which were many English. We were both much touched, I might say affected, and Dora moved as appears in the verses.'

On the same excursion were suggested the beautiful lines on a Jewish Family, seen in a small valley opposite St. Goar1 a group which

" cast

Around the dell a gleam

Of Palestine, of glory past,

And proud Jerusalem.'

Jewish Family.-Coleridge, and my daughter, and I, in 1828, passed a fortnight upon the banks of the Rhine, principally under the hospitable roof of Mr. Aders of Gotesberg; but two days of the time were spent at St. Goar, or in rambles among the neighbouring valleys. It was at St. Goar that I saw the Jewish family here described. Though exceedingly poor, and in rags, they were not less beautiful than I have endeavoured to make them appear. We had taken a little dinner with us in a basket, and invited them to partake of it, which the mother refused to do, both for herself and her children, saying, it was with them a fast day; adding, diffidently, that whether such observances were right or wrong, she felt it her duty to keep them strictly. The Jews, who are numerous in this part of the Rhine, greatly surpass the German peasantry in the beauty of their features, and in the intelligence of their countenance. But the lower classes of the German peasantry have, here at least, the air of people grievously oppressed. Nursing mothers at the age of seven or eight and twenty, often look haggard and far more decayed and withered than women of Cumberland and Westmoreland twice their age. This comes

1 See the Poem beginning, 'Genius of Raphael,' vol. ii. p. 210.

from being underfed and overworked in their vineyards in a hot and glaring sun.'

I will conclude this chapter by an extract from one of his letters to a relative who had spent the summer (1828) in France, as it presents a view of his opinions on continental affairs at this period.

'My dear C

'Rydal Mount, Nov. 27, 1828.

'It gave me much pleasure to learn that your residence in France had answered so well. As I had recommended the step, I felt more especially anxious to be informed of the result. I have only to regret that you did not tell me whether the interests of a foreign country and a brilliant metropolis had encroached more upon the time due to academical studies than was proper.

'As to the revolution which Mr. D

calculates upon,

I agree with him that a great change must take place, but not altogether, or even mainly, from the causes which he looks to, if I be right in conjecturing that he expects that the religionists, who have at present such influence over the king's mind, will be predominant. The extremes to which they wish to carry things are not sufficiently in the spirit of the age to suit their purpose. The French monarchy must undergo a great change, or it will fall altogether. A constitution of government so disproportioned cannot endure. A monarchy, without a powerful aristocracy or nobility graduating into a gentry, and so downwards, cannot long subsist. This is wanting in France, and must continue to be wanting till the restrictions imposed on the disposal of property by will, through the Code Napoleon, are done away with: and it may be observed, by the by, that there is a bareness, some would call it a simplicity, in that code which unfits it for a com

plex state of society like that of France, so that evasions and stretchings of its provisions are already found necessary, to a degree which will ere long convince the French people of the necessity of disencumbering themselves of it. But to return. My apprehension is, that for the cause assigned, the French monarchy may fall before an aristocracy can be raised to give it necessary support. The great monarchies of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, having not yet been subject to popular revolutions, are still able to maintain themselves, through the old feudal forces and qualities, with something, not much, of the feudal virtues. This cannot be in France; popular inclinations are much too strong thanks, I will say so far, to the Revolution. How is a government fit for her condition to be supported, but by religion, and a spirit of honour or refined conscience? Now religion, in a widely extended country plentifully peopled, cannot be preserved from abuse of priestly influence, and from superstition and fanaticism, nor honour, be an operating principle upon a large scale, except through property- that is, such accumulations of it, graduated as I have mentioned above, through the community. Thus and thus only can be had exemption from temptation to low habits of mind, leisure for solid education, and dislike to innovation, from a sense in the several classes how much they have to lose; for circumstances often make men wiser, or at least more discreet, when their individual levity or presumption would dispose them to be much otherwise. To what extent that constitution of character which is produced by property makes up for the decay of chivalrous loyalty and strengthens governments, may be seen by comparing the officers of the English army with those of Prussia, &c. How far superior are ours as gentlemen! so much so that British officers can scarcely associate with those of the Continent,

not from pride, but instinctive aversion to their low propensities. But I cannot proceed, and ought, my dear C- to crave your indulgence for so long a prose.

When you see Frere, pray give him my kind regards, and say that he shall hear from me the first frank I can procure. Farewell, with kindest love from all,

" Yours, very affectionately,

'W. W.'

CHAPTER XLIII.

ON THE CHURCH OF ROME.

IN the advertisement' prefixed to his Ecclesiastical Sketches, Mr. Wordsworth states, that in the year 1820, the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, as it was termed, which was then under discussion, 'kept his thoughts in a certain direction,' viz. toward the History of the Church in England, the subject treated by him in those Sonnets.

Among his papers are various letters, or portions of letters, addressed to friends and public men in reference to that question, down to the year 1829, when the 'Roman Catholic Relief Bill' was passed.

One or two specimens of these shall be inserted here.
The following is to Mr. Southey:

'My dear S.,

'I am ashamed not to have done your message about the Icon to my brother. I have no excuse, but that at that time both my body and my memory were run off their legs. I am very glad you thought the answer? appeared to you triumphant, for it had struck me as, in the main point, knowledge of the subject, and spirit in the

1 This refers to Dr. Wordsworth's volume on the authorship of Icon Basiliké. Lond. 1824.

2 This alludes to Dr. Wordsworth's second publication, entitled, 'King Charles the First the Author of Icón Basiliké.' Lond. 1828.