STKASBUKG.

149

more refined or amusing than the above — the style of enter-tainment being about as elegant as those cheap and not particu-larly toothsorne meals furnished at our ä-la-rnode-beei houses.

Dinner-parties, such as are usual in England, are never in-dulged in; for an entertainment like our Lord Mayor's banquetwould reduce the Prussian government itself to bankruptey.

Private balls are almost unknown — a few only beinggiven between Christmas and Lent.

The " Commandirinde-General," however (being alloweda small sum for official entertainments), has a few " reeep-tions" in the course of the year. The style of such partiesmay be judged from the fact, tbat on one occasion, when thecake was brought into the room, the servant accidentally let itslip from the plate : whereupon the pieces were duly collectedfrom the uncarpeted floor, and the dirty fragments handedround to the Company.

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(6.)

STRASBURG.

The Alsatian capital is a kind of hybrid town — a sort ofcivic cross between German and French, with a slight sprinklingof Dutch canals flowing through its veins of streets.

Though belonging to the French, Strasburg is no morelike France than the Channel Islands are like England; and,though part of Rheinland, it is as different in character fromthe other Rhenish towns as the Protestant cantons of Switzer-land are dissimilar from the Catholic ones.