SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

TRAVELS,

Tile Life of a Travelling Physician, from his first Introduction to Practice: in- cluding Twenty Years' Wanderings through the greater part of Europe. In three

volumes Longman and Cu. POETRY.

Legends, Lyrics, and other Poems. By B. Simmons Blackwood.

THE LIFE OF A TRAVELLING PHYSICIAN.

AFTER the young physician received his diploma of M.D. at Edin- burgh, in the year 1819, his health failed; a tendency to pulmonary affection was suspected; and he was recommended to winter in a warmer climate, as medical attendant upon somebody further gone than himself. Coming up to London with letters of introduction, he passed through some of the usual probationary struggles of a medical man without interest ; but was lucky enough to become travelling-physician to a nobleman, who was ordered to the South of France to die. Having buried his first patron, he found a second in a Polish or Russian prince, with whom he resided at Paris for some years ; accompanied him to Odessa, through Germany and Poland ; and then, by the advice of his friends, started in practice at St. Petersburg. At the Russian capital, the physician remained fourteen years ; when domestic troubles, the loss of patients by deaths and removals, with perhaps a natural restlessness and yearn- ing for home, induced him to return to England ; which he did by way of Sweden, Germany, and the Rhine ; examining the different Brunnens in his way.

Such is the framework of The Life of a Travelling Physician. The matter of the book consists of a resident's observation at Pau, Paris, Odessa, and St. Petersburg ; a narrative of travels over the routes we have described ; some sketches of the different spas, with now and then a few medical remarks ; and a description of per- sonal adventures with "patronizing friends" in London, when the young medecin was endeavouring to push himself in life. A good many characters he fell in with in his travels are also described ; and there are disquisitions on politics, morals, and so forth, some- times introduced in the way of dialogue, sometimes of monologue.

The book is, no doubt, "founded upon fact," and is probably true in every particular ; but it nevertheless wears a sort of un- authentic air, as if its author were writing for effect and concocting a kind of autobiographical novel. This is more especially the case in those parts that describe adventures or characters ; and probably arises less from the nature of the matter itself than from the smart and fiction-looking style of the author, and his substitution of blanks for names without any necessity ; for neither in his personal adventures, the incidents of his travel, nor the characters he en- countered, is there any thing exaggerated or out of the way.

The merits of the publication are an off-hand manner, a lively and graphic style, the power of seizing the characteristics of persons, some shrewdness and sense improved by travel and experience, with the variety of topic that springs from the various character of the book,—travel, stationary observation, disquisition, autobio- graphy, and something like fiction, all in one. The drawbacks to these advantages are, that much of the route travelled by the physi- cian is not nearly so new as when he traversed it; that his discussions are sometimes inappropriate, or at least unnecessary ; and that as he advances in his narrative, he very much sinks his own personal adventures for descriptions or general remark. By this means, he loses the interest of a story, without rising above the general run of travellers who have preceded him in time of publication : his account of St. Petersburg, for example, is not equal to KOHL'S in fulness and minuteness, although sometimes reminding us of that writer; and an analogous remark may be made upon the tour to the German baths. On the other hand, travelling in the suite of a grandee, introduced into Polish and Russian society under high aus- pices, and residing many years in the country, he saw or may be supposed to have seen things that are beyond the opportunities of a common traveller.

The medical observations are few and general ; the author hav- ing reserved his professional material for publication in another channel : a sufficient explanation, no doubt, but the book would have worn an air of greater reality had there been more of physic in The Life of a Travelling Physician. As regards life and travels, the matter is various enough ; and its variety will govern our extracts.

POLISH JEWS.

Miserable and forlorn as the whole of Casimir [part of Cracow] appears, still the Jews are not permitted to inhabit the principal street, but are all huddled together in the narrow lanes and allies which diverge from it. It is impossible to describe the sensation which their appearance creates in the mind of the stranger, when first he sees them walking about the streets like so many spectres, lank and lean, dressed in a long black robe reaching to their feet, and a hussar's fur cap or a large slouch hat upon their beads. They stand gazing around, apparently without any thing to do ; no apparent trade or profession; neither cultivating the land nor defending it in time of war; they only seem to cumber the ground on which they tread. This state of inaction is only ap- parent, for they are a very active though not a laborious people, preferring the pittance they may gain without trouble to a competency which common labour would easily procure them ; living six days in the week upon black bread, and happy if they can get a morsel of meat on their Sabbath; cooped up in a hovel, lying pell-mell together without chair or table in their room; their bed consisting of a bundle of dirty straw ; their garments tattered, leaving their bodies half exposed, for they never mend their clothes; no change of apparel, no difference in their dress, night or day, age alone stripping off their rags; compelled to dwell in the most obscure parts of the town, subject to persecutions inflicted upon them by their own laws and those of the 'govern- ment, which may be said rather to tolerate than to protect them; the sport and derision of those who deal, and often hold no faith with them.

Such is a true picture of thia tribe, which is said to amount to more than half a million in Poland. Pale and haggard in their physiognomies, rendered more hideous by their long dirty beards, there is nevertheless a certain anima- tion in their eye, and a cheerfulness in their countenances, which almost lead you to believe they merit less commiseration. They address you at every in- stant, either to buy their merchandise, or serve as factors, or do any thing you may please to order them ; money is their sole object, against making which they have no law ; and though they live chiefly by what is styled trick and cheating, yet they seldom rob on the highway or break into houses ; and few classes of men are less castigated by the penal law. They rob without being robbers, beg without being vagrants. Influenced by no laws, and yet so con- forming to those under which they live that they arc almost independent of them. There is no means they will leave untried to pilfer you ; nothing that they will not willingly undertake for money, proof to all kinds of rebuke, cal- lous to offence. Load them with opprobrious epithets, call them unbelievers, cut-throats, dogs, or spit upon their Jewish gabardine, nothing makes any im- pression upon them. Nay, I have seen them struck by passers-by, and that with the greatest injustice, and yet show no resentment even in expression. Give them the slightest pittance, they are content, and will kiss your garment. Detect them in their frauds, they neither deny nor justify them; hut if too severely rebuked, they show you, rather by signs than words, that you can have no pretensions to fair dealings with those with whom you yourself deal so hardly.

Perhaps the part of the book which has the most novelty is that which relates to Poland ; not merely because few people travel in the country, but because our author travelled in a manner which gave him a greater insight into domestic life than could be gained by scampering through the country as a foreigner. His observa- tions do not, however, convey a favourable impression either of the character or modes of living of the Polish gentry. Here is an anecdote of

THE roman NOBLE AS A LANDLORD.

In the kingdom of Poland, the nobility, in order to evade this freedom, (the legal emancipation of the serf,) enter into stipulations with each other not to afford runaway or vagrant peasants any protection ; so that if a peasant, from ill-treatment, should be inclined to leave his master and seek a milder one, every door is shut against him, and the violation of this tacit agreement by any one proprietor would be productive of a duel between the two parties ; so that in reality the peasant, free by law, is a slave by usage. All his legal free- dom turns to his master's advantage, for it allows him the privilege of starving, without any redress from his owner; whereas the slave in Austria (and I speak of the Polish provinces of that empire) can compel his owner to feed him in time of scarcity, or when from illness he is unable to procure bread for himself or his family.

There are no harder taskmasters than the Polish nobility ; and the liber- ties they seem to appreciate so well for themselves, they are little anxious to extend to their inferiors. The law which allowed them to murder their pea- sants under such easy penalties no longer exists, but the spirit of that law still exists; and their indifference to human suffering tends to diminish much of that enthusiasm for them as a people which is natural to all Englishmen who have not seen them at home in their own country.

I was playing at cards on New-Year's eve, when the cold was very intense, I think 27 degrees Reaumur ; and a servant entered the room to inform a nobleman that three of his peasants were found frozen to death about a mile from the town. "11 n'y a quo trois, c'est pen de chose," and continued his game of qninze, without making another observation. The same circumstance might have occurred in England, but would not he to whom the news was communicated make it his care immediately to send his steward to give all the consolation possible to the distressed families ? Not so with the Pole; he only became more anxious to win his game at cards, to make up for the loss of the three peasants. This, it is true, was an instance only of passive conduct; but I witnessed so much more active brutality exercised by the rich towards the poor, so much want of common humanity in the relations existing between them on the part of the superior, that, so far from sympathizing with them upon the loss of their liberty, I could not but regret that they ever should have had so much in former times, seeing how cruelly they abused the little which was still left them.

FIRST SETTING-IN OF A RUSSIAN WHiTER.

It is a mistake which almost all new corners make, to brave the cold too long; allowing it to penetrate before they take measures against it. Now the secret is, never to feel it. Take preventive measures ; arm against it ; never let it lay hold: this is the secret worth knowing, and the natives do know it, for they are seen walking about in their furs to the astonishment of new- comers, who hardly feel the cold sufficient to warrant a greatcoat.

Heat breaks no bones, says a Russian proverb. The Russians also say, wear warm clothing the first winter of your arrival, and you may do as you please ever after. A few days previous to the closing of the navigation, the weather assumes a deceptive appearance. The sun is bright and the atmosphere clear; there is a nipping and an eager air, and the spirits are light and buoyant. Scarcely any wind prevails : the river flows calmly along without a ripple on its surface ; there is a peculiar brightness in the atmosphere, which pushes forth as it were its last rose of summer. It seems as if it would last for ever, as if spring were about to return, making a leap-year winter. The sun sets with a deep orange ray; the moon rises pale and silvery. The stars tremble in the firma-

ment. The actual thermometric cold is about 10 degrees of Fahrenheit. The nights are splendid, but colder than the days. The morning dawns bright and cheerful. The surface of the river is smooth and glistening. No swallow skims over its surface; no gnat dances in the sunbeam reflected from it ; but, float- ing upon its top, is seen a thin pellicle of ice, which, resembling a film of suet, caused by pouring it when melted upon water, is called by the natives solo.

RUSSIAN HOUSE IN HINTER.

As in other countries clocks and time-pieces are considered indispensable pieces of furniture, so here two thermometers are equally indispensable to the comfort and convenience of the inmates of every house. The one, attached to the outer frame of the double windows, which are also universal in this country, marks the external cold; the other, suspended to a wall, or placed in an ornamental form upon a table in the drawing-room, marks the degree of warmth within doors. The scale of Reaumar is the one used in this country, and some hundreds of thousands must be manufactured in the capital ; for not only is every house supplied, but often every room in the house is furnished with them. Upon quitting the bed, the first step is towards the window, to ascertain the degree of cold without, by which many movements of the day are to be regulated; and those who take pleasure in meteorological observations are provided with register thermometers, by which they not only ascertain the degree of actual cold, but learn what it has been during the night ; for there are generally a few degrees of difference in the night and day temperatures. This transit from the warm bed to the freezing window is not made through cold space, as it would be in England, making the reader shiver and shake at the very idea ; for the drawing-room, the parlour, the hall, the staircase, and the bed-room, are all of the same temperature in a Russian house. The RIISSLUI does not nndress in an ague-fit, as in a bedroom at Christmas in England ; he does not jump into bed and smother himself under a heap of

blankets to bring on the hot stage, nor does he rise in the morning with any idea of finding the water in his jug frozen. His bedroom is warmer in winter than in summer; and instead of adding to the number, he generally abstracts a blanket in the winter-season from his bed.

As he finds the degree of cold marked by his thermometer externally, so does he understand how to clothe himself when he issues from his warm hall- door.

There are three degrees of comparison in the warmth of clothing,— the schenelle, or warm mantle; the bekeche, or English greatcoat, lined through- out with warm fur; and the schube, or large mantle wrapper, lined with a coarser fur than the bekeche.

TEA IN A NEVA STEAMER.

The pasengers on board the steamer offer a motley appearance—some for pleasure and same for business, as in all cases ; but the scene is different from any thing out of Russia. We had a cargo of wood-merchants, who came down from the banks of the Ladoga to look after their wood-barges in St. Petersburg. They are a drunken set ; one of the best-looking of them was soon sprawling upon the deck. It was hard to keep him out of mischief. He would go down below to see the engine work. It was necessary to hold him by main force, till he fell asleep: as Sancho says, "It covered him over like a blanket ;" and when he awoke, he was no longer mischievous. It is curious to see the people drink tea aboard these steamers : a passenger asks for tea, by which the French un- derstand tin the complet ; the Russians, a portion; we should say, tea for one. This comprises a small teapot in which the tea, and that of the best kind, has been infused; a larger teapot full of hot water, a small saucer full of lump sugar, an empty tumbler and teaspoon, a slice of lemon, and a small decanter of spirits. All this is served simultaneously upon a tray. As soon as the tea is sufficiently infused, he pours it out into the tumbler ; to which he adds a glass of spirits and a slice of lemon, and then fills up the smaller with hot water from the larger pot.

The first glass of tea expedited, he brews again in the same way, and this for five or six times, till the tea has no longer colour or flavour ; but there is the lemon, the sugar, and the brandy, and the tea is now the apology. The effect produced will aepend upon the quantity of brandy which he has thus sipped. If he have been sparing, he remains quiet upon deck, or converses freely with his fellow-passengers. If he have sucked the monkey too strongly, he is mis- chievous, and is for looking after the machinery.