She is gone!" exclaimed the abbess and the nun; the councillor threw himself into a chair, and grasped the already cold hand of Filiberta.

The following day, attended by a long train bearing tapers, the last descendant of the Madruzzi was consigned to the tomb.

Such is the summary of the interesting and touching tale, written with so much elegance and simplicity of style, by Giovanni Pierini; and one who has so well commenced his literary career will certainly pursue it with honour.

REAL POLITICAL CHARACTER OF LOUIS XVIII.

Manuscrit inédit de Louis XVIII., précédé d'un Examen de sa Vie politique jusqu'à la Charte de 1814. (Unpublished Manuscript of Louis XVIII., preceded by an Examination of his political Life till the time of the Charter of 1814.) By Martin Doisy. 8vo. Paris, 1839.

The drift of this volume is to show that, in spite of the professions and even the actions of the elder of the two brothers of the unfortunate Louis XVI., whether under the name of Count de Provence, Count de Lille, or Louis XVIII.—in spite of the show of liberal sentiments which he could assume upon occasion-this prince was throughout his whole life perfectly consistent in his political opinions. It is here contended that, however circumstances might lead him to dissemble those opinions, this prince was in his heart a sworn foe, not only to all those concessions by which the despotic power of the sovereign was gradually broken down in France at the commencement of the revolution, but even to those principles of constitutional government proclaimed by himself in the famous Charter, which he promulgated on taking possession of the throne of his ancestors.

It appears that a paper in the well-known hand-writing of Louis XVIII., a fac-simile of which is prefixed to the volume, has fallen into the hands of the author, and upon the sentiments there expressed, and the historical inquiries into which he was in consequence led, he has founded the allegations stated above; and the evidence he adduces is such as we think, even without this document, must carry conviction of the justice of his conclusions to every unprejudiced mind.

The paper in question contains strictures on passages in a publication of the Chevalier de la Coudraye's, who was deputy of the nobility of Poitou to the states-general. In this publication, printed in Germany, the author proposed to himself to prove that the French nobility had, in 1789, cheerfully made the sacrifice of their pecuniary privileges. In justification of this opinion, he appended to his pamphlet the instructions of the nobility of Poitou, containing, according to him, the genuine principles of the reform to be effected in 1789. Louis XVIII., during the leisure of his retirement at Blankenburg, in the year 1799 or 1800, -the date being determined by passages of the text itself— undertook the refutation of these instructions, commenting on each article, transcribed with his own hand facing his observations. Here he takes occasion to reveal, in clear and extremely strong terms, his inmost thoughts

on the great questions, so much discussed since, and as it appears, not yet settled, concerning the system of government adapted to France. The representative form is followed up inch by inch, treated with acrimony, and spurned with disdain.

Respecting the historical inquiry into which this document led the author, he thus expresses himself.

Our historical inquiry finished, it became evident to our eyes that the historians were all mistaken, some in praising Louis XVIII., others in censuring him, on account of the pretended liberalism, of which he made a parade in 1789. Some conjectures, reputed rash, some revelations, apparently malicious, had certainly thrown doubt upon the sincerity of his outward acts, of his public speeches, in the first years of the revolution-acts and speeches contradictory to other acts and other official testimonies of the time of the emigration;-but the Charter of 1814 seemed to protest so strongly in favour of the liberal opinions of Louis XVIII., that he would finally have retained his position of constitutional king, in intention and in fact, had not this new document come forth to dispossess him of it. No: Louis XVIII. was not for a moment hurried away by the movement of 1789; where Louis XVI. and the queen resisted manfully, he had recourse to artifice. It was not for the benefit of the democracy that he determined to vote in the assembly of the notables for the doubling of the tiers-état, but against the pretensions of the upper classes to which he opposed the tiers-état. That vote, of which he boasted at the Hôtel de Ville, on the day when he had to defend himself against the charge of complicity with the Marquis de Favras, he admits that he secretly deplored. When, at that same Hôtel de Ville, he protested his attachment to the principles of the revolution, he strove to mislead public opinion, and was conscious of the deception which he practised. No: Louis XVIII. never believed in the merit of reform; he never in his life had faith in any charter, but one that of the old monarchy: he never comprehended any royalty but one - that of his forefathers, absolute royalty, without innovations, without concessions. The reputed father of the Charter of 1814 deemed the French unfit for a representative government: this he expressly declares.

"He was not, neither could he be, the author of the Charter of 1814. It militated against all his opinions, all his convictions. With his manuscript before you, and comparing with that manuscript all that has issued from the pen of that prince, all that he signed and avowed from the commencement of the reign of Louis XVI. to 1814, it is impossible to entertain the slightest doubt. Louis XVIII. was shrewder than Charles X.; he had a totally different system of tactics; but his views were at bottom the same. In his eyes, Louis XVI. was but a dupe. Before the emigration, during the emigration, and afterwards, he lived apart from his two brothers, not from antipathy of convictions, but from policy and prudence, from some feeling of jealousy and much more of ambition, that he might keep himself disposable, and be able to reconcile himself with all chances. Louis XVIII, took the rank of a constitutional king, not for having granted the Charter, but for having, in granting it, overcome the most inveterate of his repugnances. In other times he had devoted himself to Mirabeau and to other constituents, more decidedly democratic; he had devoted himself to the coalition

in mass and to the foreign powers one by one; to La Vendée and to the Chouans, when the armed emigration failed him; to Dumouriez and to Pichegru, to Charette and to Stofflet, to Moreau and to Bonaparte, called by him, one after another, the restorers of the monarchy and great men but his last and strongest effort was to devote himself to that Charter, which was believed to be his, and for which he feigned a false affection — a long dissimulation, which lasted till his death. It was scarcely worth while to establish this historical novelty, of which there is no lack of evidence."

We repeat that, in his examination of the political life of Louis XVIII., which occupies the greater part of the volume, M. Doisy has, we think, satisfactorily established all the positions here advanced; and that he has rendered a service to history, by exhibiting in the true light the character of a prince who, by his duplicity, contrived to obtain credit for abilities which he did not possess, and for sentiments the most adverse to those which he really entertained.

We cannot refrain from subjoining an anecdote illustrative of his cleverness at evasion.

In February, 1791, when his aunts, following the example of the nobility, quitted France, a report was circulated that the Count de Provence was to accompany them. The populace thronged to the Luxembourg, where he resided. In a similar case, the Count d'Artois would have ruined himself by some indiscretion or other; Monsieur, on the contrary, turned this popular tumult to his advantage, as he had done the trial of Favras. It was with women that he had to do on this occasion. On hearing the cries set up under his windows, he shewed himself, and promised not to forsake the king. "But if the king were to leave us," said one of the leaders of the rabble, "you would stay with us, would you not?" The question was embarrassing. Recollecting a trait of Cardinal de Retz, he replied smiling and shrugging his shoulders: "For a sensible woman like you, the question you ask is a very stupid one." The women burst into a laugh, made their obeisance to Monsieur, and retired delighted with him. The same day he left the Luxembourg to go to the Tuileries the crowd did not prevent him. Though more than six thousand persons obstructed the way that he had to pass, he arrived without accident. It appears that he was expected; for some one said to the queen : "Monsieur will not be able to come; and if he does come it will be impossible for him to get back again."—" You don't know him," answered Marie Antoinette : Monsieur will come, and he will get back again"-an expression implying that Monsieur was in her estimation a wily negociator; and perfectly consistent with this saying of the king's: "My brother contrives to flatter every body."

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In the quotation given above, the author adverts to the opinion of Louis XVIII. that the national character of the French renders them unfit for a representative government. This opinion he expresses in the following terms:

"Nations, it is undeniable, have peculiar characters as well as individuals; and the experience of fifteen centuries has demonstrated that of all nations the French are least fit for political assemblies. I appeal to the results of all the states-general. The reason is a melancholy one, but not the less real-namely, that the Frenchman is naturally ferocious, as all the popular commotions attest;" but he adds that, "in him this vice is tempered by his natural frivolity."

It will be recollected that it is a Frenchman who attributes this unamiable trait to the national character of his countrymen; but it is only a parody of the well-known character, "half-monkey, half-tiger," fastened upon them by a much shrewder Frenchman-Voltaire.

TIECK'S TALES.

Ludwig Tieck's gesammelte Novellen, vermehrt und verbessert. (Ludwig Tieck's collected Tales, with additions and corrections.) 8 vols. 12mo. Breslau, 1838.

The celebrated author of "Fantasus" has here given to the public, in a collective form, the tales with which he has been accustomed annually to entertain his readers. If the warmth of imagination and the sarcastic humour of his earlier compositions are not to be found in these Tales, still they possess many peculiar qualities which highly recommend them. His characters are not remarkable for firmness and energy of will, or for extraordinary acuteness of mind, or for passions which rush to the extreme verge of human extravagance, and shake the pillars of civil society. He takes them rather from that broad path of mediocrity which is trodden by the many, and which leads neither to the extreme of ambition, nor to the solitude of contemplative life. We shall therefore have some right to expect that the narrator will compen sate for this deficiency of personal interest by other extraordinary contrivances. We are curious to know whether, like Cooper, he will transport the reader to the scenes of dreary deserts or wild forests, and captivate his imagination by lively descriptions; or whether, like Sir Walter Scott, he draws a picture of past times, and instructs at the same time that he amuses by setting before our eyes occurrences of by-gone generations; or, lastly, whether, like Bulwer, he so complicates his story as to excite our curiosity, and to satisfy us by an unlooked-for denouement.

In such expectations, however, we shall be disappointed. So far is Tieck from the first, that he lays his scenes in places familiar to every one who has been to ever so small a distance from his own home-Dresden, with its delightful environs; the picture gallery of that capital; the route from Frankfort on the Oder to Hamburg; the parlour of a burgher family; or the study of a philosopher. Neither does he carry us back into the past, but relates circumstances of his own life, and thus presents a mirror, in which we see reflected images which are perfectly familiar to us. The story at length begins simply, proceeds naturally, and does not surprise by the end, unless when the whole reminds us of an anecdote, the point of which lies in the conclusion. All these qualities, however, are of a negative kind, and no doubt the reader would fain learn something positive concerning these Tales. We will tell it then. There are ideas which here appear personified, and which, either from their nature, or from the way and manner in which they are communicated, furnish agreeable information on a multitude of subjects. The author is well versed in all the religious and political discussions of the present day, and still more so in all the branches of the belles lettres; and he contrives to impute his own notions to certain persons, who seem to live for no other purpose but to communicate those notions in conversation to others, or occasionally to act upon them. As these are sure to meet with opponents, of course conversations take place, arguments are introduced for and against, and, as females take part in these discussions, their opinions also are stated. Which side the author takes is not always clear; but this contributes much to the satisfaction of the reader, who soon perceives that he has not to do with a partizan, but with a man who feels a lively interest in all those intellectual pursuits which characterise the present times.

It appears, however, as though our author regarded the conservative side

with particular favour, and in religion and art those opinions which originate in warm enthusiasm for both. Hence we shall find that the advocates of a liberal policy are always represented as fantastic and bitter, or even as selfish, and disturbers of all cheerfulness in society. This is the more probable, as Tieck professes himself an enemy to all passions which threaten to interrupt the natural course of human improvement. On the other hand, he is a zealous advocate of that enthusiasm which gives itself up with its whole soul to Art, and reverences in it å daughter of divine Contemplation. Those who are so inspired consequently speak in the most eloquent and impressive manner, and open such clear, and, at the same time, such profound views into the recesses of the artist's mind, as are to be found nowhere but in the works of Winkelmann, Göthe, Diderot, and Sir Joshua Reynolds. To many a picture, as the Sixtine Madonna at Dresden, to many a piece of sculpture, is attached an explanation, at the same time differing from that of every other connoisseur, and bearing in itself the stamp of truth. Our author must be a happy man, who has not had to contend with many difficulties in life, unless in the explanation of a passage in Jordanus, Bruno, or Jacob Böhmen; for he passes lightly over all human afflictions, touches upon them at most in the same manner as one would mention natural phenomena of a pernicious kind, and only dwells upon them in cases where the intellectual side wears an interesting aspect. Intoxication and insanity appear to him particularly worthy of attention such intoxication as produces a stupefaction of the soul after a sleepiness of the vital energies, or raging fury, but that which lifts the mental pinions, and causes the pulses of life to beat more forcibly; and that insanity which, originating in a fixed idea and a preternatural aspiration after knowledge, is iucessantly soaring into loftier regions. Such characters are, it is true, psychologically remarkable; but, as we have not addicted ourselves to the study of medicine, and have no experience in such matters, we shall not decide whether Tieck means to give, in the phenomena which he exhibits, a correct picture from nature. From the tone of all these fictions, we should rather presume that the author had never seen figures of this kind, but only cast such extravagances of his own imagination in individual forms.

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Whilst expressing this opinion of the character of these Tales, we must not omit to add that they are distinguished by such elegance, perspicuity, smoothness, and purity of language as are rarely to be met with in this class of compositions in our days. Tieck's prose appears to us the most luminous, and from its neatness, simplicity, and grace, the most pleasing, that German literature has produced since Göthe's Wilhelm Meister.

All those who love to beguile a leisure hour with a cheerful story, and they who are disposed to make themselves acquainted with the notions of a superior mind concerning literature and art, cannot fail to derive high gratification from the perusal of these volumes.

THE DISTRICT OF OTUQUIS IN BOLIVIA.

Das Land Oluquis in Bolivia. (The District of Otuquis in Bolivia.) After an original Report of M. Mor. Bach, Secretary of that Province, written with reference to the Affairs of South America in general, by Dr. Geo. Ludw. Kriegk. Frankfurt, 1838. 8vo.

The district of Otuquis, which derives its name from a branch of the Paraguay and an Indian tribe dwelling upon its banks, is situated between the Brasilian province of Matto Grosso, the Bolivian province of Chiquitos, and the plain of Gran Chaco, and is about half as large again as Switzerland. It formerly belonged to the province of Chiquitos, but now forms a new province of the department of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, since it came, in 1836, into the possession of M. Manuel Luis de Oliden, to whom it was granted by the Bolivian government, on condition that in the space of four years he should construct a harbour near the junction of the rivers Otuquis, Tucabaca, and Lati