rougham's description of what he
called 'his discovery of Cannes' can have forgotten his enthusiasm when
recounting the myriad charms and attractions of that delicious coast?
They had already been recited by Dr. Arnold in a well-known passage from
one of his 'Lectures upon Modern History,' which expatiates upon the
horrors of the siege of Genoa, and contrasts grim-visaged war with the
divine natural beauty of the scene in the midst of which it was carried
on by Massena, who was himself a native of Nice. 'Winter,' observes Dr.
Arnold, 'had passed away, and spring returned, so early and so
beautiful, upon that garden-like coast, sheltered, as it is, from the
north winds by its belt of mountains, and open to the full rays of the
bountiful southern sun. Spring returned, and clothed the hill-sides
within the lines with its fresh verdure. But that verdure was no longer
the mere delight of the careless eye of luxury, refreshing the citizens
with its liveliness and softness when they repaired thither from the
city to enjoy the surpassing beauty of the prospect. The green slopes
were now visited for a very different object. Ladies of the highest rank
might be seen cutting up every plant which it was possible to turn to
food, and bearing home the commonest weeds of the roadside as a precious
treasure.' During that memorable blockade, maintained by the Austrians
on land and by the British fleet under Lord Keith at sea, Massena and
the French troops held on grimly to the besieged city of Genoa, until
twenty thousand of its innocent inhabitants had perished by that most
awful and lingering of deaths, famine. It would be no extravagant
estimate to believe that during the fourscore years and more which have
since elapsed, the demon of play, enthroned along the whole of the
Riviera, has caused as much misery to its hapless victims as the fatal
siege of Genoa, which Dr. Arnold selected as exemplifying the direful
horrors of which war was the author in 1800.

"M. Planchut has little difficulty in showing to what an extent the
cities and resorts in the neighbourhood of Monte Carlo are suffering
from their proximity to that pernicious spot. Of its seductive
attractions there is no need to speak in detail. The visitors find at
its Casino all the best newspapers and magazines of civilization laid
out for their amusement, to which are added an excellent theatre, an
unsurpassed orchestra, and--'pour comble de malheur'--open tables at
which any