them I speak chiefly of commercial people,

for I have shewn, and you will admit, faithfully, there are very merry and light Dutchmen - yea, and Dutch women too

they seem to labour through their clouds, and you hear but one sound upon the one theme. gelt-Money, money, money - That is

Gelt, gelt, my demand,

what is your offer? Half an hour after the question, the breath is drawn in, to negative by a nod, or sent off with a puff into a fuliginous affirmative: yes, or no, often beginning and ending the compact. And one trade is the echo of another trade, as similar to each other as their pipes.

An English stage coach, on the contrary, is usually filled with as many unimitating beings, as there are places to receive them. There is something peculiar and appropriate in every passenger, whether male or female; and they are not only strongly marked from each other in the casual journey that associates them for the moment, but very frequently each is distinct from every other of his family. The thoughts, and the mode of expressing them, belong, ex

clusively, to him or to herself; and though the principles of the heart, whether bad or good, are the same all over the world, it is here, chiefly, that those principles are displayed in an unnumbered variety of forms, I had almost said of fancy dresses, even like characters at a masque, according to the particular humour, or disposition of the wearer.

This diversity amongst us may be attributed, partly to the freedom of our government, which, without stilting some men into giants, and dwarfing others, preserves the due line of gradation, investing every individual with a just sense of himself, and of his happy situation. Of this we have instances which could scarce be credited in the less liberal arrangements of many other nations: particularly where prevails the spirit, that brings the whole human race, soul as well as body, to a size, cutting off the heads of the high, to level them with the low, and then, ludicrously, insisting we are one and all of the same stature,

But I conceive that the British constitution allows to every being that contributes to form.

it, whatever be his state or station, an oppor tunity to reverence himself; and though this, sometimes, encourages an over-rated estimate, it preserves, upon the whole, the due measure and weight, civil, political and religious.

From whatever cause, however, our variation from each other, in opinion and in action, arises, its effect is always pleasant, and often useful, to a traveller. It offers him, in every direction of his route, interesting, amusive,, or singular companions by the way: and notwithstanding the deep national reserve and coldness, imputed to my countrymen and women, and in which, it must be owned, they too often entrench themselves, they may be all brought into conversation if a traveller is resolved upon it; and, however thick may be the ice at first setting out, the chilling influence will yield by degrees; a few good-natured remarks will cheer the surface like morning sunshine on the frozen current; the first subject that calls out a human affection, will begin the thaw, and an ingenuous exchange of those still, small, civilities that make up the great comforts of life, will, like the

noon-tide ray, loosen yet more the stream from its impediments, the warm beams of the ima gination, or the yet more ardent ones of the heart, will break out upon it; and these, joining each other, will melt away every remaining coldness and obstruction, so as to produce a flow of good humour, or good sense, during the rest of the voyage or journey, whether it be of a day, a month, or a year: perhaps, for the residue of the mortal travel of the parties. The ice, which as it were, shuts up the lips, and closes the heart of an Englishman to strangers, whether of his own or other countries, being once thus unlocked, and the free current of his estimable heart disencumbered, the blood that animates it flows copiously towards the

being who has in this

frost, and ever after it

manner subdued the

exchanges with that

being the permanent glow of friendship, or of love.

Much, therefore, depends on our taking out with us, a sufficient stock of that with which you, I know, are always amply provided COURTESY without a supply of which no man

should attempt to go beyond the limit of his own garden-walls, and, scarcely indeed, to their extent; for a gilded fly, an obstructing flower, an obtrusive sunbeam, or a few heat-drops falling in his path, might annoy and put him out of temper with heaven and earth. The courtesy I write off, is, in truth, as necessary to a traveller as his passport, or his letters of credit, and it will be current where all other recommendations and introductions fail. It will create urbanity in the bosom where it was unknown before. It is solid as sterling gold, lighter of carriage than an English bank-bill, and though all Europe confesses the intrinsic value and utility of both these, at home and abroad, unnumbered instances have met my eye in this jarring world, where an ounce of courtesy would have outweighed, in the purchase of human happiness or human content, more than our banks or treasuries could buy. "A sweet word not only turneth away wrath," but it leads to knowledge, to wisdom, to conciliation, to honour, pleasure, and repose. It conducts to the best felicities of life, and