her would not, or could not, sanction a deviation from the beaten
track,--we were fain to accept a vise for Bruenn, and to resume our
former places in the interior of the diligence. Again, therefore, were
we _en voyage_, at a rate more rapid than is at all agreeable to him
who wishes to make acquaintance with a strange people. But for this
there was no help; and we took the evil patiently, being comforted by
the reflection, that, of the Bohemians we had already seen a great deal
more than ever can be seen, except by such as adopt our unpretending
system of travel.

From Koeniggratz to Bruenn, you pass through a country for which nature
has done a great deal, and which the patient industry of its
industrious inhabitants has not failed to improve. It is, generally
speaking, a vast plain, with mountains in the distance; and, here and
there, a rise and fall on its surface, which produce an exceedingly
pleasing effect. There are many villages and small towns along the
road-side; and everywhere the fields were, when I saw them, in the
highest state of cultivation. Corn and meadow, with an occasional
vineyard, spread themselves out before us, and were relieved, from time
to time, by the introduction of a wood, disposed, as might almost seem,
with a view to heighten the extreme beauty of the landscape. Had I
abstained from holding converse with the inhabitants of that fair
province, I should have quitted it in the full assurance that they were
the most contented and happy people in the world. As it was, a regard
to truth compels me to acknowledge that I found them very much the
reverse.

It is not, I think, necessary for me to guard myself against the
imputation of cherishing any undue preference for the democratic
principle in the theory of government. Of all the tyrannies that exist,
the tyranny of the mob is the most oppressive; nay, the very excess of
freedom which gives to each individual the right of pestering all
around him with his impertinences, is surely much more hard to endure
than the occasional restraints which a strong police may impose. But an
absolute and irresponsible monarchy is not a pleasant government to
live under. Where men talk only in whispers; where they feel that their
words must be weighed ere they utter them; where their single idea of
the powers that be, is of an influence which oppresses, or keeps an eye
of unsleeping vigilance upon their movements; where they are not
permitted to form any judg