



Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
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produced from images available by The Internet Archive)







 Every attempt has been made to replicate the original as printed.

 Some typographical errors have been corrected; a list follows the
 text. Archaic spellings (i. e. visiters, wo, scissars, apalling,
 recal, mattrass, etc.) have been retained.

 A few misspellings in French and German have not been corrected.

 The footnotes have been moved to the end of the text body.





                                 TOUR

                                  IN

                     ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND FRANCE,

                                  IN

                 THE YEARS 1826, 1827, 1828, AND 1829.

                            WITH REMARKS ON

     THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE INHABITANTS, AND ANECDOTES OF
                   DISTINGUISHED PUBLIC CHARACTERS.

                        IN A SERIES OF LETTERS.

                          BY A GERMAN PRINCE.

                             PHILADELPHIA:

               CAREY, LEA & BLANCHARD, CHESTNUT STREET.

                                 1833.




                         TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

                                TO THE

             FIRST AND SECOND VOLS. OF THE LONDON EDITION


The following work being the genuine expression of the thoughts and
feelings excited by this country in the mind of a foreigner whose
station, education, and intelligence seem to promise no common degree of
aptitude for the difficult task of appreciating England, it has been
thought worth while to give it to the English public. The Translator is
perfectly aware that the author has been led, or has fallen, into some
errors both of fact and inference. These he has not thought it expedient
to correct. Every candid traveller will pronounce such errors
inevitable; for from what class in any country is perfectly accurate and
impartial information to be obtained? And in a country so divided by
party and sectarian hostilities and prejudices as England, how must this
difficulty be increased! The book is therefore given unaltered; except
that some few omissions have been made of facts and anecdotes, either
familiar to us, though new to Germans, or trivial in themselves.

Opinions have been retained throughout, without the least attempt at
change or colouring. That on some important subjects they are not those
of the mass of Englishmen, will, it is presumed, astonish no reflecting
man. They bear strong marks of that _individuality_ which characterizes
modes of thinking in Germany, where men are no more accustomed to claim
the right of thinking for others, than to renounce that of thinking for
themselves. This characteristic of the German mind stands in strong
contrast to the sectarian division of opinion in England. The sentiments
of the author are therefore to be regarded simply as his own, and not as
a sample of those of any sect or class in Germany: still less are they
proposed for adoption or imitation here. The opinion he pronounces on
French and German philosophy is, for example by no means in accordance
with the popular sentiment of his country.

The Letters, as will be seen from the Preface, were published as the
work of a deceased person. They have excited great attention in
Germany; and rumour has ascribed them to Prince Pückler Muskau, a
subject of Prussia, who is known to have travelled in England and
Ireland about the period at which these Letters were written. He has
even been mentioned as the author in the Berlin newspapers. As, however,
he has not thought fit to accept the authorship, we have no right to fix
it upon him; though the public voice of Germany has perhaps sufficiently
established his claim to it. At all events, the Letters contain
allusions to his rank, which fully justify us in ascribing them to _a
German Prince_. They likewise furnish internal evidence of his being a
man not only accustomed to the society of his equals, but conversant
with the world under various aspects, and with literature and art: of
fertile imagination; of unfettered and intrepid understanding; and
accustomed to consider every subject in a large, tolerant, and original
manner.

The author of the '_Briefe eines Verstorbenen_,' be he who he may, has
had the honour and happiness of drawing forth a critique from the pen of
Göthe. None but those incapable of estimating the unapproachable
literary merits of that illustrious man, will be surprised that the
Translator should be desirous of giving the authority of so potential a
voice to the book which it has been his difficult task to render into
English.

The following extracts from Göthe's article in the _Berliner Jahrbuch_
will do more to recommend the work than all that could be added here:--

     "The writer appears a perfect and experienced man of the world,
     endowed with talents, and with a quick apprehension; formed by a
