has often been made the subject of ludicrous observation. In no instance has his intellectual discernment been so ill treated, as in his own steward taking his own money out of his own pocket, and charging him with the interest to his bankers for the pretended loan of it.'

The author estimates the quantity of paper-money in circulation, including the notes of country-banks as well as those of the Bank of England, to be little short of thirty millions. These notes, he remarks, cannot be hoarded: no man thinks of keeping them idle, as gold is often kept; they must be pushed into circulation; and this large quantity cannot possibly circulate unless it floats in the increased price of commodities. Nor is this the only public inconvenience; since, while the price of commodities is enhanced by paper-money, the difference must be compensated to the foreigner in the course of exchange.

In the following passage, Mr. H. sums up his argument:

Excessive circulation of Bank notes beyond the only possible criterion, their convertibility into gold, which the restraining law has done away entirely, would, from my observations, so far as they may be just, appear to be attended with much injury to the community at large in various respects; more particularly, first, in bringing the public under contribution of an annuity to the banks of a million and half, equal to the interest of thirty millions of estimated circulating paper, without any value whatever;-this sum in real money formerly would have been equal to the expense of a campaign in war; secondly, in the diminution of the fixed income of every individual in the state, of one half, or at least of a third; and of course in a proportional deprivation of his comforts: thirdly, in increasing the difficulties to agriculture, to manufactures, and to commerce, by enhancing capital and interest employed in them, by raising the prices of labour and commodities, and by diminishing the consumption: fourthly, in increasing the evils of an unfavourable course of exchange with foreign countries: and finally, in laying the foundation for, and leading directly to a general explosion of all confidence founded on paper credit; and which may be attended by the ruin of many individuals at least, if not by public confusion.'

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The system of discounting is strongly reprobated. banker, who receives a discount for the use of his paper, is compared to the keeper of a gaming table; and the frequency of the transaction is represented as absorbing the floating wealth of the country. For this allusion, the Bankers owe Mr. H. no thanks, but they may deem it proper to make a rejoinder.

As the profit of the Bank of England consists in the extent of its paper issues, Mr. H. maintains that its interest will ope rate to prevent the return of gold from abroad; since by this return the quantity of paper would be diminished. Thus the gains of the Bank and the benefit of the public are represented

to

to be at variance; and the Legislature is required, in order to ward off the ruin of both, to put a stop to the forced circulation of paper-money.

ART. VII. Travels in Portugal, and through France and Spain. With a Dissertation on the Literature of Portugal, and the Spanish and Portuguese Languages. By Henry Frederick Link, Professor at the University of Rostock, and Member of various learned Societies. Translated from the German by John Hinckley, Esq. With Notes by the Translator. 8vo. pp. 500. 93. Boards. Longman and Co.

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HE immediate object of these Travels was not to collect, from an observation of the manners and customs of the Portuguese, such materials as might furnish a volume for publication, but consisted in the more meritorious design of enlarging the boundaries of science, and discovering the mineralogical and botanical riches of Portugal. The Count of Hoffmannsegg, who is stated to be a very zealous friend and patron of natural history, made choice of Professor Link as a companion in his travels, which they pursued together during the years 1798 and 1799: but at this period M. Link was obliged to return to Germany, having left the Count in Portugal, investigating, with indefatigable assiduity, the natural history of that country.' The botanical reader will be pleased to hear that the manuscript for the Flora is already prepared, and that the Count has given drawings of the new and unknown plants, with much accuracy and attention to the subject.-After his return, Professor Link consulted different accounts of travels through Portugal, and found that they were in general very defective and erroneous; he therefore determined to seize the pen himself, and defend his friends the Portuguese, by impartially portraying their character, their mode of life, and their agriculture.'

The gentlemen having been thrown on our coast by contrary winds, in their passage from Hamburg; the journal commences with their re-embarkation at Dover for Calais, and gives a description of the country between that port and Paris. After a short stay in the metropolis, and some observations on its state of society at that period, we are conducted through Orleans, &c. to the banks of the Garonne. Having crossed this river near to Montèche, the travellers arrive at the country of the antient Gascons. The description which Professor Link gives of the people is more favourable than that which we find in Fischer's travels in Spain, which were undertaken about the same period; which we have been perusing and comparing with

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with the present volume, and an account of which we shall present to the reader in our next Number.

Proceeding to Bayonne, we have this description of the maritime district:

The country along the coast near Bayonne, where the heaths (landes) begin, that extend throughout the department (Department des Landes) as far as Bourdeaux, may afford a kind of foretaste of the heaths of Portugal; and the traveller might imagine himself in the vicinity of Braga. The woods consist of cork trees, which are here loftier and more beautiful than the generality of those in Portugal, and of a particular kind of pines (Pinus maritima Gerard.), of which great numbers are seen in Portugal. A greater part is covered with various kinds of heaths peculiar to the South of Europe, and especially to the heaths of Portugal (besides the Erica vulgaris, and great quantities of Erica ciliaris, scoparia, cinerea, vagans). The sage-leaved cistus is likewise found in great abundance and of a large size; also gromwell (Lithospermum fruticosum), and various other plants. All these give the country an exotic appearance, and render it pleasing at first sight. The sea is skirted with many downs, which produce here and there excellent wine, particularly in the neighbour hood of Cape Breton. It gave us great pleasure to find there the clove gilliflower (Dianthus caryophyllus) growing wild, and in its highest flower. The climate near Bayonne is very warm, and in summer very hot, as the plants of the surrounding country also show. The laurel likewise grows wild in the hedges, among which the passion flower grows quite wild.'

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Bayonne is here represented as a pleasant, cheerful little town; while Fischer, on the other hand, observes that, though travellers have often commended this spot, he is much disposed to controvert their opinion. If, however, we put this question to the vote, numbers decide in favour of Bayonne.The travellers now arrive at the province of Biscay, and here both the Professor and Fischer agree in their description of the character of the Biscayans: but the former is less minute in his account of the manners, &c. of the people, and hastens on till he brings us to the borders of Old Castile. this barren tract of country can be contemplated by none but the lover of botany with any real pleasure, we shall not delay our readers on the road, but forward them in their way to the capital of Spain. Of this celebrated city we have here a concise account but the author has chiefly in view the nature of the soil and climate, with the characteristic features of the surrounding country. Fischer, on the contrary, enters largely into the detail of the amusements and customs of the inhabitants of Madrid. The same remark applies also to the description given by these two authors of the town of Badajoz. Without, however, enlarging on the comparison between these two

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writers, we shall leave the Spanish traveller, and follow the Professor to the frontiers of Portugal:

We had scarcely passed the Cayo, before the singular tone of the Portugueze language began to sound in our ears. Most of the words are nearly the same as Spanish, but the pronunciation is extremely different, that of the Portugueze being a full, deep. guttural tone, while that of the Spaniards is a light blowing lisp; the former consisting of long, elegant, high-sounding words, the latter of short, broken, chattering sounds. In Badajoz we heard no Portugueze, and at Elvas no Spanish; but whoever has accustomed himself to various pronunciations of the same language, and has a competent knowledge of the Spanish, may easily understand Portugueze without learning it.

On entering the inn at Elvas, we found the apartments and furniture similar to those of both the Castiles, and of Estremadura ; nay both were perhaps still worse. The houses are generally better, and more convenient in Spain; but here we had no occasion to send out for what we wanted, or perhaps ourselves to fetch every piece of bread or glass of wine, as both food and drink are supplied in every Portugueze inn, provided the traveller is contented with Portugueze fare. A dainty person might indeed find many things not suited to his taste; but the inconvenience of having these trifles to attend to, after a long journey, is inconceivable. We met with good and ready attendance, decent fare, and our pretty and good-natured landlady had that animation of manner, that speaking intelligence of countenance, and that well bred politeness, which are so striking in this pation. What a difference between Badajoz and Elvas in this respect! I shall often have occasion to speak of the common people in Portugal; and I often look back with pleasure to the many happy hours I have spent with that friendly nation. But the reader will find my judgement of them very different from that of other travellers, who either were only acquainted with Lisbon, or never gave themselves the trouble of learning to speak the language.'

After various remarks on the intermediate country, which will afford amusement to the naturalist, we are brought to the province of Alemtejo;-a name derived from Alem, beyond, and Teje, the Tagus.-Here a vast extent of heath presents itself to the traveller:

We entered upon these heaths in the finest part of the year, the beginning of spring. The beautiful varieties of heath-plants, and the charming cisti of the south of Europe, were all in their highest bloom, and the mild exhilarating air was full of innumerable perfumes. Were a man suddenly transported from Germany to such a heath, he might perhaps at the first view think it extraordinarily beautiful, and would not for a moment compare it with the heaths of Lunenburg, or even of England. The variety of shrubs is uncommonly great, and their beauty far excels that of our northern plants; besides which they are ever-greens, and most beautiful in winter. One species of heath, the erica australis, grows to the height of six feet or more, and is entirely covered

covered with large pleasing red flowers; another called erica umbellata, is indeed smaller, but the redness of the flowers is more lively. Among these are the yellow-flowered cisti, cistus helimifolius, lasianthus, libanotis, on the yellow ground of which purple spots are often found, cistus sampsucifolius, another with large red rose-formed flowers, cistus crispus, and another somewhat more rare with pure white tender flowers and of delicate, growth, cistus verticillatus. We then came to places adorned with the violet-form flowers of the lithospermum fruticosum, mingled with the sweet smelling lavandula stachas. Either a bush of juni. per, juniperus oxycedrus and phenicea, suddenly appears, or rosemary and myrtle, or the creeping oak, overruns all (quercus humilis Lam.), to say nothing of a number of beautiful bulbous plants, and other beautiful and very often rare or even unknown plants. In short the plants appeared and disappeared one after another as in a pageant, affording a most charming variety, till some elevated tract covered with cistus set bounds to their beauties, and formed a uniform waste.

But notwithstanding this variety of plants, these heaths soon become irksome, even where they are most beautiful: for without some cultivation no country can be pleasing, unless it be sublime and romantic. How often, amid these forlorn and solitary wastes, has a row of bee-hives delighted me!'

For the description of Lisbon, with the climate and general scenery of the country, we must refer to the work: but we shall make one extract, which will, we doubt not, contribute to render Englishmen still more attached to the peace and security of their native land *:

The high walls of the quintas in the town, the vacant and deserted grounds, invite to robbery and murder, which are still farther favoured by the badness of the police. These crimes are always perpetrated with knives, though all pointed knives are prohibited.

• Murders generally arise from revenge or jealousy; robbers are generally contented with threats. The spring is the most dangerous time, and I have known every night marked with some murder. The boldness of the assassins is astonishing. On a fast day, in a procession in honour of St. Rochus, a man was murdered in open day in the throng, at five o'clock in the afternoon. In the summer of the same year a man was robbed at noon, between the walls near the prince of Waldeck's, who was witness to the transaction. The rob bers were even so bold as to attack coaches. But the criminal almost always escaped, the compassion of the Portugueze being such, that every one assists him in his flight. They exclaim Coutadinho! or alas, poor man! and every thing is done to assist him. The punishment of death is entirely done away, and the culprit is sent to the Indies or Angola; a punishment which by no means gives the impression of death, though the climates of both are so unwholesome that destruction is certain.'

*We write this sentence at a moment pregnant, perhaps, with *awful events: but let no gloomy idea oppose the remark which has just fallen from our pen!

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