd petty tyrannies of a republic-of these there are such numbers that I am now quite decided, in my own mind, that it is better to be governed by the one than the many.

"There are balls, but they are open to all classes, and therefore little suited to an English taste. I was asked to waltz by a moustached beau, of whom, in the morning, I had purchased an ounce of pins. They waltz from six till ten, refreshed by tea, apple-tart, and eau sucre; and then they retire to their quiet homes. The women are generally very pretty, and dress with great simplicity and grace; their braided hair and white dresses have a very classical effect, seated, as they always are, between the dances, apart from

the men. One excellent regulation is, that all parents, of all classes, are compelled by law to send their children to the public schools, from the ages of four to fourteen. Thus, there is no Infant Slavery, there are no distorted, crippled little victims of Machinery and Mammon. The children are taught kindly during schoolhours, and then their time is their own, for sports suited to their age. They are a lovely, happy, privileged race: and no parent, however poor, thinks of making a child toil. This is refreshing to behold; this is life's morning unclouded indeed.

"The general feeling towards us, and towards all strangers, is one of enmity. Miss Tibby and Mr. Grunter, from their quaint attire, have been all but pelted; and, when my father and myself ride on horseback (an amazon is a thing so new here, and so much disapproved of), that the people follow us, shouting and hissing till they are weary, and we are out of sight.