read "The Initials" without instinctively make our countrymen unpopular are of a feeling that it is true to life; but a German, slighter kind: a habitual want of deference while he admitted this, would say, and would to foreign convenances, a custom of free say rightly, that it was true only of life un- speech, and an unlicensed sense of the ridicder very exceptional circumstances. The in- ulous. We do not seek to extenuate these terest of the plot turns mainly on the charac- offences, in which our young men are natuter of a young girl whose father has made a rally the worst sinners; but wearing a wide mésalliance, and whose stepmother takes a awake in Paris, or chaffing a sergeant of handsome young Englishman into her family police, are not, after all, very grave internaas a boarder. In a three-volume novel all tional crimes, and would scarcely be rememthis is gradually explained away and becomes bered against the offenders, if their country natural; but a selection of passages would were not the first power in the world, and the give a very unfair idea of German habits and most jealously watched. Besides, those who homes. Of course books may be mentioned rail at Englishmen for carrying England with where the plot is less exceptional, but the them, should remember that soap and clean difficulty of epitomizing a highly complex, so- sheets have been introduced in this way into ciety, such as that of the upper classes always numberless districts which only know of is, remains extremely great. Let an English- them in the dictionary. Nor would it be man take the writings of Washington Irving, difficult to retort the charge. There are of Emerson, and of Esquiros, all excellent in quarters in London, neither small nor obtheir way and written by men who cordially scure, where the cockneyism of foreign capiappreciate our country, and ask himself if tals has been reproduced even in its most any alchemy could distil the perfume of these trifling details. To add a very small matter, half dozen volumes into one, Peasant life is it seems curiously difficult for strangers to to a certain extent simpler than the life of learn, that it is not the custom in England the salons. But the Lancashire peasants of to call on a new acquaintance in evening or Mrs. Gaskell are quite a different race to the half dress between ten and twelve in the Yorkshiremen of Miss Bronte and to Mr. morning. Kingsley's Hampshire clowns. In fact there is no royal road to the knowledge of society.lishmen arise from a misappreciation of the A traveller must work it out for himself; and for every reason he had better read first-hand the novels and sketches of manners that contain matter to assist him. Quite as often as not the mistakes of Eng structure and tone of foreign society at the very time when they are striving to conform it. There is a common idea that people make acquaintance abroad more readily than in England. Admitting this to he, to a slight extent, a feature of the foreign bathing-places, it remains none the less certain that a well-bred and highly-cultivated man In saying this, however, we do not mean that a few hints on little points of difference between English and foreign manners may not save the traveller some annoyance. There are two or three pages in the introduction is pretty equally reserved and shy of chance to Murray's" Handbook of Northern Ger- comers on both sides the channel. What many " which go directly to the point, but has caused the mistake is, that the upper which, unfortunately, are so offensive and class is comparatively limited on the Contiabsurd as to be useless. The writer assumes nent, and the middle class comparatively that a large number of his countrymen are large. An average English gentleman, if purse-proud, underbred, and swaggering, he go abroad without introductions, must and lectures them gravely on faults which therefore make up his mind that his chance mostly do not exist, but which, if they do, of making friends, on a level with himself are incurable. No doubt there is still here in refinement and education, will be decidedly and there a rowdy Englishman to be found less than in any part of his own country where who scatters oaths and insults and gold over he is equally unknown. With ladies the the Continent; but the type will soon be danger is of a different kind: they will meet numbered with the dinotherium, and retains with more intelligent deference in France its place on the foreign stage only in the same than in their own country, and whatever unreal way as harlequin and columbine fig- mistakes they may commit, the courtesy of ure on our own. The real offences that those around them will secure them from all 66 unpleasantness. But the conventions of for- | infallibly break down in the task of such an eign society are far more rigid than our own for abridgment. What we want for every counwomen; and the tone of that large and idle try is the philosophical outline and the more society for which French novelists write is picturesque details - everything, in a word, painfully low. In the French provinces an that gives local coloring. A sensible man unmarried lady is a little compromised if wanting to enjoy Norway, would read the she is seen twenty yards behind her party Sagas" and one or two modern novels; for with an unmarried man; and the freedom of Russia, he would take especially the "Lives an English country-house is regarded with of Ivan the Terrible," "Peter the Great," wonder, and, we regret to say, with a feel- and " Catherine II.," with the " History of ing very like disgust. That this feeling is the French Campaign," and Stanley's "Eastunhealthy and bad we do not pretend to ern Church, and Tourguénef's or Tolstoi's deny; but, so long as it exists, our country- novels. Conceive all this condensed under women will do well not to part with any the hydraulic press of a gentleman whose portion of their native reserve in travelling. chief business is to write about inns, roads, Nor is there any great difference between signs, and scenery. In fact, Mr. Murray's different parts of the Continent in this re-editors have wisely abstained from any simispect; the mere fact that no reputations are lar attempt for France or Germany. In these so safely demolished any where as those of matters every man must compile his own hisforeigners, marks the Englishwoman from tory, and the most a handbook can do is to the first as the theme of idle gossip, which point out the best sources of information in a may easily become scandal. Lastly, on few catalogue raisonné. But the history of the points are foreigners so sensitive as on any- last generation is something quite different. thing that wounds their exaggerated amour- The state of partics, the history of different propre. A German is driven wild by the ministries, the court cliques that exist or are serene superciliousness of the chance English- believed in, the biographies of the more notmen whom he meets, regards their morning-able men, the private history of the press, dress as a national outrage, and suspects are all matters on which an intelligent man that every sentence he does not understand likes to have some knowledge before he visits is a sneer at the country. A Frenchman is a country. A chapter like Mr. Kinglake's commonly too certain of himself to suspect episode on the Coup-d'Etat, but written from that he can be thought ridiculous, and the point of view of historical fidelity, would quietly shrugs his shoulders at eccentricities be inappreciable to a tourist in France. It that are not his own. But even a French- would be more difficult to give a résumé of man cannot understand irony. His own wit continental literature in such countries as is badinage, a shuttlecock tossed between op- France and Germany. The Saturday Reposite players, who have no other thought viewer, indeed, suggests two rules which he than to keep it up skilfully. The heavy thinks would simplify the matter. First, English irony, with its under-current of ear- that our writers mentioned should be well nest, seems to him spiteful and cruel; he known; and secondly, that they should be cannot comprehend men who hit one another typical. But this, after all, is a little like so hard in jest. Before all things, we would the old school discussion, whether logic was recommend a man who wishes to be under- a science or an art, and turns entirely on your stood or to succeed in foreign society, to say first definition. When the first five or the nothing that is not absolutely transparent. first ten names in the literature of any counPerhaps the best suggestion of the Satur- try are written down, it becomes matter of day Reviewer as in fact it was his first very careful weighing to decide who are and was in recommending that the recent history who are not worth writing about. Is a man of the country should be given. Some of Mr. like Jasmin, the patois poet of Gascony, to Murray's handbooks-as, for instance, those be admitted as typical, or rejected as insigon Northern Europe-give a meagre and very nificant? Again, is any mention to be made dull outline of the country's general history. of theologians like Lacordaire and DupanNow Michelet himself, whom we take to be loup; or of men of science like Boucher de the most fascinating of précis writers, and Perthes and Milne Edwards or Quatrefages. who is certainly the most unscrupulous, would | The difficulty is the greater as the traveller may be an antiquarian or a naturalist, and it does ill. New hotels are springing up in either capacity has a fair claim on a few pages in the handbook. We incline to think we should solve this difficulty by treating of the literature of natural science in connection with a general chapter on the physical geography of the country; throwing Theirs, Béranger, and Courier into the political section, and leaving Lamennais and Montalembert to the chapter on church history. Such books as the "Life of Madame Récamier," and the "Journal and Letters of Eugénie de Guérin," would go far to make a description of the higher French society among women possible. So many names worth knowing would be disposed of naturally in this way, that poetry proper, history, and novels would be almost the only topics that would require a chapter to themselves. every day in the place of worn-out veterans ; Whatever modifications some plan of this sort might admit of, there can be little doubt, we think, that it ought to produce books as far superior to Mr. Murray's present handbooks as those were to anything that preceded them. We do not wish to be unjust to a pioneer in travelling and an old friend; and though, with one or two exceptions, we have never thought the famous red manuals satisfactory even for what they attempt, we freely admit that ten years ago they were the best in existence. But the old order has Another general fault in the present handchanged, and Mr. Murray's only recognition books is, that too much is said on trifling of the New World is in making his new edi- matters, or on points which the tourist is tions a little bulkier than his old. His con- certain to attend to and to have an opinion ception still is of a literary road-book, which on. It is mere book-making to transcribe is to tell the traveller on what roads he can from the catalogues of small museums; and get from point to point, what are the chief pictures had probably better be left to a speinns, what he will see on the road, and what cial catalogue raisonné. In the handbook for he is to admire. Now, as regards routes, the Norway remarks about the scenery are congreat lines of railway that at present branch stantly interspersed, the truth being that over the Continent practically determine the there is nothing else to write about; but, as routes of ninety-nine in a hundred English- the traveller has literally no choice of roads, men, and the days of posting-carriages are nine times out of ten, in that country, it gone by. Let the editor of a handbook tell would surely be sufficient to say generally us, by all means, what towns are worth see that the road from Gjövig to Leirdalsören is ing, and what lines of country are interest- romantically beautiful, and leave details to ing; but he need not take us over the track the tourist. It is very doubtful, indeed, in leading strings. Every one, in fact, disre- whether any handbook for Norway is wanted gards these absurd itineraries, and finds a good beyond the little road-book (Bennett's) pubmap the best ductor dubitantium. Next, a lished in Christiana. Mr. Murray's, though handbook that is only published from once in well written, not unfrequently describes stathree years to once in fourteen cannot possi- tions which no longer exist, as there is great bly compete for small local knowledge with activity in road-making throughout the counminor publications such as Bradshaw's Rail- try. The five years that have elapsed since way Guide, and had better not attempt what the last edition was published have already counsel the intending traveller to consult the imperishable "Letters from the Baltic," or Mr. Spottiswoode's "Tarantasse Journey,' or Professor P. Smyth's "Three Cities in Russia," and to trust the red manual for nothing but the sights of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and very sparingly for those. Of course there are good as well as bad exceptions to the general cumbrous mediocrity of the handbooks. That for Rome is the best instance we know of, having been carefully compiled by one who is evidently a man gone far to make it obsolete; and, out of |jecture and to the confused memories of rapid twenty-eight stations which the handbook travel. But faults of this kind are serious; enumerates between Lillehamner and Dron- and as the general hints on Russian travel at theim, nine are no longer to be found. But the beginning are by this time obsolete, we the most faulty of Mr. Murray's handbooks in this respect is the one for Russia. Considering that the last edition dates from 1849, and was merely a revision of an older one, it will be understood that, for this reason alone, it has no great claims upon the traveller. But the book was bad from the first. It was evidently written by some one who knew many thousand miles of post-road, but had only stayed in three, or at most four, towns beyond the Baltic provinces, Odessa, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and perhaps Nijni Novgorod. Plunder from Kohl, and hasty of taste, a scholar, and a resident. But we impressions from a drive in a diligence know none which, for antiquarian complete through the streets, make up what is com- ness and charm of style, can compare with municated about the other towns of the em- the little book on Caen by M. Trèbutien pire; while some of the most important and which we have mentioned at the head of our interesting places, like Uglitsch, where the article. It is true, no doubt, that Caen is a young Demetrius was killed, and the beau- small town, and that it is easier to know and tiful town of the Jarosloff, with, in fact, the describe such a place than a great kingdom. whole course of the Volga, between Tver and But M. Trébutien's book is small also in proAstrakan, except Nijni Novgorod, are alto- portion to his subject, and yet contrives to gether omitted. The writer has not even exhaust it. The whole growth of the town compiled carefully. His description of Great is traced; the names given at the Revolution Novgorod, for instance, is a triumph of inac- are recorded; the most remarkable houses curacy. He speaks of it as a desolate town, for architecture or local association are with " mouldering walls, ruined churches, pointed out; and the art criticisms evince and grass-grown streets," with only seven singular judgment. If such books by local thousand inhabitants, and with nothing but antiquaries were more common than, we fear, the old Kremlin and the brass gates of the they ever can be, we should recommend church to attract attention. The facts are, every tourist to travel only with a railway that, although traffic has been diverted from time-table and list of hotels, and purchase his it by the absurd whim of the late czar, who information on the spot he visits. For those made his first railway, between St. Peters- who confine their wanderings to the great burg and Moscow, as straight as the crow French lines of railway, the " Bibliothèque flies, through morasses and uninhabited wilds, des Chemins de Fer" will be found amply instead of taking it by the old route through sufficient. Its little manuals are so cleverly towns, Novgorod is still a thriving country written as to be more a narrative than a texttown with a good corn and timber trade, and book, and the information about hotels and with at least seventeen thousand inhabitants; tradesmen is given compendiously and unobthe battlements are no more ruined than the trusively in an appendix. Otherwise, forwalls of York or Chester; the streets are eign guide-books, such as those of Ronchi open and cheerful; and the wealth of the and Baedeker, are only re-casts of Murray's old churches is talked of with astonishment handbooks, with the advantage of being even in Russia. Two of them alone, St. So- shorter and more practical, and the disadphia's in the Kremlin and one on the other vantage of being less reliable for Englishmen. side of the river, would well repay a visit to Almost every German town has its local the place. Probably some parts of the edi-guide-book; but these, with few exceptions, tor's description were true a hundred years are badly printed and prolix, beginning, like ago, when some book which he has consulted American oratory, from creation or a little was written, and the remainder is due to con- earlier, and travelling by slow stages as suits the Teutonic mind—through the succeeding | appropriate idioms. With all deference to centuries. Mr. Murray's eminent translators, the German is not always reliable; such a phrase, for instance, as "gefälligst," for "if you please," being unused in good society; and the Tuscan style of address (in the third per We believe a few slight changes and a little arrangement would remove most of the faults we complain of in Mr. Murray's present series. The manuals we spoke of at starting of actual history, manners, and literature-son) ought, we think, to be more generally must of course form a perfectly distinct series. Only in this way could they be well done. The hotel-guide, and the hints about roads and conveyances, would form a separate pamphlet of a few pages, to be corrected every season, and bound up with the copies of the handbooks sold during the year. The artmanual might perfectly well be printed in the same manner, in detached parts, so that a traveller could either buy a guide to the collections of the country, or a fairly exhaustive book for the whole Continent. It would in every sense be more satisfactory if this department were conducted by a single man trained professionally, than if art criticism, one of the last achievements of education and taste, were carelessly thrown in among the chance duties of Mr. Murray's encyclopædical staff. Cleared of all irrelevant matter, the handbook proper would then give a description of the country and cities travelled in, and would be reduced to a volume of half or less than half, its present bulk, except where the tourist preferred to have the artmanual and hotel-guide bound up with it. If he were of our opinion, that a big book is a great nuisance in the pocket or portmanteau, he would commonly not do this; and we believe the mere reduction of size would largely promote the sale of the series generally. At the same time, we are quite aware that these alterations would add something to the expense of production. Several small books are always more costly than a single large one. But Mr. Murray's profits by the whole series must have been very large, and success, like nobility, has its obligations. Besides, any real improvement is always remunerative in the long run. Anyhow, if some change be not speedily made, he must be prepared to see the sceptre pass from Albemarle Street. given than it is in the Italian. These, however, are slight faults. The prolixity of the book is much less pardonable. A hundred and forty columns of conversation and vocabulary are proof in themselves that a wrong system has been adopted. In fact, the editors have confounded the functions of a vocabulary and a dictionary. What tourist can possibly wish to commit to memory a list of more than seventy terms relating to railroads and steamboats, which is still so far from being exhaustive that the words "returnticket" and "fare " are omitted, while 'guard" is transmuted into " conductor "? Again, the vocabularies are kept distinct for different subjects; the consequenɔe of which is, that there are frequent cross-divisions, and that, while the word "waiter," for instance, occurs in no list, the chief articles of dress occur in two, the toilette and the laundry list. Half the number of words, in a single list at the end, would save endless trouble in making references. Above all, it ought to be remembered that the indifferent linguists for whom these manuals are intended are only puzzled by variety and confusion. It is astonishing how few words are really required to carry on small talk of any kind. It has been said that the vocabulary of a French lady of fashion consists of five hundred common words, mostly adjectives, and of five hundred proper names. It has been said, more seriously, that an English plowman in some districts does not know more than three hundred words. Any one may convince himself that this is an exaggeration, but it is based on the real fact that half the words we use are philological superfluities, which might easily be retrenched from conversation. Much more does this apply to the wants of a trayeller, who is not expected to talk politics or philosophy. The true art of language can We desire to add a few words upon hand- only be acquired from studying a learner, be books of travel-talk generally. Here, again, it child or foreigner. Twenty or thirty verbs Mr. Murray's is the best we know of, and is expressing broad primary ideas, like necessity most imperfect. The faults common to al- or liking, without regard to little shades of most all this kind of literature are, a glut of meaning,- -as many adjectives, adverbs, and useless phrases, scarcely-used words, and in-prepositions severally, and the framework |
