merit of the Bloomer
controversy than the Lady Patronesses of Almack's.

THE RHINE.

After spending the night at Mannheim, I took a steamboat at 5 1/2 this
morning for this place, 165 miles down the Rhine, embracing all the
navigable part of the river of which the scenery is esteemed attractive.
As far down as Mayence or Mentz (55 miles), the low banks and broad
intervale continue, and there is little worthy of notice. From Mentz to
Coblentz (54 miles), there is some magnificent scenery, though I think
its natural beauties do not surpass those of the Hudson from New-York to
Newburgh. Certainly there are no five miles equal in rugged grandeur to
those beginning just below and ending above West Point. But the Rhine is
here somewhat larger than the Hudson; the hills on either side, though
seldom absolutely precipitous, are from one to five hundred feet high,
and are often crowned with the ruins of ancient castles, which have a
very picturesque appearance; while the little villages at their foot and
the cultivation (mainly of the Vine) which is laboriously prosecuted up
their rocky and almost naked sides, contribute to heighten the general
effect. These sterile rocks impart a warmth to the soil and a sweetness
to the grape which are otherwise found only under a more southerly sun,
and, combined with the cheapness of labor, appear to justify the
toilsome process of terracing up the steep hill-sides, and even carrying
up earth in baskets to little southward-looking nooks and crevices where
it may be retained and planted on. Yet I liked better than the vine-clad
heights those less abrupt declivities where a more varied culture is
attempted, and where the Vine is intermingled with strips of now
ripened Rye, ripening Wheat, blossoming Potatoes, &c., &c., together
imparting a variegated richness and beauty to the landscape which are
rarely equaled. But the Rhine has been nearly written out, and I will
pass it lightly over. Its towers are not very imposing in appearance,
though Coblentz makes a fair show. Opposite is Ehrenbreitstein, no
longer the ruin described (if I rightly remember) in Childe Harold, but
a magnificent fortress, apparently in the best condition, and said to
have cost Five Millions of dollars. The "blue Moselle" enters the Rhine
from the west just below Coblentz. This city (Cologne) is the largest, I
believe, in Rhenish Prussia, and, next to Rotterdam at its mouth, the
largest on the Rhine, having a flourishin