and Bernouilli-the two last, mathematicians and natives of Basle. The University has been greatly injured by the recent and unjust seizure of part of its funds by the country division of the canton. Besides the Library mentioned above, there is a small and not very important Museum of Natural History, placed in a building near the Minster. The Rathhaus, in the Market-place, is a building of pleasing Burgundian Gothic architecture, founded 1508, and recently repaired without changing its character. The frescoes, however, said to be designed by Holbein, previously partly obliterated, are now removed. The frieze contains the emblazoned shields of the original Swiss cantons; the armorial bearing of canton Basle is said to be meant to represent the case of a cross-bow. At the foot of the stairs, is placed a statue of Munatius Plancus, the founder, according to tradition, of Bâle and of the Roman colony of Augst. The greater and lesser councils of the canton hold their sittings in the apartments above. The Arsenal contains a limited collection of ancient armour, of which the only curiosities are a suit of chain mail, once gilt, with plate mail beneath it, worn by Charles the Bold at the battle of Nancy; two Burgundian cannon, of iron bars bound round with hoops; and several suits of Burgundian and Armagnac armour. The terraced Garden of M. Vischer, an eminent banker, overlooking the Rhine, is a very pretty spot. The gateways, battlemented works, watch-towers, and ditch, which formed the ancient defences of the town, remain in a good state of preservation. The Paulusthor retains its advanced work or Barbican, similar to those which formerly existed at York, and, with its double portcullis and two flanking towers, is particularly picturesque. The machicolations are supported by strange but clever figures approaching to the grotesque. Basle is scarcely surpassed in cleanliness even by the towns of Holland: its streets are plentifully supplied with fountains; and it would indeed be a reproach to the inhabitants, if, with the rapid and abundant current of the Rhine to cleanse them from all filth, they were allowed to remain dirty. Down to the end of the last century (1795), the clocks of Basle went an hour in advance of those in other places of Europe-a singular custom, the origin of which is not precisely known. According to tradition, it arose from the circumstance of a conspiracy to deliver the town to an enemy at midnight having been defeated by the clock striking 1 instead of 12. Attached to the clock-tower on the bridge is a grotesque head, called Lallenkönig, which, by the movement of the pendulum, is constantly protruding its long tongue and rolling its goggle eyes-making faces, it is said, at Little Basle, on the opposite side of the river. The ancient sumptuary laws of Basle were singular and severe. On Sunday all must dress in black to go to church; females could not have their hair dressed by men; carriages were not permitted in the town after 10 at night, and it was forbidden to place a footman behind a carriage. The official censors, called Unzichterherrn, had the control of the number of dishes and wines to be allowed at a dinner party, and their authority was supreme on all that related to thecut and quality of clothes. At one time they waged desperate war against slashed doublets and hose. Since the Reformation, Basle has been regarded as the stronghold of Methodism in Switzerland. The pious turn of its citizens was remarkably exhibited in the mottoes and signs placed over their doors. These have now disappeared; but two very singular ones have been recorded Auf Gott ich meine Hoffnung bau, In God my hopes of grace I big, Wacht auf ihr Menschen und that Buss, Wake, and repent your sins with grief; Even now, should the traveller arrive at the gates of the town on Sunday during church-time, he will find them closed, and his carriage will be detained outside till the service is over. The spirit of trade, however, went hand in hand with that of religion-and Basle has been called a city of usurers; 5 per cent. was styled a "Christian usance " (einen Christlichen zins), and a proclamation of the magistrates (1682-84) denounced those who lent money at a discount of 4 or 3 1/2 per cent. as "selfish, avaricious, and dangerous persons; " those who lent their capital at a lower rate were liable to have it confiscated, because, forsooth, such persons, by their avarice, did irremediable injury to churches, hospitals, church property, etc., and are the ruin of poor widows and orphans." دو The dissensions which broke out soon after the Revolution of 1830 between the inhabitants of the town of Basle, and those of the country, led to a civil war between the parties, and a bloody contest near Liesthal occasioned, in 1832, the Swiss Diet to passan act for the formal separation of the canton into two parts, called Basle Ville and Basle Campagne. The latter consists of two-thirds of the territory of the whole canton, and has for its capital Liesthal. Each sends a deputy to the Diet; but the two divisions enjoy only half a vote each, and when the deputies of the two parts take opposite sides (which hitherto has been invariably the case), their vote does not count. This revolution has left the town of 'Bâle saddled with a debt of two millions of francs. About two miles out of the town, just within the French frontier, is the ruined fortress of Hüningen, erected by Louis XV. to overawe his Swiss neighbours, and dismantled in 1815. A good representation of the Dance of Death, in burnt clay, may be purchased of Maehly and Schablitz, who have a manufactory peculiar (it is believed) to the spot of " figures plastiques voieen terre cuite." The traveller, entering Switzerland by Basle, is particularly recommended to take the following route, by the Val Moutier, or Münster Thal, on his way either to Berne or Geneva. Posting ceases at Basle, and travellers should therefore engage voiturier's horses to carry them on their journey. Return-coachmen are generally to be found at all the inns, and there are persons in the town who keep horses and carriages for hire. Public Conveyances. A Diligence goes daily, in two days and three nights, to Paris. Postwaggons daily to Berne and Neufchâtel, by Moutiers and Bienne; to Chaux de Fonds and Geneva. Mond., Wed., Sat., to Olten, Soleure, and Lucerne. Bâle to Bienne, 16 1/2 Swiss stunden=54 Eng. miles. The valley of the Birs; commonly called the Val Moutiers (Münster Thal, in Germ.), through which this excellent road passes, is the most interesting and romantic in the wholerange of the Jura. It consists of a series of narrow and rocky defiles, alternating with open basins, covered with black forests above, and verdant meadows below, enlivened by villages, mills, and forges. A road was originally carried through the Val Moutiers Route 1.- Basle to Bienne - St. Jacob - Dornach. 7 by the Romans, to keep up the communication between Aventicum, the Helvetian capital, and Augst, their great fortified outpost on the Rhine. At St. Jacob, about a quarter of a mile beyond the gates of Båle, in the angle between two roads, a small Gothic cross has been erected, to commemorate the battle of St. Jacob, fought in 1444, when 1600 Swiss had the boldness to attack, and the courage to withstand for 10 hours, a French army tenfold more numerous, commanded by the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XI. Only 10 of the Swiss escaped alive, the rest were left dead on the field, along with thrice their own number of foes, whom they had slain. This almost incredible exploit first spread abroad through Europe the fame of Swiss valour; and Louis, the Dauphin, wisely seeing that it was better to gain them as friends than to oppose them as enemies, courted their alliance, and first enrolled them as a permanent bodyguard about his person-a practice continued by the French monarchs down to Charles X. The Swiss themselves refer to the battle of St. Jacobas the Thermopylæ of their history. The vineyards near the field produce a red wine, called Schweitzer Blut (Swiss blood). A few miles farther, near Reinach, on the opposite bank of the Birs, is another battle-field-that of Dornach-where the Swiss gained a victory over a much larger Austrian force in 1499, during the Suabian war. The bone-house, in which the remains of the slain were collected, still exists near the Capuchin Convent, and is filled with skulls gathered froin the field. In the church of the village Maupertuis is buried. A monument, set up to his memory by his friend Bernouilli, was destroyed by the curé of the village, who was in the habit of repairing his hearthstone when broken, with slabs taken from the churchyard. It has been replaced by a fresh monument set up at the expense of canton Soleure. Beyond Oesch, the road enters that part of the Canton Bern which anciently belonged to the Archbishop of Baste; the valley contracts, increasing in picturesque beauty as you advance. The castles of Angerstein and Zwingen are passed before reaching 41/4 Lauffen, - a walled village. 21/2 Soyhière, a village prettily situated, with a small country inn, tolerably good. A contracted pass, the rocks of which on the rt. are surmounted by a convent, leads into the open basin of Délémont (Delsberg); but it is unnecessary to pass through that little town (situated on the way to Portentruy), as our road turns to the l., and, continuing by the side of the Birs, enters a defile higher, grander, and more wild than any that have preceded it. This is, properly speaking, the commencement of the Val Moutiers. Rocky precipices. 1 overhang the road, and black forests of fir cover the mountains above. In the midst of it are the iron furnaces and forges of 1 1/4 Courrendelin, supplied with ore in the shape of small granulated red masses, varying from the size of a pea to that of a cherry, from the neighbouring mines. The remarkable rent by which the Jura has been cleft from top to bottom, so as to allow a passage for the Birs, exhibits marks of some great convulsion of the earth, by which the strata of limestone (Jurakalk) have been thrown into a nearly vertical position, and appear like a succession of gigantic walls on each side of the road. The gorge terminates in another open basin, in the midst of which hes 1 3/4 Moutiers Grandval, or Münster-(Inn: Krone, good)-a village of 1250 inhabitants, named from a very ancient Minster of St. Germanus on the height, founded in the 7th century, and now fast falling to ruin. There is a car rand from Moutiers to the summit of the Weissenstein, a distance of about 10 miles, up-hill nearly the whole way, and the latter part very rough and bad; fit only for the cars of the country, one of which, drawn by two horses, may be hired here to go and return for 20 fr. It passes through the villages of Grandval (Grossau) and Ganzbrunnen; the ascent occupies 3 1/2 hours, and the jolting is very severe. The Weissenstein is described in Route 3. At the upper end of the basin of Moutiers the road is conducted through another defile, equally grand, at the bottom of which the Birs foams and rushes, overhung by perpendicuJar cliffs and funereal firs. To this succeeds the little plain of Tavannes, in which are situated the villages of Court, Malleray, and Dachsfelden, or 31/2 Tavannes (where the Couronne and the Croix are good inns, better than that at Moutiers). There are foot-paths over the mountains from Court and Bévilard to Reuchenette, by which some distance is saved on the way to Bienne, but the Pierre Pertuis is thus missed. The valley to the E. of Court, called Chaluat (Tschaywo), is inhabited by the descendants of the Anabaptists, expelled from Berne in 1708-11. They are distinguished by their industry and simple manners: the young men wear beards. A few miles above Tavannes is the source of the Birs; before reaching it our road quits the valley, mounting up a steep ascent, in the middle of which it passes under the singular and picturesque archway formed in the solid rock, called 1/4 Pierre Pertuis. It is probably a natural opening, enlarged by art. It existed in the time of the Romans, as is proved by a defaced inscription on the N. side.. |