sent stipulation respecting the fortune of the required bride, shows that these are any thing but affairs of the A middle-aged lady with plenty of money, generally satisfies the sentiment of the advertiser.

Where real feeling is concerned, we English keep it as secret as possible. We do not, like German juveniles, advertise our broken hearts, but when they are fractured gather up the pieces as speedily as possible, and have them mended in secrecy and silence. Finding sufficient expression for the aspirations of our inmost souls in the tremulous whisperings of private intercourse, or in pen-and-ink outpourings through the penny post, we have not yet acquired the habit of shedding our passionate protestations and fervent appeals over the columns of the public journals. Expensive as we are said to be in all our habits and gratifications, we have not yet contracted the costly habit of publishing to the world the raptures and torments of our loves and our griefs, at from sixpence to one shilling per line-Government duty included. It is true that “O. H!" sometimes promises in the third column of the leading journal to meet Mary Anne "at the old place" at seven; yet he waits till that delightful hour to tell her all he hopes, and feels, and fears. The German is, it would appear, too passionately impatient for this; he makes his declaration at once, not to Fraulin Bertha alone, but to the whole world. He does not merely whisper his tale of love into her single ear: but places it in the Cologne or Prussian Gazette, before the eyes of Europe. He can never place his hand on his heart, and sing

"I have a silent sorrow here,

A grief I'll ne'er impart;

It breathes no sigh, it sheds no tear,

But it consumes my heart."

The German swain's sorrow, so far from remaining silent, obtrudes itself into the bosom of every family which takes in the newspaper, by whose columns it is conveyed, hot from the press, to his adored Bertha ; and his heart is consumed-like an ox on a rejoicing day—in the most public manner possible.

Young ladies reciprocate. Here is a specimen from a damsel in Cologne to her lover in Berlin. She conveys her secret sentiments in the largest German text of the Cologne Gazette, thus:

Hôtel de la Couronne.

PARDON, Pardon, it was not my fault. Thou desirest a letter, but

how and where? Here I cannot remain-why, thou must understand. The last was read and burnt. When shall it be? Not before Whitsuntide. It is possible thou mightest obtain permission after harvest if thou improvest and Grandpapa contin-but-yet. If I should not write, fear not that I shall always love thee.—Thine, JULIA.

Absent lovers congratulate each other on their respective birthdays in the same fashion. The common-place method of writing their congratulations in a private letter is not dramatic enough for a super-sentimental German damsel. Like the school-girl, who was so vain of having been intrusted with a secret, that she told it to everybody; she is so proud of her forbidden attachment, that she proclaims it to the whole continent. The feminine terminal "e" of a pronoun, which occurs in a recent advertisement in the Cologne Gazette, shows it emanates from a lady. Translated, it runs thus:

A

-THREE-TIMES-THUNDERING Love-greeting (Lebehoch) to Henry R. . . . at Neu-markt.

"Yes, in thee I have firm Confidence."

The love, affection, and friendship of the Germans, as

expressed on each other's saints' days and holidays, form a very considerable source of revenue to the proprietors of German newspapers. They seldom publish a number without some half-dozen of these greetings. A few of them are a little puzzling to English readers. One would think, for instance, that between brother and sister there would be a sufficiently tacit understanding that, in absence, the one would live in the other's thoughts when a birthday came round. But a public congratulation is preferred. Here is one:

To my dear sister Minna at Breslau, a hearty Lebekoch on this her

birthday, from her brother at Cologne.

A whole circle of friends occasionally club a "Lebehoch" for the local thus:paper,

of Oberpleis, a Lebehoch on this her name

From several friends in Cologne.

A great proportion of these complimentary addresses are in verse. We would give specimens of this advertising anthology—if we could; but most of them are so execrably unintelligible, that the task of translation is simply impossible.

It is only in the Austrian papers that matrimonial advertisements abound. Ladies as well as gentlemen, with large hearts and small purses, seek suitable partners for life in pithy purpose-like advertisements in which no words are wasted the Vienna Gazette of the 11th instant, displays the following:

A TWENTY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD Nobleman, with a fortune of

100,000 florins, wishes to marry a young lady, either a widow or a maiden. Address W. D. S., Poste Restante, Vienna,

Remember, ladies, that one hundred thousand florins is

only ten thousand pounds sterling, and the "twenty-eightyear-old nobleman" is most probably-an Austrian.

A humbler aspirant advertises upon a point of taste. Beauty is evidently his object:

MARRIAGE INVITATION!

A SINGLE YOUNG MAN, of agreeable exterior, and not without

education, who derives from permanent sources a yearly income of 1600 florins, which will shortly be increased, desires to marry a particularly pretty young lady. The latter must be well-educated, and fitted by household habits, good nature, sound understanding, and cheerful temper, to contribute to the happiness of a husband. Any lady who feels conscious that she could fulfil these great conditions, is requested to address X. Y. Z., Poste Restante.

Another is a wily specimen of wife-angling It is craftily addressed to "parents and guardians."

A YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS, whose income can be proved to

average from 1500 to 1800 florins per annum, desires an introduction to some respectable family where he would have an opportunity of meeting with a young maiden with property, with a view, on the reciprocal satisfaction of all parties, to enter into a more tender engagement. Parents or guardians who are disposed to entertain this proposition, may address, M. N. Poste Restante, Vienna.

The next "Marriage invitation" that we light upon, is from a votary of Apollo as well as of Hymen:

A YOUNG MAN, FAVORED BY NATURE, and musical in his

tastes and profession, seeks to marry a gentle maiden or widow who has cultivated the same art. As in the service of Apollo he has been blessed with every endowment except riches, it were very desira ble that the lady possessed a certain fortune. Address, by permission, T. Z., Poste Restante.

On the 1st ultimo, A STRONG MAN advertised in the Vienna Gazette for a wife. He gave a minute description of his person with all the naïveté of a German.

Ladies were requested to take notice that he had a fair beard, but dark eyes; that he was above the common height, and stout in proportion; had an agreeable voice for singing, and was altogether of a character gay and debonnaire ; in fact, just the sort of person to make home delightful. He was of noble birth. Candidates were to address their letters, Poste Restante, when a personal inter view might be obtained. No one who had not an independence need apply:-for it appears that in Vienna 66 strong men are at a premium. In the next number of the same paper, a modest "jeune Monsieur" expresses a wish for "une jeune dame" as a travelling companion to Italy.

Except the last, readers of certain English newspapers are not unfamiliar with such advertisements as the above. Sundry bachelors, anxious to improve their prospects in life, have long communicated their desires in the public prints. English ladies in the same condition have, however, refrained. The Viennese "fair and forty" have no scruples about the matter; they proclaim their wishes sometimes with a little reserve, but more frequently without any reserve whatever. From among the covert advertisements for husbands we select two. The first is from one of the numerous inhabitants of as large a dwelling-house as is to be found in Vienna, and startles the eye with the big letters:

A WOMAN WISHES! to take the entire charge of a single gentle

man, and to do for him altogether. Apply to the Haupstrasse, No. 762, 1st chamber of the 4th storey, door No. 17.

This minutely-detailed address reminds us of Charles Lamb's Brighton Lady, who, a victim to a tender disappointment, told every body she had retired from the world in broken-hearted solitude, and that she lived at number ninety-nine Marine Parade.