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it vibrated fibres which had long been As soon as they descried us from tranquil, that it awoke from profound afar, they always came to meet us, sleep remembrances attached to hap- and to ask whence we came, whether py days; I perceived a veil between our country belonged to the republic, my heart and my thought, which I or was at war with it, and particularly would have found delightful, rer- for what purpose we wanted the haps-sad, perhaps to remove, &c. plants which we collected. Their woI gave myself up with emotion to men, especially, who are not so hand-, this sweet security, to this profound some as the men, are very inquisitive; sensation of co-existence, which the and I often found myself suddenly regions of our native country inspire." surrounded by several girls who put a It was the last day that we were to number of questions to me, of which breathe the free air of the Pyrenees, I could not answer to a single one, that we were to view their wondrous because their language, with the only pile, proudly defying the power of exception of the word citoyen, was man, but humbly yielding to that of totally unintelligible to me. Their time, that we were to pluck their economy is extremely simple, and plants, not remarkable for splendour their milk they treat in a very cleanly but for neatness, not large but closely manner. In order to keep it cool, gathered; it was the last day that we they place the vessel in which it is were to enjoy the friendly, upright, contained in a running brook, which instructive conversation of Ramond. gives it the temperature of the water. In all probability we were never to Such vessels are often found at some see him again, never to revisit these distance from the cottages, and I was regions. It was as if the grandeur of assured that they take no offence at nature made us doubly feel its loss; all, if a thirsty traveller makes free and the warm expressions of Ramond with the milk in order to slake his respecting the misfortunes of his thirst. For protecting their flocks country, and its disappointed hopes, against wolves, they have a peculiar and the fate of men, made us feel race of dogs, which I have seen no what we were going to lose in him. where else. They are uncommonly More therefore penetrated with in- large, strong, fierce, and have some distinct sensations, than inspired by resemblance to the Newfoundland clear ideas we reached Lac d'oncet, dog. Themselves, notwithstanding where a shepherd's family had newly their activity and courage, are not raised their cottage, following slowly very fond of going to war, except the blooming plants, as these the against the Spaniards. As all mounmelting snow. These people are of a very distinguished race; active, tall, courageous, sprightly, almost constantly singing, and extremely cu

rious.

I have nowhere, not even on the luxuriant banks of the Loire, found the plants growing so close, as on the Pyrenees. On the space of four square feet, one may often count more than twenty different species, and a number of individuals of each. On the Alps, the same richness is said to exist; but in Norway I know it does not.

It is really striking, how immediately the marks of the winter and the spring succeed each other in the mountains. On the borders of the melting snow, is always seen a host of Ranunculi, Gentiana, etc. that unfold their blossoms, almost while their roots are yet covered with snow.

taineers, they feel an unquiet longing for their home, whenever they come down upon the plains; therefore it happened, during my stay here, that out of several hundreds of conscripts, who were marched to Italy, the greater part returned within a few days after.

We soon came to the Pyrenean snow-line, which begins between twelve and thirteen hundred toises above the level of the sea. Here we were obliged to wade some distance through the snow, after which we reached the top, which was then quite bare. Our expectation was raised very high, yet it did not encompass all that lay before us. I was the first of the company who stood on the pinnacle of this temple of nature, and did not know whether I should think that my eyes were bewitched, or that nature was transformed, when, in

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stead of an immeasurable level of portion to the space, compared with [JANUARY country, I discovered an immeasura- the time of vegetation, the richest ble level of ice below my feet. could not in the beginning collect my- particularly was the different aspect I flora in the world.-What struck me self; I knew very well that there was which this mountain presents from no icy ocean in this place: but that the plain, and from its top. Even horizontal level which presented itself from Toulouse, where it is already to my view, that shining whiteness, distinguishable among all the other those round shells, reclining in the summits, until I stood at its base it form of tiles upon each other, and appeared to me, at every step, more appearing to be a little softer only evidently to be the firmest mass than those which are seen on the fro- upon the earth, defying time, air, and zen sea, all combined entirely to weather. From its top on the conmock my acquaintance with moun- trary, dreadful ruins prove to the tain phenomena. Yet, in a little spectators, that those enemies work time, I recovered from my surprise, on its destruction. If poets had more and then I comprehended that a cloud frequently visited the mountains, I deceived me by covering with a snow- do not think, that they would so gewhite carpet the whole plain between nerally have adopted rocks as sym the Pyrenees and Toulouse, a disco- bols of firmness and strength. Water very not very pleasant, as by this our rends the firmest marble, and the air hopes of saluting the lower earth were moulders the hardest granite; time disappointed. Ramond, however, knows no resistance that can defy its consoled us, by asserting, that it would power.-Another observation which soon disappear; and it did not last the view of this mountain must suglong before a gentle breeze raised the gest to every one who has his eyes clouds, and unveiled that magnificent, extensive plain, which on the northern side borders upon the Pyrenees. From this point, the highest on which I ever stood, I looked over so much, that the prospect from the top of Brocken, and from the tower at Orleans can bear no comparison with it. Behind us lay, in dreadful forms, mountains on mountains as far as the frontiers of Spain; Vignemale and Neoveille were distinguished by their huge masses of snow, and the mountains near Gavarnie by their bluish over the rest of the earth, but here it "Time skims with an easy flight ice. Before us the eye met no bound- imprints deep traces of its passage; ary, for even beyond Toulouse (more and while elsewhere it disguises to us than 80 miles), land was faintly dis- the rapidity of its course, by hurrycerned. The summit of this moun- ing ourselves along more rapidly, tain is hardly so large as the top of the than the objects around us, in the Round Tower*; it is through the mountains it displays what is frightful greater part of the year covered with in this celerity, by shaking before our snow; it lies exposed to all winds, eyes a pile that to our weakness seemed and the thin mould with which it is unshakeable; and by changing in our overspread does hardly appear to presence forms, which at a distance contain any nourishment for plants, we were accustomed to consider as and scarcely to be compact enough eternal. On the plains a whole year for their fastening in it; notwith- has hardly a right to advertise us, standing all this, about a hundred that it plunges itself into the abyss of different species of plants grow on this narrow spot, all of which arrive at perfection. It has, perhaps in pro

The astronomical observatory at Copenhagen.-Transi.

open for the operations of nature, even though he has not read the book of Ramond is this, that the steady, never inactive, course of time is no where so strongly perceived as on the mountains. me transcribe a few lines from RaHere again let mond; for it is certainly better to borrow his expressions than to steal his ideas, which I could not easily avoid in writing upon this subject after having read his work :

the past. Time seems to stop when it
gives existence, when it developes,
when it supports it; we do not per
destroy its own work. It is not the
ceive that it passes away, tili we see it
spring crowned with its flowers, it is

not the autumn lavish of its fruits, it and the infirm, from perishing under is not the brilliant succession of beau- the cold hand of pinching want, and tiful days, which put us in mind that for the just and equitable deci-ions of the seasons fly away; the melancholy the judges in the different courts of sensation of their instability penetrates law; it is then painful to see any glarus for the first time, when the leaf inginconsistencies, or gross errors, eifals, when the tree withers, when the ther silently countenanced or carelessdays are shortened, when nature in ly overlooked by those who are legally mourning shuts up the circle of her authorized to prevent abuses in pubreproductions. On these rocks, on the lic stations. contrary, on these mountains, which The raising money by taxation on encompass the ice of an eternal winter, the landholder, the merchant, the nothing dissipates the mind from the manufacturer, and the mechanic, to contemplation of the ravages of time. maintain a large part of the commuThe fatal hour-glass runs on with a uni- nity in idleness, is, I hope, a singular form rapidity; every minute gives them phenomenon in the political econoa sensible blow; the snow destroys them my of other nations; but singular as without intermission, the torrent la- it may appear, we may learn from cerates them without cessation; their it this important truth, that errors ruins tumble down without interval, and imperfections will float down Themselves insensible to spring, and to us on the current of time; and in faithful to their only tendency, their their passage, they will gain sufficient sole affair is to perish, and their front, influence to mar the best human indisguising nothing of the power of stitution ever yet formed by man, age, speaks to our eyes of nothing but when it is left to the direction of unof death, while the rest of nature seems skilful hands.

intoxicated with the illusions of life." I have already pointed out in a pre

It was through such memorials of ceding letter, on the management of the power and eternal course of time, the affairs of the poor within the through such irreproductible scenes walls of the metropolis, some of the of nature, that Ramond conducted us many evils arising from the inattenback. Who can write the above, can tion of magistrates, officers, and inalso converse upon the subject; you habitants, to their parochial concerns; will therefore easily conceive, that but I now intend to consider the this excursion was very instructive, subject upon a much larger scale, and the more so, as the structure of and to shew that when an evil is this mountain for the singular form once suffered to take root, it may, of the strata, and the union of the though small at its beginning, become lime with the granite, is a geological a great tree, and overshadow the curiosity. We had now seen the land.

winter on the top of the mountain, in It is an established fact published the evening we enjoyed the spring at under the sanction of the late parlia Barege. The next morning we met ment, from the returns of the parish the summer at Lutz, and the autumn ollicers, A. D. 1803, that the inhaat Pierresite. So near do the seasons bitants of the manufacturing and of the year approach each other in other counties are as inattentive as these parts. The maize planted two the citizens of London to the indolent months ago at Tarbes was now al- state in which their paupers are sufmost ripe; at Toulouse all fruits fered to live. If there are several were in perfection, and a few days parishes or places in this kingdom, after we found, in Perpignan, Fruc- where they have made fceble attidor changed into Vandeniaire.

Letter the 10th, on the Management of the Affairs of the Poor.

HEN a nation is famed from east to west, for the mildness of its government, for its charitable institutions, for the care that hath been taken to prevent the aged, the sick,

tempts to employ their poor, in houses provided for their reception; there are others where they remain totally idle, to be maintained by the sweat and the industry of their neighbours.

Is not this an inexcusable fault in magistrates and parish officers? and does it not shew that there is but little reform to be expected from the pal

sied efforts of those who have suffered parishes in each county which made evils to increase under them which returns to parliament; with the numthey should have endeavoured to sup- ber of workhouses in each, and how press by compulsory laws? That many in which the poor were ema general knowledge of the state of ployed, their number, and how much the kingdom may be seen at one they earned; and the same of those view, I have given the following who were entirely idle, and lived at table, which contains the number of the public cost.

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If any reflecting person should they might do, there will be a further cast his eye over the foregoing table, deficiency of 41,7507. 10s. which he will be struck with astonishment ad led to the foregoing sum will make at the picture it represents to him. 193 0907. 45. through idleness only. He will see that 13070 parishes, or If this be not sufficient to rouse the plices, made returns to parlia- attention of officers, magistrates, legisment, and of which number there lators, and people to look into their were 4100 which maintained a part parochial concerns, we must conof their poor in workhouses. There sider ourselves as sinking beyond any were also at the time of making the hope of recovery, as it is the natural return 1446 houses, with 24087 pau- progress of evils to proceed from very pers, who earned something towards bad to much worse. When we see their support; and there were 2054 and feel the yearly effects of drunhouses which contained 58569 poor kenness and idleness, in making persons who were kept in a state of such rapid encroachments on our idleness, and did not bring in one landed property, it surely can neihalfpenny towards their maintenance. ther be prudent nor politic to conThey were fed by the sweat and toil tinue our supine and lethargic inacof others; and indolently dragged on tivity, in dosing over an evil which a life, useless to themselves, and a necessity will compel us, sooner or burden to others. It must be ac- later, to face. It might be expected, knowledged, that there were many that in manufacturing counties the laaged, sick, and infirm persons, and bour of the poor would be more proyoung children among them, incapa- ductive, as they may all be constantly ble of earning any thing; but they employed in such work as is suitable might upon an average, without to their strength, from six years to being hurt, have earned each one sixty; but this is very far from being shilling a week. the case.

In the united workhouse for the city of Canterbury, they earned one with another, three pounds six shillings and eight peuce halfpenny, within the year.

At the town of Ware, in Hertfordshire, the master of the workhouse found the raw materials, and gave the parishioners one hundred pounds for the labour of forty paupers for a year; and we may be assured that he did not over-rate the value of it.

What, then, have we been doing? The 82,756 paupers, maintained in workhouses, earned 70,9701. 13 s. 1024, which will not average more than 17 s. 1 d. for each person by the year, and not quite four pence a week. The yearly loss to the public, upon this calculation, will be very considerable.

In the town of Manchester they had 261 paupers in their house, and their earnings amounted to 228/. 15s. and the average 17 s. 3 d. each person for the year.

In the workhouse for the borough. of Leeds, 245 paupers earned 4197. 7 s. 11. in the year, which amounted to no more than 17. 14s. 2d 4. each person.

At Whitney they had in their house 129 poor persons, who produced by their labour 1057. 1s. 4d.; or 16s. 3 d. each person, by the year.

The workhouse for the city of Coventry contained 129 paupers, and their labour amounted to 3327. 16s.4d. or 2. 11s. 7d. each person for the year.

It requires no other proof but the returns of the officers to parliament, The labour of 58,669 paupers will that a general languor prevails in produce 152,2391. Ss; but as Mr. most of the workhouses in the kingPitt, during his administration, never dom, from east to west, and from counted money by less than millions, north to south; even where they tens of thousands and hundreds of have made some ineffectual attempts thousands will perhaps be thought to employ the poor to advantage. beneath our notice, till we can raise The plan which is frequently pur

them no longer.

If we consider that 24,087 paupers earn eight-pence in a week less than

sued, where they have any, is the spinning and weaving linen for the use of the house, and making a few

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