1

on Tuesday with Mr. Fowler against pri-| descent, however clear, from barbarian
mogeniture: nor have the Jews, either in swordsmen, is a title to govern men. In
Austria or Germany, ever seemed anxious political life their tendency, as far as we
to introduce any radical change in the perceive, is to follow Mr. Disraeli's ad-
tenure of landed property, a reform which vice to “eschew political sentimentalism,”
in Austria, where the Jews have great to accept any form of gorernment which
strength in Parliament and where the admits of free careers, to gain all the
land laws are singularly bad, appears to power they can, and to use it so as to se-
have been postponed in favour of many cure the largest attainable measure of ma-
other changes of much less permanent im- terial comfort, personal freedom, and sci-
portance. They have no especial regard entific education for the bulk of the peo-
for the great solvent of modern times, the ple. Very impatient of practical abuses,
principle of equality, and so long as all and especially of stupid abuses, abuses
careers are free, and the Administration the result of thickheadedness or want of
tolerably lenient - they have a horror of proportion between means and ends, they
cruelty — seem able to adapt themselves are not equally eager to follow an ideal,
without irritation to almost any form of to pursue ideas to conclusions, or to estab-
government. In America they belong to lish any platform whatsoever. Except in
both parties, though their leaning is to the the region of speculation, where in modern
Democratic, the Republican party being times they have always been singularly
biassed towards liquor laws and other daring, the tendency of their influence is
Puritanic ideas; and in France, though towards moderation, towards lenient gov-
they cannot be Legitimists, as many of ernment, and an administration anxious
them are Bonapartists as Republicans. to meet each difficulty as it arises with the
The Empire, indeed, with its tawdry mag-easiest and most handy of the expedients
nificence, rather attracted them, just as likely to succeed, without, possible, any
theatrical and operatic enterprise attracts visible application of force. Their ascen-
them everywhere, and four or five of them dancy in politics, allowing of course for
were amongst its most conspicuous and individual genius, would not be an elevat-
effective supporters. Even in Germany, ing, but it would be a moderating force,
though the Emperor dreads them, they and this more especially in the region of
have never shown any dislike of the State foreign policy, for which, from their de-
system, which offers them in its bureaucrat- tached position and instinct of cosmopoli-
ic arrangements some remarkable advant- tanism, they have a special aptitude, not
ages; though no doubt they dislike and yet recognized, because in this department
will help to destroy the decaying social above all others they come into competi-
system, which, based as it still is on birth, tion with the class which is likest them-
is as opposed to their interests as their selves, — the cosmopolitan aristocracy.
pride. It is not for them to think that a

LAKE VILLAGES IN SWITZERLAND.—An inter- whether any remains of a Lacustrine village, esting archæological discovery has recently been which they suspected had been raised upon made on the shores of the Lake of Bienne. them, could be traced. At a distance of between The Swiss Government has been for a long time five and six feet from the present bed of the lake endeavoring to drain a considerable tract of the workmen came upon a large number of land between the two lakes of Morat and Bi-objects of varions kiods, which have been col. enne, but in order to do this effectually it has lected and are at present under the custody of been found necessary to lower the level of the Dr. Gross, of Locrass. Among them are pieces latter by cutting a canal from it to the lake of of cord made from hemp, vases, stags' horns, Neuchatel. At the beginning of the present stone hatchets, and utensils used apparently for year the sluices were opened, and the waters of cooking. The most precious specimen is, howthe Lake of Bienne allowed to flow into that of ever, a hatchet made of néphrite (the name Neuchatel. Up to the present time the level of given to a peculiarly hard kind of stone from the Bieler See has fallen upwards of three feet, which the Lacustrines formed their cutting inand this fall has brought to light a number of struments). This hatchet is sixteen centimestakes driven firmly into the bed of the lake. tres long by seven broad, and is by far the This fact becoming known, a number of Swiss largest yet discovered in any part of Switzerarchæologists visited the spot, and it was decid- land, no other collection having any measuring ed to remove the soil round these stakes to see more than eight centimetres in length. A quan

tity of the bones found at the same time have i tion of the singers) without success, for “ none been sent to Dr. Uhlmann, of Münchenbuchsee, could be found” – a result at wbich we cannot for examination by him, and he finds that they affect to be surprised. On hearing this singubelong to the following animals, viz:-stag, lar word I was for the moment greatly puzzled; horse, ox, wild boar, pig, goat, beaver, dog, but remembering the old French aistre, meanmouse, &c., together with a number of human ing a fireplace, hearth — and remembering, too, bones. If the level of the lake continues to the variant estres, passages, chambers, apartsink, it is hoped that further discoveries will be ments — I perceived at once that “ oysters made, and the scientific world here is waiting really meant aistres or estres, in its connection the result of the engineering operations with lodgings,” and the problem was solved. Now keen interest.

Standard. the word aitres, denoting the rooms, partitions,

or closets of a house, is still in use in the patois of France; but the curious thing is, that the Somersetshire peasant has retained the s which

formed part of the original word, wbich is now The following regulations have, according to silent in France. In the form estres it occurs the Alsatian Correspondence, been laid down in Chaucer, Lydgate, &c. J. PAYNE. by the German Government with regard to Kildare Gardens.

Notes and Queries. those inhabitants of Alsace and Lorraine wbo may wish to adopt the French nationality. For this purpose the population is to be divided into three classes – first, those who were born in

In the evidence given by Mr. R. GodwinAlsace or Lorraine, and were residing there on Austen before the Royal Coal Commission, that the 2nd of March, 1871; second, those who re- gentleman expressed himself as being strongly sided in the country at that date, but were not of opinion that there is a connexion between the born there; and third, natives of Alsace or Lor- Belgian and the Somersetshire coalfields, and raine who were not residing in the country on that probably coal may be found within the the 2nd of March, 1871. Persons belonging to Wealden area. It is now highly probable that the first and third categories must take up their an experiment will be made with a view to testresidence in France and sign a declaration of ing this. It is seriously proposed to put down a their wish to be Frenchmen; in the second cate. bore hole near Brightling, about six miles northgory no such declaration will be required, but west of Battle — a point at which the problem residenco in France is to be a sine qua non. of the extension of the Palæozoic rocks from the The option of adopting the French nationality is Boulonnais, under the secondary rocks, will be only to be valid up to the 30th of September most satisfactorily determined. It may be of next, after which date all the inhabitants of interest to many of our readers to know exactly Alsace and Lorraine will be treated as Germans. the views entertained by Mr. Godwin-Austen For such persons as live out of Europe, how

upon this important question. He says: “ The ever, this period is extended to the 30th of Sep- depression of the Thames valley represents, and tember, 1873. Natives of Alsace and Lorraine is physically, a continuation of that which, exwho serve in the French army or navy have the tending from Valenciennes by Douai, Bethane, right of deciding whether they will adopt the Therouanne, and thence to Calais, includes the German nationality, which is to be done by sign- great coal trough of those countries”; and he ing a declaration to that effect before the mili- infers that we have strong à priori reasons tary authorities. Minors are to follow the na- for supposing that the course of a band of coal tionality of the father, unless they are not na- measures coincides with, and may one day be tives of Alsace and Lorraine, in which case they reached, along the line of the valley of the are to come under the rules laid down for per- Thames, whilst some of the deeper-seated coal, sons of full age.

as well as certain overlying and limited basins, may occur along and benenth some of the longitudinal folds of the Wealden denudation,”

The Athenæum. OYSTERS FOR AISTRES.—[ have just been informed of a very curious old Christmas carol, which was sung in the streets of Frome only a few weeks ago, and which is well worth a note DURING the last few days of December 1871, in “ N. & Q.” I have not yet been able to pro- Adelaide, in South Australia, was visited, accure the entire song; but the fragment before cording to the Gardener's Chronicle, by den se me contains a remarkable instance of the per- clouds of locusts. Dr. Schomburgk describes sistence from age to age of old French words. the visitation as a very remarkable one. He It relates to the visit of Joseph and “ his lady says the air was quite darkened with them. to Bethlebern, in search of accommodation in They came from the north, and devoured everyview of the expected birth of the Saviour; and thing looking green. Nothing remained of the we are told that “ they wandered up and down fine lawns in the Botanic Garden but the bare a-seeking for oysters” (this was the pronuncia- I brown earth.

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THE STRANGE COUNTRY.

I hold my hand to my head and stand

'Neath the air's blue arc, I HAVE come from a mystical Land of Light

I try to remember the mystical Land,
To a strange country;

But all is dark.
The land I have left is forgotten quite
In the land I see.

And all around me swim shapes like mine,

In this strange country; The round earth rolls beneath my feet,

They break in the glamour of gleams divine, And the still stars glow;

And they moan, “Ay, me!”
The murmuring waters rise and retreat,
The winds come and go.

Like waves in the cold moon's silvern breath

They gather and roll Sure as a heart-beat all things seem

Each crest of white is a birth or a death, In this strange country,

Each sound is a soul.
So sure, so bright, in a glow of dream,
All things low free.

O what is the Eye that gleams so bright

O'er this strange country? It is life, all life, all awful and plain,

It draws us along with a chain of light, In the sea and the flood,

As the Moon the Sea ! In the beating heart, in the wondrous brain,

Good Words.

ROBERT BUCHANAN. In the flesh and the blood.

Deep as death is the daily strife

Of this strange country;
All things move up till they blossom in life

Aud tremble and flee.

Nothing is stranger than the rest,

From the pole to the pole –
The world in the ditch, the eggs in the nest,

The flesh and the soul.

MIDNIGHT.
Sail on, O silvern moon, through placid plains,

Of cold blue ether, for the world is low-
Still, as Old Time, thy glory comes and wanes,

And bears the secrets of the long ago.
The white tombs glisten on the churchyard rise,

The dim woods sleep in shadows at thy feet;
A silent world beneath thy watch-light lies,

Ere yet the stillness and the morning meet.
Sail on, O stately, silvern moon, until

A reckless world forgets the tranquil night;
And newer sins, and joys, and sorrows fill
A later story for thy morrow's light.

Once a Week.

Look in mine eyes, O man I meet

In this strange country!
Come to mine arms, O maiden sweet,

With thy mouth kiss me!

Who goes by with a crown on his brow?

King Solomon?
He is a stranger too, I vow,

And must journey on !

O wondrous faces that up start

In this strange country ! O identities that become a part

Of my soul and me!

What are ye building so fast and fleet,

O humankind ? “ We are building cities for those whose feet

Are coming bebind.

“ Our stay is short, we must fly again

From this strange country;
But others are growing, women and men,

Eternally.”

STANZAS.
BARE is the land and brown, so brown and bare;
The storm-vexed woods sway sighing in the

gale;
And Nature sits and grieves, for everywhere

Fell ills prevail.
Keen frosts, frosts that repeat themselves so oft,
Clamp the cold ground, and bough and blade

retard;
While e'en the skies, that late were wholly soft,

Seem half-grown hard.
The long-fallen leaves rot in the fields and lanes;

The very sap stands still within the wood;
And sluggish through the pinched and shrivelled

veins
Creeps the chill blood.
And yet, amid this torpor and decay,

I hear in dreams a spring-tide throstle sing,
And see in vision all the pomps of May,
Remembering.

Ay, what art thou, and what am I

But a breaking wave? Rising and falling, swift we fly

To the shore of the grave.

I have come from a mystical Land of Light

To this strange country;
This dawn I came, I shall go to-night,

XO. VI. - PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

From Blackwood's Magazine.

are seen only in heaven and Italy. And A CENTURY OF GREAT POETS, FROM 1750 unseen guardians should wander about, DOWNWARDS.

woodland creatures, with penetrating eyes,

to charm away all newts and toads, as once It is a very common error in the world, they did from Titania's slumbers.

To when dealing with persons of genius, and place Wordsworth or Burns in such a especially with poets, to swamp the man in scene would be ludicrous; and the puzzled the writer, and to regard as poet only, an movements of the astonished Titan thus individual probably strong in natural char- surrounded would move the world to inexacteristics, and with a most solid and mus- tinguishable laughter; but with Shelley it cular basis of humanity to make a pedes- would be natural. Those soft shades tal for his genius. With such poets as would caress him like the touch of angels. those we bave already discussed, this idea The dreamy quiet, the soft varieties of would be a thoroughly false one, for they bliss, would heal all his wounds. Not were all most distinguishable men apart heaven nor earth, but this elysium befrom their inspired condition, and while no tween the two, would be bis natural numbers were falling from their lips.' But sphere. with our present subject the case is differ- It is one of the triumphs of modern civent. Shelley was a poet only - an em- ilization to have placed all the world on bodied Song - scarcely a man at all. He the same level before the law; but this stands before us with glitttering eyes rule, though inevitable in public affairs, is, looking out from among the shadows, as everybody knows, subject to all manner as his friend Trelawney saw him first of modifications at the tribunal of private a wild and wayward figure, more like the judgment. There are always some people Faun of the classic imagination, or those whom, according to the nature of things, strange beautiful beings who dwelt be- we judge more leniently than others; and tween earth and heaven on the heights of some upon whom we find it impossible to Gothic fancy, than a mere plodding mortal put any serious moral stigma, though like ourselves. He is a creature whom, their offences, according to the letter, have though his sins were not passed over by been as grievous as those to.which in his contemporaries, we who come after others we allot the deepest condemnation. can scarcely think of as bearing any weight Even in this point, which would seem the of moral obligation at all. He has no re- easiest of all, no such thing as equality is sponsibilities, no duties, except to be hap- possible between man and man. And py when he can, and kind, and to sing. Shelley is emphatically one of the excepInstinctively we feel that here is the being tions against whom the most inexorable who ought to be Nature's spoilt child. Rhadamanthus could wield no sword of The sun should always shine for him, and justice. As a man, we should be comhis own west wind blow, and the lark pelled to say that he discharged very badmake delicious music. His world ought to ly all the obligations of life, and was combe that garden in which the sensitive plant mendable in none of its relationships. He flourished. There should be a river for surrounded himself with a youthful brathis favourite of earth to float upon in his vado of infidelity, which most likely meant boat under the overhanging trees, inter- very little. He was not particular about rupted by nothing worse than here and truth-telling, nor any of those usually nethere a fragrant copse of water-lilies; or cessary moralities. Such weaknesses reneven a delightful mimic sea, a sheltered der a man very objectionable ; but they celestial inlet, which he could gently dare do not affect a Faun one way or another, and safely attain the flowery isles and rosy or alter our opinion of that beautiful woodrocks, with ever a safe piece of silver land creature; and Shelley was much more strand at their feet to beach bis fairy ves- a Faun than a man. He was sheer poetry sel. And there should be woods deep and only half embodied at any time a spirit soft, breathing coolness and balmy rest of an intermediary world — a wandering and solitude ; and blue mountains, such as genie — nothing more.