* This seems to have been a letter of elaborate description. It never reached its destination, having been destroyed by the person to whom it was given to put into the post, for the sake of appropriating the postage money!

* The following account of Fellenberg’s Institution at Hofwyl near Berne, may interest the reader:—“Immediately after breakfast we drove to the noted spot. Fellenberg was not within when I delivered Sir T. Acland’s letter and the book with which he had entrusted me; a messenger was despatched to seek him, and a young man meanwhile carried us over the institution, and to a warehouse full of agricultural machines and instruments made upon new principles, many of them so exceedingly complicated that it seemed as if the object had been how to attain the end desired by the most complex means; to the smiths, the blacksmiths, &c. &c.; we also visited the dairy, which was really a fine one, being so contrived that in hot weather half the floor is covered with cold water, and in time of severe frost with hot; the granaries, &c., and the place of gymnastics, where the boys are taught to climb ropes, and walk upon round poles. About an hour had been passed in this manner when F. returned. His countenance is highly intelligent; his light eyes uncommonly clear and keen; his manners those of a man of the world, not of an enthusiast. He entered into a long detail, rather of his own history than of his system. He had been the only member of the Council, he said, who, at the first invasion, proposed vigorous resistance, so as to make all Switzerland a la Vendée: they talked of shooting him, &c. Afterwards, some of the Swiss directory who knew him, and whom he knew to be desirous of doing the best they could for their country under such calamitous circumstances, induced him, as he was at Paris on private business, to remain there as secretary to the embassy, and serve Switzerland as well as he could against her own ambassador and the French government. This, I think, was intended as an apology for his political life. His object, he said, was, in the first place, to fulfil his duty as father of a family, and as a citizen. He wished to restore the moral character of Switzerland; to raise her again to her former respectable state; and to make her the means of rendering services to Europe which other powers might receive from her without jealousy. This part of his plan turned out to be a wild scheme of instituting a seminary for those who were destined by birth to hold offices; princes, peers, and statesmen: they were to be educated so as to know and love each other: the purest Christianity was to be practically taught; and his institution was then to co-operate with the

Christian Alliance, which was the favourite scheme of the Emperor Alexander and the Emperor of Austria. This part of his institution, though very high prices were paid by the individuals, did not support itself, the expense of masters being so great. The agronomic part afforded funds, from the farm (which appeared in beautiful order) and the manufacture of agricultural implements upon his improvements, the demand for them being great. All that we had seen were about to be sent off to those who had bespoken them. About 200 workmen are employed; a third part assisted in the education of poor destitute children,—there were only about thirty; these amply supported themselves by the employments in which they were trained. The aristocracy of Berne discouraged him; treated him as a visionary, and even forbade the circulation of those books which expounded his views; I should not be able to get them anywhere in Switzerland, only at Geneva: so he gave me the collection. As for the seminary for statesmen, I cannot but suspect there is more of humbug than of enthusiasm in it. F. neither looks nor talks like a man who can suppose himself destined to found a school like the philosophers of old. If he has any enthusiasm it is respecting agriculture, which he spoke of as the means of developing moral virtues. And he was proud of his inventions, and evidently hurt that the Board of Agriculture had not acknowledged the receipt of some which he had presented to them, and not published the result of experiments made with them. He had also made experiments of great importance upon the nature of different soils, as to their property of retaining heat and moisture. Of Dr. Bell he was disposed to speak slightingly, saying he was an enthusiast and an excellent schoolmaster, but unfit for a director*. Upon this point I told him of Madras; he thought that the Doctor pushed the principle of emulation too far, and used means for encouraging a spirit which is in itself but too prevalent. On this point he spoke in a manner which in some measure accorded with my own judgment.

“Kosciuzko’s name was in the book of visitors. He requested me at my leisure to give him some account of the best works which had been published in England during the French Revolution, that he might send for them for his library; for though he did not speak our language he understood it, and was desirous that our literature should be cultivated on the continent. He had about 250 acres in cultivation, and inspected his labourers from a tower with a telescope; because, as one of his people said, he cannot be in all places at the same time.”