eminently industrious, indeed hard-working; and their habits being simple and their wants few, they appear to be not ill off, according to their own standard. Indeed, we were told that there is a good deal of wealth among some of them; they are often what the Scotch call bien bodies. Their manner of life is very primitive. Their regular dwellings are always in small towns, the chief of which are Tenda and Briga, each about two miles distant from St Dalmas; though they have lodges or sheds upon their fields among the mountains, where they occasionally remain. From their homes they go forth in the morning as soon as it is day—father, mother, children, mules, and donkeys, often including the cow, which supplies the family with milk. They remain at their work all day upon these mountain farms, (for the whole country is mountainous,) living upon bread, milk, sometimes a little olive-oil, or an onion; till the evening, when you see them returning home again, often a distance of several miles, much like a gipsy-camp, the cow leading the way, the mules or donkeys following laden with wood, hay, corn, or other produce, and the sunburned and toil-worn human beings bringing up the rear, the mother carrying her baby, strapped in a cradle, upon her head, yet knitting with indomitable industry. A mode of life so primitive and simple strikes the imagination of a stranger.

The common dress of the men on holidays consists of a black hat with broad brim and red bow, blue waistcoat and knee-breeches, white stockings and shirt:. a jacket is added in cold weather, but in summer it is commonly carried over the shoulder, or left at home.

The women wear a brown-coloured boddice, with a blue petticoat, and a kerchief over the head. On the whole, the costume of the women is neither beautiful nor picturesque, though it is convenient; and the large size of the feet, or at least of the shoes, both of men and women, gives them (perhaps to our sophisticated perceptions) an ungainly air. Every woman, they say in Italy, has at least three attractions--fine hair, fine eyes, and fine teeth. The last, however, disappear at an early age. The natives of this country, especially the women, are martyrs to toothache; and it is rare to see a woman of five-and-twenty who does not want half her teeth.

The priests do not use the costume of their French brethren they wear a black surtout reaching down to the knees, with black breeches and stockings, and a very large-brimmed hat, cocked on one side, which for ugliness cannot be surpassed. It is curious that almost all the priests we have seen in this country are tall, stately men, far above the average of the peasantry. Early toil stunts the growth of the latter. The priests go continually about among their flocks, and evidently live on very intimate terms with them. An English lady, long resident in this country, informed us that the people, those of them especially who are in more easy circumstances, have the same ambition to have one member of the family raised to the dignity of the priesthood, which the Scotch peasantry have long shown "to see their bairn wag his pow in a pu'pit."

We were anxious to form some estimate, approaching to correctness, of the intellectual, moral, and religious

condition of this primitive, and, as they proved to us, interesting people; but the unknown tongue presented a formidable difficulty. In some respects, indeed, their character needed no words to interpret or expound it: their quiet, and orderly, and decent habits, their sobriety and honesty, spoke to the eye, and needed no explanation or demonstration. In the pension, where was a multitude of servants, no one locked up anything-jewels, money, all were left open; and no one was aware that he lost anything. In the district, people did not lock their doors, and a great proportion of the houses had no locks. There are some people who occasionally take too much wine; but drunkenness, in the sense in which we use the word, may be said to be unknown,-the climate and the nature of their potations render this almost impossible. The bulk of the adult peasantry are not educated—that is, they cannot write or read; but the Sardinian Government, under the direction of Count Cavour, was exerting itself to promote education. For this purpose, free instruction was provided for those who could not afford to pay for it, and Government inspectors traversed the country to see that the teachers did their duty. In this and many other respects the new political arrangements will prove a great loss to this country; for no government so much influenced by priests as the French is, can ever heartily promote popular education. It was interesting to observe in the churches that an elderly peasant never had a book, whereas all the children, and many of the younger men and women, had books and could read.

The people are very religious: they attend mass very

C

regularly, and all the men confess twice a year. We went early in the morning, on the Feast of St Peter, to the little town of Briga. It was a high festival. We found the whole population arrayed in holiday attire, engaged in their religious ceremonies, before eight o'clock in the morning. A crowd was hearing mass in the large parish church, and in the adjoining church or chapel a numerous congregation was singing with great zeal and earnestness, and tolerable execution, some good music of great length, a capital organ, very well played, occasionally bearing a part, the solo parts being sung by peasants who stood up voluntarily in the body of the church. What appeared curious was, that no priest was present during this long performance. In the parish church of Briga are some good old paintings, not well kept, and in need of cleaning. Upon the whole, the inhabitants seemed zealous in performing the offices of their religion. From all we could learn, the Piedmontese in general are sincere, but not bigoted, Romanists. The upper classes appeared to us much less inclined to Protestantism than opposed to Catholicism: they are to a man dissatisfied with the temporal power of the Pope, with the confessional, and the numbers of the monks and clergy. All we conversed with expressed the desire that the Church of Rome might be reformed, but none of them thought there was any probability of the Italians embracing the Protestant tenets. Some of the more ardent patriots hoped that the Court of Rome might prove impracticable, and so drive the Italians into absolute rebellion against the Church; but these aspirations seemed to be merely political.

A few days after the Festa di S. Pietro, a party of us

went to Briga, when we were told we should see the whole population of the Mandamento, as well as of the town, assembled. It was one of the numerous fêtes connected with the B. V. M., (if I remember rightly.) The Sardinian Government had abolished the great mass of the fête-days, which proved a serious inconvenience to industrial pursuits, leaving, however, a small number as days of recreation, of which this was one. There are now four days in the year, besides Sundays, on which the newspapers are not published,—a significant indication that in Sardinia the king had supplanted the priest. We found, as we approached the town, the whole population turned out, all in their gala dresses; and in their relaxation, as well as in their toil, they appeared a comfortable, happy, and well-conditioned population. The juniors were eagerly occupied in dancing, which was of the most primitive description, and kept up with incredible perseverance, considering the heat; the music being as rustic as the dancing. It was the etiquette for each lad to promenade along the road with the partner he had just danced with. This is evidently the recognised opportunity of love-making, more safe and decorous than that secret courting over night which has so long and disastrously prevailed in some other countries. The older people looked on apparently with interest and pleasure, and one of the priests passed through the crowd of merrymakers, and seemed as pleased as they were. This appeared to us a scene of very innocent mirth, without any mixture whatever of profaneness, indecency, or drunkenness. The younger members of our party went afterwards with the family of an Italian count, who re