it may not be too much to expect that a public spirited sovereign will, ere long, reject both the livery and the language of a hostile nation, and not yield in patriotism to an usurper*, who never appeared in any foreign dress, or listened to any foreign language. Princes can by example, every where, and in their own courts, as well as in all public meetings, by command, establish whatever dress they may please to adopt, and it is not a little extraordinary, that they have so seldom exerted this controul which they have over fashion, in favour of taste, of grace, or of convenience. Yet a sovereign of Britain need not go beyond the bounds of his own empire for a national dress, both graceful and manly, that displays at once the symmetry of the form, and furnishes drapery enough to veil it with majesty. The reader will perhaps smile when I mention the Highland dress, not as disfigured in the army, but as worn once, it is said, by Highland chiefs, and perhaps occasionally even now, by some remote lairds. This raiment borders nearer upon the Roman, and like it, is better calculated both for action and for dignity, than any modern dress I have ever beheld. A few improvements might make it perfect, and qualify it admirably for all the purposes of a national habit, that would very soon, by its intrinsic merit and beauty, supersede the monkey attire of France, not in the British empire only, but even on the Continent, still partial to the taste and to the fashions of England.

* Cromwell, whose foreign correspondence was always carried on in Latin, and whose dress was that of the cavaliers of the time.

CHAP. XVIII.

SUSA (SEGUSIUM)—-NOVALESE--PASSAGE OF MOUNT CENNIS-

CONVENT ON ITS SUMMIT—OBSERVATIONS ON THE PASSAGE OF HANNIBAL THE ADVANTAGE OF HAVING VISITED ITALY IN ITS PRESENT STATE-CONSEQUENCES OF THE FRENCH INVASION-CONCLUSION.

ON Wednesday, the 6th of October, we took a final leave of the last great city of Italy, and at eight in the morning set out for Susa. The road for several miles consists of a noble avenue, and runs in a direct line to Rivoli, remarkable only for a royal villa. Here we entered the defile of Susa through a narrow pass, formed by rocky hills branching out from the Alps, and approaching so near as merely to leave room enough for the road between them. From this spot Alpine scenery again commences; the sides of the mountains are successively craggy and naked, or green and wooded; the valley sometimes expands into a plain, and sometimes contracts itself almost into a dell; the Dura, which waters it, sometimes glides along as a rill, and sometimes rolls an impetuous torrent. Woods and fields are interspersed amidst heaths and precipices; and a

perpetual mixture of the wild and the cultivated varies the whole tract, and gives it a romantic and delightful appearance. Susa is seated amid rocky eminences on the banks of the Dura here a mountain stream, on the very confines of the more savage regions of the Alps, where the steeps become precipices, and the mountains rise into glacieres. The town is in extent and appearance below mediocrity; but holds forth its antiquity and a triumphal Arch as claims to the attention and respect of the traveller. Its original name was Segusium, under which appellation it was considered as the capital of the Cottian Alps, and of the bordering territory, and was the seat of Cottius the petty sovereign of this mountainous region. Cotys (for such was his real appellation) resigned his kingdom to Augustus, and wisely preferred the safer and more permanent honours of a Roman prefect to the insecure tenure of an Alpine crown.

The triumphal arch, which still remains, was erected by this prince to his benefactor, and is a monument rather of his gratitude than of his means or magnificence. He rendered a more solid service to the Romans by opening a road through his mountains, and establishing a safe communication between Italy and Gaul. This road still exists, and traverses Mont Genevra. The situation of the town and its strong citadel formerly rendered it a place of considerable importance; but it is now totally disregarded, as the citadel is dismantled, and as the French territory includes all the other passages of the Alps, and all the fastnesses that command them*.

Though the inn did not appear very alluring, yet as the night approached

We arrived at Novalese about ten o'clock, and as the moon shone in full brightness we could easily distinguish the broken masses of Mount Cenpis hanging over the town, with their craggy points and snowy pinnacles. Early in the morning, the carriages were dismounted; the body of each was suspended between two mules, one before and one behind; the wheels were placed on a third, and the axletree on a fourth; the trunks and baggage of all kinds were divided into several loads, and each bound up in a very close and compact manner, and laid on mules, and the whole set out about six o'clock.

At half past seven we mounted our mules, and followed: The morning was fine, and the air cool, but not chilling. The ascent commences from the town-gate, at first very gradual; the steepness however increases rapidly as you ascend. The road at first winds along the side of the hill, then crosses a torrent, and continues along its banks all the way up the mountain. These banks are for some time fringed with trees and bushes. About half-way stands the village of Ferrieres, amid rocks and precipices, in a situation so bleak and wintry, that the traveller almost shivers at its appearance. A little above this village, the acclivity becomes very abrupt; the bed of

and we were unwilling to pass Alpine scenery in the dark, we were inclined to put up with it. However, considering the time necessary to cross the mountain, and listening to the representations of our drivers, who entreated us to proceed, we drove on. We had reason to thank Providence for the determination, as that very night the inn at Susa, with forty horses and all the carriages in the court, was burnt!

the torrent turns into a succession of precipices, and the stream tumbles from cliff to cliff in sheets of foam with tremendous uproar. The road sometimes borders upon the verge of the steep, but it is so wide as to remove all apprehension of danger. In one place only the space is narrower than usual, and there, a gallery or covered way is formed close to the rock, which rises perpendicular above it, in order to afford the traveller in winter shelter against the driving snows and the wind, that sweep all before them down the steep.

We shortly after entered a plain called San Nicolo. It is intersected by the Cenisolle, for that is the name of the torrent that rolls down the sides of Mount Cenis, or as the Italians call it more classically, Monte Cinisio. At the entrance of this plain the torrent tumbles from the rocks in a lofty cascade, and on its banks stands a stone pillar with an inscription, informing" the traveller, who ascends, that he stands on the verge of Piedmont and Italy, and is about to enter Savoy! Though this pillar marks rather the arbitrary than the natural boundaries of Italy, yet it was impossible not to feel some regret at the information, not to pause, look back, and reflect on the matchless beauties of the country we were about to leave for ever.

We continued our ascent, and very soon reached the great plain, and as we stood on the brow of the declivity we turned from the bleak snowy pinnacles that rose before us, and endeavoured to catch a parting glimpse of the sunny scenery behind.

Here, amid the horrors of the Alps, and all the rigours of