SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

A Steam Voyage clown the Dana's.. With ■kitch..s ul ilumvraey. Wallachia. Strati, and Turkey, ke. By Michael J. Quin, Aut l or or A Visit to Spain." In II vols.

DeRIOCtny iu Amelica. By Al. xis de ToNueville. Avocat a Is Cour Royale Paris, S:c. Tralolated ly Ileui y Reeve. Fay. lu 2 v.,11a. (Vol. I.) The Fudges in Etidand; being a Sequel to The Figs Family in Pails." By Thomas Blown tilt) Younger, Author ol The . peury Post•Bag." Om.

QUIN'S STEAM VOYAGE DOWN THE DANUBE.

Tint title of this work is indicative rather than descriptive. Mr. Qum did not go down the Danube; and the whole of his partial voyage upon the river was not accomplished by means of steam. As a set-off to this putting of pars pro Iota, it may be said that none of the matter of' the second volume is hinted at in the titlepage. Having business at Coastantinople, Mr. QUIN, towards the close of last summer, determined to avail himself of the new spe culation just then started for navigatino. the Danube by steam.

" As the scenery of the river possesses but little interest between Presburg. where the steam navigation begins, and Pesth, the modern capital of Hungary," he travelled post from Vienna to the latter town (whose site sonic of our readers may better comprehend if we say it is opposite Buda) ; and there embarked, with a motley company of passengers, and a captain who knew little of naviga

tion, and nothing of the numerous sandbanks in the river. To add to the disagreeables, the Danube was lower than it had ever

been in the memory of living man. But, with the exception of such trifles as getting aground, and having to unload to get afloat again, the vessel arrived safely at Moldava ; where she debarked her passengers, for the all-sufficient reason that she drew too much water to carry them further; so they were forwarded in a flat-bottomed boat to Oisova.. Part of the route, however, our traveller, with two chance companions, preferred making by land, on foot ; arid from Orsova to Glatlova he was converee in the carriage of

Count SZECRENY, the patriotic planner of Hungarian steam navigation, and of many other useful enterprises. Owing to the extraordinary shallowness of the river, the Count and Mr. Quilt, within three miles of Gladova, discovered the long-disputed site of Trajan's bridge, or at least of a bridge in whose construction Roman bricks had been used ; and at this town they again embarked in a steamer. Stopping at Widdin, the Count dressed himself in the "uniform of a Hungarian magnate," and, accompanied by our author as his physician, paid a visit of ceremony to the well-known HuSSEIN PACHA. Like most ceremonious affairs, the visit was dull enough in reality ; but is well told by Mr.QuIN, who indicates cleverly the long gestation of an idea in a Turkish noddle; and its very commonplace character on its appearance. Shortly after leaving the twice-defeated antagonist of the Egyptian IBRAHIM, our traveller was also obliged to leave the Count and his companions; the steamer getting aground, we conjecture for the season. Accordingly, hailing a boat that soon overtook them, he proceeded in it, with a couple of Turkish passengers, to Rustchuk. From that town he crossed the Balkan to Constantinople; passing through Shurnla and Adrianople, and travelling in the good old expeditious mode by relays of horses with a Tartar protector,—a mode, by the by, which seems ill adapted for observation, but which produces, from some cause orother, the most spirited, graphic, and of course rapid narratives. Here ends the first volume: and taking advantage of the pause at Constantinople, we may say, that thus far Mr. Quirt is a most agreeable companion. He describes the scenery of the Danube and of Turkey, the manners and characters of his fellow travellers, and the peculiarities of the people he passed through, with force and effect,—though sometimes very fine when painting the beauties of nature; and though he occasi.,nally rather enumerates the parts of a thing than describes a whole, yet he always presents a clear idea of the original. Ile has also a dash of humour; given, indeed, to make the most of a nobleman or a captain, when one falls in his way, yet perfectly willing to be at home with any persons he meets,and ready to adapt himself to the difficulties and privations of his journey. It should be added, that he furnishes some new and cheering information on the political state and pri spects of Hungary ; which is novel, distinct, and interesting, but too long to extract. Our quotations must be of a more detachable kind.

STEAMER, AND SOME OF ITS PASSENGERS.

The captain of our steamer was an Englishman, of the name of Cozier, who, living little conversant with any branch of nautical science, was about equally skilled in the topography of the Danube. Though Ile had gone up and down s‘weral times, he knew no more of the caprices of the sandbanks than he did of the bed of the Yellow Sea. fie had a bitter dislike to his office. Why he was permitted to undertake it, I never could understand. To me, I must say, he was communicative and extremely civil ; but my fellow voyagers he treated with a degree of superciliousness which was very amusing. It seemed to be his settled opinion, that nobody except an Englishman was worthy of breathing the same air with himself. To be sure, we had a motley crowd on board, such perhaps as never met together on the deck of a steam-boat before. Behold us

as in a mirror. • •

Near the mast, a group of men, all Tyrolese, are engaged in the several offices of talking, listening, smoking, musing, whistling, singing, and gazing at the dense cloud that rushes into the firmament from our black chimney. They are all rather better dressed than my immediate neighbours: one of them, a fine;poking fellow, whom I take to be the captain of the gang, has his hat cocked in a dandyish Style, considerately out of the circular shape. His plume of feathers, too, is larger and of a finer quality than the others. This party would make a camas.' study for a band of brigands, could they but SWIM! It fiercer expression of counfenanee. As it is, they look too amiable for a Sa!vat°, Rosa. At the

top of the boat, several knots of women, still Tyrolese, are sitting in various directions, executing for each other, alternately, without the slightest consciousgess of the external effect of the operation, the agreeable task of disburdening 'their hair of its multitudinous inhabitants. No wonder that Captain Cosier twits enraged. Descending into the cabin, I found a party of Hungarian nobles, men of gen

• teel sppearaoce and manners, seated at a round table, playing cards. They had been thus engaged all the morning. The stakes were not inconsiderable, and seemed to be taken up occasionally by the winners with infinite delight. Near them, sanctioning their amusement by her bland looks and smiles, is an elderly holy, knitting on a bench, and occasionally conversing with an exceedingly elegant figure, somewhat petite ; whom, upon further acquaintance, I found to be the Gliontess N—, OD her way from Pesti' to Peterwardein. She had married, at the age of eighteen, a hot-headed nobleman of her own country, who .became attached to her suddenly on account of her beauty. He took her to Pesth, entered into all the amusementa of the place, gambling included, which is carried on in that capital to a formidable extent. The result was, that after a short experiment of two years, they were obliged to give up their establishment; and the young countess was now returning to her mother, attended by a 'French femme de chambre, the only remaining fragment of her transient splen'door, except her harp, which she saved also from the ruins. She was reading a book of common Hungarian ballads, which seemed to afford her amusement. Inn corner, two little girls were tittering away must merrily ; I could not make out at what. Within the ladies' cabin, I beard some of the laughing voices, which recalled the sense of my " murdeted sleep" of the morning. Upon the whole, I was pictured with the appearance of my companions, and flattered myself with the hope of a pleasant voyage ; in which I was not disappointed. In the course of the day. a variety of new characters emerged from the second cabin and other hiding-places ; the greater part of whom soon ceased to attract my, notice, as they were of that class that seems born for the mere purpose of transforming animal and vegetable substances into human flesh and blood fur the ordinary number of years. Among these specimens of creation, however, there was one little man Whom I shall not so speedily forget. He was from Moldavia. He had been in the Russian service during the late war with Turkey ; but in what capacity, I could never satisfactorily discover. I suspect he was a spy. He-spoke German, French, and Italian fluently He wore a blue frock. coat, which probably had served him during the said war, as it could boast of only a part of one button and two very unequal skirts reniaining in any thing like decent condition. The rest of the girment was covered with grease. A pair of old black stuff trousers, patched at the knees in a 'nest workmanlike manner; rent and not patched in other parts indescribable, and vilely tattered at the -extremities, together with the ghost of a black waistcoat, a cast off military cap, and wretched boots, offered an apology for a better suit, which he said lie had at home. His shirt was also in the list of absentees. Ile had lost the half of one of his thumbs, the other was wrapped in a bandage. lie had not shaved for three weeks; he certainly could not have washed either his hands or his face for three months., and a comb had probably not passed thrinigh his hair for three

years. To crown his personal peculialities, he a very red nose, on the top of which was perched a pair of spectacles.

A PRETTY HIT 01' SKETCHING.

Still falling down with the stream, as our rower. had not yet finished their maths meal, we stole quietly along amid tremendous piles of rock, which rose higher and higher as we proceeded, sometimes barren of the slightest traces of vegetation, sometimes covered with brambles; the whole appearing as if they had-been made the sport of more than one volcanic convulsion. A grassy glen opening on our right, exhibiting a cluster of elms, beneath which a Servian boy was tending his swine, and amusing himself by playing a simple pastoral air on a reed, offered an agreeable contrast to the frowning horrors around us. The eye ranged beyond the glen over a richly-wooded valley, opening far among the rocks, where a group of women accrued engage.I in cooking by a fire, whose smoke curled upwards among the trees.

The pipe of the swineherd seemed to awaken the musical faculties of our boatmen, one of whom, a short thick-bodied Wallachian, wearing on his head a woolly sheepskin cap, might have been sketched as the very personification of indolence. His oar was as short as himself ; and when he did permit it to come in contact with the water, his whole object seemed to be to move it against the

least possible quantum of resistance. When he sated his appetite for garlic and -fish, and washed down those materials by a draught of sonic thin wine, which he drank from a small wooden keg, instead of resuming his appointed labour, he began to sing a Wallacbian ballad.

PASSAGE OF THE BALKAN.

The road through the mountains would certainly not have been deemed practicable for an English saddle-horse. It was simply marked over the natural rock by frequent use; no care whatever having been for one moment expended -upon it, even for the purpose of removing the loose stones, or breaking down the more prominent masses. Sometimes we rode over a track polished like ice by the winter torrents, on which, when ascending, we were obliged diligently to take a zigzag course; when descending, to allow the animal now and then to slide at his discretion. On other occasions, the near foot might he seen on a pointed rock, while the off leg was about to pounce into a hole, the hinder hoofs making the best of their way through boulder-stones, as if playing with them at marbles.

It seemed to me, at first, an improper hazard of life to attempt to ride over such a road as this ; where the horse and rider, everr going at the most stealthy pace, were every moment in peril of being dashed to the ground. But the animals—though in England the whole five would not be deemed worth as many pounds—were so well accustomed to the business which they had to perform, that, be the disposition of the track what it might, they never by any chance tnade a false step. Their intelligence, prudence, courage, and extreme watchfulness for their own safety, as well as for that of the lives intrusted to their • keeping, were wonderful. No human being could have executed their office with the uniform success which attended all their movements. So rapidly did they gain upon my confidence, that, on levels or even on declivities, I did not hesitate to follow my Tartar's example, when, with a view to recover the time lost in ascending, or to escape quickly from a pass through a dense part of the woods, whence banditti sometimes fire upon the traveller, he absolutely galloped over these smooth or broken masses, both equally dangerous, as if he -were flying for his life.

Nothing in nature can be more beautiful thant he variety, especially towards the close of the autumn, of the hues that distinguish the shrubs and trees which -compose the forests of Mount Hmmus. On one side, as if for the purpose of ornament, an eminence rising gradually from the torrent bed over which we rode, and extending towards the heavens, was clothed to its summit with the -most roagnificent shrubs, tinted with all shades of colour,—light gold, russet -brown, silver ash, pale green, scarlet red, orange, anti the incomparable blue of the iris. Amidst these shrubs, the convolvolus and other flowering creepers suspended their festoons of bells, rivalling the delicate white of the lily or the transparent pink of the wild rose.

On the other side, the thick forest-s sometimes below us, sometimes threatening to march down upon us from their tremendous heights, rank longgram ferns, and brornbles, branches interlacing with each other, old trees fallen in ski direc

tideall and scathed by the lightning, rendering them itnpenen:abk, mated in. deed pectrliarly fitted to be the haunts of robbers. The assatain has only se Ogee

himself behind the trunk of a tree, wait until the wayfarer appeals in tits deliberately take his aim, and he can hardly fail to bring down his victim. Pursuit is altogether out of the question. Retaliation would be equally impracticable, as the murderer could not be seen. The traveller who is beat armed, as in this case my Tartar was, is usually selected for the first experiment. The discharge is the signal to the whole band, who are stationed at their posts along the edge of the forest to he ready to fire at the remaining fugitives; and then, when all danger of a contest is over, the work of plunder commences.

My Tartar and postilion were in a perfect fever during the whole time we were riding through these passes. We galloped the whole way, whether up or down the declivities. Sometimes the toad was occupied by caravans, and we were obliged to mount narrow and broken pathways, which we found or made upon its edge. But even over these track., where there was scarcely mom for the horse's hoof, we flew with a speed which must have betrayed their terror. I do not affect to say that I was myself altogether free from alarm ; but I confess that I thought a great deal less of perils from banditti than from the rocks over which I was obliged to pursue my companions.

A TURKISH IDLER.

I amused myself in observing the still life of a tailor's shop opposite, which appeared to be the favourite lounge of all the idlers of the town. The master and three journeymen were seated in the Turkish fashion, which tailors have adopted in every age and clip-c. Three visiters mok their seats also on the board, smoking their long pipes, and looking on with profound gravity at the perpetual passing and repaasing of the needles and threads thiough the cloth, which was destined in due season to become a waistcoat or a pair of trousers. Not a word escaped any of the party. A voluptuous, well-dressed, fine-looking man, with a long gold.heatled cane balanced in one hand and his itnmense pipe in the other, next made his appearance. He could not go by the shop without "looking in." Kindling his pipe, he also took his station on the board, and while his charge of tobacco lasted, seemed the happiest of mortals. When the last puff expired, he quitted his seat, walked down the street, paid a visit to a tinman, smoked another pipe, came back, sat down again in the tailor's shop, where he found the whole party undisturbed, filled his pipe again, exhausted it, and then seemed fairly at a loss to know what he was next to do. He looked up the street, down the street, went out, came back, stood a few minutes at the door in a state of listlessness, within a degree of petrifaction, and, at length, resolutely disappeared.

The second volume is occupied with Mr. QuiN'S return ; which he chiefly accomplished by sea, sailing sometimes in packet-boats, sometimes in King's ships. From Constantinople he first passed to Smyrna, then to Gleece, and through the Archipelago to Venice, whence he journeyed to Rome. Here the narrative may be said to close. His sketches of men, manners, and scenery, are distinguished by the same ability as those in Hungary, Wallachia, and Turkey ; but the subjects want the gloss of novelty,—excepting, perhaps, Greece and King OTHO. A great part of the volume, too, is eked out willi extraneous matter,—diatribes against the grasping designs of Russia, and disquisitions about her policy, written in the style of a correspondent to a morning newspaper, with here and there a useful fact or suggestion upon our diplomatic establishments. There are also some schoolboy reminiscences of "Trojan Greeks," and other classical matters, which could as well have been written at home, though there was no visible necessity for writing them at all.