forms.  Yet they complain here of stagnation of commerce in almost every one of its branches:  although they admit that the continuance of peace will bring things comfortably round again.  The late war exhausted both the population and the treasury of Bavaria.  They do a good stroke of business in the concerns of the bank:  and this is considered rather a famous place for the management of letters and bills of exchange.  With respect to the latter, some singular customs and privileges are, I understand, observed here:  among others, if a bill become due on a Wednesday, eight days of grace are invariably allowed.

It was the thoughts of the PUBLIC LIBRARY alone that afforded the chief comfort to the depressed state of my spirits, from the excessive heat of the day.  What I might do, and at last, what I had done, within the precincts of that same library, was sure to be my greatest solace during the evening rambles near the ramparts.  The good fortune which attended me at Stuttgart, has followed to this place.  Within two yards’ length of me repose, at this present instant, the first Horace, and the finest copy imaginable of the Polish Protestant Bible of Prince Radzivil—­together with a Latin Bible of 1475, by Frisner and Sensenschmidt, in two enormous folio volumes, of an execution of almost unparalleled magnificence.  These are no common stimulants to provoke appetite.  It remains to see whether the banquet itself be composed of proportionably palatable ingredients.

On leaving Stuttgart, M. Le Bret told me that Messrs. BEYSCHLAG and MAY were the principal librarians or curators of the Public Library of this place; and that I should find them intelligent and pleasant gentlemen.  Professor Veesenmeyer at Ulm confirmed this statement.  I had a letter from the latter, to the Rector Beyschlag, which procured me an immediate entrance into the library.  The Rector’s coadjutor, Professor May, was also most prompt to shew me every rarity.  In the countenance of the latter, I saw, what you could not fail to call that of a handsome-looking English gentleman.  I had never before so vehemently desired to speak the German language, or for my new acquaintance to speak my own.  However, the French tongue was the happy medium of imparting my ideas and propositions to both the gentlemen in question; and we had hardly exchanged half a dozen sentences, when I opened what I considered (and what eventually turned out to be) a well directed fire upon the ancient volumes by which I was at the time surrounded.

The exterior of this library has a monastic form.  The building is low and unpretending, having an octangular tower, up the staircase of which you mount to the library.  It is situated within a stone’s throw of the High Street.  The interior of the library is not less unpretending than its exterior:  but in a closet, at the hither end, (to the left on entering) are preserved the more ancient, choice,