support given her, because her only son had remained on the field of battle. Er ist geblieben is the common German phrase for expressing that a man has been killed in war. It is also a phrase which is in ordinary use for remaining or staying, and is totally unconnected with any emotion, either of glory or honour. Its use shews accurately how the feelings of these people on this important subject have been degraded to the most perfect indifference." The phrase which gives so much offence to this delicate-minded critic is, in the first place, common to the Germans with the French, whom, in most respects, he seems inclined to reckon a people of very superior refinement. But, what is of far more importance, every person who understands the language, and is capable of any human feeling at all, must perceive, that the phrase is one of great simplicity and beauty, invented (and similar devices have been resorted to by every people under the sun) to indicate that catastrophe which men have a natural aversion to talking of in open and broad words. Had Mr Hodgskin been acquainted with the languages of antiquity, he would have known how many phrases of this nature were in use among the Greeks and Romans-but if he be a Scotsman (we cannot say we much covet the honour of having him for our countryman), he cannot have forgotten a phrase which is universally felt to be full of pathos, and which, yet more remotely than this German one, hints the departure of life. The second volume contains less of the personal adventures of Mr Hodgskin-and much more of his opinions concerning the literary and political condition of Germany. In regard to the first of these subjects, his observations are extremely dull and stupiddisplaying, throughout, a lamentable ignorance of things known to the merest tyros in German scholarship, and a still more lamentable incapacity to comprehend any thing of the peculiar spirit of thought and feeling in which the best writings of the great German authors are written. This excellent judge complains, that in KANT he finds abundance of words, but no thoughts; and he talks of people being acquainted with Goëthe from the Edinburgh Review," which is just about as good a joke, as it would be to talk of people being ac His view of the political state of Northern Germany is equally gloomy; and, with sorrow do we say it, with, we are much afraid, far greater reason. Nothing can be more certain than that the public mind, in these parts of Germany, is at present in a state of the most dangerous fermentation and discontent; and it would be quite absurd to deny, that the foolish and narrow-minded line of policy which, for many years, had been pursued by most of the German princes, is at the bottom of a very great portion of all the discontent that prevails. It would, however, be not a whit less absurd to deny, that the immediate causes of the present tumult of spirit must be sought for, chiefly, in the wild and visionary doctrines, which have of late been preached and promulgated by the political writers of Germany, with a rashness and a wickedness extremely different from what might have been expected to find any favour among a nation whose habits are in general those of good sense and moderation. These fantastic theorists have, by their speculations, thrown difficulties, entirely. unnecessary, and, we greatly fear, for the present almost entirely insurmountable, in the way of such German governments (and these, we firmly believe, were not few) as were really inclined to grant improved constitutions to their people. With what reason can we be surprised that princes and ministers should hesitate to introduce any innovations among their subjects, when they see these devouring, without one expression of contempt or horror, the vile and poisonous trash cir See No XXXIII. of this Magazine. culated among them by such people as the infamous Mr Goerres,* and others like him, the apostles of treason, and the apologists of assassination. Till the diseased state of the public mind, too surely indicated by the favour bestowed on such creatures as these, shall have ceased-and the nation be restored to its ancient temper of calmness and mildness, it is quite ridiculous to suppose, that any established government can willingly enter upon the ever-hazardous and most delicate labour of internal reform. The malevolence with which Mr Hodgskin regards the government of his own country, is betrayed in nothing more distinctly than the style of his criticisms on his present Majesty's government of Hanover, since the restoration to that part of his father's dominions. To expect that Hanover should, all of a sudden, be made as free a country as Great Britain, is absurd; but surely nothing except either the utmost ob tuseness of intellect, or the utmost depravity of purpose, can account for an English author laboriously accusing that government of systematic encroachment, and deep designs of tyranny, which has already granted to a country, formerly possessed of very imperfect institutions, the nearest approach that exists any where out of Britain, to the form and constitution of the British parliament. The period of the regency of his present Majesty, has been one of continual, though temperate and progressive improvement, in regard to the whole administration of affairs in Hanover; and the highest compliment which can possibly be paid to the wisdom both of George IV. and the Duke of Cambridge is, the zeal with which they have sought, and are still seeking, to render the political condition of the old dominions of their family as nearly as possible the same with that of this happy island. There is Death in the Pot. II. KINGS-CHAP. VI. VERSE XI. † We bless our stars that a knowledge of the art of cookery does not constitute any part of our acquirements. We are so thoroughly convinced a priori of the disgusting character of its secrets, and the impurity of its details, that we are quite sure a more intimate acquaintance with them would have embittered our existence, and have destroyed for ever the usual healthy tone of our stomach. We make it a point, therefore, uniformly, to lull our suspicions, and to discuss any savoury dish that may be placed before us, without asking any questions about its ingredients. It is really much more agreeable to be allowed quietly to mistake a stewed cat for a rabbit, than to be made post factum, accessaries to the deception. When we have finished our salad, we are by no means anxious to receive any proof, however clear, that it was seasoned with a preparation of Whale's blubber instead of Florence oil. And we should consider ourselves under a very trifling obligation to any " damned goodnatured friend," who should take the trouble of demonstrating that the Reindeer tongue, which gives so pleasant a relish to our breakfast, had been recently abstracted from the jaws of some distempered poodle. Misfortunes of this kind, it is impossible for human We regret extremely to see, that a most clumsy, and unintelligible, and pernicious tract, by this person, has been translated into English by so respectable a gentleman as Mr John Black. Mr Black has rendered great service to us, by the use he has made of his German scholarship on former occasions; and we hope this is the last time he will translate such works as those of Mr Goerres. + A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and Culinary Poisons, exhibiting the Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine, Spirituous Liquors, Tea, Coffee, Cream, Confectionary, Vinegar, Mustard, Pepper, Cheese, Olive Oil, Pickles, and other articles employed in domestic economy. And methods of detecting them. By Frederick Accum, Operative Chemist, Lecturer on Practical Chemistry, Mineralogy, &c. &c. &c. London. Longman and Company. 1820. sagacity to prevent, while they are perhaps too grievous for human patience to bear. Our best refuge, therefore, is our ignorance, and where that alone constitutes our happiness, surely we must agree with the poet, that it is indeed folly to be wise. Mr Accum, it appears, is one of those very good-natured friends above alluded to, who is quite resolved not to allow us to be cheated and poisoned as our fathers were before us, and our children will be after us, without cackling to us of our danger, and opening our eyes to abysses of fraud and imposition, of the very existence of which we had until now the good fortune to be entirely ignorant. His book is a perfect death's head, a memento mori, the perusal of any single chapter of which is enough to throw any man into the blue devils for a fortnight. Mr Accum puts us something in mind of an officious blockhead, who, instead of comforting his dying friend, is continually jogging him on the elbow, with such cheering assurances as the following. "I am sorry there is no hope; my dear fellow, you must kick the bucket soon. Your liver is diseased, your lungs gone, your bowels as impenetrable as marble, your legs swell ed like door posts, your face as yellow as a guinea, and the doctor just now assured me you could not live a week." It is quite in vain for Mr Accum to allege, that "our bane and antidote are both before us;" that he has not only made us acquainted with the deadly frauds which are daily practised on our stomachs, but afforded us unerring chemical tests by which these frauds may be detected. Is it for a moment to be supposed, that we are not to eat a muffin or a slice of toast without first subjecting it to an experiment with muriate of barytes? Does Mr Accum expect us to resort to the Cyder cellar, or the Burton ale house, loaded with retorts and crucibles, and with our pockets crammed with tincture of gall, ammonia, and prussiate of potash? Are we to refuse to partake of a bottle of old Madeira, whenever we may chance to have forgotten to provide ourselves with the solution of subacetate of lead? For our own part, we must say, that rather than submit to such intolerable restrictions as these, we should prefer (dreadful alterna tive!) to double the dose of poison, and put a speedy end to our existence, by devouring a second roll to breakfast, and swallowing twice as much wine and porter after dinner as we have hitherto been accustomed to. But in the dense and extended atmosphere of fraud, in which, it appears, we are condemned to live move and have our being, what reason have we to expect, that the very chemical substances which are necessary to expose our danger have not themselves partaken of the general adulteration? Mr Accum himself tells us, that " nine tenths of the most potent drugs and chemical preparations used in pharmacy are vended in a sophisticated state by dealers, who would be the last to be suspected." Let us therefore, since it must be so, reconcile ourselves to be poisoned with a good grace, and since we can have no hopes of a reprieve, imitate the Jemmy Jessamy thief, who behaves prettily on the scaffold, skips up the ladder with the air of a dancing master, ogles the girls while the halter is adjusting, and drops the handkerchief with all the graces of a Turkish petit-maitre in his Haraam. Mr Accum's work is evidently written in the same spirit of dark and melancholy anticipation, which pervades Dr Robison's celebrated "Proofs of a Conspiracy, &c. against all the crowned heads of Europe." The conspiracy disclosed by Mr Accum is certainly of a still more dreadful nature, and is even more widely ramified than that which excited so much horror in the worthy professor. It is a conspiracy of brewers, bakers, grocers, wine-merchants, confectioners, apothecaries, and cooks, against the lives of all and every one of his majesty's liege subjects. It is easy to see that Mr Accum's nerves are considerably agitated, that"Sad forebodings shake him as he writes." Not only at the festive board is he haunted by chimeras dire of danger not only does he tremble over the tureen-and faint over the flesh-pot: but even in his chintz night-gown, and red Morocco slippers, he is not secure. An imaginary sexton is continually jogging his elbow as he writes, a death's head and cross bones rise on his library table; and at the end of his sofa he beholds a visionary tomb-stone of the best granite ON WHICH ARE INSCRIBED THE DREADFUL WORDS Hic Jacet FREDERICK ACCUM, Operative Chemist, OLD COMPTON STREET, Judging from ourselves, Mr Accum has been tolerably successful in communicating his own terror to his readers. Since we read his book, our appetite has visibly decreased. At the Celtic club, yesterday, we dined almost entirely on roast beef; Mr Oman's London-particular Madeira lost all its relish, and we turned pale in the act of eating a custard, when we recollected the dreadful punishment inflicted on custard-eaters, in page 326 of the preset work. We beg to assure our friends, therefore, that at this moment they may invite us to dinner with the greatest impunity. Our diet is at present quite similar to that of Parnell's Hermit; "Our food the fruits, our drink the crystal well;" though we trust a few days will recover us from our panic, and enable us to resume our former habits of life. Those of our friends, therefore, who have any intention of pasturing us, had better not lose the present opportunity of doing so. So favourable a combination of circumstances must have been quite unhoped for on their part, and most probably will never occur again *. V. S. Since, by the publication of Mr Accum's book, an end has been for ever put to our former blessed state of igno rance, let us arm ourselves with philosophy, and boldly venture to look our danger in the face; or, as the poet beautifully expresses it, in language singularly applicable. "Come, Christopher, and leave all meaner things, To low ambition and the pride of kings; Let us since life can little else supply ; Than just to swallow poison and to die; Expatiate free o'er all this dreadful field, Try what the brewer, what the baker yield; Explore the druggists' shop, the butchers' stall; Expose their roguery, and damn_them all!" POPE. To save some trouble, we may announce that we are already engaged to dinner, on the 23d, 27th, and 28th of this month, and to evening parties, on the 22d, 23d, 26th, 28th, and 29th, and 3d of March. "Indeed it would be difficult to mention a single article of food which is not to be met with in an adulterated state; and there are some substances which are scarcely ever to be procured genuine. "There are particular chemists, who make it a regular trade to supply drugs or nefarious preparations to the unprincipled brewer of porter or ale; others perform the same office to the wine and spirit merchant; and others again to the grocer and the oil man. The operators carry on their processes chiefly in secrecy, and under some delusive firm, with the ostensible denotements of a fair and lawful establishment. "These illicit pursuits have assumed all the order and method of a regular trade; they may severally claim to be distinguished as an art and mystery; for the workmen employed in them are often wholly ignorant of the nature of the substances which pass through their hands, and of the purposes to which they are ultimately applied. "To elude the vigilance of the inquisitive, to defeat the scrutiny of the revenue officer, and to ensure the secrecy of these mysteries, the processes are very ingeniously divided and subdivided among individual operators, and the manufacture is purposely carried on in separate establishments. The task of proportioning the ingredients for use is assigned to one individual, while the composition and preparation of them may be said to form a distinct part of the business, and is entrusted to another workman. Most of the articles are transmitted to the consumer in a disguised state, or in such a form that their real nature cannot possibly be detected by the unwary. Thus the extract of cocculus indicus, employed by fraudulent manufacturers of malt liquors to impart an intoxicating quality to porter or ales, is known in the market by the name of black extract, ostensibly destined for the use of tanners and dyers. It is obtained by boiling the berries of the cocculus indicus in water, and converting, by a subsequent evaporation, this decoction into a stiff black tenacious mass, possessing, in a high deVOL. VI. gree, the narcotic and intoxicating quality of the poisonous berry from which it is prepared. Another substance, composed of extract of quassia and liquorice juice, used by fraudulent brewers to economise both malt and hops, is technically called multum. "The quantities of cocculus indicus berries, as well as of black extract, imported into this country for adulterating malt liquors, are enormous. It forms a considerable branch of commerce in the hands of a few brokers: yet, singular as it may seem, no inquiry appears to have been hitherto made by the officers of the revenue respecting its application. Many other substances employed in the adulteration of beer, ale, and spirituous liquors, are in a similar manner intentionally disguised; and of the persons by whom they are purchased, a great number are totally unacquainted with with their nature or composition. "An extract, said to be innocent, sold in casks, containing from half a cwt. to five cwt. by the brewers' druggists, under the name of bittern, is composed of calcined sulphate of iron (copperas), extract of cocculus indicus berries, extract of quassia, and Spanish liquorice. "It would be very easy to adduce, in support of these remarks, the testimony of numerous individuals, by whom I have been professionally engaged to examine cer tain mixtures, said to be perfectly innocent. which are used in very extensive manufac tories of the above description. Indeed, during the long period devoted to the prac tice of my profession, I have had abundant reason to be convinced that a rast number of dealers, of the highest respectability, have vended to their customers articles absolutely poisonous, which they themselves considered as harmless, and which they would not have offered for sale, had they been apprised of the spurious and pernicious nature of the compounds, and of the purposes to which they were destined. "For instance, I have known cases in which brandy merchants were not aware that the substance which they frequently purchase, under the delusive name of flash, for strengthening and clarifying spirituous liquors, and which is held out as consisting of burnt sugar and isinglass only, in the form of an extract, is in reality a com pound of sugar with extract of capsicum; and that to the acrid and pungent qualities of the capsicum is to be ascribed the heightened flavour of brandy and rum, when coloured with the above-mentioned matter. "In other cases, the ale-brewer has been supplied with ready-ground coriander seeds, previously mixed with a portion of nux vomica and quassia, to give a bitter taste and narcotic property to the beverage. "The baker asserts that he does not put alum into bread; but he is well aware that, in purchasing a certain quantity of flour, he must take a sack of sharp whites (a term given to flour contaminated with a 3 Z |