eing in a
revolutionary country, has been condemned: they may just as well ask to
go to Siberia, for that would probably be their route; and lastly, there
is one more cause which, these two last seasons, has had a powerful
effect, neither more nor less than a certain book, called the "_Bubbles
of the Brunnen_." I say for the last two seasons, for its influence
will not extend to a third, as hundreds and hundreds who have gone to
the Baths with the intention of passing this season, have already
returned in disgust. A word upon this.

When Sir George Head published his "Bubbles," he set people almost as
mad as they were during the great "Bubble Mania;" and like all the
mining and other associations, they have proved but bubbles at last. It
is said that one hundred and thirty-five thousand passports were taken
out last year to go up the Rhine, by people who wished to see the pigs
go through their daily manoeuvres, to an unearthly solo on the horn, and
to witness the decapitation of the Seltzer-water bottles, which were
condemned as traitors. Now, so large an influx of people to these
German watering-places could have but one effect; that of a glorious
harvest to the innkeepers, and those who had lodgings to let. The
prices, at these places, have now become so enormous, that three florins
have been asked for a single bed, and everything else has risen in the
same proportion. The reaction has now begun to take place, and every
day and every hour we have carriages returning through Liege, and other
towns, from these watering-places, the occupants holding up their hands,
quite forgetting the pigs and bottles, and only exclaiming against
extortion, and everything German. They have paid too dear for their
whistle, as Franklin used to say; the bubble has burst, and they look
with regret at their empty purses. And yet, all that Head said in his
amusing book was true. He rambled through a verdant and unfrequented
lane, and described what he felt as he stopped to pick blackberries. An
immense multitude have followed him, the green lane has been beaten down
into a high road, and, as for blackberries, they are only to be procured
at the price of peaches in May.

And now let us reflect whether the bubble will not also burst with the
Germans. Formerly they were contented with moderate profits, and
received their visitors with humility and thankfulness. Now, that they
have suddenly made large profits, they have become indepe