ON TRADE OF THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN WAR.-TERRITORIAL TIONAL SYSTEM. STATE OF PRUSSIA. EDUCA ITS EFFECTS ON THE NATIONAL CHARACWANT OF SPIRIT AMONGST THE PEOPLE IN SUBMITTING TO ITS FORMATION. SYSTEM. ITS MANIFOLD EVILS. MILITARY Din the reader ever arrive in a steamer at the outer light ship which indicates the mouth of the Elbe, just too late to take advantage of the evening tide? If so, he will as seldom as possible again proceed to Hamburg by sea. This cruel fate was ours. After a dull day's sail in misty weather, we lay to alongside the pilot's craft, and received on board a jolly, good-natured looking man, from whom one expected better tidings than the announcement that off Cuxhaven the anchor must go down. How sulky did the passengers then become. In vain our good captain tried to make the merry laugh go round. We had all heard the mournful clank of the chain cable, and felt ourselves to be injured men. Wearied at length of complaints, we called in the steward to cheer our drooping K 130 MOUTH OF THE ELBE. spirits, and his viands were much more efficacious than the commander's jokes. Next morning the sound of revolving paddle-wheels gladdened us, and, ascending to the deck, we found the steamer struggling with a strong head-wind and tide, a drizzling rain falling, and the sandy banks scarcely visible. In an hour or two wind-mills appeared above the dykes of sand, and then villages, protected from the floods by means of lofty embankments, secured with plaited straw. Dreary indeed was the prospect in the hazy atmosphere, and little did the passengers on board our steamer envy the lot of luckless individuals born to spend a lifetime near the mouth of the Elbe. At two o'clock we called at the Hanoverian toll-house, to land the ship's papers, all merchandise being chargeable with duty there. For a couple of hours thereafter the state of the tide compelled us to proceed at half speed, in order to have sufficient water at Stade, where two sand-banks obstruct the navigation of the river. It absolutely rained in earnest as we passed Blankenese, the Ramsgate of Germany's seaport, where stand the summer residences of the wealthy merchants. They are built on an extensive sloping bank, and in summer may have their charms, although they look cheerless enough on a rainy March afternoon. Altona, the Elbe part of Holstein, is to all intents and purposes a suburb of Hamburg, there being on the river's side HAMBURG. -THE BOURSE. 131 no open space between them. The stranger cannot tell where one begins and the other ends. Pleased to escape from steam and smoke, we heard with joy the command to "Stop her," and jumping into a wherry, were skilfully piloted between the numerous vessels lying in the river. These ships are all unladen by means of barges, into which the goods are lowered to be transported to the warehouses of the merchants, along the many canals which intersect the city. Thus cartage is saved altogether. A handsome place is that Hamburg which has risen upon the ruins of older houses destroyed by fire. Around the Alster basin, a fine sheet of water tenanted by swans, spacious mansions have sprung up in wonderfully short time. They resemble the residences of English nobles at the west end of London. Very different streets and erections, however, does the business part of this great commercial town present. It has Mark Lanes as well as Westbourne Terraces. One of the most curious sights in Europe is the Bourse of Hamburg, between the hours of one and three o'clock in the afternoon. We entered its vast area when the bell rung, and indeed witnessed an interesting scene. About 1500 merchants were talking at once, absorbed in the arrangement of mercantile affairs. To say the hall was filled would be to convey but a faint idea of that dense crowd of human beings who meet there every day. The 132 EFFECTS OF THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN WAR. hum of voices reminded us of the noise which arrests the traveller's attention at a certain distance from Niagara. We can compare it to nothing else. It literally stunned us for a time, and made us appreciate the advantages of stillness in the open air. The merchants, that day, perhaps talked louder than they usually do; for rumours were afloat that the war in Schleswig-Holstein was about to be resumed. This foolish contest has sadly injured the trade of Hamburg; for since its commencement, the Danes have begun to enter into direct transactions with England and other nations, instead of carrying on all their business through agents in that city. Corn from Denmark is now bought, not in Hamburg, but in Copenhagen, and even in the smaller ports of that little kingdom. The Danes, too, have been driven to purchase their goods, not in any German town, but in Great Britain. Thus about ten per cent. is economised by the Danish nation on which to extend their trade. Business, once diverted in this manner, seldom, if ever, resumes its former channel. Hamburg permanently suffers, that the politicians of Germany may find somewhat to do. This foolish contest is but one manifestation of man's inconsistency. The remark requires to be explained, and we may be excused for devoting a few sentences to that end. We need not search the annals of ancient Greece, that classic land of heroism and poetry, for noble TERRITORIAL UNION AND ISOLATION. 133 examples of an exalted patriotism. In every age of this earth, from the days of Nimrod to the Parisian revolt of 1848, deeds of daring have been performed by men when national independence and social quietude are at stake. However ill-governed a country may be, - however miserable the lot of its inhabitants,-no sooner does the sentinel on his watch tower announce the approach of a foreign foe, than internal broils are forgotten, and the united forces of faction march to repel the invader. Athens fought Sparta, and they, combined, opposed the Theban commander; but universal Greece prayed for the valorous few who held the pass of Thermopylæ against the Persian. Attica, Lacedæmon, and Corinth strove with each other at times for mastery; but their united sympathies surrounded the Hellenic standard on the plains of Marathon. This love of country is no superstitious feeling, of which the Christian need be ashamed; it is inherent in our being, implanted within us for purposes of mercy, and sanctioned by the precepts of religion itself. What grander spectacle can history present than William Tell on the field of Grutli, with uplifted hands pledging his associates to deliver their mountain homes from the oppressor? Strangely inconsistent, however, are the whims of men. While the patriot, in one part of the world, strains every nerve to acquire for the particular province he lives in the distinction of an independent sovereign state, his brother, across |