at their doors, the men fmoking their pipes, and the women knitting, with an apparent content, and cheerfulness in their faces, that people more po. lifhed and refined, and far more ele vated and opulent, might envy.

Between Hamburg and Altona lies a high land, called Hambourg-Berg, on the bank of the Elbe; along-fide of which, the whole way to Altona, is a range of houses, with different places for building ships. Here are large warehouses for the manufactory of tar and whale-oil, and a hemp magazine, a church, and an hospital for idiots and lunatics.

Above this street are a number of houses very recently built, of which fome are commodious and handfome. Here are two good English taverns kept; one by a man of the name of Whitler, and another by one Hedger. At the back of thefe buildings are a number of small houses, principally frequented by low women of the town, and failors. Almost every other door is a public-house, or a dancing-house, open every Sunday and on holidays, like the fpiel-boufes in Holland. An Englishman may here easily imagine himself in Wapping.

Directly fronting Hamburg Gate is a fine plantation of trees, confifting of many rows, forming feveral fhady and pleafant walks, called the Rope Walk: this divides Hamburg from Aitona.

ALTONA is a large town on the banks of the Elbe, belonging to the Danes. The meaning of the word is faid to be, "All too near," taking its name from its clofe approximation to Hamburg, the people being always jealous of the encroachment of the Danes upon their territories.

The greatest part of the town is of modern date. If a man wishes to have an accurate idea of Hamburg houfes, he has nothing more to do than to fix four glafs lanterns one upon another, oblerving to put the largest at the top, and over that fomething in the form of a Greek delta (thus A), and he may judge of nine tenths of them here, they are wide, airy, and not inconvenient.

Every thing here is turned topfey turvey. In all other countries, firing is kept at the bottom of houses, here it is at the top; and all day long, turf, the common firing, is feen hoifting up in baskets to this curious receptacle for it. This practice alfo prevails at Aitona.

VOL. XLIII. APRIL 1803.

Altona, though large, is much inferior in fize to Hamburg, as well as in population. Provifions are cheaper, rent is lefs, and it is certainly more airy and whole fome; fo that every one that can fpare leifure time ftay there in the day, during the fummer months, and return to Hamburg at the fhutting of the gates in the evening.

It is a very fingular circumftance, that few, if any, cripples are seen here, though there are so many in Hamburg, exhibiting the most dreadful spectacles: men and women not to high as a child of five years old, and twisted like a corkscrew. This is accounted for various ways. The Doctors attribute it to the moisture of the atmosphere and the water; but the Editor, who always takes the liberty of thinking for himfelf, imputes it to the beds, before alluded to-there certainly is not room enough in them-laying cramped up neck and heels together, and fweating between two feather-beds, are caufes fufficient to produce very extraordinary effects.

Here is not the hurry and bustle of Hamburg, and the trade is inconfiderable; which makes it the more pleafant as a place of retirement. Many profeffors live here, where young men refide for the fake of inftruction in the German language, as do many ex-noble emigrants.

The principal houfes of entertainment are kept by the French; and there is an excellent English house, called "The Shakespear," kept by an English.. man named Davis,

The Mall, at the western extremity of the town, is planted with trees, making a moft delightful walk. Parallel with them are two rows of very fine houfes; thofe that command the view of the Elbe are elegant, and many of them magnificent. At one extremity of the Mall is a French theatre, at the other a French coffee-house.

The lottery, when fpeaking of Altona, cannot pafs unnoticed: the plan of it is fingular, at leaft very different from ours. The adventurer selects any number from one to ninety-five; if this number proves one of the first five, drawn from the whole ninety-five, he receives fifteen times the amount of the fum rifqued on that number: all numbers remaining in the wheel after the firft are blanks.

About a mile and half beyond Altona, clofe upon the banks of the Elbe, at a little village called Ottenfen, is Slavenhoff's

Slavenhoff's tavern and garden, moft pleasantly fituated, extenfive, and well laid out. A good band of mufic attends, and every refreshment is provided. This garden is particularly frequented by the Jews. Many of the Jeweffes are extremely beautiful; and this is the place to fee them. The tavern is a very good one, and provides four cooks at the expence of twenty-four louis a month, of which the Head-Cook has half. He had formerly lived in that capacity with the Duke of Orleans, or Monj. Egalité.

Adjoining this is Reinville's tavern and garden, on a most extenfive fcale, and standing more on an eminence, with a ftill more extended and beautiful profpect the gardens are well laid out; the rooms for public dinners, balls, &c. very capacious and handfome. Moft public dinners are given there. In the gardens, the pavilions, and little rural feats, are numerous and diverfified, and the mufic very good: they are conftantly frequented, but efpecially on Sundays and holidays are immenfely crowded; the proprietor fometimes taking fix and feven thoufand marks in a day.

The crowd of women here are afto

nihing; and, if report may be depended upon, this part of the world is not at all behind-hand with other places for female intrigue. The female fervants are the most frequent objects of gallantry.

Two miles further on, close by a little village called Flotbbeck, is another tavern and garden, called the TEMPLE, little, if at all, inferior to the two preceding: and, perhaps, three fuch fituations, fo near one city, are not furpaffed in any quarter of the world. This laft is alfo kept by a Frenchman. The fhores of the Alfter afford many beautiful public gardens in romantic fituations, viz. Harveflebude, Poppen. buttel, Welling fouttel, Belvada, and many others, all within a few miles of the town.

About four English miles diftant are feveral charming iflands, in the middle of the Elbe, alfo much frequented; one in particular, called Vierlanden, famous for ftrawberries, which are brought from hence to Hamburg in prodigious quantities. The fruits are not extraordinarily good, though they are abund ant, particularly cherries, ftrawberries, apples, and plumbs.

8vo.

claffes

claffes of our fellow-fubjects; for to others, and thofe conftituting a confiderable majority, it would be wafting time to read it, and an incumbrance to keep it.

The fubject itself, indeed, fufficiently points out the narrow circie to which its utility is confined. The inveftigation of the numerous, and fome of them trifling, infignificant, Orders of Knight. hood ftill exifting in Europe; a knowledge of the external decorations by which they are diftinguished from each other; of the refpect due to the wearers; and of the ceremonials obferved at the elections and installations in the different Courts of the Sovereigns and petty Princes of Europe; is effentially neceflary to travellers of a certain defcription: fuch are Ambaffadors, Secretaries of Legation, Noblemen, Superior Officers Naval and Military, and private Gentlemen entitled to prefentation to the refpective Sovereigns and Princes. It may, likewife, afford in. formation and amufement to the vifitors of public places of refort on the Continent, particularly at Spa, where, in times of general peace, during the feafon for drinking the waters, the blazing ftars, the great and little cordons fufpended from the button hole, or traverfing the fhoulder, are difplayed rather as emblems of vanity than as memorials of diftinguished valour, or as the rewards of exemplary virtue.

It is not meant, by this criticifm, to deny the relative importance of fome of thefe Inftitutions, where the rules of the Orders are strictly adhered to, and the honours conferred are as ftrictly confined to perfons who have rendered fignal fervices to their Sovereigns and their country. A numerous band of Knights fo deferving, and fo decorated, add fplendour to the Courts of Monarchs, and are the belt jewels in Imperial Crowns. But it is to be lamented, that if, from the catalogue of petty Knights, of no merit, regif. tered in the compilation before us, the account of the meritorious perfons decorated with the infignia of the feveral orders was to be feparated, it would reduce the work from two

to one flender volume. The good grain would be fmall in comparifon with the chaff. To confirm this obfervation, we need only quote a paffage in the Author's dedication to Lord Nelfon. "Upon beholding them (the perfonal decorations of Knighthood), they

always fuggeft the idea of princely favour, and uncommon merit." Alas! how many even of our own illuftrious Orders have been bestowed by minif terial favour, before the wearers had had time to exhibit to their aftonished fellow-fubjects any confpicuous degrees of extraordinary merit. It would be invidious, and appear in the shape of calumnious anecdote," if thefe ftrictures bore any reference to living Knights; but, with the molt facred regard to truth, we affert, that there have been Knights of English Orders, companions of great men at feftive boards, who, upon thofe great men becoming Minifters of State, were made Minifters of the fecond clafs, in the diplomatic rank, to Courts of the fecond rank, and decorated with the first vacant ribbon of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, before any diplomatic service could have been performed.

The Author is Mr. Ruhl, a German, and the work was printed at Hamburgh; we are not, therefore, furprised at fome of the errors contained in it refpecting British fubjects, But the Editor, who remains incognito, is probably an Englishman; and yet he has made fome mistakes in his notes and illuftrations. For inttance; in a note annexed to the Author's dedication, he obferves-"It is worthy of notice, that England is the only country wherein there is no eftablished Military Order."-And this he mentions in fupport of one reafon affigned by the Author, "why fo many British fubjects, and thofe too of high rank, thould be invefted with Orders of foreign Knighthood." Upon reading this note, we referred to the very thort account of the Order of the Bath, in Vol. II. of the fame work, p. 17, where the Author fays-" King Henry IV. inftituted this Order in 1399, foon after his accellion to the throne;" and the Editor, in his note, afferts, "that the Order of the Bath was initituted by Richard II. who eftablished it as a Military Order. That it continued to be fo confidered by his fucceffors; and that, notwithstanding the modern deviations in favour of deferving members of the Diplomatic Corps, fince its renewal by King George the Firft, it is still a Military Order, cannot be doubted by any intelligent perfon verfed in hiftorical and heraldic knowledge. How few, even in the prefent 002

lift,

the Editor, is worthy of fpecial notice, as it refpects the changes of this Order from the original plan of its inftitution; yet it is ftill denominated a Military Order; and with no lefs propriety, our illuftrious Order of the Bath must be deemed a Military Order.

The third, in this fection, is the Equestrian, Secular, and Chapteral, Order of St. Joachim, a German inftitution of modern date, founded in 1755, by feveral Princes and Nobles of the highest rank in Germany. "After feveral changes by fucceffive Grand Masters, a decree of the General Chapter, in 1785, conftituted this Knightly Militia under the name of the Equeftrian, Secular, and Chapteral, Order of St. Joachim, the bleed Father of the Holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord and Redeemer Chrift," inftead of the firft title, which was that of Knights of the Order of Jonathan, Defenders of the Honour of Divine Providence. This Order was formally acknowledged and fanctioned by his Apoftolic Majelty, Leopold II. Emperor of Germany, and by Frederick William II. King of Pruffia, in the years 1790 and 1791.

"But the event which has ftamped an indelible mark of celebrity on the Order, is the nomination and reception of NELSON, that illuftrious hero of the age, in quality of Grand-Commander of this Equestrian Order."-Here follows fuch a string of hyperbolical adulation as muft make our Noble Admiral fick of fulfome flattery. We could with the Editor had diftinguished his own compofitions from thofe of Mr. Ruhl, Officer of the Chancery of St. Joachim; as we could with to clear him from all participation in, we had almost faid, the blafphemy of pages 48 and 49 of this fection.

Sect. II. treats of the Papal Order of the Golden Spur, inftituted by Pope Pius IV. in 1559. Sect. III. contains an account of eight Imperial Orders; the last of which we shall only notice, as here again we meet with our country. man Lord Nelfon, for whom it was inftituted in 1799-The Order of the Turkith Crefcent, founded by Selim III. reigning Sultan, or Emperor of the Turks, "to reward the rare and unexampled exploits of Horatio Lord Viscount Nelfon, Duke of Bronte, tor a victory gained on their own coafts, upon which depended their existence as a nation.-A victory fuch as will henceforward be regarded as the most

complete one ever obtained fince the creation."

Hawke and Howe, by their victories, faved their own country from the invasion of formidable enemies. Lord St. Vincent, it was declared by his Royal Highnefs the Duke of Clarence, had gained a victory unparalleled in the annals of the British Navy. And full well affured we are, that the illuftrious Nelfon would fpurn the unworthy adulators, who fhould dare to fet him up as unrivalled in those annals.

Sect. IV. comprifes ten Royal Orders, five of which belonged to France, and were inftituted at various epochs of the French Monarchy. The Order of the Holy Ghost, le Saint Efprit, fimply called in France Le Cordon Blue, and the Order of St. Louis, were the principal. In fpeaking of the latter, the Editor, in a note to page 199, obferves of the first Order of St. Louis, that it was completely abolished by Louis XIV. "This great Monarch (of whom the prefent race of men entertains every day an higher opinion, by establishing the Royal Hofpital of Invalids, and inftituting the Military Order of St. Louis, bestowed upon his veterans a more fuitable maintenance, and a more refpectable mark of distinction, than they could derive from the perpetuation of the firit Order." Where is the race of men, except the flaves of Romish fuperftition and defpotism, who can, at this day, entertain any "high opinion" of a bigotted tyrant, who attempted to annihilate the Proteftant religion throughout the Continent of Europe, and to exterminate its Princes! Affuredly, not the French Emigrants in England, many of whom, of noble rank, have been heard to say-Since a fatal Revolution was to happen in our devoted country, what a pity it was that it had not taken place in the time of the tyrant Louis Quatorze, inftead of falling upon the head of the mild and equitable Louis Seize! Every friend to religious and civil liberty, every loyal fubject of a limited, well-regulated Monarchy, muft deteft, inftead of entertaining an higher opinion every day of the fallely-styled Grand Monarque. The remaining Orders defcribed in this volume belong to the Crown of Spain.

The fecond volume.opens with a continuation of the Royal Orders claffed under the fame fection. These are the English Orders of the Garter and the Bath; the Thiftle of Scotland; and St.

Patrick