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picture, or a dinner, he immediately difcovers that the manners and character of a people cannot possibly be better elucidated than by an inquiry into their tafte in architecture and the other arts of refined life. In devoting himself to the delineation of national manners, Mr Holcroft was probably determined, not merely by the great intereft and attraction of the fubject, but, in fome degree, by a consciousness of the limits of his own qualifications. To the naturalist-the man of science-the agriculturistthe merchant, or even the admirer of the picturefque, he does not pretend to be capable of affording either information or delight.

This book is entitled, Travels through Holland, Weftphalia, &c. to Paris: but the reader will be grievously disappointed, if he expects to be amufed with a moving picture, or a fucceffion of new fcenes and adventures through the whole of the performance. About one third of the first volume conducts Mr Holcroft and his family from Hamburg to Paris; and the remaining 800 quarto pages are entirely occupied with the defcription of that city, and with a full and particular account of every thing the author faw, heard, did, read, felt, thought or imagined, during the eighteen months that he remained among its inhabitants.

Mr Holcroft begins his work with some good plain observations upon the pain of parting with friends, and gives us a fober, dull narrative of the manner in which he was cheated by his landlady at Hamburg;-but he does not grovel long in this vulgar track; in the third page he flies off in this dramatic exclamation.

How forgetful I am! Or rather how much I have to remember! Do, my good and dear Doctor, accompany these ladies, to whom you have always been fo friendly, as far as the boat. I must run to the banker, and the bookfeller, and above all to the man who has fo difinterestedly and effentially ferved me, the friend whom I fhall not eafily forget, Mr Schuchmacher; with whom I have still some business to ar

range.

When did M******* refuse a kind office?' p. 3.

He gets over all his engagements, however, and arrives at the boat-house foon enough, as he elegantly expreffes it, 'to take a parting glafs' with his friends.

The next chapter fets off with this fplendid fpecimen of the onomatopoeia-which is meant, it seems, to represent the action of fmoking a pipe.

Pff! pff! Hu, hu, hu! I am ftifled!-Will you be kind enough, Sir, to let this lady fit on the other fide of you? Ja wohl, mein Herr : aber-Willingly, Sir: but-"

This but was very fignificant. Every man had his pipe; and it was in vain to change places. We had lived two years among these eternal smokers.' p. 5.

In the end of the fame chapter we have a very fair fpecimen of the self-complacency with which Mr Holcroft purfues his lucubrations, of the eafe of his ftyle, and the fineness of his feelings.

Thefe marfh lands are uncommonly prolific; and their inhabitants are a very good kind of people. So be it. I blefs my ftars, I am but a paffenger.

I had fuppofed Harburg to be a village: and the imagination had fome relief, as I approached, to difcover it was a fortified town.

It had juft been taken poffeffion of by the Pruffians; and this was another fubject for meditation. It affected me. It brought to remembrance the contefts of power, the fufferings of the unoffending, and the whole train of melancholy reflexions by which the mind, difpirited, fatigued, and worn, had been funk to apathy or defpair. What do thefe men do here? faid I. Why do they not stay at home; and build bridges, repair roads, drain bogs, and fructify the barren fands of Brandenburg? Would not this be to gain territory? Cannot ambition occupy itself more profitably and more nobly than in rapine? Ambition a noble quality? Oh, no! It is blind, felfifh, ftupid, and almost as ignorant as it is hateful. p. 6. 7.

Of the country, Mr Holcroft affures us that nothing could be feen except cold and green nakedness; '-the inns, too, were very bad, and the full-wagen jolted abominably. At Bremen he meets with a German petit-maître, who is not ill defcribed; and at Delmanhorft the fight of fome Pruffian foldiers reminds him that the great Frederic was great for dealing in human flaughter.' Groningen, where fome of the natives were rude enough to laugh at the outlandish appearance of his party, Mr Holcroft takes occafion to make the following profound and interesting obfervations.

Thefe are trifles; and in fact we laughed in turn. I fuppofe it was virtue in us, that we concealed our laughter from the objects of it: though I leave it to better cafuifts to decide how far this kind of laughter, or, if they are in the humour to difpute, any kind of laughter, is a mark of found fenfe. I own, I wish I could laugh oftener: yet I am very wrong, if I wifh for folly; and I do not very well know how pure wifdom fhould excite laughter. Blefs us! we have many doubts to folve; and, as I fear, much rubbish to remove.

Are we in the land of metaphyfics; or of moral philofophy; or where? We ought to be at Groningen; fober Groningen: where the people appear to have a deal of common fenfe. Be it remarked, however, that here, in fober Groningen, we met with the first tree of li, berty.

What warring sensations did the fight of it infpire! What is a revolution? And what has this revolution effected? The mafs of evil, and the mafs of good, put in oppofite scales: which shall preponderate? 1 folemnly declare, in the face of mankind, my heart aches, op

preffed

preffed with a fenfe of paft miferies, though I ardently hope, nay am feriously convinced,' &c. p 42.

Mr Holcroft however does not always trifle or rave fo abfurdly. His defcription of a Dutchman, though not original, is correct and amufing.

The Dutchman, living in continual danger of inundation, and of lofing, not only the fruits of his induftry, but his life, becomes habitually provident. His forefight is admirable, his perfeverance not to be conquered, and his labours, unless feen, not to be believed.

They aftonifh the more, when the phlegm of his temper and the flownefs of his habits are confidered. View the minutenefs of his economy, the folicitude of his precaution, and the inflexibility of his methodical prudence! Who would not pronounce him incapable of great enterprize? He builds himself a dwelling: it is a hut in fize; it is a palace in neatnefs. It is neceffarily fituated among damps, upon a fat, and perhaps behind the bank of a fluggilh canal: yet he writes upon it, My Goenege, "My Delight;"-Landluft, "Country pleafures; "Landfigt, "Country profpect; "or fome infcription that might characterize the vale of Tempe, or the garden of Eden. He cuts his trees into fantastical forms, hangs his awning round with fmali bells, and decorates his Sunday jacket with dozens of little buttons. Too provident to waste his fweets, he cunningly pats a bit of fugar candy in his mouth, and drinks his tea as it melts: one morfel ferves, let him drink as long as he pleafes. Around him is every token of care, caution, and cleanlinefs; but none, in his domestic habits, of magnificence, or grandeur of defign.

Having well confidered him in these his private propenfities, the oye turns with amazement on his public works. The country, which nature appears to have doomed to stagnant waters and everlasting agues, his daring and laborious arm has undertaken to drain, has overfpread with verdure, and has covered with habitations. The very element, which feemed to bid him utter defiance, he has fubdued and rendered his most useful flave,' &c. Vol. I. p. 37. 38.

To this may be added, the following account of the general appearance of the lower orders at a Dutch fair :

The chief thing which affects the eye of a foreigner, as fomething ufual, is the general coftume; the dreffes, phyfiognomies, and peculiar appearance of the lower claffes, decked in their holiday finery. Broad pewter and filver buckles; large and fmall buttons, both in excels, and both of ancient ufage; fome with fhort vefts, and others with coats down to their heels, each of them fitting clofe, and fhowing the wait; projecting hips, the men wearing eight or ten pair of breeches, the women at leaft as many petticoats; ftockings of various colours, not excepting purple, red, and yellow; peafant girls in fhort jackets, with their gold ornaments and rich Bruffels lace; tobacco pipes, various in their form and fize; and countenances with a frequent tinge of the livid.

F 4

livid. These are a few of the many marks which catch the ftranger's eye, and characterise the people.' Vol. I. p. 91. 92.

It is not long, however, before Mr Holcroft returns to his favourite ftyle of confequential trifling; and, among other things, is obliging enough to communicate the process of thought by which he was enabled to discover how there were no water-mills in a country where there was no running water. This is done with great folemnity, as follows:

An obfervation had forced itself upon me, foon after I entered the United Provinces. The country abounds in water, and the Dutch neglect no opportunity of profiting by the gifts of nature; yet I do not recollect to have seen a fingle water-mill. The reason was before us. There were innumerable canals, but no ftreams: it was almoft a level furface. Vol. I. p. 77.

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As an instance of great humour and originality, we then find the pleasure of meeting with an intelligent man, who fpeaks your language abroad, compared to the green mould of Cheshire cheese; and afterwards, upon mentioning the fatigue which his wife fuffered from the rough fhaking of the diligence, an imagi nary perfonage is brought in to say

But how could you be fo cruel to your wife as not to travel in your own carriage, fo built as that she might repose at her ease?

Ay, dear Madam, how indeed! And how could you and others, who may question me, be fo cruel as not to provide her with fuch a carriage? Though I perfectly know the difgrace annexed to it, I will whisper a fecret to you, trusting to your generofity not to make it public. The man, to whom Fortunatus left his purfe, was not a poet. Do not imagine, dear Madam, that I complain. Oh no!' &c. Vol. I, P. 117.

A little farther on, we are told

• Cars drawn by dogs is a common practice here. It is highly condemned by fome writers in Paris, where likewife the practice is not unknown; and I do not think the powers of the animal are well calcu lated for this labour. Is it not very wrong to pervert the animal powers?' Vol. I. p. 127.

If Mr Holcroft had not written his novels with a little more fpirit and meaning, we can fcarcely imagine that they would have been in fuch requeft even at the circulating libraries. In entering France, he endeavours to compare the impreffions which the general appearance of the country makes upon him, with thofe which he received when he first visited it in 1783. The following remarks are rather interesting.

In paffing through France formerly, the variegated colours of the land in cultivation always caught the eye of an Englishman, as a fingu. Jarity. In perfpective, they looked like long ftripes of riband; in different fades of yellow, brown and green. The reason of this was,

that

that different peasants had each his long flip of land to cultivate, and that each grew the fpecies of plant or grain which fuited his purpose, or pleafed him beft. We remarked these appearances ftill, but I think much lefs frequently.

The wretched mud huts, of which I had formerly feen fuch numbers, many of them ftill remain: I believe, but dare not affirm, they are diminished.

Two things to the advantage of the prefent moment I can fpeak of, without any doubt or fear of misleading: the peafants are now better clothed, in general, than they were; and their looks I will not fay are more merry, but rather more fedate, yet more truly cheerful. There ftill are many beggars among them; but the numbers now are not fo great. If the large and fpreading picture of poverty, I may fay of wretchednefs, be not exceedingly leffened, I am exceedingly deceived. The laft day of our journey was Sunday; and we faw too many of the people, both old and young, cleanly in their drefs, and with fatisfaction in their faces, for thefe figns of ease and better days to be mistaken. The rags, the poverty, the haraffed looks, the livid tints, the. pictures of mifery, I had formerly feen, cannot be forgotten. Vol. I. p. 134. 135.

All traces of fober inquiry, or rational fpeculation, however, are difpelled as foon as he comes within fight of Paris; and he breaks forth into this edifying foliloquy :

Permit me to paufe. Recollection is a duty. Why am I here? The question confounds. I have parental ties that call on me, and family affections to indulge: but the grand purpofe of my journey is to examine and endeavour to understand a nation, by which, during twelve years, the world has been held in aftonishment. And who am I, that I should undertake this labour? It is no trick, no oratorical flourish: no; by the honesty of my foul, I fhrink and tremble at my own temerity! Paris, the city which fat in judgement on ages paft, while the prefent, involved in the decree, waited in dread to hear! Paris, whose mandates to-day were the emanations of divinity; to-morrow, the rules and ordinances of the damned! Paris, whofe intrigues nothing less than omniscience could comprehend, nothing lefs than omnipotence could difentangle! Paris, whofe frivolities Folly herfelf defpifes, while Wif dom ftands enraptured at her science! Pretend to give the world a picture of Paris?--Let me recover!' Vol. I. p. 139. 140.

The entrée itself, which was made at midnight, is defcribed in a very pompous manner, but not without fome force of colouring.

The ftreets reverberated; the reflecting lamps caft the broad fhades of the mafly ftone buildings: they were fo lofty that they concealed the fkies; and we feemed to be winding through intricate and edlefs caverns. Thefe are not fanciful pictures, but real impreffions, fuch as the place is calculated to give. La rue Bouloi is in the centre of Paris; and to that we were driven.' Vol. I. p. 143.

Among

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