sides in summer in Briga, to a large hall near the marketplace, which was the principal scene of dancing and merriment. The count's family and the people appeared to be upon the most easy terms with each other, and nothing could exceed the good-breeding and manly respectfulness with which the people behaved. Our party were filled with surprise and admiration, not without many reflections on the contrast which would have been exhibited at an English or a Scotch fair; swearing, intemperance, and blackguardism, all were unknown among these primitive mountaineers. It was impossible not to feel both gratified with such a sight, and also painfully humbled. What we witnessed on this occasion, and indeed daily during our three months' sojourn at St Dalmas, prepared us for what we learned from the best authority to which we could obtain access, or is to be found. inhabitants of this town-and the same holds, though not. so generally, regarding the two others mentioned before are a large proportion of them peasant proprietors, who cultivate with their own labour little mountain farms, which they have inherited from their ancestors, and which, while they preserve them above want, render it impossible that they should be either idle or rich, in our sense of the word. Industry, frugality, temperance, and forethought, thus become conditions of their very existence, and at last hereditary virtues. Accordingly, as was said before, there are no rags to be seen, and no beggars, and, what is more wonderful, there are no paupers. The following statements we found it hard to believe, though they were made by a gentleman resident in the country, a considerable proprietor, and, so far as

The

we could judge, a man of accuracy, who also referred us to the magistrate of Briga, and by him the account was literally confirmed:-It is this, that in this Mandamento, containing upwards of four thousand souls, there have been but three illegitimate births within the last forty-one years; and that among the peasants illicit intercourse may be said to be unknown; and that there is not a woman of loose character in the whole country, nor would be suffered to live in it. Also, that in the Mandamento of St Remo, upon the coast, containing a population of about fourteen thousand souls, there is no memory or record of a murder having ever been committed. This information we mentioned with incredulity to an intelligent physician resident at St Remo, whom we met at St Dalmas. He said he believed the information was perfectly correct.

Should more minute investigations prove that there is some exaggeration in these accounts-and notwithstanding our anxiety to reach the truth, we should not feel surprised to find that there is still the general purity of the people's manners must be remarkable to admit of such exaggerations being current and universally credited among themselves, as they undoubtedly are. The facts also are capable of an easy explanation. Their mode of life and their peculiar customs shelter them from many of the most powerful temptations to which young persons are exposed elsewhere. They are constantly employed as families, young and old together, apart from other families. The youth of both sexes spend their lives under the eye of their parents; even in their sports and amusements the older people and the priests are present and

look on. They are very industrious; they are sparingly fed, and almost exclusively on vegetable diet; and they marry young. The parents also, though less learned in politics and in religious dogmas than some other populations, and though for the most part they are not able to read, and are little addicted to theological disputation, yet seem both to understand and practise some religious and moral duties better than others who have enjoyed greater advantages. They seem to take greater care of their children, and to exercise a far more vigilant inspection of their conduct than is common among the peasantry of other countries, who often abandon them, when they have reached the age of temptation, very much to their own guidance, and permit, or perhaps encourage, secret meetings over night, which not only result in immorality, but show that feelings of delicacy, if not of virtue, in these respects, are already well-nigh dead, both among old and young, till at last results appear which fill us with surprise and shame. Among the simple paysans of that secluded country, we could discover no trace of that depraved moral sense which teaches parents not to blush at their daughters' shame, or to call the loss of their virtue by the name of "a misfortune.”

ROBERT LEE.

III.

AMONG THE ALPS.-A CONVERSATION.

HEN Sarah had taken the tea-things away, and

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mamma was seated in the easy chair with her knitting, and the fire had been made up, and Lizzie's pillows had been arranged, and her big eyes were looking out upon the circle by the fire-a splendid peach that James had brought her lying on a plate before her—a silence fell over the whole assembly. And the wind, which was an autumn wind, the richest of all the winds, because there are memories in it of the odour-laden winds of the summer nights, and anticipations of the howling blasts of winter, conscious of evil destiny-the wind, I say—the autumn wind-just rose once and shook the windows of the room, as if it would gladly have come in to make one of our number, only it could not, doomed to the darkness without, and so died away with the moan of a hound. And then the fire flashed up, as if glorying over the wind that it was of the party; and its light shone in the great old mirror at the back of the room,

and in mamma's spectacles, and in Lizzie's eyes, and in a great silver watch-key, an inch and a half square, which James had brought from Thun with him, with a cow and a bell on one side, and a man and a pot on the other.

"Now, James, tell us all about it," said Lizzie, so cheerily that you would hardly have believed anything was the matter with her.

"All about what, Lizzie ?" returned James, with his own smile, which has more behind it than any other smile I know.

"Why, about Switzerland, of course."

"Well, Lizzie, I don't pretend to know anything about Switzerland; but I think I have a little notion of an Alp. I used to think I knew what a mountain was; but I didn't. And now I doubt if I can give you any idea of the creature; for it is one thing to know or feel, and quite another to be able to make your friend know or feel as you do."

"We will all try hard, James. Won't we?" I said.

"I have no distrust of my audience," he returned; "but my visit to Switzerland convinced me of three things-all negatives. First, of the incapacity of the memory to retain the impressions made upon it. The wonder of the sight seemed to destroy the stuff upon which it was figured, as an overheated brand might burn its own mark out. Second, for I can give you these conclusions as pat and as dull as a sermon,—my visit convinced me of the futility of words to describe what I saw; and, third, of the poverty of photography in recording such visions. I did not bring a single photograph home with To show one to any of you would be like sending

me.