GRISON TERRITORY.-NATIVE CHARACTER.
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family immediately rose to evince their respectful acknowledgment of hispresence; but the disdainful lord returned their proffered homage by thedisgusting act of spitting in the frugal soup served for dinner, and which theywere just eating. This insult incensed Chalder beyond all sufferance: he seizedthe tyrant by the throat —“ Swallow,” cried he , 11 the soup thou hast so delicatelyseasoned! ” and, thrusting his head into the scalding broth, he strangled him inhis desperate gripe. He now hastened from his cabin, and raised the neigh-bourhood. All flew to arms, and, actuated by one resolute spirit, swore to ridthe soil of their implacable task-masters. Their first act was to commit thecastles of Fardun and Barenberg to the flames, and sacrifice every retainer whoopposed their purpose.*—This was the dawn of Grison liberty.
In point of extent, this canton is next to that of Berne, having a surface ofone hundred and forty miles square. Forming the eastern frontier of Switzer-land , with the Tyrol on the north, and the Lombardo-Yenetian states on thesouth, it partakes, in language and national peculiarities, of the character of bothcountries, German and Italian . Its whole territory is one congeries of snow-cladAlps , interspersed with valleys, no less remarkable for their beauty and fertilitythan for the sublime and magnificent framework in which they are set. Herethe works of nature are displayed in their most imposing forms; and here, too,the labour and ingenuity of man are seen in their most active and pleasingcharacteristics. By his incessant vigilance and industry the encroaching glacier,the landslip, and the avalanche, have been checked, removed, or modified intoshapes and purposes essential to his comfort. Canals have been scooped,highways constructed, and bridges flung across chasms and defiles from the merecontemplation of which the stranger’s eye shrinks back with instinctive horror.Here the watchful and hardy native has to maintain a daily conflict with theelements and to guard against those awful manifestations of natural causes whichneither times nor seasons can interrupt. Those dangers, however, to which, bythe nature of the soil, he is exposed, serve only to strengthen his heart, andstimulate him to redoubled exertion. Amid scenes where the Lombard wouldstarve or despair, the Grison secures ample remuneration for his labour, and,with its well-earned fruit, fosters the love of independence. The virtues ofpatience and perseverance are his natural inheritance, and, in a country wherepatriotism is felt and inculcated by all, the general prosperity is identified withhis own, and elicits that labour of love which makes this land of Alps and glaciersa land of joy and fertility.