JOURNEY OVER LAND T O INDIA, IN J SERIES OF LETTER^;. • v •.xV.- -A- I 'V-- t i. . • ..v. - > • i-.'-.^'v-j-- • i •' - ( A , A J. Ä Y, O K Ü .y ,0 T ' ■ • •• v f M - . . •» - si '-.. ♦ \ \ Mrr^i my ' ■ - . '• » ' * .• j";' JOURNEY OVER LAND t o INDIA, PART LY by a route never gone before by any european, By Donald Campjiell, of Barbreck, Efq. WHO formerly commanded a regiment of cavalry in THE service of his highness the nabob of the CARNATIC. IN A SERIES OF LETTERS TO HIS SON. COMPREHENDING HIS SHIPWRECK ÄND IMPRISONMENT WITH HYDER ALLI, AND (iis subsequent negociations and transactions ik tre east. heu quibus ille jactatus fatis. LONDON, printed for cuxlen and company, wo. 54, p a l l-m all. (iMAJifavo Y ^ u o I OT . .AlUyli ri T .V^a^ofiv-J SSviL yg Kjto-raH- ^wcu aavW a.tyoji v y«' • "it njAvtoČl -/ft " •L • " . ■. • . .Ar*' ^ « ,1;; ■ U : iV." .-■;;: : .O'^^IA nvrrnir-. ^^^ . J ADVERTISEMENT. The Events related in the following Pages, naturally became a frequent fubjeft of converfation with my Children and my Friends. They felt fo much fatisfaftion at the accounts which I gave them, that they repeatedly urged me to commit the whole to paper ; and their affeftionate partiality induced them to fuppofe, that the Narrative would be, not only agreeable to them, but interefting to the Public. In complying with their folicitations, I am far from being confident that the fuccefs of my efforts will juftify their hopes : I truft, however, that too much will not be expected, in regard to literary compofition, from a perfon whofe life has been principally devoted to the duties of a Soldier and the fervice of his Country— and that a fcrupulous adherence to Truth will com-penfate for many blemilhes in llyle and arrangement. .1/.ai/ijl^IT^aVdA gfii^/oüo'i Silt ni IJtJißi^T anT iioijKhDvno-? "io f^io^Ju) ni-^upsil r, ^mr/j^cJ i^ifjjiujfrn ii^UiTi ol jHI prlT .fibiJoh'T'i^m Ltif; nf)ihIi/D vm riirrf jr>il7 tni:>;[j i ibrriv/ 'uh j/i -i:cj U] '}\oth( 'j -i jiinmoj ul uni hagju y^fh Ol mivrij b'jafub::i v jif/;h7i:q oJnru fß jTi^ 7fv?((3 hnii ; -■i'JigK vJiTü loa ;J biu07/ -t)/ilr: -fno> nl -ydi oi ^fn"ii:;tjJfii liid ^rrj-^rfj oi ji'f: stiirjd ifioi^ i'^t ffi.: 1 Hiiw ijjnr/tq o CJ . J lit^fh iliw ^ /fa ! > ?! VJ'MJI oilMnsfi ifiobrtnoj •jtl :oa l'il^r tl'njni ooi li^il; -j jr/orl .flrjn I : asqorl l ^rioiji'r)"-icj vi; i ivm^y/ nr ,f:>3ft.'jf|x'j or Ijv'Ji//-)!) i / ji.'i v/ noliSč| -—YUM o J : hi J>> j;:, i ti j: 4 i ji i.ojLiot' n iö ^'jL'^jIi -;fi'yj i'! ■ ol JIIN*; ; } indl bnn bm, jf ^ii /;/ ; »({iiinjl-i vncni r > ; 1 CONTENTS. I 1, , > I PART I. LETTER I. Page i. Introduöory. LETTER II. Page 5. Ridiculous EIFcfts of Ignorance, exemplified in a whimfical Story of two Dublin Aldermen. LETTER III. ftige 10. Author's Motives for going to India. Mclancboly Prefentimcnts. Caation agahifl: Superftition, Journey to Margate. Packet. Coiifoled by meeting General Lockhart on board. Lands at Ollcnd. , LETTER'IV. Pagei5. ' ' Short Account of the Netherlands. Conduft of the Belgians. Ofteiid defcrib-ed. Wonderful Effefts of Liberty on the Human Mind, exemplified in ü1c Defence of Oftend ag^nlt the. Spaniards. . b% LETTER LETTER V. Page 20, CauUoii aga'mft ufiiig Houfes of Entertainment on the Continent kept b/ Engliflimcn. Dcfcriptloa of the Barques. Arrives 2t Bruges. Grafs Aft of Defpotifni in tlic Einpccor. Imprifoiimetit of La Fayette. LETTER VI. Page 27. Defcriptiou of Bruges. ReJiečtions oa the Rife and Dccay of Empires. Chief Grandeur of tlie Cities of Chrlftcndom, cotififtcd hi Buildings, the Works of Monkifti Inipofture and Senfuality. Superftjtion * powerful. Engine. LETTER VII. Tape 33. Opuleucc of the Bilhop of Bruges, Cathedral. Cliurch of Notre Dame. Vcftments of Thomas a Becket. Extraordinary Pifture. Monaftery of the Dunes. The Mortification of tliat Order. A curious Relic. LETTER vill. Page 40. Paflkge to Ghent. Chcapncfs of Travelling. Defcription of Ghent. Ca-tliedral. Monaftery of St. Pierre. Charity of the Clergy. LETTER IX, Page 47. Defcription of two brazen Images, ercfted in Commemoration of an extraordinary A£l of Filial Virtue. Jourrrey from Ghent through Aloft to Bruf-fels. LETTER X. Page 52. General Review of Auftrian Flanders. . LETTER XI. Page 58. Sliort Delcnpltonof Bruffels. Royal Library. Arfeiial. Armour of Mofttczuma. The Enormities committed under the Pretext of Chriftianity, by far greater than thofc committed by the French iu the Freniy of Emancipi-tion. LETTER XII. Page ,1 ' ' JlrulTels coatinued. Churches, Chapels, Toys, Images and Pi£Vures. A Hoft", or Wafer, which was ftabbcd by a Jew, and bled profufcly. Inns excellent and chcap. LETTER XIIL Page 72. 11 General Remarks on the People of the Netherlands. Account of the Empc-. ror Joseph the Second. Anecdote of that Monarch. His Inauguration at Bruffels. Burning of the Town-Houfe. Contrafted Conduft of the Belgians to J0SEPH on his Arrival, and after his Departure. The dcteftablc Effefts of Ariilocracy. LETTER XIV. Page 82. Liege. Conftitution of the German Empire. Tolerant Dif^Kifiuon of Joseph the Second, occafions a Viliit from His HolineC; the Pope, who returns to Rome in DIfappointment. Situation of the prefcnt Emperor, Reflexions on tile Conduft of Ruffia and Pruflla to Polai\d. LETTER XV. Page 90. Luxury of the Bi-fhop of Liege. Rcflcftions on the Iiiconiillency of tlie Pro-fcflions and Praflicc of Churchmen, particularly the Nolo Epijcopan, which Bilhups fwcarat their Inftalmcnt. Advantages of the Study of the Law in all Countiies. Liege, the Paradilc of Pricfls. Sir John Makdevii.lk's Tomb. LET'l'ER LETTER XVL Page 96. t Aix-la-Cliaptlle. ' A bit of Kartli iti a. Gulden Caiket. Coufccralioii of tlic Catlicdral, by an Emperor, a Pope, and three hundred and fixty-fiVc ßifliops. Their valuable Prefcnts to that Church. LETTER XVI[. Page 102. ■ li/. 1 ^ .ij Julieis. Rcflcčlioiis on Religious Pcrfecution. Cologne. Churcli of St. i ■ 't ' . , ' ■ ■ ''1 fc Urfula. Bones of eleven thoufand Virgin Martyrs. Church of St. Gerlon. Nine hundred Heads of Mooiifli Cavaliers. Refledions on the Eftablifli- ment of Clergy, and the Superiority of that of Scotland. ,,. . ■ I., .. . i. ; LETTER XVIIL Page 109. Cologne continued. Strange Ambition of Families to be thought Defcendants " ofthe Romans. Story of Lord Ahson and a Greek Pilot. ^ Bonne. Bridge of Cafar, Coblentz. Mentz. Frankfort. LETTER XIX. Page 115. Frankfort defcribed. Golden Bull. Augfburgh. Manufaftory of Watch-Chains, &c. Happy State of Society arifing from the tolerant Difpofition of the Inhabitants. LETTER XX. Page 121. Auglburgh continued. Adventure in the Convent of Carmelites. A good Friar. LETTER XXI. Page i a8. Tyrol Country. Story of Genii leading the Emperor Maximilian aftray. Inn.piLck. LETTtIR XXTI. Page 134. Tyrolelc. " liilirpvuclr" Riches of the Fiancifoan. Churcih there. One Mafs in it fufficlcnt to deliver a Soul from I'urgatory. Hall. Cunoiilies at thr Royal Palace of Ombras. Brifeii.' Valley of Bolfano. Treat- LETTER XXIII. Page 140. Defcriptioii of the Bifhopric of Trent. Obvious Difference between Germany anclltaly. Contraft between the Charafters of the Germans and Italians. Council of Trent. Tower for drowning Adulterers. Baflkno. Venice. ..'r.MninovoO .t,tni>i? '' J tiii LETTER XXIV. Page 146. : /- / M General Defcription ofVenice, and Rcfleftions on the Venetians. : >r:jr: Ip: . 'if ''■Mii'i-.K. I.ETTER XXV. ^ Page 154. Concubinage more fyftematicaJly countenanccd In Venice than London. . 5 s 1 Triefte. Löfs of Servant and Interpreter. Sail for Alexandria. Zantc. 1 i". 1 ■ f'Miti'' ' . ■ ■ , . J LETTER XXVL Page 160. .Adventure at the Ifland of Zante. Alexandria. Tlic Plague, and an IncurHopt of the Arabs. Pompey's Pillar, Cleopatra's Obclilk, &c. Iflaud of ■Cypirus. Latichea. Aleppo. C ^ii ) JflT.: ^ ■ -»..fill. ; -yiM LETTER XXVil. „ Page L,f ,- - .tJ - • 1 . .:>ri Defa-ip.tipii of Aleppo- niiqf.füM .jfj ■ ■ -.n' ^ - ! ■■ ' Ii;- tci 11 ■ 1, I " , , ' . ■ i,.M LETTER XXVIIL Page lo. - t ' 7 ' ,1 1 'i S]iort Account of llie l'urkilh Cüiiftitution and Government. ...-I ; ' * 1 LETTER XXIX. Page ig. V b- • ■ 'C Account of Turkifh Conftitution and Government continued. Moral Oia- raÖer of the Tufks-' ' I ' I , '.Ii. -'iJCfn: " ii'n .|| -.1 LETTER XXX. Page 25. . , Prejudices of Chriftian Writers, and Ihcir Mifreprefentations of the Turkifli Morals and Rcligioa Vindication of tbc latter. '>n;;r'l u^ :r n, LETTER XXXL Page 33. .1 ■ II ■ .:;- ctA 1 Vindication of the Turks continued. Defcriptton of a Garava 11 > Page 40. Account of Ceremonies ufed by PilgrijTis at Mecca, Page 48. LETTER XXXII. ■ Page 51. Aleppo continued. Frequent Broils in the Streets. LETTER XXXIIL Page 59. Aleppo continued. Coffee-houfej. Story-tellers. ( Xlii ) LETTER XXXIV. Page 66. Aleppo continvrect., , Puppct-rtiews. Raragliuzc, or Punch, his Freedom of Speccli and Satire. LETTER XXXV. Page 74. Dlfagreeable Adventure, which occafioiis a fudden Departure from Aleppo. LETTER XXXVI. Page 83. A Plan of Travelling fettled. Tartar Guide. Departure from Aleppo. LETTER XXXVJL Page 92. Dcfcription of Tartar Guide. His Conduö. Arrival at Diarbeker. Padaii Aram of Mofes. Scripture Ground. Refieftions, Defcription of the City of Diarbeker. Whiinfical Incident occalioned by Laughing. Oddity of the Tartar. LETTER XXXIX. Page 107. Strange Traits in the Tartar's Charafter. Buys Women, ties them up in Sacks, and carries them 50 Miles. Reßcäions on the Slave Trade. Apoftrophe to the Champion of the oppreflcd Africans. LETTER XL. Page 115. Extravagant Conduft of the Tartar, which he afterwards explains fatisfafto-rily. Extraordinary Incident and Addrcfs of the Tartar, in the Cafe of Santons. LETTER XLL Page 123. Explanation of the Affair by the Santons. Bigotry. Refleftions. LETTER XLIl. Page 130. Arrives at Moful. Defcription thereof. A Story-tellcr. A Puppct-fhew, The Tartar forced to yield to Laughter, which he fo much condemned. Set out for Bagdad. Calleiidcrs—their artful Prafticcs, PART. 111. LETTER XLIU. Page i. Arrives at Bagdad. Whirafical Coiidučt of the Guide. Charačlcr of the Turks. Short Account of Bagdad. EfFefts of Opinion. Ruins of Babylon. Leaves Bagdad. Attacked by Robbers on the Tigris. LETTER XLIV. Page 11. Arrives at Baffora. Account of that City. Leaves it, and arrives at BuHicer. More Diliippointments. Bombay. Goa. Gloomy Prefentiments on leaving Goa. A Storm. LETTER XLV. Page 19. Shipwreck. LETTER XLvi. Page 15. ^ The faiue. LETTER XLVII. Page 31. Made Prifoncr by feme of Hyder. Alli's Troops. Humanity of a Lafcar. Hardfliips. Meets a Friend. Mr. Hall. LETTER XLVIil. Page 38. Mr. Hall's Mifery aggravated by tlie Löfs of a Miniature which hung at his Bofom. Sent under a Guard up the Country. LETTER XLIX. Page 45. Arrives at Hyderiiagur, the Capital of tlie Province of Bidanore. Erotigiit before the Jemadar. Committed to Prifon. LETTERL. Page 55. Hiftory of Hyat Sahib. Called upon to enter into the Service of Hyder, and offered a Command. Peremptorily refufes. Another Prifoner, a Native. Court of Juftice. Tortures and Exaftions. Mr. Hall declining faft. LETTER LI. Page 63. Mr. Hall's affe£ting Story, LETTER LII. Page 70. Prefled to enter into the Service of Hyder Alli. Refufal. Threatened to-be hanged. Aftually fufpended, but let down again. Still perfifts in a Refufal, and determined to -undcrgo any Death rather than enter. Projefts a Plan to excite a Revolt, and efcape> " LETTER LIIL Page 77. f Projcft to efcape defeated. Laid in Irons. Intolerable Hardfliips. Deatk of Mr. Hall. LETTER LIV. Page 83. Melancholy Situation. Cuelty. Releafed from Prifon. Account of Hyder, and Eaft Indian Politics in general, f 2 LETTER ( XTl ) LETTER LV. PageSS. Eaft Indian Politics contisiucd. LETTER LVI.. Pas« 96. Account of MyI5i;h, ind Indian Politics conÜiiucd, General Mathews's fcent oil tlie Malabar Coaft. Mounts ihe .Ghauts. Approaches towards Hydernagur. Author's üelight at getting into the open Air. Delivered by an uuexpeftcd Encounter from his Guards. LETTER LVri. Page 103. Keturns to the Fort, and propofes to tlie Jeraailar to give it up to tlie EngUfh. Proceeds to the Englilh Camp, . LETTER L\aiL Page no. jMccling with General Mathews. Returns to the Fort with a Cowl. Delivers it to the Jemadar. Leads General Mathews into the'Fort, and brings him into the Prefencc of the Jemadar, EngliHi Fhig hoifted. Yin-dicatiou of General Mathews from the Charge of Peculation. LETTER LIX, Page 118. 1 11 < Sets off for Bengal. Cundaporc- Unable to proceed. Letter from General Mathews. Proceeds 111 an open Boat for Anjengo. Stopped by Sickncfs at Mangalore. Tellicherry, Anjengo. Travancbre. Dancing Girls. Palamcotah, Madura. Revolt of Isif Cawn. LETTER LX. Pagcisz. Trichinopoly. Tanjore. Burning of Gentoo Women with the Bodies of their Hufbands, Negapatnani. LETTER LXl. Page 149. Leaves Ncgapatnam- Taken by a French Fiigatc. Horrible Rcflefliont. Suffrein. CharaÖer of Tippoo Sahib. Efcape. Arrives at Miulras. LETTER LXU. ' Page 14g. Paflagc to Bengal. Negociatioii for Hyat Sahib. Mr. Hastisge. Sir John Macpherson. Hear from Macauley, Si'r John's Secretary, of tlic Servant I loft at Triefte. Jagranaut Pagoda. Vizagapatnam. LETTER LXIir. Page 167. Mafulipatam. Arrives at Madras, Determines to procced on Hvat's Biifi-ncfs to Bombay. Reaches Palamcotah, Takes lick. Recovering, crawls to Aiijengo, and tlieiice to Bombay. Kcfolves to return again to Madras-Adventure with a young Lady. Sarat. China. Bath,. Conclufioii. I'. ERRATA. r. L. 924. 3040. 2. 2. 3- I. 41. 15. 138. 18. 147. 14. 156. 8. 162. 15. '65. I.S- part i. For ßtrouä, read ßrfwd. For le btrque, read la barque. For conqutrous, read conquerors. For btrque, read bar^ut. For ierque, read barque. For I, read It. For pmfpeä, read appearance. For Suez, read Suez. For reget, read regret. For e.tporium, read emporium. p. L. 16. 18. 18. 7- 21. 10. 34- 4- 30- 2. 7»- 17- 90. 3- 108. 24. laa. I. 129. 19, tart iii. For/nmv, read ßorm. For ports, read parts. For rolling read bailing. After io, infert be. For I, read It. For cunjciente, read convenience. For or, read for. For one, read ten. Forße^cd, readßtewn. For Troop, read Company, JOURNEY TO INDIA, &c PART I. J : 1 'i ■ •» 'k . •» • t»»-, > • • • * .SÄ 'i-' .0^' >:ra>ii qt yjrviHijot I rt- •v-:. S i .'V" v.-.'*' .V ■fry: .1 J' ^ A f "»A • • 'i L''"-^. A T; ■ . .-t JOURNEY TO INDIA, LETTER I. My dear Frederick, Th e tendernefs of a fond father's heart admoniflies me, that I ftiould but poorly requite the affečtionate folicitude you have fo often expreffed, to become acquainted with the particulars of my journey over land to India, if I any longer withheld from you an account of that Angular and eventful period of my life. I confefs, to you, my dear boy, that often when I have endeavoured to amufe you with the leading incidents and extraordinary viciflitudes of fortune which chequered the whole of that ferics of adventures, and obferved the eager attention with which, young though you were, you hftened to the recital, the tender fenfibility you difclofed at fome paflages, and the earneft defire you A expreffed cxpreffed that " I fliouki the whole relate," I have felt an alinoil: irrefiftible impulfe to indulge you with an accurate and faithful narrative, and have more than once fat down at my bureau for the pur-pofe : but fober and deliberate reflection fuggefted that it was too foon, and that, by complying witli your defire at fuch a very early period of your life, I ihould but render the great end that Ipropofed by it abortive, fruftrate the inftruftion which I meant to convey, and imprefs the mere incident on your memory, while the moral deducible from it muft neceflarily evaporate^ and leave no trace, or rather excite no idea, in a mind not fufficiently matured for the conception of abftrad^: principles, or prepared by pradtice for the dedučHon of moral inferences. I am aware that there are many people, who, contemplating enly the number of your days, would confider my undertaking this arduous tafk, and offering it to your refleiftion, even now, premature : but this is a fubjeČt on which I have fo long and fo deliberately dwelt, which I have difcufled with fo much care, and examined with fuch impartiality, that I think I' may be acquitted of vanity, though I fay I am competent to form a judgment on it. The refult of that judgment is, that I am determined to indulge you without further delay; and I truft that you will not, on your part, render it an empty indulgence, but, on the contrary, by turning every circumftance to its beft ufe, by converting every feeling which thefe pages may excite in your heart into matter of ferlous reflection, and by making every event event (as it Iiappens to deferve) an example to promote either emulation on the one hand, or circumfpečlion and caution on the other, juftify me in that opinion of you on which I found this determination. I remember, that when, at an early age, I entered upon that ftage of claffical education at which you arc now, at an earlier age, arrived—I mean, the iEneid—I was not only captivated with the heautifo-l ftory of the Hero, in the fecond Book, but drew certain inferences from parts of it, which I {hall never forget, and wliich aftervt^rds ferved to give a direction to the growth of my feiitiments on occafions of a fimilar nature : above all, the filial piety of j^^neas made a deep impreffion on my mind, and, by imperceptibly exciting an emulation in my bofom; augmented con-fidcrably the natural warmth of my affečlion and refpečt for my father. It is under the recollečtion of this fenfation, and a firm perfuafion that your heart is fiiUy as fufceptible of every tender impreffion, and your underftanding as fit for the reception of ufeful hiftory, a^ mine was then, that I overlook your ^extreme youth, and write to you as though you were an adult. If there be a thing on earthi of which I can boaft a perfedt knowledge, it* is my Frederick's heart: it has been the obječt of my uninterrupted ftudy almoft fince it was firil: capable of manifefting a fenfiition j andi if I am not very much milkken in it indeed, the lively intercfl he feels In the occurrences of his father's life, is the refult, not of idle curiolity, but unbounded filial affedtion. Such an amiable A 2 motive motive fhall not bc difappoiiited in its end; and while I dilcharge the duty of a parent xn gratifying it, I fliall be encouraged and fuftained under my labours by the fanguine expeftation, that he will derive from my exertions the moll: folid advantages in his future progrefs through life. As thofe advantages are expeded alfo to extend to my dear boy John, whofe tender years difqualify him from making the fame immediate reflečtions on the various fubječts as they occur, my Frederick will perceive that it becomes his duty, not only as a good fon, but as an afFečtionate brother, to affift and enforce them upon his mind, to explain to him the difficulties,^ and furnifli him with his reafonings and inferences on them, fo as that they may make, as nearly as poflible, equal impreffions on the heart and underftanding of both. Felix quern faciunt aliena pericula cautum And though few have the felicity to be warned by other men'a misfortunes or faults, becaufe they feldom make deep impreffions on their feelings, I am convinced that my fuJfFerings and errors, as they will intereft my Frederick's heart, and gratify his cu-riofity, cannot fail to enlarge his underflanding, and improve his condučt. • I am my dear Frederick's, (^c. D. C. LETTER II. Having, in compliance with your reiterated folicita-tions, determined to give you a narrative of my journey to the Eaft Indies, and the fingular turns of fortune which befel me there, I think it necefiary, on reflection, to prepare you ftill further for the reception of it, by propofmg certain terms to be fulfilled on your part; and as, in my laft, I told you that I expedted you', and, with your afliilance, your brother, to turn my relation to a more ufeful account than the gratification of mere idle curiofity, by letting the moral deducible from my errors and misfortunes ftrike deep and take root in your mind—fo there are other things, which, though not fo extremely important, are too weighty to be negleded; to which I defire to direčt your attention. I believe you muil have already perceived, that the wellbeing of yourfelf and your brother is my firft—I might, perhaps, without trefpafling much upon truth, fay, my only obječt in life ; tliat, to the care of your education, and the cultivation of your mind, I exclufively devote my time and my thoughts j and that, to infure your future happinefs, I would facrifice every thing I have Jiave a right to difpofe of, and rilk even life itfelf. The time, I truft, is not far dlftant, when your brother will be as well qualified to underftand this as you are now—when both will feel alike the important duty it enforces on you—and when your only emulation will be, who fhall produce the mofl luxuriant harveft to reward the labours I have taken—to reward yourfelves. In order, therefore, on my part, to give every thing I do a tendency to the great obječl of my wi&es, and induce you, on your's, to contribute your fliare to it, I fhall give you, as I proceed in my narrative, a topographical defcription of the various Countries through which I fliall have occafion to condaČt you, and, as concifely as may be, an account of. their manners, policy, and municipal inftitutions, fo fer as I have beea able to colledt them i which I hope will lerve to awaken inyoa athiril for thofe indifpenfable parts of polite education. Geography and; tüftory. I expe6l that you will carefully attend to thofe fciences, and thatyoawillnotfufFer yourfelf, as you read my Letters, to be carried away by the rapid ftream of idle curiofity from incident to incident, without time or difpofition for reflexion: you muft take excurfions, as you go along, from my Letters to your Geographical Grammar and your Maps-—and, when necef-fary, call in the aid of your Tutor, in order to compare my ob-fervations with thofe of others on the fame places, and by thofe means to acquire as determinate an idea as poffible of their local Jituation> laws, and comparative advantages, whether of Nature or Art. You will thus enable yourfelf hereafter to confider how Society Society I« influenced, and why fome Communities are better di-reflied than others. Here I muft obfcrve to you, that as Geography is a fcience to which rational converfation, as fupported by Gentlemen of breeding and education, moft frequently refers, the leafl; ignorance of it is continually liable to detedion, and, when detected, fubjedls a man to the moil: mortifying ridicule and contempt. The ingenious George Alexander Steevens has, in his celebrated L6čture upon Heads, given a moft ludicrous inftance of this fpecies of ignorance, in the charačler of a Citizen, who, cenfuring the incapacity of Minifters, propofes to carry on the War on a new plan of his own. The plan is, to put the Troops in cork jackets—fend them, thus equipped, to fea—and land them in the Mediterranean: When his companion afks him where that place lies, he calls him fool, and informs him that the Mediterranean is the Capital of Conftantinople. Thus, my dear fon, has this fatirift ridiculed ignorance in pretenders to education; and thus will every one be ridiculous who betrays a deficiency in this very indifpenfable ingredient in forming the charačter of a Gentleman. But a ftory which ^I heard from a perfon. of ftričh veracity, will ferve more ftrongly to ihew you the fhame attendant on ignorance of thofe things which, from our rank, we are fuppofed to know; and as the fear of lhame never fails to operate powerfully on a generous mind, I am fure it will ferve to alarm you into induftry, and application to your ftudies. During During the late American War, about that period when the Kin g of France was, fo fatally for himfelf, though perhaps in the end it may prove fortunate for the interefts of Mankind, manifefting'an intention to interfere and join the Americans, a worthy Alderman ui Dublin, reading the newfpaper, obferved a paragraph, intimating, that in confequence of Britifli cruifers having flopped fome French veflels at fea, and fearched them, France had taken umbrage! The fagacious Alderman, more patriotic than learned, took the alarm, and proceeded, with the paper in his hand, directly to a brother of the Board, and, with unfeigned forrow, deplored the lofs his Country had fuftalned, in having a place of fuch confequence as Umbrage ravifhed from it!—defiring, of all things, to be informed in what part of the world Umbrage lay. To this the other, after a torrent of invečtive againft Minifters, and condolence with his affliäred friend, anfwered that he was utterly unable to tell him, but that he had often heard it mentioned, and of courfe conceived it to be a place of great importance; at the fame time propofing that they Ihould go to a neighbouring Book-feller, who, as he dealt in Books, mull neceifai-ily know every thing, in order to have this gordian knot untied. They accordingly went i and having propounded the queftion, " what part of the globe Umbrage lay in?" the Bookfeller took a Gazetteer, and, having fcarchcd it diligently, declared that he could not find it, and faid he was a]moil fure there was no fuch place in exiflence. To this the two Aldermen, witli a contemptuous fneer, anfwered by by triumphantly reading the paragraph out of the newfpaper. The Bookfeller, who was a fliroud fellow, and, like moft of his Countrymen, delighted in a jeft, gravely replied, that the Gazetteer being an old edition, he could not anfwer for it, but that he fup-pofed Umbrage lay feme where on the coafl: of America. With this the wife Magiftrates returned home, partly fatisfied: but what words can exprcfs their chagrin when they found their error— that the unlucky Bookfeller had fpread the ftory over the City— ihat the newfpapers were filled with fatirical fquibs upon it—nay, that a caracature print of themfelves leading the City-watch to ■the retaking of Vmhrage^ was ftuck up in every fliop—and finally, that they could fcarcely (albeit Aldermen) walk the fh-eets, without having the populace fneer at them about the taking of Umbrage ! Thus, rny child, will every one be more or lefs ridiculous who appears obviouily ignorant of thofe tilings which, from the rank he holds in life, he fliould be expected to know, or to the knowledge of which vanity or petulance may tempt him to pretend. I am fure I need not fay more to you on this fuhječt; for I think you love me too well to difappoint me in the firll wifli of my heart, and I believe you have too much manly pride to fuffer fo degrading a defečt as indolence to expofe you hereafter to aiiimadverfion or contempt. Remember, that as nothing rn this life, however trivial -or worthlefs, is to be procured without labour—fo, above all otliers, the weighty and invaluable treafures of erudition are only B to to be acquired by exertions vigoroufly made and unremittingly continued. ** Quid munus Reipublic^ maj us aut melius afFerre poflumus " quam fi juventutem bene erudiamus."—Thus faid the matchlefs Tully. If, then, the education of youth interefts fo t^ery deeply a State, can it lefs powerfully interell him who (lands in the twofold connexion of a Citizen and Parent ? It is the lively anxiety of my mind, on this point, that obliges me to procrafbinate the commencement of my narrative to another Letter, and induces me to entreat that you will, in the mean time, give this the confideration it deferves, and prepare your mind to follow its in-ftručlions. LETTER IIL a variety of unpropitious circumftances gave rile to my journey to the Eaft Indies, while domeftic calamity marked my departure, and, at the very outfet, gave me a foretafle of thofe miferics which Fate had referved to let fall upon me in the fequel. The channels from which I drew the means of fupporting my family in that ftyle which their rank and eonnečtions obliged them to maintain, were clogged by a coincidence of events as unlucky unlucky as unexpCfäed; the War In India had interrupted the regular remittance of my property from thence : a fevere (hock which unbounded generofity and beneficence had given to the affairs of my father, rendered him incapable of maintaining his ufual punctuality in the payment of the income he had afligned me; and, to crown the whole, I had been deprived, by death, of two lovely children (your brother and fiftcr), whom I loved not lefs than I have lince loved you and your brother. It was under the preflure of thofe accumulated afHičtions, aggravated by the goading thought of leaving my family for fuch a length of time as muft neceffarily elapfe before I could again fee them, that I let out for India in the month of May, in the year 1781, with a heart overwhelmed with woe, and too furely predictive of misfortunes. From the gloomy cave of depreffion in which my mind was funk, I looked forward, to feek, in the future, a gleam of comfort —but in vain : not a ray appeared-—Melancholy had thrown her fombre fliadow on the whole. Even prefent affliČlion yielded up a fliare of my heart to an unaccountable difmal prefentiment of future ill j and the difafters and difappointments I had pafled, were loft and forgotten in ominous forebodings and inftinftive prefages of thofe that were to come. Of all the weaknefles to which the human mind is fubjedt, fu-perftition is that againft which I would liave you guard with the utmofl vigilancc. It is the molt incurable canker of the mind. B 2 Under Under its uiirelcjiting dominion, happinefs withei's, the under-llaiiding becomes obicurcd, and every principle of joy is blalled.-For this realbii 1 wifli to account for tJiote prclages, by referring them to their true phyfical caufes, in order thereby to prevent your young mind from receiving» from what I have written, any injurious impreflion, or fuperftitious idea of prejenthnent^ as it is fafhionabJy denominated. If the mind of Man be examined, it will be found naturally, prone to the contemplation of the future—its flights from hope to hope,, or fear to fear, leading it infcnlibly from objeftS'prefent and iji pofieffion,. to thofe remote and in cxpedtatLon—from pofi-. tive good to fuppofitious- better, or from aftual melancholy to imaginary misfortune. In thefc cafes,, the mind never fails to fee tlie profpečt in colours derived from the medium through whicb it is viewed and exaggerated by tlie magnifying power of fancy. Thus my mind, labouring under ajl the uneafinefs I have defcribed;. faw every thing through the gloomy medium of melancholy,' and, looking forward, foreboded nothing but misfortune : accident afterwards fulfilled thofe forebodings ; but accident, nay, the moft trifling change of circumftances,. might polTibly have fo totally changed the face of my fubfequent progrefs, that good fortune, inftead of mifadventure, might have been my lot, and fo ail my foreboding been as illufory and fallible as all fuch phantoms of tlie imagination really are. Thus I argue now—and I am fure I argue truly ; but if reafoii be not timely called in,, and made, as it were, an ail habitual inmate, it avails but little againft the overbearing force of fuperftition, who, when flie once gets pofTcirion of the mind, holds her feat with unrelenting tenacity, and, calling in a whole hoft of horrors, with dcfpair at their head, to her aid, entrenches lierfelf behind their formidable powers, and bids defiance to the afiauks of reafon. Thus it fared with me—Under the dominion of gloomy pre-fentiment, I left London ; and my journey down to Margate, where I was to take lliipping, was, as Shakspeare emphatically fays, " a phantafm, or a hideous dream—and my little ftate of " Man fulFcred, as it were, the nature of an infurrečlion — the chaos within me forbade even the approach of difcrlminate rcflečlion ; and I found myfelf on board the Packet, bound to Oftend, without having a fingle trace left upon my mind, of the intcrinediate ftages and incidents that happened fince I had left London. It has been ohfervcd—and I wifh- you always to carry it in memory, as one of the befl confolations under affličlion—-that human fufferings, like all other things, find their vital principle cx'haufted, and their extinftion acceleratcd, by overgrowth ; and that, at the moment when Man thinks himfelf moil miferable, a benignant. Providence is preparing relief, in fome form or other^ for him. So it, in fome Ibrt, happened with me; for I was fortunate enough to find in the Packet a fcllow-pafienger, whofc valuable converfation and agreeable manners beguiled me iiifenfibly of of the gloomy contemplation in which I was abforbed, and afforded my tortured mind a temporary iufpenfion of pain. This Gentleman was General Lockhart : he was going to Bruflels, to pay his court to the Emperor Joseph the Second, who was then fliortly expelled in the Low Countries, in order to go through the ceremonies of his Inauguration. As Bruffels lay in my way, I was flattered with the hopes of having for a companion a Gentleman at once fo pleafing in his manners and refpečtable in his charačler, and was much comforted when I found him as much difpofed as myfelf to an agreement to travel the whole of the way thither together. Thus, though far, very far from a ftatc of cafe, I was, when landing at Oftend, at leaft lefs miferablc than at my coming on board the Packet. As this Letter is already fpun to a length too great to admit of any material part of the defcription I am now to give you of Oftend, and the Country to which it belongs, I think it better to poftpone it to my next, which I mean to devote entirely to that fubječt, and thereby avoid the confufion that arifes from mixing two fub-ječts in the fame Letter, or breaking off the thread of one in order to make way for the other. Adieu, my dear boy !—Forget not your brother John. That you may both be good and happvi is all the wifli now left to. See, LETTER IV. That Country to which I am now to call your attention—I mean, the Netherlands—is marked by a greater number of political changes, ajid harraflcd by a more continued train of military operations, than perhaps any Country in the records of Modern Hiftory. It may truly be called the Cockpit Royal of Europe, on which Tyrants, as ambition, avarice, pride, caprice, or malignity, prompted them, pitted thoufands, and hundreds of thoufands, of their fellow-creatures, to cut each other's throats about fome point, frivolous as regarding themfelves, unimportant to Mankind, and only tending to gratify a diabolical luft for dominion : Yet, under all thefe difadvantages, (fuch are the natural qualities of this Country), it has, till lately, been in a tolerably tlourilhing ftate j and would, under good government and proper protection, equal any part of Europe for richnefs, Flanders, Brabant, and the Country now called the United Netherlands, were in general known by the name of Netherlands, Low Countries, or Pais-bas, from their fituation, as it is fuppofed, in refpečt of Germany. Anciently, they formed a part of Belgic Gaul, of which you may remember to have read an account in the the Commentaries of Julius C^ear, who defcribes the inhabitants as the moft valiant of all the Gallic Nations—" Horum " omnium Belgic funt fortifllmi." They afterwards were fubječt to petty Princes, and made part of the German Empire ; and, in the fixteenth century, became fubječt to Charles the Fifth of tlie Houfe of Anllria^ but, being oppreffed beyond endurance by his fon, Philip the Second of Spain, (that blind and furious bigot), they openly revolted—flew to arms toaffert their freedom; and, after a ftruggle as glorious in effečt as virtuous in principle-after performing prodigies of valour, and exhibiting examples of fortitude, to which none but men fighting in the Godlike Caufe of Liberty are competent—led on by the wifdom and valour of the Prince of Orange, and afiifted by the Sovereign of Great Britain—they at length fo far fucceeded, that thofe now callcd the United Netherlands, entered into a folemn league, and forced the gloomy Tyrant to acknowledge their independence. But that part to which I am now particularly to allude, continued annexed to the Houfe of Auftria. In 1787, they revolted, and made a temporary ftruggle to difengage themfelves from the dominion of the Emperor ; but, owing to fome cabals among themfelves, and the temperate condučt of that Prince, they again returned to their allegiance, and were rewarded with a general amnefty. In 1792, they were over-run by the French Army under General Dumourier—opened their arms to thofe Republicans, and were rewarded for it by oppreffion, tyranny, and injuflice. iiijuflicc. The French, however, were driven back out of the Country; and, wonderful to relate, they again received their old Mafter, the Emperor, with ftrong demonftrations of joy, and manifefled their loyalty and attachment to him by every expref-fion that abječt hypocrify could fuggeft. " O ! how unlike their Bclgic Sires of old ! " Here, could I ftop with ftriÄ juilice, I would—But, behold! the French again came j again they opened their gates to receive them; and again they were, with tenfold fury and rapacity, pillaged, oppreffed, and infulted and at the very time I am writing this, the Guillotine is doing its office—enforcing the payment of the mofl: exorbitant and enormous contributions, and compelling, it is faid, one hundred thoufand of the ill-fated inhabitants to take the field, as foldiers of the Republic. Human opinion is fo chequered and uncertain, that two very honefl: men may in certain cafes ačt in dired contradičtion and hoftility to each other, with the very beft intentions—He, therefore, muft have but a cold heart, and a contračled underflanding, who cannot forgive the man that ačts in fuch cafes erroneoufly, when he ačis from the exadl dičtates of his opinion, and upon the principle which he has confcientioully adopted: but when a whole People are feen whifking about with every guft of fortune, and making a new principle for every new point of convenience, we C muft ßiuft defpife them even when they happen to ačt right, and can icarcely afford them jfo much as pity in their calamities. The Auftriau Netherlands are now in thatilate; and, without prefuming to fay in which of their tergiverfations they were right, I will venture to pronounce that they deferve puniflinient, and I beUeve they are in hands very likely to give them their due. To return—Oftend is a fea-port of Auftrian Flanders, and is fituated ill the Liberty of Bruges. It was, at one time, the flrongefl town in Flanders: 'but a double ditch and ramparts, which con-ftituted its ftrength, are now deftroyed; and in the place where the former flood, docks, or rather baibns, extremely capacious and commodious, are formed, for tlie reception of fliipping. The ground about the town is very low and marHiy, and cut into a • number of fine canals—into fome of which, fliips of the large ft fize may enter—and in one of which, veflels of great burthen may ride, even clofe to Bruges» The harbour here is fo fortunately circumftanced, that it was once thought, by Engineers, entirely fecure from a blockade i and its priftine ftrength can in no way be fo well defcribed, as by a relation of the defence it made in the four firft years of the feven tee nth century—though, near the clofe of the fixteenth, it was no better than an inlignificant fifliing town» It held out againft the Spaniards for three years, two months and. fixteen days. Eighty thoufand men loft their lives before it, while fifty thoufand were killed or died within. It at laft furrendered, but on good terms j, and not for want of men or provifions, but for for want of ground to Hand on, which the enemy took from them» at an amazing lofs, ftep by ftep, till they had not room left for men to defend it. Three hundred thoufand cannon-balls, of thirty pounds weight each, were fired againft it j and the befieged often filled up the breaches made in their ramparts with heaps of dead bodies. Such, my dear boy, are the miracles that men, animated with the all-fubduing fpirit of Liberty, can perform—Liberty f that immediate jewel of the foul—that firft moving principle of all the animal creation—which, with equal power, influences the bird to beat the cage with its wings, and the lion to tear the bars of his imprifonment—the infant to fpring from the tender confinement of its nurfe, and the lean and flirivelled pantaloon to crawl abroad, and fly the warmth and repofe of his wholefomc chamber—Liberty! which, for centuries enthralled by artifice and fraud, or lulled into a flumber by the witching fpirit of Prieft-craft, now rifes like a giant refreflied with wine—in its great efforts for emancipation, dcflroys and overturns fyftems—but, when finding no refinance, and matured by time, will, I fincerely hope, fmk" appeafed into a generous calm, and become the bleffing, the guardian and protečlor of Mankind ! It is your good fortune, my dear children, to be born at a time-when Liberty feems to be well underftood in your own Country, iind is univerfally the prevalent paffion of men. It is almoft need-Icfs, therefore, for me to exhort you to make it the groundwork C 2 of {^f your political morality : but let me remind you to guard, above all, againft the defpotifin of certain Tyrants, to v/hom niany of the greatefl advocates for Liberty are ilrangcly apt to fubmit—I mean, your pafTions. Of all other Tyrants, they are the moft fubtle, the moft bewitching, the moll overbearing, and, vi^hat is vvorfe, the moft cruel. Beneath the domination of other Defpots, tranquillity may alleviate the weight of your chains, and foften oppreffion; but when once you become the Have of your paflions, your peace is for ever fled, and you live and die in unabating mifery. LETTER V. T h e pride of the Englifli is remarked all over the globe,, even to a proverb ! But pride is a word of fuch dubious meaning, fo undefined in its fenfe, and drained to fuch various imports, that you fhall hear it violently execrated by one, and warmly applauded by another—this denouncing it as a fin of the firft magnitude, and that maintaining it to be the moft vigilant guardian of human virtue. Thofe differences in opinion arife not from any defečt in the intelleäs of either, but from each viewing the fubjed: in that one point in which it firft ftrikes his eye, or heft fuits his tafte, his feeling, or his prejudices. I have no doubt, however, but a full confideration confideration of the fubjeft would fliew, that pride, as it is called; is only good or bad as the obječt from which it arifes is mean or magnificent, culpable or meritorious. That noble pride which flimulates to extraordinary ačls of generolity and magnanimity, luch as, in many inftances,. has diflinguifhed, above all others, the Nobility of Spain, exads the homage and admiration of Mankind :■ But I fear very much that our Englifli pride is of another growth>-and. fmells too rankly of that overftrained commercial fplrit which' makes the bafis of the prefent grandeur of Great Britain, but which, in my humble judgment, raifes only to debafe her___by flow, fubtle degrees, poifons the national principle, enflaves the once bold fpirit of the People, detračls from their real folid felicity, and, by confounding the idea of national wealth with that of national profperity, leads it in rapid ftrides to its downfall. In fliort, we are approaching, I fear, with daily accelerated fteps, to the difpofition and fordid habits of the Dutch, of whom Dočtor Goldsmith fo very pertinently and truly fpeaks, when he fays, « Ev'n Liberty itfelf is barter'd here ! " Without leading your mind through a maze of difquifition on this fubječt, which might fatigue with abflrufcnefs and prolixity, I will bring you back to the point from which the matter parted, and content myfelf with remarking, that the pride of the Englifli,. fpeaking of it as a part of the national charadter, is the meanell of all pride. The inflation of bloated, overgrown wealth, an overweening, weening affečtica; for money, an idolatrous worfliip of gain, have abfolutely confounded the general intelleft, and warped the judgment of the many to that excefs, that, in eftimating men or things, they refer always to " what is he worth ?" or, " what will it fctch ?" This fordid habit of thinking was finely hit off by a keen fellow, the native of a neighbouring Kingdom, who, for many years, carried on bufinefs in London, and failed:—Sitting one day in a coflfee-houfe in the City, where fome wealthy Citizens were difcufling a fubjedt not entirely unconnečted with cafh concerns, one of them obferving him rather attentive to their conver-fation, turned to him, and faid, " What is your opinion. Sir, of the matter?"—"'s blood. Sir !" returned he, peevifhly, " what opinion can a man have in this Country, who has not a guinea in his pocket ?" Under the influence of all the various caprices infpired by this unhappy purfe-pride, I am forry to fay our Countrymen do, when they go abroad, fo play tlie fool, tliat they are univerfally flattered and defpifed, pillaged and laughed at, by all perfons with whom they have any dealing. In France, Mi Lor Anglois is, or at leaft was, to have lix times as great a profufion of every thing as any other perfon, and pay t'nree hundred per cent, more for it; and the worft of it was, that a Mi Lor was found fo conducive to their intereft, that they would not, if they could help it, fufrer any Engliihman to go without a title—nay, would fometimes, with kindly compulfion, force him to accept of it, whether he would or or not: but if an Englifliman be, above all others, the objedt of impofition in foreign countries, certainly none pillage him fo unmercifully as his own Countrymen who are fettled there. In all the places through which I have travelled, I have had occafion to remark (and the remark has been amply verified by every Gentleman I have ever converfed with on the fubječt), that the moft extravagant houfes of entertainment are thofe kept by Englifli-men. At Oilend, as well as other places, it was fo: therefore, as economy, when it does not trefpafs upon the bounds of genteel liberality, is the bell fecurity for happinefs and refpeČt, I advife you, whenever you {hall have occafion to vifit the Continent, in the firft place to avoid all appearance of the purfe-proud often-tation of John Bull j and, in the next place, to avoid all Englirti houfes of entertainment. It is a fingular circumllance, and belongs, I fhould fuppofe, peculiarly to Ollend, that the charity-children of the town are permitted to come on board the veflels arrived,, to beg of the paf-fcngers, one day in the week. * Before I bid adieu to Oftend, I muft remark one heavy difad-vantage under which it labours—the want of frefli water j all they ufe being brought from Bruges. In going from Oftend to Bruges, a traveller has it in his choice to go by land, or water—If by land, he gets a good voiture for about ten ihillings of our money; the road is about fourteen or fifteen miles—If by water (the mode which I adopted, as by far the cheapeft and the pleafanteft), he travels travels in a vefiel pretty much refembling our Lord Mayor's barge, Jbnietlmes called a trackfchuyt, but often le berque, or barke : it is, in truth, fitted up in a ftyle of great neatnefs, if not elegance j ftored with a large ftock of provifions and refrefhments of all kinds, and of lliperior quality, for the accommodation of the paffengcrs j and has, particularly, a very handfome private room between decks, for the Company to retire to, in order to drink tea, coffee, &c. &c. or play at cards. In this comfortable, I might fay, delightful vehicle, as perfedlly at eafe as lying on a couch In the bell room in London, are paflengers drawn by two horfes, at the jate of about four miles an hour, for about ten pence, the fame length of way that it would coll ten ihillings to be jumbled in a voiture over a rough paved road. The country between Oflend and Bruges is very level, and of courfe dcftitute of thofe cliarms to a mind of tafte, which abound in countries tolTed by the hand of Nature into hill, dale, mountain and valley : the whole face of it, however, is, or at leafl then was, in fo high a Hate of cultivation, and fo deeply enriched by the hands of art and induftry, aided by the natural fertility of the foil, that its appearance, though far from ftriking or delightful, was by no means unpleafant; and on approaching the town of Bruges, we pafied between two rows of trees, beautiful, ihady, and of lofty fize—forming, with the furrounding objefts, a fcene, which, if not romantic, was at leall pidurefque. In In paffing through Countries groaning beneath the defpotic fcourge of unlimited Monarchy, where*lubfidies are raifed, and taxes laid on ad libitum—where guilty diflruft and fufpicion, with the eyes of a lynx and the fangs of a harpy, fknd fentincls at every gate, to fcrutinize the harmlefs paflenger, awake him to the clanks of his fetters, and awe him into compliance, a free-born Briton feels a cold horror creep through his whole frame: his foul recoils at the gloomily ferocious and infolently ftridt examination, with which a fentincl, at the entry of a town, flops, inveftigates, demands a pafTport} and, in fhort, puts him, f>ro tempore, in a ftate of durance, with all its hideous formalities and appendages, its gates, its bars, its armed ruffians, its formal profeffions of laws, and its utter violation of reafon and of juflice. Entering the town of Bruges, we were flopped by a fentinel, who, with all the faucy, fwaggering air of authority, of a flave in office, demanded to know, whether we had any contraband goods ? whether we were in any military capacity ? whence we came ? and whither we were going f with a variety of other interrogatories, to my mind equally impertinent and deteflable, but which feemed to make no greater im-preflion on the good Flemings themfelves, than demanding the toll at a turnpike-gate would make on an Englifli waggoner. Talking over this fubjeil, fmce that time, with a Gentleman who is well acquainted with all thofe places, he informed me, that in the war between the Emperor and the States General, feme French officers, travelling through Flanders to join Count Mail- D LEBOrS, J.EBOIS, were flopped at the gate of Bruges, and, by order of the Emperor, fent to his army, turned into the ranks, and obUged to do duty as common foldiers,—Here', my dear Frederick, was an aft, not only defpotic in itfelf, but aggravated by circumftances of collateral profligacy, of fuch enormous magnitude 'as bids defiance to all power of amplification, and leaves eloquence hopelefs of defcribing it with greater force than it derives from a fimple narration of the fačt: on the one hand, the inroad upon the juft perfonal rights of the individual; on the other,, the rights of a Nation violated. Some men in England, judging from their own conftitutional fecurity, may diftelieve the fa£t: but let them con-fider, that the Marquis de la Fayette, an alien, taken upon neutral ground, is now, even now, held in illegal,, unjuft thraldom and perfecution—let them, fay, remember this, and let their incredulity ceafe. Blefs your ftars, my dear boy, that you were born in a Country where fuch outrages as thefe can never be perpetrated by any, and will never be approved of but by a few* LETTER VI. o In my laft, I carried you part a ferocious, impertinent fenttnel, into the town of Bruges and now, having got you there, I muft endeavour, from the loofe materials I have been able to colleft, to give you a fiiort defcription of it. ^ 1 had heard much of Bruges, its grandeur and its opulence j you will guefs my furprife then, when, on entering it, I found nothing but an old-fafliioned, ill-built, irregular townj the ftreets, in general, narrow and dirty, and moft of the houfes flrongly ex-prefllve of poverty. and fqualid wretchednefs : yet this was anciently a moft flourifliing city. Did the difference between the town at this time, and its ftate as it is reprefentcd of old, confill: only in its external appearance, we might readily account for that, in the great improvements made by the Moderns in the art of houfe-build-ing; but its prefent inferiority goes deeper, and is the refult of departed commerce—commerce, that flučtuating will-with-a-wifp, that leads States in hot purfuit after it, to entrap them ultimately into mires and precipices, and which, when caught, ftays..till it D 2 extinguiihes extinguifties the fpirit of Freedom in a Nation, refines its People into feeble flaves, and there leaves them to poverty and contempt. Perhaps there is no fubjeft that affords an ampler field for a fpeculative mind to expatiate upon, than the various, and, I may fay, incongruous r<;volutions which have chequered the progrefs of human fociety from the firft records of Hiftory down to the prefent time. It is indeed a fpeculation which not only tends to improve the underftanding, by calling in experience to corredt the illuüons of theory, but is highly inftručtive in a moral point of view, by pointing out the inftability of the very beft ftriftures of human wifdom, and teaching us how little reliance is to be placed upon human cafualties, or earthly, contingencies. Look to Greece, oncc the fountain-head of Arts, Eloquence, and Learning, and the mother of Freedom—her Poets, her Legi-fiators, her Soldiers, and her Patriots, even to this day confidercd the brigheft examples of earthly glory !™fee her now funk in flavery, ignorance, floth, and imbecillity, below any petty Nation of Europe. Look to Rome—in her turn, the queen of Arms and Arts, the land of Liberty, the nurfe of Heroes—the ftage on which inflexible Patriots, accompli/hed Philofophers, and a free People, ačted for centuries a drama that elevated Man almoft above his nature!—fee her now reduced to the laft ftage of contempti-bility—even below it, to ridicule and laughter—fwayed by the moft contemptible impoihire, and funk into the moft defpicable enflavement, cnflavement,,both of perfon ^d opinion—the offices of her glorious Senate performed by a kind of heteroclite being, an herma-phroditical impoftor, who, deducing his right from the very dregs and oiFscourings of fuperftition and fanaticifin, and aided by a fet of difciples worthy of fuch a mafter, rules the People, not with the terrors of the Tarpeian rock, nor yet with that which to a Roman bofom was more terrible, baniüiment—but with the horrors of tternal datnnation !—fee her valiant, vigorous Soldiery converted into a band of feeble fidlers and mufic-mafters, and the clangor of her arms into ftirill concerts of fqueaking caftratoes j thofe places where her Cicero poured forth eloquence divine, and pointed out the paths that led to true morality—where her Brutus and her Ca to marlhalled the forces of Freedom, and raifed the arm of Juftice againft Tyrants, over-run by a knavifh hoft of ignorant, beggarly, bald-pated Friars, vomiting, to a crowd of gaping bigots, torrents of fanatical bombaft, of miracles never performed, of Gods made of wood or copper, and of Saints, that, like them-felves, lived by impofture and deception !—fee her triumphs and military trophies changed into proceffions of Priefts finging pfalms round wafers and wooden crucifixes j and that code of Philofophy and Religion, which operated fo effedlually upon the morals of her People that there was none among them found fo defperate or fo bafe as to break an oath, exchanged for the Roman Catholic branch of the Chriftian Faith—for difpenfations for inceft, indulgences for murder, fines for fornication, and an exclufive patent k patent for adultery in their priefthood. Then look to England ! —lee her, who once ftooped benesith the yoke of Rome, whofe Chief, Caractacus, was carried there in chains to grace his conquerous triumphs, while herfelf was made the meaneft of the Roman Provinces, now holding the balance of the world, the ( unrivalled inillrefs of Arms, Arts, Commerce—every thing. I It was in this irrefiftible mutation of things, that Bruges funk ifrom the high ftate of a moft flourifliing city, where there are ftill (unlefs the French have defl:royed them) to be feen the remains of feventeen palaces, anciently the rciidences of Confuls of different Nations, each of which had diftlnčt houfes, magnificently built and furniflied, with warehoufea for their merchan-difes : and fuch was the power and wealth of the Citizens in thofe days, that it is an indubitable fadt, they kept their Sovereign, the Archduke Maximilian, prifoner, affronted his fervants, and abufed his officers; nor would they releafe him until he took an oath to preferve inviolate the laws of the State. Even fo late as the time I was there, Bruges had fome trade—indeed as good a foreign trade as moft cities in Flanders. The people feemed cheerful and happy, and the markets were tolerably fupplied. Several fine canals run in a variety of directions ,from Bruges: by one of them, boats can go, in the courfe of a fummer's day, to Oftend, Nieuport, Fumes, and Dunkirk; and -veffels of four hundred tuns can float in the bafon of this town. Another canal leads to Ghent, another to Damme, and another to Sluys. The water water of thofe canals is ftagnant, without the kaft motion; yet they can, in half an hour, be all emptied, and frefli water brought in, by means of their well-contrived fluices. This water, however, is never ufed for drinking, or even for culinary purpofes j a better fort being conveyed through the town by pipes from the two rivers Lys and Scheldt, as in London; for which, as there, every houfe pays a certain tax, ( r Although the trade of this city has, like that of all the Low Countries, been gradually declining, and dajly_ fucked into the vortices of Britifli and Dutch commerce, there were, till the French entered it, many rich Merchants there, who met every day hat noon in the great,market-place, to ,communicate and tranfačt bufmefs, which was chiefly, done in the Flemifli language, , hardly any one in it fpeaking j Fr,ench ; a circumftance that by this time is much altered—-for they have been already made, if not to fpeak French; at leafl^ to fing Ca-ira, and dance to the tune of it too, to fome purpofc. The once-famed grandeur of this city confifted chiefly, like that of all grand places in the dark periods of Popery, of the gloomy piles, the ollentatious frippery and unwieldly mafies of wealth, accumulated by a long feries of, Monkifli, impofture—of Gothic Jftručlures, of enormous lize and fable afpeČt, filled with dreary cells, calculated to fl:rike the fouls of the ignorant and enthufiaftic with holy horror, to infpire awe of the places, and veneration for the perfons who dared to inhabit them, and, by enfeebling the ) reafon rcafon with the mixed operations of horror, wonder and reverence, to fit the credulous for the reception of every impofltion» however grofs in conception, or bungled in execution. Thofe are the things which conftituted the greatnefs and fplendor of the cities of Ancient Chriftendom j to thofe has the fturdiefl human vigour and intellect been forced to bend the knees: they were buUt to endure the outrages of time and will ftand, I am fure, long, long after their power ihall have been annihilated. What a powerful engine has fuperftition been, in the cunning management of Priefts! How lamentable it is to think, that not only all who believed, but all who had good fenfe enough not to believe, (hould, for fo many centuries, have been kept in proftmte fubmiflion to the will and dominion of an old man in Rome!—My blufhes for the folly and fupinenefs of Mankind, however, kre loft in a warm glow of tranfport at the prefent irradiation of the human mind and though I can fcarcely think with patience of that glorious, Godlike being, Henry the Second of England, being obliged by the Pope to lafti himfelf naked at the tomb of that faucy, wicked Prieft, Thomas a Becket, I felicitate myfelfwith the refiečtion, that the Pope is now the moft contemptible Sovereign in Europe, and that the Papal authority, which was once the terror and the fcourge of the earth, is now not only not recognifed, but feldom thought of, and, when thought of, only ferves to excite laughter or difguft. LETTER VII. J- , -, ■ ■—^— The town of Bruges, although the ftreets be, as I have already defcrlbed them, fo mean, narrow, dirty and irregular in general, contains, neverthelefs, feme few ftreets that are tolerable, and a few fquares alfo that are far from contemptible____I iliould think it, neverthelefs, not worth another letter of defcription, were it not that the Churches, and Church-curiofities, deniand our attention; for you will obferve, tliat in all rich Popiili Countries, every Church is a holy toy-iliop, or rather a mufeum, where pictures, ftatues, gold cups, filver candlefticks, diamond crucifixes, and gods, of various forts and dimenfions, are hoarded up, in honour of the Supreme Being. This city having been for centuries the See of a Bifliop, who is Suffragan to the Archbifliop of Mechlin, and at the fame time Hereditary Chancellor of Flanders, it is not to be wondered at, if ecclefiaftical induftry lliould have amaffed fome of thofe little trinkets which conftitute the chief or only value of their Church. The mitre of this place conveys to the head that wears it a diocefe containing fix cities, from the names of which you will be able to fprm fome fniall judgment of E the the opulence of one poor Ion of abftincnce and mortification.— Thofe cities are, in the firft place, Bruges itfelf, then Oflend, Sluys, Damme, Middleburgh in Flanders, and Oudenberch—not to mention one hundred and thirty-three boroughs and villages; and if you could compute the number of inferior Clergy with which the llrcets and highways are filled, you would be thunder-ftruck. There, and in all thofe Popifli Countries, they may be feen, with grotefque habits and bald pates, buzzing up and down like bees, in fwarms, (a precious hive!)—-and, with the moft vehement proteftations of voluntary poverty in their mouths, and eyes uplifted to Heaven, fcrambling for the good things of the earth with the eagernefs of a pack of hounds, and the rapacity of a whole roll of lawyers! With loaded thighs (I might fay, loaded arms too, for they have large pockets even in their fleeves, for the concealment of moveables), they return to the great hive, where, contrary to the law of bees, the drone lives in idle ftate, and he plunders them: contrary, too, to the habits of thofe ufeful infeds, they banifli the queen-bee, and fuffer no female to approach their cells, but keep them in contiguous hives, where, under cover of the night, they vifit them, and fulfil in private that which they deny in public—the great command of Providence. The firft building in nominal rank, though by no means the firft in value, is the great Cathedral, which has at leaft bulk, antiquity and gloominefs enough to recommend it to the Faithfial. It is by no means unfurniflied within, though not in fo remarkable a manner manner as to induce me to fill a Letter with it. In a word, it is an old Popifli Cathedral, and cannot be fuppofed wanting in wealth : at the time I write, it has been ftanding no lefs a time than nine hundred and twenty-nine years, having been built in the year 865. The next that occurs to me, as worthy of notice, is tlie Church of Notre Dame, or that dedicated to our Lady the Virgin Mary. This is really a beautiful ftručture of the kind-—indeed magnificent. Its fteeple is beyond conception ftiipendous, being fo very high as to be feen at fea off Oftend, although it Is not elevated in the fmalleft degree by any rife in the ground; for, fo very flat' is the whole intermediate country, that I believe it would puzzle a Ikilful leveller to find two feet elevation from high-water-mark at Oftend up to this city. The contents of this Church are cor-refpondent to its external appearance—being enriched and beautified with a vaft variety of facerdotal trinkets, and fine tombs and monuments. As to the former, the veftments of that fame Thomas aBecket whom I mentioned in my laft, make a part of the curiofities depofited in this Church : this furious and inflexible impoftor was Archbiihop of Canterbury ; and his ftruggles to cnflave both the King and People of England, and make them tributary to the Pope, have canonized, him, and obtained the very honourable depot I mention for his veftments. To do juftice, however, to the fpirit and fagacity of the Holy Fathers who have fo long taken the pains to preferve them, it muft be couimemo- E 2 rated. rated, tliat they are^ or at leailiwere fet with dinmoiwis, and other precioas ftones ! IJrobably, ainang the. imiiy PrieAs who have^ in fo maay centuries; had the cuftady: ofttlioCe divine relics, fome one^ more la.gacio.us than the reft, might conceive, that, to lie in a Church, and be feen by the all-believing eyes of tlie FJait^ifuI, a little. coloured glais was jufli as good as any precious ftone, and wifely have converted the originals tg Ibme better purpofe. If fo, it will be fome confolation to Holy Motlier Church to refk£t, that ihe has bilked ,tlie Sans-culottes, who certainly have got poiTeffion of Saint Thomas a Becke t's faG.er dotal petticoats > and, if they have been found enough to Hand the cutting, have, byvthis time, converted tliem. into comfortable can^jaigning breeches. O moa-ilrous! wicked! abominable !—that'the RuyiüiMARy, After tQ the great Emperor Charles the Fifth, fliould, fo long ago as the Reformation, have bought at an immcnfe price, and depofited in the treafury of the Church of our Lady the bleifed Virgin Mary, the veftments of a Saint, only to make breeches,, in the year 1794, for a French foldier ! The time has been, that the bare fuggeftion of fuch facrilege would have turned the brain of half the people, of Chriflendom : but thofe things are now better managed. Of the tombs in this Church, I Hiall only mention two», as diflinguifiied from the reft by their colUinefs, magnificence and antiquity. They are made of copper, well guilt. One of them is the tomb of Mary, heirefs to the Ducal Houfe of Burgundy j and and'the other, thit of Charles (commgnly called the Hardy)^ Dwke of; Burgundy, her, father. In Bruges there were four great Abbeys, and an. amazing number of Convents and Nunneries. The buildings, I prefume» yet ftand; but there is little doubt that their contents, of every kind, have been, before this, put in requifition, and each part of them, of courfe^ applied to its natural ufe^ The. Church once belonging to the Jefuits, is built in a noble ftylc of architecture : and that of the Dominicans has not only its external merits, but its internal value j for, befides the ufual fuper-abundance of rich chalices, &c. it poifefies fome very great cu-riofities— As, firft, a, very curious, highly wrought pulpit—beautiful in itfelf, but. remarkable for the top being fupported by wood, cut out, in the moA natural, deceptive manner, in the form of ropes, and which beguile the fpečt^tor the more into a belief of its reality,, becaufe it anfwers the purpofes of ropes. Secondly, a pidture—and fo extraordinary a piflure ! Before I defcribe it, I muft apprife you that your faith muft be almoft .as great fis that of a Spanifli Chriftian to believe mc—-to believe that the human intellečt ever funk fo low as, in the firft inftance, to conceive, and, in the next, to harbour and admire, fuch a piece. But I miftake—it has its merit j it is a curiofity—the. Demon of Satire himfelf could not wifla for a greater. This This pifture, then, is the reprefentatlon of a Marriage!— but of whom? why, truly, of Jesus Christ with Saint Catharine of Sienna. Obferve the congruity—Saint Catharine of Sienna lived many centuries after the tranflation of Jesus Christ to Heaven, where he is to fit, you know, till he comes, to judge the quick and the dead!—But who marries them? In truth. Saint Dominic, the patron of this Church! The Virgin Mary joins their hands—that is not amifs—But, to crown the whole. King David himfelf, who died fo long before Christ was born, plays the harp at the wedding I My dear Frederick, I fliall take it as no fmall inflance of your dutiful opinion of me to believe, that fuch a pičture exifted, and made part of the holy paraphernalia of a Temple confecrated to the worfliip of the Divinity: but I afiure you it is a fačt; and as I have never given you reafon to fufpečl my veracity, I expedl you to believe me in this inftance, improbable though it feems: for fuch a farrago of abfurdities, fuch a jumble of incongruities, impoffibilities, bulls and anachronifms, never yet were com-prefled, by the human imagination, into the fame narrow compafs. I protračl this Letter beyond my ufiial length, on parpofe to conclude my account of Bruges, and get once more upon the road. The Monaftery of the Carthufians, another Order of Friars, is of amazing fize, covering an extent of ground not much lefs than a mile in circumference. The Carmelites, another Order, have Iiave a Church here, in which there is raifed a beautiful monument, to the memory of Henry Jermyn, Lord Dover, a Peer of England—But the Monaftery called the Dunes, a fed of the Order of Saint Barnard, is by far the nobleft in the whole city : the cloifters and gardens are capacious and handfome; the apartment of the Abbot is magnificent and ftately, and thofe of the Monks themfelves unufually neat. Thofe poor mortified penitents, fe-cluded from the pomps, the vanities and enjoyments of life, and their thoughts, no doubt, refling alone on hereafter, keep, never-thelefs, a fumptuous table, fpread with every luxury of the feafon—have their country-feats, where they go a-hunting, or to refrefli themfelves, and aftually keep their own coaches. Among the Nunneries there are two Englifh: one of Au-guftinian Nuns, who are all ladies of quality, and who entertain ftrangers at the grate with fweetmeats and wine j the other, called the Pelicans, is of a very ilričt Order, and wear a coarfe drefs. To conclude—In the Chapel of Saint Basil is faid to be kept, in perfečl prefervation, the blood which Joseph of Are-methea wiped off with a fponge from the dead body of Christ^ Finis coronat opus. I fancy you have, by this time, had as much of miracles as you can well digeft: I iherefore leave you to reflečt upon them^ and improve. LETTER Vin. As I was going to the berque, at Bruges, to take my dcpartiare for Ghent, the next town in my route, I was furprlfed to fee a number of officious, bufy, poor fellows, crowding round my efTečts, and feizing them—fome my trunic, fome my portmanteau, &c. I "believe two or three to each : but my aftonifliment partly fubfided when I was told that they were porters, who plied on the canal, and about the city, for fubfiftence, and only came to have the honour of carrying my baggage down to the veflel. Noting their eagernefs, I could not help fmiling. I know there are thofe, and I have heard of fuch, who would blufler at them: but my mirth at the buftling importance which the poor fellows afFečted, foon funk into ferious concern j I faid within myfelf, " Alas, how hard mufl; be your lot indeed!" and my imagination was in an inftant back again in London, where a porter often makes you pay for a job, not. in money only, but in patience alfo, and where the furlinefs of independence fcowls upon his brow as -he does your work. Every one of my men demanded a remuneration for his labour : one man could have eafily done the work of five- hut but I refolved not to fend them away difcontented: he is but a fordid churl that would; and I paid them to their full fatisfaftion. Here, my dear Frederick, let me offer you (fmce it occurs) iny parental advice on th,is point—from the prai^lice of which yoa will gain more folid felicity than you can poflibly be aware of now: never weigh fcrupuloufly the value of ^the work of the Poor; rather exceed than fall fliort of rewarding it: it is a very, very fmall thing, that will put them in good humour with you and with thernfelves, and relax the hard furrows of labour into the foft fmile of gratitude—a fmile which, to a heart of fenfibility fuch as your's, will, ofitfelf, ten-thoufand-fold repay jou, even though the frequent pra£tice of it fhould abridge you of a few of thofe things called pleafures, or detračt a little from the weight of your purfe. Being again feated in my berque, I fet off for Ghent, a city lying at a diftance of twenty-four miles from Bruges. I mufl here remark to you, that the company one meets in thofe veffels is not always of the firfl: rank; it is generally of a mixed, motley kind: but to a man who carries along with him, through his travels, a love for his fellow-creatures, and a defire to fee men, and their cuftoms and manners, it is both pleafant and eligible— at leaft I thought it fo, and enjoyed it. There were thofe amongft us who fpoke rather loftily on that fubjedl: I faid nothing; but it brought to my mind a reflexion I have often had occafion to concur in, viz. that a faftidious ufurpation of dignity (happily F denominated denominated ßatdimjs) is the never-falling mark of an upflart or a blockhead. The man of true dignity, felf-erečt and ftrong, needs not have recourfe, for fupport, to the comparative wretch-ednefs of his feilow-creatiire, or plume himfelf upon fpurious fu-periority. You will underftand me, however ! When I fay, " the man of true dignity," I am far, very far, from meaning a lord, a fquire, a banker, or a general officer—I mean a man of intrinfic worth—homo emunčla: naris—one who, in every ftation into which chance may throw him, feels firm in the confcioufnefs of right—who can fee and cherifh merit, though enveloped and concealed behind a {habby fuit of clothes—and who fcorns the blown-up fool of fortune, that, without fenfe or fentiment, witliout virtue, wifdom or courage, prefumes to call himfelf great, merely becaufe lie pcfTeiTes a few acres of earth which he had neither the induftry nor merit to earn, or becaufe his great-great-great-grandfather purchafed a title by perfidy to his Country, the plunder of his fellow-citizens, or the flaughter of mankind. Although the face of that part of the Country through which we are now paffing, like that of the preceding ftage from Oftend to Bruges, wants diverfity, it has its charms, and would be particularly delightful in the eye of an Englifh farmer; for it is covered with the thickeft verdure on each fide of the canal, and the banks are decorated all along by rows of ftately trees, while the fields in the back ground are cultivated to the highefl degree of per-fečlion, and bear the afpeft of producing the moil abundant harveft. You You will be able to form a judgment of the trifling cxpence of travelling in this Country, from my expences in this ftage of twenty-four miles. I had an excellent dinner for about fifteen pence of our money ; my paflage coft me but fixteen more, amounting in all to two fhillings and feven pence : compare that with travelling in England, where one cannot rife up from an indifferent dinner, in an Inn, under five Hiillings, at the leafl, and you muft be aftoniflied 'at the difproportion. Ghent,, is the capital of Flanders, and is to be^ reckoned among the largeft cities of Europe, as it covers a fpace of grpund of not lefs than feven miles in circumference j but there is not above one half of that occupied with buildings, the greater part being, thrown into fields, gardens, orchards, and pleafiire-grounds;. Situated on four navigable rivers, and interfered into no fewer than twenty-fix iflands by a number of canals, which afford an eafy, cheap and expeditious carriage for weighty merchandile, it may be confidered, in point of local advantages for commerce, fuperior to moft cities in Europe; while thofe iflands are again united, by about a hundred bi'idges, fome great and foine fmall, which contribute much to the beauty of the city. To a man accuftomed to mould his thoughts by what he fees in Great Britain, the ftrong fortifications that furround almofl: all towns on the Continent convey the moft difagreeable fenfations-— reminding him of the firfi: mifery of Mankind, War !—denoting, alas ! too truly, the difpofition of Man to violate the rights of his F 2 fellow- fellow-creatures, and manifeftihg the tyrannovis abufe öf "power. On me, though träined and accuftomed to militai-y habits» this "'dreadful riote of preparation" had an uhpleafing T^ß'ed; for> though born, bred and habitüated to the life of the Soldier, I fihd the feelings of the Citizen and the Man claim a paramount right to my heart. Ghent was once extremely wdll fortified, and calculated, by nature as well as by art, to repel encroachment. It had a very 'ftrong caftle, walls and ditches i and now, though not other wife 'flrong, the country may, by (hutting up the fluices, be, for above a mile round, laid in a very fliort tini'e under water.' It 'was formerly fo populous and powerful, that it declared war more than once agäinfl: its Sovereign, and raifed amazing armies. In the year 15S7, 'it fuffered dreadfully from all the ravages of famine, under which a number not lefs than three thoufand of its inhabitants 'periftied in one week. This town is diftinguiflied by the nativity of two celebrated 'charačlers: one was the famous John of Gaunt, fon of King Edward the Third of England > the Other, the Emperor Cii'arles the Fifth, who was born there in the year'150c. It was in this city that the Confederation of the States, well 'known under the title'of the Pacification of Ghent, which united the Provinces in the nioll lafting union of intereft and laws, was held: this union was chiefly owing to the 'vigorous, unremitted efforts of William the Fir'ft, Prince of Orange, to whofe / whoib valour and virtue may be attributed the independence of the United States. Ill this city there were computed to be fifty companies of Tradefmen, among whom were manufactured a variety of very curious and rich cloths, ftuffs, and filks: it is certain, that the woollen manufacture flourifhed here before it had made the fmalleft progrefs in England, whofe wool they then bought. There was alfo a good branch of linen manufačture here, and a pretty briik corn trade, for which it was locally well calculated. You will obferve, once for all, that in fpeaking of this Country, I generally ufe the paft tenfe for, at prefent, they are utterly undone. Ghent was the See of a Bifliop, who, like the Bifhop of Bruges, was Suffragan to the Archbifliop of Mechlin. Thus, in moft Chrifliian Countries, are the intellečts, the confciences, and the ca/h too, of the People, ffhut up and hid from the light, by Prieft within Dean, and Dean within Bifliop—like a ring in the hand of a conjurer, box within box—till at laft they are enveloped in the great receptacle of all deception, the capacious pocket of the Arch-bifhop. Let not fceptered Tyrants, their legions, their fcafFolds, and their fwords, bear all the infamy of the llavery of Mankind ! Opinion, opinion, under the management of fraud and impofturc, is the engine that forges their fetters ! !—Jansenius, from whom the Janfenifts took their name, was the firft Billiop of this place j and the late Bifliop, I think, may be reckoned the laft. TiiC i' The Municipal Government of this city is corrcft, and well calculated to fecure internal peace and order. The chief magi-ftrate is the High Bailiff; fubordinate to whom are Burgomafters, Echivins, and Counfellorsl Ghent is not deficient in ftately edifices; and, true to their fyftem, the Holy Fathers of the Church have their fliare, which, in old PopIlK Countries, is at leaft nineteen twentieths. In the middle of the town Is a high tower, called Bclfort tower ; from whence there is a delightful profpcčl over the'whole city and its environs. Monafteries and Churches, there, are without number; befides hofpitals and market-places : that called Friday's market, is the largell of all, and is adorned with a lUtue of Charlks the Fifth, in his imperial robes. The Stadthoufe is a magnificent ftru^lure—So is the Cathedral» under which the Reverend Fathers have built a fubterraneous Church. What deeds are thofe which vlhun the light! Why tliofe Holy Patriarchs have fuch a de-fire for burying themfelves, and working like moles under ground, they themfelves bell: know, and I think it, is not difficult for others to conjefture. j This Cathedral, however, is well worth attention, on account of fome capital pičlures it contains. The marble of the C'^iurch is remarkably fine, and the altar-piece fplendid beyond all poilir-ble dcfcription; and, indeed, in all the others, there are paintings, eminent for their own excellence, and for the celebrity of .the mafters who painted them. In 'In the Monaftery of St, Pierre, there is a grand library, filled with books in all languages;' but it is chiefly remarkable for the fuperlative beauty of its ceiling, one half of which was painted by Rubens. Thus you may perceive, my dear Frederick, the charity of the Clergy !—how, in pure pity for the fins of Mankind, and in paternal care of their fouls, they exačt from the Laity fome atonement for their crimes, and conflrain them at leaft to repent—and, with unparalleled magnanimity, take upon themfelves the vices, the gluttony, the avarice, and the fenfuality, of which they are fo careful to purge their fellow-creatures! LETTER IX. H AVING given you a general outline of the city of Ghent, I fliall now proceed to give you an account of one of the mofi: excellent, and certainly the moft interefting, of all the cu-riofities in that place. It is indeed of a fort fo immediately cor-refpondent to the moft exalted fenfations of humanity, and fo perfedtly in unifon with the mod exquifitely fenfible chords of the feeling heart, that I refolved to refcue it from the common lumber of of che place, and give it to you in a frefli Letter, when the ideas eijfcited by my former might have faded away, and left your mind more clear for the reception of fuch refined impreffions. On one of the many bridges in Ghent ftand two large brazen images'of a father and fon, who obtained this diftinguiilied mark of the admiration of their fellow-citizens by the following incidents ; Both the father and the fon" were, for fome offence againft the State, condemned to die. Some favourable circumftances appearing on the fide of thevfon, he was granted a. remiflion of his fliare of the fentence, upon certain provifions—in fliort, he was offered a pardon, on the mofl: cruel and barbarous condition that ever entered into the mind of even Monkifli barbarity, namely, that he would become the executioner of his father ! He at firll refolutely refufed to preferve his life by means fo fatal and detefl-able : This is not to be wondered at; for I hope, for the honour of our nature, that there are but few, very few fons, who would not have fpurned, with abhorrence, life fuftained on conditions fo horrid, fo unnatural. The fon, though long inflexible, was at length overcome by the tears and entreaties of a fond father, who reprefehted to him, that, at all events, his ^(the father's) life was forfeited, and that it would be the greatefl poflible confolation to him, at his laft moments, to think, that in his death he was the inftrument of his fon's prefervation. The youth confented to adopt the horrible means of recovering his life and liberty : he lifted the axe; axe; but, as it was about to fall, his arm funk nervelefs, and the axe dropped from his hand ! Had he as many lives as hairs, he would have yielded them all, one after the other, rather than again even conceive, much lefs perpetrate, fuch an ačt. Life, liberty, every thing, vaniflied before the dearer Interefts of filial affedlion; he fell upon his father's neck, and, embracing him, triumphantly exclaimed, " My father, my fatlier ! we will die together!" and then called for another executioner to fulfil tlie fentence "of the law. Hard muft be their hearts indeCid, bereft of every fentiment ot" virtue, every fenfation of humanity, who could ftand infenfible fpeäators of fuch afcene-—A fudden peal of involuntary applaufes, mixed with groans and fighs, rent the air. The execution was fufpcndedi and on a fimple reprefentation of the tranfadtion, botli were pardoned: high rewards and honours were conferred on the fon; and finally, thofe two admirable brazen images were railed, to commemorate a tranfadion fo honourable to human nature, and tranfmit it for the inflručtion and emulation of pofte-rity. The ftatue reprefents the fon in the very adt of letting fall the axe. Lay this to your mind, my dear Frederick: talk over it to your brother; indulge all the charming fympathetic fenGi-tions it cooimunicates: never let a miftaken fliame, or a falfe idea (which fome endeavour to imprefs) that it is unmanly to melt at the tale of woe, and fympathize with our fellow-creatures, G flop ftop the current of your fenfibility—no f Be afliired, that, on the contrary, it is the true criterion of manhood and valour to feel; and that the more lympathetic and fenfible the heart is, tlie more nearly it is allied to the Divinity. I am now on the point of conducing you out of Auftrian Flanders—One tow^n only, and that comparatively a fmall one, lying between Us and Brabant: the name of this town is Alort, or, as the Flemings fpell it, Aelll:. From Ghent to BrufTels (the next great ftage in my way), I found, to my regret, that there was no conveyance by water: I therefore was obliged to go in a voiture, and ftopt at Aloft, as an intermediate ftage; and mathematically intermediate it is—for it lies at etjual'diftance from Ghent and Bruffels,beingexadlly fifteen miles fi-om each. This is a fmall, but exceeding neat town, fituated on the river Dender ; and being a remarkably great thoroughfare, accommodations of every kind are tolerably good in it. It would be idle to fuppofe, that Catholic zeal had left fo many fouls unprotečled and undifciplined, where there were fo many bodies capable of drudgery to pay for it. In truth, there has been as ample provifion made for the town of Aloft in the way of facerdotal bufinefs, as for any other town in the Netherlands—regard being had to its bulk i for there were feveral Convents of Friars, and of courfc fcveral of Nuns; befides, there was a Jefuit's College of fome note. note. How they all fare by this time, it is difficult for mc to de^ termine. . - ' The Church of Saint Martin could boaft of feme excellent pičlures, particularly a moft capital piece, " La PeßeJ' by Rubens. In a Convent inhabited by a fet of Monks, denominated Gu-Uelmite, I faw the tomb of Thierry Martin, who firft brought the art of Printing from Germany to that place. His name and fame are tranfmitted to us by an epitaph upon his tomb, written by his friend, the ingenious Erasmus, i i This tomb of Thierry Martin ftands a, monument, not only of his merit, but of the fhort-fightednefs and folly even of Monks. Alas, filly men ! they little knew, that when they granted Thierry Martin the honours of the Convent, they were harbouring, in their hallowed ground, one of their greatefl enemies, and commemorating the man who was contributing to the overthrow of their facred Order: for the art of Printing, wherever it reached, illuminated the human mind, and firfl kindled up that light, before which Prieftcraft, and all its pious impoftures, like evil fpečtres, have vaniflied. To the art of Printing is human fo-ciety indebted for many of the advantages which it pofTeiTes beyond the brute or favage tribes—for the perfeilion of arts, the extenfion of fcience, the general enlargement of the mind, and, above all, for the emancipation of perfon and property from the fliackles of defpotifm, and of the human intelleČt from the fet- 0 2 ters rcfs df blindhefs and ignorance with whicli'iäcenlotAl fiuud-had chained it for centuries to the earth. i The territory of this City is>of pretty large extent, and is called a County, having, in ancient times, had Couiits of äts own j and the whole of it is extremely fruitful in pafture, corn, hops, flax, and moftiother productions of thofe climes. ■ j I made but a very fliort ftay at Aloft, when I proceeded on to Bruffels ; and, having thus brought you through that part of the Netherlahds called Aullriaa Flanders, I think I ought to give you a general account of the Country;at large, as I have hithjerto confined myfelf merely to the cities and tovvns of it; but as this Letter is already of a length that will not allow of any great addition, I fhall poftpone my intended defcription to my next. L E T T E R X. t .'i ' ' . - - i_ ■ ■ - ■_ i ^ Wkkb Mankind to be guided by moderation, reafon, and juftice—were there no luft for territory in particular States— I J no ambition or defire in Kings for an undue enlargement of their power-—no unjuflifiable infračlions attempted by one State or Potentate upon the peace and poflefiion of another—no Armies to carry carry defotatioii' and plunder through the world, nor Churchmen more -^mild, but not more moderate, to drain them with their fubtle deceptions—were the hufbandman, the fifliennan, the manufadlurer, and the labourer, permitted to make, by their indullry, the beft ufc of the foil on which chance or nature had planted tliem, and to lift the fruits of their labour to their own lips—no people were more happy than the inhabitants of Au-ftrian Flanders. This Country is bounded, to the North, by the Scheldt; to the North-weft, by the Northern Sea; to the South, and South-weft, by Artois, «ne of the fin^H Provinces of France; and to the Eaft, by Brabant. Its greateft length is feventy-five miles; and its greatcft breadth, fifty-five. The air is good; but it is faid to be better in proportion as it recedes from the fea. The Winters are fometimes long and fevere, and the Summers fometimes wet and fultry; yet, in general, the climate is agreeable. The foil is in mofl parts fertile, and in fome to a degree equal to that of any part of Europe. It is chiefly famous for its pafturage in ccnfequence of which, great numbers of black cattle, horfes and flieep, are -bred in it, and immenfe quantities of butter and cheefe made-It is, befides, abundantly produčlive of all forts of culinary vegetables—fruit in great quantities—corn and flax, which laft is not only raifed in great plenty, but is celebrated for the finenefs and ftrength of its ftaple. It is true, that in fome parts they have not corn fufficient for the inhabitants; but this is well recompenfed by by other produčtions, with the redundance of which they purchafc the fuperiluous grain of their neighbours—for, where the inhabitants do follow tillage, the produce is unequalled, and the fuper-fluity muft of courfe be gi-eat. The fiiperior fecundity of the Hieep of this Country is very remarkable, and difficult, perhaps, to be accounted for—a ewe here bringing forth conftantly three lambs at a birth, fometimes four, fometimes five, and fome have been known to produce as many as fix and feven—no fmall inftance of the prodigality of Nature in providing for this fpot, , , ' At fome diilance from the fea-coafl, the face of the Country is decorated with a profufion of wood, fitted either for timber or for fuel J and towards the coaft, where Nature has been rather niggard of that bleffing, the inhabitants fubftitute, in its ftead, for fuel, a kind of turf, v/hich they find at the depth of four or five feet from the furface of the earth, and which makes a fire, not only cheerful, pleafant and hot, but remarkably wholefome, being free from the deftručtive fulphureous and bituminous vapour attendant upon coal. Perliaps no part of the world is better fupplied than this Province with all forts of filh, as well thofe of fea as frefli water : fowl and venifon were extremely plenty and reafonable and a great deal of excellent beer was brewed in it. It is waflied by feveral jivers, four of which are noble {Ireams, namely, the Scheldt, the Lys, Lys, the Scarpa, and the Dender; and there are feveral canals^ the chief of which is that between Bruges and Ghent. Thus, in whatever way it be confidered. Nature fcems to have made ample proviiion for the happinefs of the People : how far tliey are fo, you fliall hear when I come to give a general view of the Netherlands—that which is applicable to Auftrian Flanders being equally lb to all the other parts of the Netherlands, excepting thofe under the dominion of the Republic of the United States. The States of this Country, according to the Conflitution it once poffeflcd, confifts of the Clergy, the Nobility, and the Commoners. The Clergy were the Biihops and Abbots: the Nobility was compofed of certain families holding hereditary Offices or Baronies, to which that privilege was annexed ; and the Commoners were made up of the Burgomafters, Penfioners and Deputies of the Cities and Diftrifts. But the only religion profefled or tolerated in this Country, was the Roman Catholic. Of the People of Auflrian Flanders, a celebrated Author gives the following account, which I tranfcribe for your ufe, the rather as my ftay there was too fhort to enable me to make any material obfervations on them, or their manners.— " With refpedt to the perfons and charačters of the inhabitants," fays he, " they are, generally fpeaking, lufly, fat, and clumfy— " very induflrious, both in cultivating their lands, and in their " trades and manufactures—lovers of Liberty, and enemies to " Slavery—and not defcdive in good fenfe or judgment, though they " they have not fo lively an imagination as fome other Nations, « Their women are fair, handfome enough, and honefl by their " natural conftitution, as well as from a principle of virtue: as " they cannot pretend to wit and repartee, they do not make " themfelves ridiculous by the naufeous affectation of them. Both " fexes are great lovers of public diverfions j and every city, town, " and village, have their kermifles, or fairs, in which all forts of " fhews are exhibited." Many arts which now enrich other Nations, and the importance of which has excited contefts and ftruggles of the moll feriouü kind in the political world, were invented or improved in that Country. Weaving, in general, tliough not invented, was greatly improved ; and the art of forming figures of all forts in linen was firft invented there. To the Flemings we are alfo indebted for the arts of curing herrings, dying cloths and fluffs, and oil-colours. But thofe arts, and the manufactures, have gradually Aid away from them, and left but a fmall fliare behind, when compared with their former flouri/liing ftate : they have flown to a Land of Liberty and Security, where hoilile feet never tread, where Slavery corrupteth not, where War devoureth not, nor Priefls nor Defpots break in and ileal. Neverthelefs, filk, cotton and woollen llulfs, brocades, camblets, tapeftry, linen, and lace, are ftill manufactured here to fome fmall extent. This Province had Counts of its own, from the ninth century up to the year 1369, when it was made over, by marriage (like a farm a farm of cattle) to the Dukes of Burgundy; and afterwards, again, was by them made over, in like way of marriage, to the Houfe of Auflria. In 1667, France feized the Southern part j and the States General obtained the Northern, partly by the Treaty of Munfter, and partly by the Barrier Treaty of 1715. To reckon upon the natural endowments of this Country, one would fuppofe that it ftiould be a tcrreftrial paradife: yet fuch is the wickednefs of Man, and the outrageous fpirit of Power, that it is almoft the laft Country in Europe in which I would have property, and fix a permanent refidence. Juft now, while I am writing, I have before me an account, that the French, to whom they opened their gates, have plundered them to the laft atom of their moveable polTeflions ; and that the property of the unfortunate people is now in waggons, on its way to Paris. Once more, my boy, I fay, blefs your God, that planted you in a Country cheered by the voice of Freedom, defended by Britifh Valour, andt what is of more confequence, furrounded by the Ocean. H LETTETl LETTER XL Having conducted you through that part of the Netherlands called Auftrian Flanders, we are now to direčt our attention to that called Auftrian Brabant, of which part, as well as of the Netherlands in general, Bruflels, where I arrived the fame day I left Ghent, is the capital, giving its name to a quarter or territory that furrounds it. Li all parts of the Netherlands through which I travelled, I could not help admiring the uniform decorations of the roads, rivers and canals, with rows of lofty trees, which form a moft agreeable fhade from the Summer's burning fun, and yet do not obftručt any great extent of profpečt, the Country is fo extremely flat. And one thing I remarked, and which certainly feems at firll view extraordinary, is, that in the great extent of Country through which we have hitherto pafled, from Oftend to Brulfels, being fixty-eight miles, I fcarce faw one Nobleman or Gentleman's feat—nothing above the houfe of a hufbandman, a curate, or fome perfon of fmall fortune : and yet tiie Country is extremely ricli; and I faw many fpots, as I went along, charming beyond defcription, defcription, and fuch as would tempt, I fliould think, a man of tafte and opulence to fettle in them. This muft appear unaccountable to thofe who do not recollečt, that in a Country fubjeft like this to the ravaging incurfions of contending armies, fortified towns are confidered as the moft pleafing, becaufe the moil fecurc retreats of opulence. As I approached the city of Bruflels, I was ftruck with a mixed fenfation of furprife and delight at the appearance it made -—none that I had ever feen being comparable to it, and not one in Europe, by the account of travellers, being in that refpečl fu-perior to it, Naples and Genoa only excepted: like them, however, it, when entered, falls far fliort of the expedation raifed by its external appearance, being all compofed of hills and hollows, which not only fatigue, but render the appearance of the ftreete, though well built, contemptible and mean. Bruflels flands on the beautiful little river Senne, on the brow of a hill. The city is about feven miles in circumference, has feven gates, with extenlive fuburbs, and is encompafTed with a double wall made of brick, and ditches ; but its fizc is too great for ftrcngth, as a face of defence of fuch extent could not poflibly hold out a long fiege—a great and infupcrable defečt in fuch a country as I have defcribed. Great as is the extent of ground on which this city ftands, it is neverthelefs very well built, and extremely populous. It is ornamented with no fewer than feven fquares, all of them remark- H 2 ably ably fine, particularly the great fquai-e or market-place, whidi is reckoned to be perhaps the fineft in,Europe. Around it are the halls of the different trades, the fronts of which are adorned, in a fuperb manner, with emblematical fculpture, with gilding, and a variety of Latin infcriptions. One quarter of this fquare is entirely occupied by the town-houfes, a noble pile of building, in which there were apartments where the States of Brabant met, finely adorned with tapefl:ry in gilt frames, and fome admirable original paintings. At the time I was there, the whole city was in motion, preparing for the Inauguration of the Emperor, who was then impatiently expedled, and whofe approach made fuch a buftle, and promifed fuch a fpeftacle, as made me regret the necefJity I lay under of proceeding on my journey. The town-houfe was put into the highefl order, and fubfequently fell a facrifice to the great and important event for which it was prepared. The fbeeple of this building is of a mofl flupendous height— three hundred and fixty-four feet j and on the top of it is ereded a ftatue of Saint Michael killing the Dragon, of the enormous height of feventeen feet: this Coloflal flatue is fo coiiflručled as to ferve for a weather-cock; and being made of copper, well gih, is at once confpicuous, magnificent, and ornamental. The public buildings of Bruflels, particularly the Palaces and Courts of the feveral Princes, Counts, and other perfons of diflinc-tion, (and, you may be fure, the Churches and Cloifters too), are fpacious, expenfive, and magnificent. Behind the Imperial Palace, which which flood in the highell pait of the city, but was burnt down many years ago, is a park, well flocked with deer, and planted with trees, like St. James's-park at London, for the inhabitants to walk in. At the farther end of it is a fine pleafure-houfe, built by the Emperor Charles the Fifth, after his abdication. TJie Palace is a magnificent flručlure: the rooms of it are finifhed in a flyle far fuperior to thofe of any Palace in England, and enriched with many fine paintings: that of the Family of Hector, in the Council Chamber, lays claim to the firft rank of eminence. Of the other buildings (the grandeur of which entitle them to the names of Palaces), thofe of the Prince de la Tour and Taxis, and the Britifli Earl of Aylefbury, are diilin-guifhed by great beauty and magnificence. Indeed, in all the Palaces, there are coUečtions of original paintings, by the moft eminent mafters, both Italian and Flemifli. The Royal Library of BrufTels claims particular attention, for the magnitude and liberality of its eflabliihment, containing a gravid collečlion of the moft excellent books in all languages, aiid bci^ig open all the year on Tuefdays, Thurfdays, and Saturdays, to public accefs. The Arfenal of Bruflels is extremely well worth going to fee, on account of die very curious antique arijxs it contains—of which it is, at this diftance of time, inipoffible for me to give you pxy account worth atteiition. The arniour of the Emperor .Charles the Fifth, together with the furniture of his horfe, and ftate fword, arc are fliewn : I could fee notning either novel or interefting in them --^a ftrong mark, I prefame, of my want of tafle ; bnt I confefs my organs are not fo refined as to feel any extraordinary emotions at the fight of a heap of inert matter, merely becaufe it once enveloped the carcafe of a Tyrant: neither were they fo very coarfe or dull as not to. undergo very pointed fenfations at the fight of the armour of Montezuma, the injured Emperor of Mexico, the vičtim of avarice and rapine, under their ufual malk, religion. Why Mo'ntezuma's armour fhould make a part of the trophies of a Popifli State, and be triumphantly exhibited, is hard to account for in human folly : why that fhould be exhibited which is a ftain of the deepeft-damned black, in their black code of faith, is afto-nifhing, unlefs we allow the truth of the old faying, « Quos De us vult perdere, prius dementat and that, after having violated every principle of virtue, morality, and human feeling—after having furpafled in cruelty all that we know of the worft mon-fters of the earth, or of the deep, the fell hyena, or the ravening lliark—after having fuccefsfully emulated the worft efforts of the moft malignant fpirits that are faid to hold counfel for the ruin of Mankind in Hell—they were defirous to tranfmit the fpoils of dieir ravages to pofterity, to tell them what glorious things have been achieved in days of yore, for the love of Christ—to de-monftrate what benefits are to be derived from a religion which has, for fo many hundred years, given fančlion to every enormity that ftrikes the foul of Man with horror, and thereby to make converts converts to their principles. Monfters! fools ! Away with your idle cants, ye hypocrites, who would brand the cruelties of the prefent days, the mafiacres of the Jacobins, with the crime of infidelity, and attribute thofe much lamented defečtions from humanity to a falling off from the Chriftian Faith. Look to Mexico ! —fee a monger, a High Priell of your religion, coltečtlng, by fair promifes and fweet perfuafion, a people round him; and, when a plain was filled, commanding his bloodhounds, armed with fword and crucifix, to fall upon and murder them—becaufe one poor creature, who knew not what a book meant, had accidentally dropped a bible from his hands!—fee him not fparing age or fex, but butchering all, for the love of Christ !—When have the deluded and enfrenzied mob of France perpetrated, in the full torrent of popular frenzy, fuch atrocities as this cruel Priefl; committed in cold blood ? when have they hunted down their fellow-creatures, maffacred children, and given their yet panting members to their dogs for food, as pious Chriflians, headed by a pious Prieft, have done in Mexico? Never! never!—Learn wifdom, then, ye hypocrites ! and if you cannot convince your enemies by rea-fon, or conquer them by force, and if their predatory and wicked progrefs is not to be flopped, do not fandtify their enortnities, or palliate their crimes, in the eye of reafon, by a comparifon with tliofe of a deeper dye : remember, that " not to be the worft ftands in fome rank of praife," and that the Jacobin cruelties of Paris, horrible though they were, were pity and tender mercy, compared with witH the dhriftian 'butchery irt Mexico, in Europe, in Afia, in every place where Popery ever fet its bloödy hoof. You are not, from what I fay, to infer that I entertain any illiberal aniinofity to Popeiy, as many men, and more women, do, n:iercly bccaufe its articles of Faith differ from thöfe in which I was bred; I tVifl my heart and underftanding are above fuch very degrading prejudices: but I abhor everything that militates aga!inft human happinefs-—every thing that cruflies the operations of in-tellečl—every tiling that ftops the current of opiiiion, and prevents its courfe from enlarging and meliorating our condition; I abhor the impertinent and hypocritical intrufion of all Churchmen upon national or domeflic concerns; the more, when that in-truiion is mifchievous; and more ftill, when it affumes the maik of piety—for that is at once a fraud upon Man and an abufe of God. All thofe caufes of abhorrence attach, more or lefs, to all fedts of the Chriftian Religion, the Quakers only excepted—but to Popery rather more than to any of the others ; for it is obferved, that while the very firft principles of Chriflianity, as originally laid down in theory, are peace and good-will towards men, war-fere, perfecution and bloodfhed, have praflically marked its foot-fteps wherever it has trod, and its very elTence been perverted by its own Minifters, who, entrufted with the key of the Temple, fteal the vellments from the altar, to cover the deformed, crooked back of vice. But the rays of dawning reafon now break with fuller light upon Mankind; and it haflens to meridian refplendence, before before which tliofe phantoms raifed by pious jugglers will vanhh, and, " like the bafelefs fabric of a vifion, leave not a wreck behind." LETTER XII. In the Arfenal of Bruflels was another ciirioiity, which I overlooked in my laft—a model of a cannon, conftriidted i"o as to throw feven balls at once. It is fome confolation to p]iilanthropy to reflečl, that of all the abominable engines and iniiniments which the inventive faculties of Man have difcovered to increafe the cruelty and carnage of war, not one has been of late times adopted. This model lies here, therefore, only as a memorial of the diabolical genius of the inventor. " . ■ The Opera-houfe of Bruflels, accounted the-noblefl: and largeft in Europe, is built after the Italian manner, with rows of lodges of' clofets, in moft of which are chimneys. One of thofe, which belonged to a Princc, whofe title I now forget, was hung with look-ing-glaiTes, in which, while he fat by the fire, took refreflimentJ, or reclined on his couch, he could fee the whole reprefentation, witliout being expofed to the view of either the a<[:tors or the audience. I The T'he markets of DruAcls are very remavkiiblc. Tlie Dukes of St. Pierre paid no lefs tiiaii forty thouland florins,, or upwards of tliree tliouland pounds fterling,. for four pictures of them, painted by Rubens and Synder-—Lewis the Fourteenth of France üßered an immenfe funi of money for them; but they found thcii: way at lail into the colleflion of the Britifli Earl of Orford. The value of them is fald, by connoiffeurs, to be beyond computation. BruiTels is extremely well fupplied with waters for, befides tlic river, it has twenty public fountains,, adorned with llatues, at the corners of the moft public llreets,- and the lower part of the city is cut into canals, which communicate with the great one, extending from Bruffels to the Scheldt, fifteen miles by means of this canal, which was finifhed in 1561, and cofi the city eight hundred thoufand Üorins, ^perfon may fail from Brufiels to the North Sea; and barques do actually go twice a day to Antwerp, and back again. This city is full of Churches, of which the moft remarkable i^ that of Saiiit Michael and Saint Gudula, commonly called the Catliedral. It is a fuperb, old Gothic flrucT:ure,, and, from its celebrated fituatioiv, a moil beautiful ornament to the city. It is not only grand in its external appearance, but finely adorned within. The pillars which fupport the roof are lofty and elegant: and againft each is a ftatue of ten feet in height- There are no lefs than fixtcen Chapels in it; and each Chapel is enriched with abundance of fplendid ornaments, altar finery, candlellicks, crucifixes, cifixcs, &c. and with fome excellent plčlures too: a piäure of Jesus Christ prelenting the keys of Paradife to Saint Peter, which is reckoned among the chef-d'oeuvres of Rubens, hangs in one of tliolc Chapels. There are fome monuments, alfo, of very great merit, in the choir of this Church. But that which I think by far the grcateft and moft admii'able curiofity (I mean of human workmanihip) in the Church, is a pulpit—one of the richeft and mofl; exquifitely wrought pieces I have ever fcen: at the bottom are feen Adam and Eve as large as life, reprefented as at t]ie moment when the Angel drove them out of Paradife : in both of their faces are deeply and expreflively marked the traits of a mind agonifed with anguilh and remorfe: behind Eve is a figure of Death, which follows them; and on the top of the pulpit are feen the figures'of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary crufli-ing the head of the Serpent. The ftrong expreilions in the faccs of all thofc figures, and the exqulfite turn of the workmanfliip, is tlie more remarkable, as it is all cut out of oak wood. Of fupernatural curiofities, one of the Chapels in this Cathedral contains fome, that, for miracle, yield to none in the long catalogue of Monkifli devices. Three hofts or wafers are daily worfliipped by the'People; which hofts or wafers, the PrieflE firmly aflert, and the People as firmly believe, were, fo long ago as the year 1369, ftabbed by a Jew, and bled profufely. They are expofed on every feftival, in a chalice richly fet with diamonds ; and on the firft Sunday after every thirteenth of July, 1.2 there there is a yearly proeclTion in memory of this ftabbing and bleeding, when the hofts are carricd in great ftate round the city, em-bellifhed with all manner of precious ftones, and attended by all the Clergy, fecular and regular, the Magiftrates, the Courts of Jufl:ice„ and even by the Governor of the Province: the Chapel where they are kept is of marble, and the altar of lolid filver. Great God ! what an opprobrium to the human underftanding, that, at the time when the mind of Man is fufficiently enlightened to avoid the weaknels of Ihameful credulity, a whole People Ihould (loop to fuch extravagant impofition ! what a fhame to juftice and honefty, that thofe who are trufted to guard the rights of a People, and who certainly are too well informed to yield their belief to llich trafh, fliould yet join in, and give the weight of their authority to fo grofs,. fo wicked a deception on a Community ! Tlie Ma-giilrates, the Courts of Juftice, and the Governor—they walk, too, in company with the bald-pated impoflors—Good God ! can more be faid ? volumes of comment could not elucidate or render it more confpicuoufly abiurd than tlie bare recital of the fačl itfelf. It is impoflible for me to recount to you the number of Nunneries, of various Orders, in which unfortunate women were cloi-ftered up, fome from bigotry, and others by force, in this city. There were, however, two of them Englifli—one of Dominican Ladies, founded by Cardinal Howard, in the reign of Charles the Second, of which a Lady of the Noble Houfc of Norfolk was always. always Abbefs: the other is of Benedičtine Nuns the Beguinage of the latter is like a little town, furrounded with a wall and ditch, and divided into pretty little ftreets, where every Begulne has her apartment the number of them amounts in general to feven or eight hundred, fometimes more. If population be the true ftrength of a Nation, this part of Popery is very impolitic. The fuccelTion of women in this one Convent lince the reign of Charles the Second, muft amount to many thoufands. Had thofe been married, and, on an average, had only two children each, with the childien, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, down to the prefent day, in all the ramifications of defcent, there is not a doubt but their number would equal that of the whole people of fome extenfive Provinces. What, then, mull be the lofs to the population of the earth, arifing from the celibacy of fo many millions of males and females as have been configned to fterllity in "the Catholic Countries, ever fince that extraordinary dočlrine came firft into fafhion ? It is out of the reach of calculation : not but, now and then, they may have children— indeed they certainly have but thofe are generally difpofed of in a way not to bring lliame on the frail Siilerhood, or their Con-feffors. In wading through fuch a torrent of oftenfive ideas as the innumerable abfurdities and deceptions of Popifla Countries continually raile in the mind, it is a pleafing circumftance to be relieved by the contemplation of fome really ufeful, humane inftitution; and and lucli a one prefects itfelf now to my recolledion : At Bruffels, and, I iim told, at all great towns of the Netherlands, there is a public office for lending money at a very moderate interefl npon pledges: it is called the Mount of Piety; and was eftabliflied nearly io8 years ago by the Archduke Albert, and Isabella, his wife. By this inftitiition, the Poor are faved from the fleecings and frauds of Pawnbrokers: and, to render it ftill more perfečl in accommodation, there are private paflages for entrance ; fo that thofe who would willi to conceal their neceffities, are exempted from the mortification of being feen publicly going in, or coming out. You have read, I prefume, that in the days of Heathenifm, the Deities of that curious Mythology were fuppofed to rejoice in the number Three. The Popiih Code has fixed upon Seven as the lucky number. Thus they have feven facraments, feven deadly fins, &c. &c. Bruilels has improved upon that j and, taking the hint from their blelTed Liturgy, has feven grand ftreets j feven parifh-churches; feven Patrician families, out of which the Ma-giftrates are or were elečtedj feven large fquaresj feven midwives, licenfedand fworn by the Senate j and feven gates, leading to feven places of recreation and exercife, one to a place proper for fowling, a fecond to a place for fiiliing, a third to one for hunting, a fourth to pleafant fields, a fifth to pallime grounds, a fixth to fprings and vineyards, and a feventh to gardens. Befides all which ievens, they boaft of having once had the great good fortune of of entertaining, at one time, feven Crowned Heads, with feven thoufand horfe belonging to their retinue. If there were any fpell in the number Seven, the People of Bruflels furely muft have been fecure from all mifchief; but the Sms-cuhttes have broken the charm, difperfed the necromancers, and lowered poor number Seven to its mere arithmetical value. The Inns, or eating-houfes, in this city, were equal to any in the world : a flranger might dine there better and cheaper than in any place, perhaps, on earth. The wines, alfo, were excellent and cheap; and coach-hire beyond expectation reafonable—And here I recollect to remark to you, that, all the way from Oftend to Bruffels, one is obliged to fit, dine, &c.. in bed-chambers j a circumftance which is extremely difcordant to the feelings of thofe wlio have been ufed to Britifli Inns, although the bed-chambers are, to fay the truth, large and commodious. At the very walls of Bruflels begins the famous wood of Sogne, from which the inhabitants were allowed to cut wood for fuel: as faft as the trees were cut down, frefli ones were planted in their flead; by which means the wood was preferved^ and it afforded a continual fupply to the Poor. BruiTels is fo very remarkable a place, that I have taken more than my ufual fcope of defcription of it. Jufl as I had finifhed it, I read a paragraph in the public papers, ftating that it is likely to be annexed to the territories of the French Republic. LETTER Xm. Hitherto, as I have proceeded on my travels, I have been purpofely very particular in my defcriptioiis of the towns through which I paffed on my way to India, in order to give your mind a dilpofition to inquiry, and point out to you an overflowing fource of improvement and delight. Having fo far fliewn you how amply you will be rewarded, even in amufement, by the trouble of fearching into books, for the accurate topographical defcriptions of towns, cities, building, &c. &c. I think I may fpare myfelf that labour for the future, and confine myfelf to thofe points that more immediately apply to the enlargement of the mind—I mean, the government, laws, manners and charačter of the People of each Country; and only ufe the former as fubfer-vient to the latter purpofe, at leaft until I come to thofe places where, the ground being but little trodden by Britifli feet, more precife defcription may become neceflary. But, before I leave the Netherlands, I muft make a few remarks upon the Country and People, which it would be unpardonable in me to omit, after having been already fo minutely particular in things of inferior merit to the fcope of my plan. Although Although perlbnal appearance be, in the eye of Moral Philoib-phy, a very inferior confideration, and mind the proper fludy of Man; yet, in defcribing a People, I cannot think it altogether unneceffary to include their perfonal appearance, as it will be found that there exifts a greater analogy between the perfon and tiic mind of Man than is generally perceived. Thus the lively hilarity, the reftlefs a£tivlty, the levity and fantaftic character of the French, arc ftrongly pourtraycd in the national perfon. In like manner, the lufty, fat, clumfy and misfliapen perfon of the People of the Netherlands, is flrrongly illullrative of the temper and habit of their mind, intellects and fpirits: induftrious and heavy; dull of underftanding, but not defedive in judgment; flow in work—-but, perfevering in effort, and unerring in the pi'ocefs, they are generally fuccefsful in the end: in war, cold and backward at offenfive operations, but inflexible and terrible in refinance; like the boar of the foreft, they feek not the combat with any, but will not go out of their way to decline it with the moft powerful: their appetites and defires cooler than other Nations., but lefs fub-ječi to change or caprice: never violently in love, but rationally attached to their wives; and both men and women faithful to their conjugal vow, as well from natural temperament, as from a principle of virtue. Thus conlHtuted by Nature, the effečts of their induftry are wonderful in every thing, but chiefly in their canals and fluices, which ferve not only for the fupport of their commerce, and the K facility Ucility of intercourfe, but for their defence agalnft enemies; this was in other times; but, alas! the former of thefe ufes, commerce, has fo entirely abforbed all their intellečl, and pofTelTcd their very fouls, that they feem almoft entirely negligent of the latter; and from being, of all People, the mofl wife and vigilant in determining and afcertaining their rights, the moft zealous afierters and defenders of their independence, the moft ardent friends to Liberty, and the moft determined enemies to Slavery, they are become a fort of ftrange, inconiiftent, hotch-potch pohticians, whom ingenuity itfelf would find a difficulty in defcribing. They retain fo much of their ancient and noble vigilance as ferves to make them fufpi-cious—fo much of their independence as difpofes them to change—fo much of their jealoufy as ftimulates them to refinance—but not one particle of their former wifdom, to inflručt them where they fliould attach themfelves, where refift, or where refolve to ačt—nor of their courage to carry any refolution they might form into efFečt. In the year 1781, the Emperor Joseph the Second came to j^ruflels, in order to indulge his paternal feelings as a Monarch with the contemplation and view of his Subjedls, and alfo to be inaugurated; and perhaps upon no occafion that has ever occurred in the moft volatile Nation, was there greater joy more univer-fally exprefled. For fome time before his arrival, the whole Country was in motion; and, even with them, domeftic induflry Hopped its ufual perfevering pace, fufpended in the eager, anxious expectation cxpedtadon of his arrival. Every thing in the birth, education, natural difpofition and perfon of the young Emperor, united to imprefs his Subječls with the moft exalted opinion of his goodnefs, and to infpire all ranks of people v^'ith the moft fortunate prefages of a virife and beneficent government. Nor did he difappoint them: his condučl, when among them, is handed over to remembrance, by a variety of ads of benevolence and condefcenfion, which fliewed that the grandeur of the Monarch had not made him forget the nature of the Man, and that his heart was better fitted for the mild, domeftic enjoyments of a Subjedt, than the ftern and unbending hardihood fit for a King: for I am perfedtly of opinion with the celebrated Junius, that there are virtues in a private Man which are vices in a King; and that the Monarch of a Country, in order to preferve refpečt, fliould avoid familiarity, and keep his perfon facred from too general obfervation. Shakspeare has put into the mouth of his Henry the Fourth, a beautiful ex-prefTion on this fubjeft, well worth the attention of Kings— « Had I fo lavifli of my pi cfcnce been, " So common hackney'd in the eyes of men, " Opinion, that did help me to the Crown, « Had ftill kept loyal to pofl"eflion, « And left me in reputekfs baniflimeiit, " A fellow of no marJc, nor likelihood. By being feldom feen, I could not ftir, " But, like a comet, I was wonder'd at: " That men would tell their children, This is he." K 2 Of Of the number I have heard, I will mentlan one anecdote only, and one remarkable expreilion of Joseph's, which will ierve to (liew in its true light what his difpolition wasj and when you confider them as the ačl and fentiment of a young man nurfed in the lap of defpotifm and pride, you cannot but confider them as marvellous. In his journey to the Low Countries, he vifited Wurtzaurg; and, in his perambulating alone and i?tcog. flopped at a little public-houfe, where the people were bufily employed in entertaining themfelves: he went in, and Inquired why they were fo merry—" Sir," faid one of the country people, " we are celebrating a marriage." " May 1 be permitted to join the company?" faid the difguifed Emperor. The hoft obtained that per-niifTion for him. When he entered the room, the married couple were prefented to him, and he received them with great gaiety, fat down, drank their health, and, having informed himfelf of their fituation, took leave of the company: but what was their aftonifli-ment, when, on lifting up a bottle of wine, they found a draft for fix hundred florins, figned Joseph, and payable for the ufe of the married couple ! At Luxembourg, when the People called aloud on Heaven to fhower down bleffings on hjm for his affability, he made ufe of this remarkable expreiHon, while his feelings moiflened his eyes: " I wifli I could make you as happy in my care, as I am in your affection !" The The affability of Monarchs has often been magnified by the foolifli, and often blanied by the wife : But, if all the inflances of condefcenfion praftifed by Kings were like that I have recited of Joseph ; if they arofe from a found, unquclHonable fpirit of philanthropy, not from gaping curiofity, broad folly, or a puerile inquißtive habit; and if, inflead of conceiving thofe they vifit paid for their intrufion with the honour of having converfed with Majefty, and leaving them churliflily, they would generoufly pay them with hurd cafh, as the good Emperor Joseph did; then, indeed, their affability might defy the exaggeration of fools, and muft certainly command the applaufe of the wife. On the 13th of July, the ceremony of Inauguration took place at Briiflels. Nothing could equal the fplendour of the place but the general joy of the People: the crowds were beyond all conception immenfe, and every thing was carried on with regularity till evening, when, in playing off fome fire-works, that iioble building the town-houfe took fire, and was burnt: fix unfortunate perfons loft their lives, and twenty were dangeroufly hurted: thofe who periflied were abfolutely roafted, and their cries were beyond defcription piercing. To fuch a temperas Joseph's, you will - readily conclude that this muft be a moft afiiičting cir-cumftance—it was fo; and he left Brnflels under the preffure of very different feelings from thofe with which he entered it, and was followed by the prayers and blefiing of all the People. But But now we are to view the revcrfe of the medal. The found of their prayers for his welfare, and praifes of his goodnefs, had hardly died away upon their lips, ere their minds turned to revolt and rebellion. I will not fay that they were not right in one or other, or which of thofc two extremes: certainly they could not be right in both; much lefs can their fubfequent condud be juf-tiiied, or accounted for, in any principle of human nature, but that of the moft abječt nieannefs, daftardly feeblenefs, and grofs folly. They returned to their allegiance, and befought forgivencfs: that forgivenefs was granted. How they have behaved fince, I have already informed you, (See Letter IV.); and I have now to add, that, pillaged by the French, and likely to be left unprotečled, they have again held their necks out, foUciting the proteöion and the yoke of Auilria, and have adually offered to raife 100,000 men for the Emperor, ^he will again drive the French out of their territories—An excellent word that i f ! How a People, once formed for manly pith and love of Freedom, could bend fo low, is unaccountable. It is a queilion hard to be determined, whether an obllinate adherence even to a bad caufe, is not more refpedtable, than a fickle, alternate derelidlion, and adoption of right and wrong, as it fuits the caprice or convenience of the moment ? Of two things fo very contemptible, I think the former the leaft odious and leaft unmanly. At the fame time, my obfervations on the Country led me to iconceive, that under the name of Freedom, they groaned under the tlie yoke of Tyranny; for, though the Country was, as I have de-fcribed it, charming,, its fecundity unfurpafled, its face decorated with the bell gifts of Providence—I mean, fmiling fields and bleating plains—-though Ceres profufely repaid the labours of the hulhandman, though every field had the appearance of a garden, and though, upon inquiry, I found that land which would bring in England five pounds an acre, rented at eight, nine and ten fliil-lings of our money at moft—yet, in fpife of all this, the farmers were rather poor in general—not even one of them to be found rich or fubftantial, like the middle rank of that clafs of men in England. Thsy wanted the great fllmulus to induftry—fecurity of their property : they were liable to be turned out by their landlords at pleafure, and to be plundered when it diould pleafe fome Monarch to make war. The firft of thefe, however, you will obferve, is not the op-preffion of the Emperor : it is the tyranny of that worft of all con-ftitucnt parts of a State, an Ariftrocracy—-a vile Ariftocracy 1—that univerfal, that every-day defpotifm, under which all places groan, more or lefs—which is exercifed in all the various gradations of life that chequer fociety, from the great man who, under the name of Minifter, domineers over tlie Peer, to the country foxhunting favage, who puts a poor wretch in jail to pine for years,, (his family, the while, fiipported by the partfl^i charity), only for doing that which makes the enjoyment of his own life, killing a partridge or a hare !-—that Ariilocratic tyranny which is feen fcowling icowliivg ou the brows of a fwaggering fellow in power, adopted by his fecretary with increale, by him handed down to an iipflart fet of fellows in ofüce, dependent on his fmile, and by them dif-played in all the naufeous, defpicable forms w^hich awkwardnefa and ignorance, lifted above their ftation, never fail to alfume—the cold referve, the afTeded ftare, the liftlefs nod, the feigned deaf-nefs, blindnefs, abfence, and other tafliionable perfečlions, which ferve as vents for upftart arrogance, and indemnify the fycophant for the vile homage and fubmiffion vvhicli he has before paid fomc wretch mean and arrogant as himfelf!—I tell you, my dear Frederick, it is this Ariftocratic ufurpation of power, where power cxifls not, nor is neceflary—this infulting afiiimption of fupe-riority, this hidden petty opprefTion which rears its head in every manor, nay, almofl every town and village in the Kingdom, that puts the Nations out of tune, mars the harmony of focial arrangement, and renders power in the aggregate obnoxious. Why, our very women have their faucy, AriHocratic, fupercilious front, their haughty ftare, their contemptuous titter and barter the winning foftnefs of the fex, the dimples where the loves üiould dwell, for the haughty tofs of the head, the ill-natured fneer, and the infulting Hedlor's frown—-And thus the fpirit of Ariftocracy, like a poifonous weed, grows and expands from one to the other with baleful luxuriance, gradually overfpreading the whole face of humanity, (lopping the vv^holefome current of tlie focial atmofphere, and and choaking up the lefs rank but more ufeful plants—Thus it goes round in fliamefiil traffic j and, as the Poet fays, " The wh—re flic kicks her cully, « Court-waiters are kiclt'd at call; « We are all klck'd, yet bully " While int'reft kicks the ball." f 1 am perfuaded, that if the grievances of the rnofl defpotic States were fairly eftimated, and afligned to their real authors, the Princes of fuch States would be found refponfible for a very fmall fliare indeed, when compared with the Ariflocracy: and by Anf-tocracy, I mean not merely Lords, but all men who convcrt the wealth which Providence has bellowed upon them to the purpofes of Tyranny, Exactions, Impofition, and Oppreflion—under whicli four heads we will again find, not only imprifonment for begging alms, imprifonment for {hooting a partridge, but often fedučtion, adultery, and perfeaition for refifting or reforting to lawforpunifli-nient of that fedučtion or adultery. Of all thofe things, the proofs, I fear, in all Nations, are abundant: I am fure they are fo in the beft governed State in Europe—I mean, England- « Qui capltj ille facit." I have thrown up a fool's cap: how many are there who will privately put it on ! LETTER XIV. A.S the time of my departure from BrufTels approached, I found the bitter fenlations with which I left London, in fome meafure, returning. iMy fortunate cncountcr with General Lockhart had afforded me a temporary refpite; but now I was once more to face an unknown country alone, without the chance of again meeting a friend to folace my mind, or mitigate iny woe, on this fide of India, Having feen as much of BrulTels as my time and occafions would at all allow, and, in truth, having rather trefpafled on my plan, for the reafons juft mentioned, I determined to pufli forward as foft as it was poflible, and took poft for Liege, where I arrived, after paffing through a beautiful, fertile, well-cultivated country, to the charms of which the renewed agony of my feelings rendered me almoft infenfible. As we have now almoft the whole length of Germany before us to travel through, it will be proper, before I proceed further, to give you a general idea of the Conftitution of this vaft Empire— over all vvhich, while one great Monarch nominally prefides, there are arc fpread a number of petty Potentates, who really rule after as diftinčt forms of Government as ahnoft any two Governments, however remote, in Europe. Confidering the nature of Government abftradledly, one would fuppofe that it aroie from the general will of the Ibciety governed, and was formed for their ufe and benefit alone : but if we view the different fyftems fcattered over the civilized part of the earth, we lliall find that they originated from force and fraud; and that, in their firfl: formation, when bodily prowefs, not intelleöual power, bore fway—when he that could carry the ftrongeft armour, and (hike the heavleft blows, was fure to govern—when mere animal flrength and ferocity difinherited reafon of her rights, and robbed her of that afcendancy to which the invention of gunpowder, aided by the art of Printing, has fmce in fome fort reftored her;—the balls upon which Governments were raifed was, one man, not the whole fociety j the point then was, how this or that flrong ruffian could collečt mofl flaves about him, not how this or that fociety fliould choofe the beft head: if he had lUength to ,carry havo,c through the ranks of their enemies, and then to overawe them-felves, he was fure.jgf dominion over tlie people, and left It to his fon; but if it fo happened that he did not alfo bequeath to him bodily prowefs to prefcrve it, the next flrong ruffian fcized the, reins, flung him from his feat, and kept it till he, or fome one of his heirs, was again ferved fo in his turn by fome other ufurper. Hence arofe the cabals and intrigues of courts, the fpii-it of party, L 2 and ;ind intefline commotion j till at length the People, for their own fecurity, and to avoid the horrors of civil war, made choice (from difmal neceffity) of feme one family to rule them. As focicty advanced, and opulence held forth temptation, fome greater ruffian, followed by a horde of needy, famillied barbarians, made inciirfions on thofe rulers j and being irrefiftible, as well from numbers firmly conneded, as from the powerful impulfe of neceffity, under whofe banners they generally robbed and ravaged, was fubmitted to on terms, and became Lord Paramount of a number of petty Sovereigns, who did homage to him, and fleeced the miferable fubječls, to keep him in humour; and thus, in a feries of time, the power of both took root, and remained immoveable, unlefs when torn up by fome violent tempefl: that convulfed the State, and fhook it to its foundations. Reading this account, you will very naturally exclaim, " Good God! how abfurd! how irrational!" Yet fo it is; and from this» fource, muddy though it be, is modern honour, and modern great-nefs, and modern high blood, derived: from this foul and turbid fountain have moil of the Governments of the world iflued from thofe ftrong men of yore have moft of our modern governors dc-fcended: and as it generally happens (fo equally has Providence diftributed the gifts of Nature) that the ftrength of the intellečtual part is in the inverfe ratio of the animal, perhaps that is the realbn why Monarchs are formed, in general, of greater bodily vigour than mental endowments, and better fitted for the Field than the Cabinet— Cabmet-—and for this reafon are obliged to take from the puifnc ranks of tlieir Subječts fome affiftant, fo far removed from the great ftandard of antique dignity, as to poflefs underftanding enough to govern. Upon a retrofpedtive view of the Hiftory of Europe, it will be found, that for a long time after the birth of Christ, Germany-was divided among fuch petty rulers as 1 have defcribed, who each held his little State in fovereignty, and was called Princeps in Latin, or, in plain EngUfli, Prince. After the downfall of the Weftern Empire, a Nation called Franks, from that part called Francoma, over-run a great part of Gaul and Germany, and in the fifth century took pofleflion of that part of Gaul which lay Nortk of the river Loire. In the year 800, Charlemagne, the fon of Pepin, their King, formed an immenfe Empire in the We/l, comprehending a great part of Germany, France, Italy, and a part of Spain. About eighty years afterwards, the petty Princes of Germany fliook off the French Carlovinian race, and eledled an Emperor of their own from the Houfe of Bavaria. At laft: Henry the Fourth, having difpleafed that grand arbiter the Pope, was put under the ban, and in confequence de-pofed by the States j on which occafion Iiis Holinefs had the addrefs to make that great dignity elective, he having uncontrouled power over the elečtors; fincc which it has continued fo, with fome modifications, and under certain regulations, formed by Charles the Fourth, at the Diet of Nurunberg. The elcčlion, however. however, bus been always fo managed, that it has never departed from the regular line of fucceffion but when there was an ačtual want of heirs. In a Country over which the Pope had fuch influence, it might reafonably be fuppofed that intolerance is carried to a great length ; but it is not ib, as a review of each particular State fliews. The eftabhflied religion, in general, is Popery. Joseph the Second, that good and wife Monarch, difplayed a greater fpirit of toleration than any other Catholic Prince fince Henry the Fourth of France. He was not murdered by a Friar for it, it is true—thofe days of pious barbarity are paft; but he was viüted on the occafion by His Holinefs, who, after a variety of remon-llrances againfl the relaxation he gave to religious feverity in his own dominions, finding liim unmoved by papers, refolved to attack him in perfon: but, whether it was that the pontifical amulet loft its charm when out of the air of^Rome, or that Plis Holinefs was not properly anointed before (like Hecate in Macbeth) he took his flight, or that he forgot fome of thofe relics which were exped:ed to operate on Joseph's mind, fo it was, that the good Emperor continued inflexibly attached to his former refolve j and, after kiffing His Holinefs' toe, and a thoufand other pretty politeneffes, fent him back to Rome again with his finger in his mouth; and a ilory to relate, that would, at one time, have fet all Europe in a flame, and fent the good Monarch, like Henry the Second of England, to lafli himfelf naked naked over the rotten remains of fome vagabond fraudulent Prieft. In the elečtion of Emperor,,the laws of the Empire have laid dawn no qualification but that which ought to be the fine qua non of all Princes, namely, that he be jußiis, bonus, et utilis--Neither have they made any limitation in regard to religion, nation, ftate, or age; neverthelefs, the majority of eleftors being Papifts, a Roman Catholic Prince is always chofen. The rank of the Emperor is very great: he is looked upon by all Crowned Heads as the firft European Potentate; and, as fuch, precedence is always given him and his ainbaffadors : he is the fupreme Head of the German Empire; but his power in the adminiftration thereof is very limited indeed. In ancient times, the Emperor had conüderable domains and incomes; but warfare and prodigality have diffipated the greateft part of them, and tliey have been fucceflively alienated or mortgaged, fo that his revenues were veiy inconfiderable lately, and now, fince the French war, are almofl as nothing. The prefent Emperor Francis found the Empire, when he was eledted, incumbered with difficulties of the moft enormous magnitude—a war on which the exiftence of every Monarchy in Europe Teemed to depend, an exhaufted treafury, and a difpofition to revolt in a part of his dominions, the Netherlands. At this prefent time, his fituation is, beyond that of every other Prince, lamentable almofl all his refources gone, and an Infolent, formidable. midable, triumphant enemy, proceeding and carrying conqueft by rapid ftrides through his Country. He called upon his People to fupport him. The States of the Netherlands, inftead of affift-ing him to ftop the progrefs of the enemy, invited and opened their gates to them, put them in their bofom, and were ftung. Of the other States, fome refufe their aid, while fome have re-courfe to feeble expedients; and, to evade the weight, temporife, procraftinate, and fhuffle, till at length will come the French Army, and force them to do for their enemy ten times more than (if done timely, and with a good grace) might fave the Empire and themfelves. The King of Prussia, one of thofe States, on being called upon, fays he is bufily employed in fecur-ing the plunder of Poland, and cannot come— while the tyger is glutting in the blood of the harmlefs flocks, the huntfmen are coming upon him, to cut him oft. As an Englifhman, zealous for the welfare of my Country, I wifh the King of Prussia may not, by his attention to Poland, facrifice all Germany to the French. As an honeft man, I cannot help entertaining a wifli, that the fcan-dalous and outrageous wrongs done to Poland, and this treachery to the Allies whom he himfelf brought into the prefent difficulties, may be expiated by any calamity, however great, that does not extend to the intereft or wellbeing of Europe. It is a maxim in Courts of Equity, that a man coming to demand redrefs, lliould come with clean hands, and, feeking equity, fliould do equity. This maxim has unfortunately never yet extended to decifions decifions between States: power is their right, and force decides— Yet, in a conteft like the prefent, the very faundation of which is hoftility to Kings, and which is carried on in the twofold way of arms, in the open field and private negociation for infurrečtion; when, for the intereft of the caufe they efpoufe, as well as their own perfonal fafety. Kings fliould affume at once their beft form to appreciate themfelves, and difcredit their enemies in the eyes of Mankind—in fuch a Itate of things, I fay, 'for the King of Prussia and the Empress of Russia to take the part they have done with regard to Poland, is fo extravagant, that we can only account for it in the will of the Almighty predifpofing them for feme extraordi nary crifis. No one would expedl them to depart from their acciiflomed crooked path of policy, if fafety did not loudly call upon theni to proceed in the direčl road. It is monftrous to fee beings endowed with common fenfe, expending themfelves in an unjuft ftruggle for aggrandizement, while the fword of extinftion is fufpended by a hair over their heads. But to return—In this ftate is the young Emperor at this moment, deferted by his People in the Low Countries, unaidedby his Continental Ally, and fupported only by Great Britain. What the iffue may be, God alone can tell: but every one poflefiing a heart of feeling, or- a fmgle fentiment of honour or juftice, muft wiih that young Prince a fortunate delivery from the difficulties which the impolicy and wickednefs of others have led him into, and which the treachery of fome of them make more formidable, if not utterly infuperable. ^ LETTER LETTER XV. The various diftričts or territories into which Germany is divided, go under a variety of deiignations, not known among us as independent titles to power—Principalities, Seigniories, Counties, Electorates, Margravates, and Biflioprics lay and fpi-ritual. Of the lay Biflioprics, Ofnaburg, the Prince Billiop of which is our Duke of York, makes one : and Leige, where we are now arrived, is the territory of a Bifliop lay and fpiritual, or fpiritual and temporal, one of the faireft kind of that clafs—for he pofleffes temporalities, and enjoys them; „whereas their Lordfliips merely fpiritual, enjoy and have the ingratitude and impudence to renounce them: but no matter for that; the Bifliop of Liege pof-fefies a Bifliopric, fruitful in corn, wine, wood and paflure, with air extremely pleafant and temperate; and while the latter gives his terreftrial clay health and appetite, the former afford him the means of preferving the one, and ijidulging the other, with true fpiritual comfort, and high ecclefiaftical voluptuoufnefs. In cafes of repletion, too, the mineral waters of the Bifliopric, particularly the well-known one of Spa, offer their aid; and fome of the beft beer in in the world, which is brewed in thefe territories, diverfifies his fpiritual Lordfliip's cup, and, with its pungent bitter, fends back his palate to his wine with renovated relifh. It is aftoniihing how inconfiftent with themfelves, and how dif-cordant in their conftituent principles, fome very wile inftitutions are. Thus Epifcopacy, and all other branches, pofts or ranks, high or low, coinmiffioned or non-cornmiffioned, of the Church, publicly and iyftematically profefs poverty, abflinence, and an utter indifference to temporal concerns, while their livings are enormous, and themfelves overfed. Nay, fo cautiouHy has ecclefiaf-tical law provided for that, even in our hberal eftablifl^ments, that a Bilhop, at his inflalment, pofitively declares, in the face of God, at the holy altar, that he is averfe to being a Bifliop—nolo Ep/f-copari. Under fuch conditions, what nmü: not the charity, the condefcenfion, the mortifying fubmifTion of a IDivine be, to ftoop to a Bifliopric, and fuffer fuch a heavy load to be heaped upon his back-—againfl his will! Afiuredly, the impofing a Bilhopric upoji him muft be a great a£t of violence on his inclinations: for I cannot think it poffible that a Chriftian Divine would, in the ürü place, commit the crime of fimony by feeking preferment, and gaining it by proftitution; much lefs can I believe that lie would be guilty, at the holy altar, of a folemn ad of p'erjury, by fwear-ingnok Epifcopari, if he was not actually, and bonaßdS, averfe to a. Bilhopric. M 2 The Tlie Blfhop of Liege, however, may be fairly acquitted on the fcore of his temporal half, for the fliare of tranfgreffions committed by his fpiritual half. And unqueftionably, as a Chriltian Divine, he mufl: groan in fpiritual humiliation, when he reflcčls that his title is emblazoned with the gorgeous vanities of Princc of Liege, Duke of Bouillon, Marquis of Franchemont, Count of Looz, &c. Such a fet of proud worldly titles are ofthemfelves fufficient (putting the wine and beer, and repletion, out of the queftion) to annihilate the fpiritual merits of the Bifliop, and expunge the grace of God from his name here, if not from himfelf hereafter. * Of all kinds of Slavery, that Nation groans beneath the worft, which has the name, without the effence, of a free Conflitution i and Germany abounds with fuch. By the Conftitution of this Bifhop-ric, the Government confifts of three States: the firllis the Chapter of Liege; the fecond, the Nobility; and the third, the Deputies of the towns and capital. Thefe, however, are very feldom called together, except to raije taxes, or on fome fuch extraordinary emergency: but there is a Committee of the States who meet three times a week, and in time of war daily; they are always about the Prince Bifhop, to make remonrtrances, and demand the redrefs of grievances—from whence we may reafonably infer, that the People are well protected, or at leaft well governed; the continual intcr-courfe between the Committee and Bifliops, no doubt, tending to promote a very happy influence in favour of the People! Ill In forming this Conftitution, fpecial care has been taken to give the firft State a great preponderance. The Chapter is tocon-fift of fixty perfons, who muft either prove their Nobility for four generations, both by father and mother, or have been Dočtors or Licentiates of Divinity for feven years, or of Law for five years, in feme famous Univerfity, before they can be admitted. How is it that the profefTion of the Law fhould bear fuch potent fway in almoft all Countries—that, even in Liege, a Catholic Country and Ecclefiaftical Government, five years ftudy of the Law Hiould be deemed an equal qualification to feven of Divinity ? In England, and its dependencies, the afcendancy of the Law is ftill greater; and even in America, that profeffion is the firft flep to State honours. The truth is, that the fcience of the Law, which, however defpicable in pračtice, is the nobleft of human fciences, quickens and invigorates the underftanding more than all the other kinds of learning put together; while the ftudy of Divinity (I do not mean real Divinity or Morality, but that whimfical jumble of miracles and incongruities, of fulfomc cant and fenfelefs rhapfody, called fo by Churchmen) contrafts the underftanding, and bends it into a kind of crooked cunning. Formerly, the Clergy were the dlfpenfers of the Laws, and they alone ftudied it-—Happy times! happy People! When the united powers of both Lawyers and Priefts were lodged in the fame perfon, it is no wonder that they were able to enflave the perfons, when they had got polTeflion of the underftanding, of tne People-—that v/e at this day fee fo many ftupendous ftupcndous monuments remaining of their pride and power, and that the bloated load of Epifcopacy ftill has its votaries and fup-porters. The Bifhopric of Liege is very populous and extenfive, containing many large Towns, many Baronies and Seigniories, feventeen Abbeys for men, who muft be all gentlemeii, and eleven for ladies, exclufive of fwarms of inferior note. In this diftribution of the Abbeys, male and female, I do not think that fufficient regard has been had to equality of numbers: I really think the Fathers have been ill ufed. The ladies, though, I dare fay, are well enough contented with the arrangement. Although, as I have already apprized you, I do not mean to enter into a minute defcription of towns, fo very eafijy found in many volumes of Geography and Hiftory, there occafionally occur certain curiofities in fome of thofe towns, which it would be unpardonable in me to pafs over, as they may not perhaps be found in fuch books of thofe fciences as fall in your way, Liege, the capital of the BilLopric, is unqueflionably a beautiful city, of immenfe fize: its opulence, its pleafantnefs, its plenty and falubrity, may be calculated from the name it lias long been cxpreiTly called by way of eminence—Paradife of Priijls____ Indeed, it muft needs be a holy and a happy city; for it is chiefly occupied with Convents, Churches, and other religious foundations. I'be Paradife of Pr/£j/?j-/—Excellent! Why, if the Genius of Senfuality himfelf were to torture his invention for centuries, to ftrike ftrike out an appell;\tion for the grand emporium of luxury, volup-tuoufncfs and fenfuid enjoyment, he could not have hit on one lb fingularly appropriate as the Paradife of Prießs. In a grand Cathedral here, are five great filver chefls full of rc-liques, befides feveral filver ftatues of Saintsj and a Saint George on horfeback, of mafly gold; and in Saint William's Convent, without the city, is the tomb of the famous Englifh traveller. Sir John Mandeville, from whom all lying travellers have been fince proverbially called Mandevilles—^n appellation which, 1 promife you, I will hazard the imputation of dullnefs rather than incur. I fuppofe it was for his truly prieftlike powers in the marvellous that he was honoured with a birth among their Reverences. They have thought it neceffary, however, to entreat, by an infcrip-tion in bad French, all perfons who fee it, to pray "for his foul. In truth, poor Sir John's marvellous ftories were as harmlefs as ever were invented, and entertaining to boot. If fo much could be faid for their Revercnces, they might venture to reft their future fafety on their own innocence and God's mercy : but I fear their miracles cut deeper, and will be found to go to a much more important and ferious account. In the Bifliopric of Liege, twenty miles from the capital, ftands the famous town of Spa, fo renowned for its excellent waters, that it has become a vulgar name for almoft all mineral waters whatfo- ever. Thofe are faid to open obftručtions, concočt crudities, dry up excefTive moifture, and ftrengthen the nerves and bowels ; and fuch fudi is their reputation, that prodigious quantities of them are carried into foreign countries. Fortunate coincidence, to have fuch a cholcc and eafy panacea for intemperance attached to the Taradtfe ofPrießs ! LETTER XVL 1 1 ,l! Aix-la-Chapelle—The imperial citjr of Aix-la-Chapelle, by the Germans called Achen, lies at the diilance of twenty-fix miles, nearly Eaft, of Liege. As it was a moderate ftage, the weather fine, and the face of the country around beautiful, I found my journey extremely pleafant, and entered that famous city in as good a difpofition to be pleafed with it, as circumftances and reflečtions fo melancholy as mine (which, in fpite of every effort, would intrude themfelves) may be fuppofed to allow. It is certainly a very fine city, and well deferves the reputation it has in all parts of the world. Perhaps no city in Germany has a fairer claim to antiquity than Aix-Ia-Chapellci for it was iämous, even in the time of the ancient Romans, for its waters, and was by them called Aquifgranum, or Urbs Aquenßs. It was deftroyed by the Huns, who, like the French now, deftroyed and trampled under foot every every veflige of refinement, wherever they carried their conqueils; and it lay in ruins till it was rebuilt by Charlemagne, who made it the feat of his Empire on this fide the Alps. By him it was ordained, that the Kings of the Romans fhould be crowned there: and it has been famous, fince that time, for Councils and Treaties, particularly that famous one between France and Spain in 1663, and another lately between France and Great Britain. Although there are many Proteflants, both Lutherans and Calvinifts, in this city, they are obliged to go to church two miles off, at a place called Vaels, in the Dutchy of Limburg; fo that Popery prevails with fome portion of its intolerance. Here, as in all other places fubjed to its power, it has raifed the Gothic gloomy pile, accumulated enormous maffes of wealth, and hoarded up treafures, under the gulling pretexts of religious paraphernaha: a golden cafket, fet with precious ftones of inelli-mable value, is hoarded up, not for the adlual value of the moveable, but as the only fit receptacle for a relique it contains—a curious one, too, of even its kind—a bit of earth !—A bit of earth.? yes! a bit of earth, common earth !—only with this fortunate circumftance in addition, that a drop of the blood of Saint Stephen fell, or is faid to have f;illen,upon it, as he was ftoned to death! think of that, mailer Frederick! Why, when thofe things occur to me, I feel myfelf agitated by a whimfical tumult of fenfations, ferious and ludicrous, forrowful and merry, that it is impofiible to defcribe—fomething like that^ ftate in which the fpirits flutter N when when a perfon whimpers between a laugh and cry. But, to carry tJae matter £irther, when we recollect that foine of the wifell and brightefl; of Mankind, fome of the braveil Warriors, flerneftPhi-lolbphers, and ableft Statefirsen, that ever exifted, have been the dupes of thofc Ihallow artifices, and adlually have knelt in devout homage to thcfe bits of earth, bone, fticks and ftone, ficc. we niuft allow that it anfwers a great and noble end, by pointing out to us the infirmity of our nature, and flaewing us, to ufe the words of one of our brighteft luminaries, " what fliadows we are, and what fliadows we purfue!" We have already had, and are likely yet to have, fuch a clumiy load of Cathedrals to attend to, that I fliould not mention that of Axx-la-Chapelle (a large, gloomy, dreary, old-fafliioned, Gothic pile), were it not that it carries along with it fome matters worthy of notice. What think you, then, of an Emperor, a Pope, and three hundred and fixty-five Biftiops, in one company ? Oh! precious aflemblage ! But where, I hear you afk—where, in the name of God, colled the Bifhops ? a Pope and Emperor are eafily had ! My dear Frederick, three hundred and fixty-five Bifhops might eafily be picked up in Chriftendoni, and leave more behind, too, than would ferve any ufeful purpofe to the world.—Yes, the Emperor Charlemagne, and three hundred and fixty-five Biflwps, were prefent at the Confecratlon of this Cathedral by Pope Leo the Third. That Emperor lies now in great ftate under the altar of the choir: Pope Leo rots in Romej and for the the Bifhöps, they äre gone, perhaps, as Hamkt fays, " to Hop a beer barrel."— '' Th' Imperial CjESAR, dead, and turn'd to day, " Might flop a hole, ty keep tlic wind awa/." From fuch a fplendid and opulent attendance at the Confe-cration, one would naturally exped that this Cathedral would have been, at the very outlet, enriched with coftly and valuable trappings: but no—.one image of that of Liege would purchafe the whole. It fhould be recollečted, however, that they were all, excepting the Emperor, Churchmen—a clafs, whofe charity, ge-Jierally fpeaking, has, like a ring, neither end nor beginning j or at leall ends and begins in itfelf, where nobody can fee it j or, according to the old proverb, begins at home. To compenfate, however, for thofe worldly, worthlefs vanities, •gold, filver and jewels. His Holinefs, and their three hundred and fixtyi^fivc Graces, prefented the Cathedral with fonie exqui-fite pieces of relique, .of more ineflimable value, by their account, than the mines of Potofi or Golconda: the firft, an old covering —it would be folly for me to fay, whether gown, petticoat or fliift—but they, that is to fay, the Priefts, fay, and the Faithful believe them, that it was,the fhift w^orn by the Virgin Mary at the birth of Christ—how their Holineffes came by it, is hard to conječture :—iivthe next place, a piecc of coarfe cloth, which, they alfo fay, and are believed when they fay, was girt about N 2 Christ Christ ort the Crofs:—thirdly, a piece of cord, with which they fay he was bound :—fourthly, fome of the blood of Saint Stephen, now eighteen hundred years old and, fifthly, a pičlure of the Virgin and Child, emboffed on a jafper, by Saint Luke. With all due deference to their Reverences' knowledge, I fhould tliink a dozen ftatues in gold of the Apoftles would be rather a more valuable gift, and more ornamental, than thefe rags and cords, which I dare fay did not cofl altogether fix pence. We talk here of our blue ribbons, our red ribbons, and our flars, as great donations j but I think the prefents of the Pope and three hundred and fixty-five Bifhops to the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, beat them out of the field, whether we confider the magnificence of the gift, or the generofity of the givers. But that which, above all things, renders Aix-la-Chapelle worthy of notice, is the falubrity of its waters, which bring from England, and all other European Nations, a vaft concourfc of valetudinarians, who contribute at once to the gaiety and opulence of the city and adjacent country. Some of thofe waters are ufed for drinking, and others for bathing, refembling very much, in their quality, the virtues of thofe of Bath in Somerfetfhire, but that fome of them are ftill hotter and ftronger: they are unpleafant to the tafle till ufe reconciles the palate to them, and moft of them have a very ofFenfive fmell; but they are often powerful in cflTeft, and give relief in a great variety of maladies; and they are rendered ftill more pabtable by the commodious neatnefs of the baths, the excellence excellence of the accommodations, and the great plenty of provifions, which are at once good and reafonable in this city. 1 ftaid fo ihort a time at Aix-la-Chapelle, that I could not, without the aid of fome of the miracles wrought by the Saints of the Romifli Church, or Sir John Mandeville, acquire a fuffi-cient knowledge of the People, to attempt a defcription of them, or their manners—but it and Spa are fo well known, that you cannot have much trouble in finding a defcription of them already written. As far as my obfervations enabled me to judge, there was nothing in the German character that had the power either to create intereft, or excite great attention.—They are rather tobe approved than admired; and, wanting thofe prominent features that fo whim-lically chequer other Nations with the extremes of bad and good, majeftic and ridiculous, aiford little fubjed to the traveller for the indulgence of fentimental reflečlion, or to the philofopher for the exercife of moral fpeculation. LETTER XVII. Bidding adieu to tlie famous city of Aix-la-Cha-pelle, wfiicli, very unti-avellcr-like, I pafled without drinking of its waters, I pufhed on, and foon arrived at the -city of Juliers, /the capital of a Dutchy of that name, fixtcen miles from Aix. The "Country itfelf is wonderfully fruitful, teeming with abundance of all forts of corn, wood, pailure, woad, coal and cattle j above all, a moft excellent breed of hoxfes, of which great numbers are exported. As to the city, though a capital, there was nothing in it that I thought worth attention—that of neatnefs is its greateft praife. It is not, like Liege, overloaded with enormous church edifices; but, what is much better, the People are opulent, the Poor well fup-plied, and all happy. In all likelihood, this is owing to the inhabitants being a mixture of Proteftant and Roman Catholic for, by a treaty between the Elečtor Palatine and the Emperor of Brandenburg, refpečting the fucceflion of tlie territories of the Duke of Cleves, both tlie Lutherans and Calvinifls of this Dutchy, and of Berg, Berg, are to enjoy the public exerclfe of their religion, and all other religious rites. I± experience would allov/ us to wonder at any thing in the management of the Rulers of Nations, it muft furely be matter of aftonifliment, that in an article of fuch confequence as eternity, and which mufl be directed by private fentiments alone, fuch violence fliould fyflematically be offered to opinion, and that Mankind fliould be dragooned, as they have been for fo many weary centuries, into the profeflion of particular modes of faith. Combating opinion by force is fo abfurd, that I am fure thofe who have attempted it, never could flatter themfelves with the flightefl hopes of fuccefs. It is therefore clear, that it was in motives very different from real wiflies for the eternal welfare of Man's foul, that religious perfecution originated. Political fineffe and State ftratagem are the parents of perfecution : and until every Conftitution is clean purged of religious prejudices, it muft continue to be clogged with obftručlions, and involved in confufion. If it be objected that certain religious fečls are hoftile to certain States, it may be anfwered, that they*are fo becaufe the State is hoftile to them. Ceafe to perfecute, and they will ceafe to be ]\oi\^i\Q.—Sublata caufa toUitur effeÜtis, It is folly, broad folly, to fuppofe that there are in any particular religion, feeds of hoftility to government, any more than in any particular name, complexion, flature, or colour of the Hair. Put, for experiment, all the men in the kingdom, of above five feet ten inches heigth, under tefts and difqualifications, (and it would be full full as rational as any other tefts)—and, my life for it, they would become hoftile, and very juftly, too; for there is no principle, human or divine, that enforces our attachment to that Government which refufes us protečlion, much Icfs to that which brands us with difqualifications, and fligniatifes us with unmerited marks of inferiority. The States of this Dutchy, and that of Berg, confifl: of the Nobility and tlie Deputies of the four chief towns of eachj and they lay claim to great privileges in their Diets—but they are fubjeft to the Eleftor Palatine, to whom they annually grant a certain fum for the ordinary charges of the Government, befides another which bears the name of a free gift. Some Authors fay that this town was founded by Julius j others deny it; the difpute has run high, and is impoflible to be determined: fortunately, however, for Mankind, it does not fignify a llraw who built it; nor could the decilion of the queftion anfwer any one end that I know, of inftručtion, profit or entertainment. Parva /eves captunt anhnos, Thofe who rack their brains, or rather their heads, for brains they can have none, with fuch finical impertinent inquiries, fhould be punifhed with mortification and difappointment, for the mifufe of their time. But what elfe can tliey do? You fay, Why, yes; they might fit idle, and refrain from wafting paper with fuch exccrable fluff; and that would be better. By the bye, if there were two good friends in every library in Europe, licenfed to purge it, like the Barbar and Curate in T>on ^ixotte^ ^ixotte, of all its ufelers and mlfchievous ftuff, many, many flielves that now groan under heavy weights would ftand empty. Travelling over a very even road, and a country extremely flat, (for from Aix-la-Chapelle I met with but one hill), I arrived at Cologne, the capital, not only of the Archbilhopric of that name, but of the Circle of the Lower Rhine. My fpirits, which were not in the very heft tone, were not at all raifed on entering the city, by the ringing of Church-bells, of all tones and fizes, in every quarter. Being a ftranger, I thought it had been a rejoicing day; but, on inquiry, found that it was the conftant pradtice. Never, in my life, had I heard fuch an Infernal clatter: never before had I feen any thing fo gloomy and melancholy—the ftreets black—-difmal bells tolling—bald-pated Friars, in myriads, trailing their long black fornis through the ftreets, molding their faces into every lhape that art had enabled them to afliime, in order to excite com-miferation, and begging alms with a melancholy fong calculatcd for the purpofe, fomewhat like that of our blind beggars in London, and produdtive of the fame difagrceable effect upon the fpirits. In fliort, I was not an hour in Cologne, when thofe circumftances, confpiring with the infuperablc melancholy of my mind, made me wiQi myfclf out of it. Neverthelefs, Cologne is a fine city; and if It be any fatisfačlion to you to fpin thofe fine imaginary ligaments that, in the brain of the book-worm, connečt the ancient and modern world, I will inform you, that it was anciently called Coionia Agrippina, becaule O Agrii'pina, Agrippin a, the mother of Nero, was born there, an4 honoured it with a Roman Colony, becaule it was her birth-place. The mind» forced back to that period, and contemplating the mifchiefs of that monfter Nero, cannot help wifhing that Cologne had been burnt the night of her birth, and Mifs Agrippina buried in the ruins» ere fl:ie had lived to give birth to that fcourge of the world. Although the eftabliilied religion here be the Roman Catholig,^ extraordinary as it may appear, they are very jealous of power; and though the Elečlor, by his officers, adminifters juftice in all criminal caufes, they will not permit him, in perfon, to refide above three days at a time in the city, nor to bring a great train with him when he vilits itj for this reafon he commonly r^fides at Bonne. Cologne has a very confiderable trade, particularly in Rhenifli wine i and its gin is reckoned the bell in the world, and bears a higher price than any other in all the Nations of Europe. Like all great Roman Catholic cities, it has a profufion of churches, croffes, miracles, faints, and church trinkets; and I really > think it has more fteeples and bells than any two cities in Germany. As Liege was called the Paradife of Priefts, this ought to be called the Golgotha of Skulls and Skull-caps. In the church of Saint Ursula, they fliew, or pretend at leaft to Ihew, the bones of eleven thoufand Virgin Martyrs. The Ikulls of fome of thofe imaginary Virgins are in filver cafes, and others in fkull-caps, of cloth, of gold, and velvet. And in the church of Saint Gerion, are no lefs than than nine hundred heads of Moorifli Cavaliers, of the army of the Emperor Constantine, (previous to that Saint's converfion to ChrifHanity), who they fay was beheaded for refiafing to facrilice to idols: by the bye, the Popiih Divines burn, inftead of beheading, for not facrificing to idols—Every one of thofe heads, however, has a cap of fcarlet, adorned with pearls. The whole forms a fpec-tacle, no doubt, equally agreeable and edifying. It llruck me, however, as an extremely ludicrous fight, malgre the folemnity of fo many death's heads: and when their ftory was recounted, I could not help internally chuckling, and faying (rather punningly, to be fure), Ah! what blockheads ye muft have been, to fufFer your-felves to be feparated from your fnug warm bodies, rather than drop down and worlhip an idol, in which fo many good Chriftian Divines have fliewn you an example!" This, you will conclude, I faidto myfelf: an avowal of my fentiments in that place might have given my head a title to a fcarlet cap and pearls j and as I had fome further ufe for it, I did not think it expedient to leav« it behind me in'the Church ofSaint Gerion—fo, very prudently, kept my mind to myfelf. Coming out of the Church, a multitude of beggars, all in canonicals, or ftudent's habits, furrounded, befeeching me for alms— one, pour Vamour de Dieu; another, pour I'amour de la Sainte Vierge; a third, pour le falut de notre Redempteur; a fourth, pour I'amour de Saint Gerion j and fo on! O 2 When When I had gone as far as I wifhed in donations, another attacked me: though I told him my charity-bank was exhaufted, he perfe-vered, and was uncommonly folicitous—till at length, having exhaufted the whole catalogue of Saints that are to be found in the Calendar, he raifed his voice from the miferable whine of petition, and exclaimed with great energy, " Par Ics neuf cent tetes des Cavaliers Mauresqui font fančtifies au Ciel, je vous conjure de me faire Taumonel" This was too formidable an appeal to be flighted; and fo, in homage to the ikulls and red caps, I put my hand in my pocket, and flopped his clamours. Thofe miferable mode^ of peculation are the moll pardonable of any produced by the Church: we have no right to regret a trifle facrificcd at the flirine of compaffion, even when that compaffion is miftakenj but our reafon revolts at impofition, when it calls coercion to its aid, and aflumes the name of right. Without any national predilection, which you know I am above, I think our Church affairs in Scotland are arranged upon a better fyftem than any other that I know of: hence their Clergy are in general examples worthy of imitation, for learning, piety, and moral condučt. LETTER XVIII. Laboured inveftigations to eftablifli connečlions between the hiftory of the ancient and bufinefs of the modern world, and virulent difputes about trifles of antiquity, fuch as in what year this place was built, or that great man was born, when and where Julius C^sar landed iu England, whether he paffed this road or that, what route Hannibal took over the Alps, and fuch hke, are fo efientially unlntereiling, ufelcfs and unimportant, fo unprofitable, and, one would think, fo painful too, that it is wonderful how fo many men of great learning have been unwife enough to employ their lives in the refcarch. It does not follow, however, that when information that tends to recall to our minds the great men of antiquity is prefented to us, we fliould reječt it. A man of claffical talte and education feels a delight in thofe little memorials of what gave him pleafure in his youth. I know a Gentleman, who, being iit Seville, in Spain, travelled to Cordova, for no other purpofe but to iee the town where Luc AN and Seneca v/ere born: and I dare fay, that if you were at Cologne, you would be much pleafed to fee the Town-houfe, a great Gothic building, which contains a variety of ancient infcrip- tions. tlons; the firfl: to commemorate the kindnefs of Julius CjesaR to the Ubii, who inhabited this place, and of whom you have found mention made by him in his Commentaries, and alfo his building two wooden bridges over the Rhine: a fecond commemorates Augustus fending a colony here. There is alfo a crofs-bow of whalebone, twelve feet long, eight broad, and four inches thick, which they who fpeak of it conjecture to have belonged to the Emperor Max i mi n's. Theie are alfo feme Roman infcription s in the arfenal, the import of which I now forget. It is very extraordinary, but certainly a fact, that there are, about Cologne, families yet exifling, who indulge the fenfelefs ambition of pretending to be defcended from the ancient Romans, and who ačt:ually produce their genealogies, carried down from the firft time this city was made a colony of the Roman Empire. Of all kinds of vanity, this is perhaps the mofl extravagant: for, if antiquity merely be the objedt, all are equally high, lince all muft have originated from the fame flock j and if it be the pride of belonging to a particular family who were diftinguiflied for valour or virtue, a claim which often only ferves to prove the degeneracy of the claimant, it could not apply in the cafe of a whole People: but this is among the frailties of humanity^ and wc are often fo dazzled with the fplendour of terreftrial glory, that we endeavour to be allied to it even by the moft remote and ridiculous connections. I heard of a man, whofe pride and boaft, when drunk, was, that Dean Swift had once thrown his mother's oyfters (fhe was an oyfter- oyfter-wench) about the ftreet, and then gave her half a crown as atonement for the injury. On the ilrength of this affinity did he call the Dean nothing but Coujin 'Jonathan, though the Dean was dead before he was born! But of all the ftories I have ever heard as illuftrative of this ftrange ambition, that which the late Lord Anson has left us is the moO: ftriking. When that great man was travelling in the Eaft, he hired a veffel to vifit the ifland of Tenedos: his pilot, a modern Greek, pointing to a bay as they failed along, exclaimed in great triumph, " There, ay, there it was that our fleet lay."—" What fleet?" interrogated Anson—" Wliy, our Grecian fleet, at the fiege of Troy," returned the pilot. While thofe doughty defcendants of the ancient Romans indulge the cheerlefs idea of their great and illuftrious line of ancient anceftry, the Prince who rules them felicitates himfelf with the more fubliautial dignities and emoluments ofhis modern offices. As Eledtor and Archbiihop of Cologne, he has dominion over a large, fruitful and opulent country: he is the mofb powerful of the ec-clefiaftical Eledors: he has many Suffragan Princes, lay and fpi-ritual, under him; and he is Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire. The revenues of his Archbifhopric amount annually to one hundred and thirty thoufand pounds ilerling; and as Eledtor, he is poffeffed of feveral other great benefices. I prefume, becaufe he is a Prince, that he is a man of fenfe; and, I will venture to fay, that, as fuch, he would not barter thofe good things for the power power to demonftrate thit Lucretia was his aunt, Brutus his grandfather, and the great Julius C^sar himfelf his coufin-german. Christ chole his difdples out of fifhermen. The Chapter of Cologne is, perhaps, on the contrary, the very moft Ariftocratic body exifting, being con:ipofed of forty Canons, who are Princes or Counts of the Ennpire—Of thofe, twenty-five choofe the Archbilhop, and may advance one of their own body to that great and wealthy dignity, if they plcafe. From Cologne I proceeded to the town of Bonne, which is faid to take its name from the pleafantnefs of Its fituation. Here the Elector refides, and has a very fine palace. The country around is extremely fruitful and pleafant, and is bleffed with molT; of the good things which render the Rich magnificent and happy, and remind the Poor of their inferiority and wretchednefs— particularly wine, which is here remarkably excellent. It contains Churches, Priefts, Convents, Cloifters, &c.; but I need not mention them—what place could exift without them? I lliould not forget to tell you, that, at this place, Julius Ctesar built one of his bridges acrofs the Rhine—works which would have handed down to poflerity the name of a common man, for the magnitude of the flrudure and ingenuity of the contrivance, but are loft in the crowd of aftonifliing talents which diftinguiflied that brightell: of mortals. The greateft Biographer of Antiquity fays of him, that he was as great a General as Hannibal, as great great an Orator as Cicero, and as great a Politician as Augustus j but it might be added, that he was among the firft Poets of his day—that he was of the firfl: mechanical genius, and the finelt gentleman, in Rome. Nature feems to have formed, in C^sar, a compendious union of all human talents, as if to demonftrate how unavailing they were when oppofed to flrid rigid honefty and virtue in the charačler of Brutus. To go from Bonne to Frankfort, there are two ways—-one over the mountains of Wetterania, the other up the river Rhine. I made no hefitation to adopt the latter, and was rewarded for my choice with the view of as fine a country, inhabited by as fine a race of People, as I )iad ever fcen. Valleys filled with herds, plains enamelled with corn-fields, and the hills covered with vineyards, regaled the eye, and conveyed to the mind all the felicitating ideas of plenty, natural opulencc, and true profperity. My anxiety, however, to get forward, and difengage myfelf from a fpecies of folitude in a country where, though travelling is cheap, acconimo-dations of mofl kinds in the public houfes are bad, induced me to puHi on, without taking the time necelTary for making accurate ob-fervations on the country as I pafi^ed; fo that, gliding, as it were, imperceptibly, through a number of towns, of which I recoiled; nothing diftlndlly but the names of Coblentz and Mentz, I arrived at the great, free and imperial city of Frankfort on the Maine. P Here Here Ifhall flop, for a fliorttime, my relation, in order to give you time for juft reflečtlon and examination of what I have already written: and as, in the latter part of it, I have fkimmed very lightly over the country, I defire that you will fupply the deficiency of my information by clofe refcarch in books ; inform your-felf of the great outlines of the Germanic Conftitution; look back to its origin, its progrefs, and its eftablifliment; thence proceed to the diftinčl parts, or inferior States, of which it is compofed; ponder them all well; and from thofe draw your own inferences, and let nie hear what they are with freedom: fliould they be wrong, I will endeavour to fet them right j but fhould they be right, they will afford me the mofl lively fatisfadtion} for they will ferve to correčt one of the greatefl errors under which youth labours—-an overweening, fanguine imagination, that things in this life are, or at leaft can be modelled into perfection ; whereas experience, and a juft obfervatlon of the hiftory of Mankind, will fhew, that on this ball things will never be as they ought, but muft remain as they are— imperfečt. LETTER XrX. The country about Frankfort is delightful, rich and fruitful, and watered by the beautiful river Maine, which divides the city into two parts, that on the North being called Frankfort, and that on the South, Saxenhaufen, from the Saxons, who are fup-pofed to have been the founders of it. The city itfelf is large, populous and rich, and diftinguiflicd for being the place where the Emperor and King of the Romans is elečted—though, by the appointment of Charlemagne, Cologne has a fuperior claim to that honour. The Magiftrates, and great part of the inhabitants, are Lutherans or Calvinifts; notwithftanding which, mofl of the Churches are in the hands of the Roman Catliolics—a laudable inftance of the true tolerant fpirit of a wife and virtuous infti-tution, and a heavy reflexion upon, as well as a noble example to the Poplfli Powers of Europe. The territory belonging to Frankfort is of very conliderable extent; and the trade carried on through it, by means of the rivers Rhine and Mayne, of very great importance, not only to the country itfelf, but to other commercial nations, and particularly P 2 to to Great Britain, whofe manufačlures are fent to Frankfort, and thence circulated through the Continent, in amazing quantities. The fairs of Frankfort are talked of all over Europe—of fuch importance are they in the world of commerce. They are held, one at Eafter, and another in September, and continue for three weeks, during which time the refort of people there from ail quarters is aftonifhing. Every thing is done by the Government to render them as attractive to Merchants as poflible; and the taxes or duties are extremely low---a bale of the value of ten or twenty thoi^fand crowns paying duty only about ten or eleven pence of our money. All commodities from all parts of the world are fold there, and circulated through the Empire but, particularly, books are fold in prodigious quantities. After the fairs are over, the fhops of the foreign Merchants are fliut up, and their names written over their doors. To give an idea of the great importance thefe fairs are to commerce, I need only mention, that in the prefent war, the impediments thrown by the French in the way of the tranfit of goods up the Rhine, and the Ihutting up that fair, gave a moft alarming paralyfis to the manufačturing eftabliöiments of England, and a fhock to public credit in confequence, that would, but for the timely interference of Parliament, have, in all probability, been fatal to the national credit. Frankfort is in many'refpedls a pleafant place: the Merchants are extremely convivial and fociable, and form clubs, where they meet meet to drink tea and coffee, and pky at cards. There is a play-houfe alfo, a great number of coffee-houfes, and other houfes of , entertainment in abundance. The country around is covered with woods and vineyards; and the circumjacent villages are very plea-fant, and well fuppiied with houfes of entertainment, to which the Inhabitants of the city refort in the Summer feafon^ and the inns in Frankfort are excellent. A fingular cullom prevails here, which I think worth mentioning : Taverns are denoted by pine-trees planted before the doors of them; and the different prices of the wines in their cellars are marked in ciphers on the door-pofts. In the town here is prefented the original Golden Bull, or Pope's Authority, which contains the rules and orders to be ob-ferved at the eledtion of the Emperors. This Golden Bull is never ftiewn to ftrangers but in the prefence of two of the Council and the Secretary—It is a little manufcript in quarto, confifting of forty-two leaves of parchment, with a gold feal of three inches diameter, of the value of twenty duckets, hung to it by a cord of yellow filk. It is faid to be written in Latin and Gothic charačlers, without diphthongs; and kept in a black box, together with two written tranflations of it into the German language. It is faid of Frankfort, tbat the Roman Catholics poffefs the churches, the Lutherans the dignities, and the Calvinifts the riches. It is therefore one of the few places in Chriftendom where the churches and the riches do not go into the fame hands. From Frankfort to Augfburgh, I pafled through a number of towns, all of them fo very inconfiderable as not to merit any particular defcription. The way lies from the Palatinate through the Circle of Suabia. In the extreme end of the Palatinate, and immediately before entering the Dutchy of Wirtemberg, the country is covered with fir-trees; and money is fo fcarce in it, that a loaf ofwhcaten bread, weighing eight pounds, cofts but two pence. The city of Aug(burgh is the capital of a Bifhopric of .that name in the Circlc of Suabia, and is worthy of the attention of the clafllcal traveller for its antiquity. About twelve years before the birth of Christ, Augustus C^sar fubdued all this country, and, on the placc where Augfburgh now ftands, formed a colony, gave the town the name of Augufla Vindelicorum, and put it under the government of Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, afterwards Emperor of Rome. The inhabitants of this place were the Vindelic, a branch of the Illyrians. But, ancient though it be, it has little more of antiquity to entitle it to notice than the bare name ; for it has been pillaged fo often, particularly by that monfter Attila, that there are fcarcely any remains of its antiquity to be found. Augfburgh is nov/, hov/ever, a handfome city—the public buildings in general magnificent, and adorned with fountains, water engines of a curious conftručtion, and flatues. Tiie inofl rich and fplendid part of the tov^n belongs to a family of the name of Fuggers (originally dcfcended from a weaver), who enrichcd themfelves by commerce, and one of whom rendered rendered not only himfelf, but the whole family, confpicuous, by entertaining the Emperor Charles the Fifth in a fuperb manner, and fupplying him with money, and then throwing his bond into the fire} in return for which, the Emperor made him a Count of the Empire. This city is remarkable for goldfmiths' ware; and its mechanics are equal to any in the world, for works in gold, ivory, clocks, and time-pieces j and they engrave better than any people in Germany, which brings them confiderable profits. But what they are, above all other people, eminent for, is the manufačluring fteel-chains fo prodigiouQy fine, that when one of them, of a fpan in length, has been put about the neck of a flea, it lifts up the whole of it as it leaps j and yet thofe are fold for lefs than a fhil-ling of our money a piece. Controverfy, and difference in religious opinions, which has almoft, ever fince the commencement of Chriftianity, difgraced the human underflandlng, and defaced fociety, impofes upon the liberal, well-thinking traveller, the office of fatirift but too often. Augfburgh, however, is a fplendid exception, and holds up a mo and on the other fides, by fcattered fhallows, the ciiannels between which are marked out by flakes, which, on the appearance of an enemy, they can take away; they bid defiance to hoftile army or navy, and have not been reduced to the necellity of erečting walls or fortifications for their defcnce. The The firft peculiarity that ftrikes me, as arifiiig immediately from their living, I may fay, in the fea, is the total exclufion of all fort of carriages; for thofe Itreets that are on firm ground are extremely narrow and crooked; and on moft of the canals, fo far from having a quay on either fide to walk on, the water comcs up to the doors of the houfes; fo that walking is but little known, for they get into a boat off their threfliold, and their firft ftep out of it again is, ten to one, on the threfliold of another. This circumftance, though in fome refpečts it has its ufes, is, in others, extremely difagreeable, as well as injurious j for, though thofe who have occafion to labour have a fufficiency of exercife, thofe whofc condition exempts them from labour, and who, therefore, in all other countries, refort to artificial labour (exercife) for the promotion of health, are here entirely cut off from all fuch means of it as we pračtife, having neither hunting, Iliooting, riding, bowling, See. &c. nor can they have them, unlefs they go to the Continent for them. The chief amufe-ments of the Venetians are refcrved for the Carnival time, which commence about a week after Chriflmas, and which, therefore, I could not fee ; but, from the concurrent teftimony of all travellers and the People themfelves, as well as from the evidence of my own obfervation on the manners of the People, I am well warranted in faying, are feftivals of debauchery, riot and licentiouihefs. This is a fubječt on which I am, neverthelefs, difpofed to believe, that luore has been faid than truth will bear out—-yet, a bare ftatemcnt of of the truth would, I fear, bear hard enough upon the moral cha-radter, or at leafl the piety, of the Venetians. That mafquerades are the very worfl Ichools of vice, the private anecdotes of the beau monde even in England might fuilice to de-monftrate—That courtezans arc found loft to all fenfe of modedy and common decency, the ftreets of London afford nightly proofs —TJierefore, tliat niafquerading (which is the chief amufement of the Venetians) ihould cloak many crimes, and that their courtezans fliould be lhamelefs and their women lewd, is no fucli wonder, feeing, as we do, thole things in this Northern clime j but wc may, without any illiberality, fuppofe, that, from phyfical caufes of the moft obvious kind, they are carried to a greater extent there than here : though one of the moft enlightened and amiable of all travellers fays it would be hard to be proved, yet, with deference to him, I think it may be rationally fuppofed. There is an ačllve principle in the mind of Man which will not fufter it to reft ; it muft have fome materials to work upon. Men, enlightened by fcience, have within themfelves a fund, and can never want food for contemplation; but the many, in thofe hours when a fufpenlion of labour or wordly bufinefs drives them to expedients for the employment of their time, are but too prone to leave the mind to the guidance of the fenfes, and to cogitate on vice till they widi to pračllfe it. Hence that homely but true faying, " Idlenefs is the root of all evil." In England we have a variety variety of expedients which the Venetians want, whofe minds being belides naturally more vivid, are more prompt to give a loofc to the warm illufions of fenfual fancy. Thus prepared, they meet the Carnival, when every thing confpires to give circulation to indulgence ; and when thofe operations of the mind which with us have ^o many channels to difcharge themfelves, with them, like a vaft ftream fuddenly confined to one narrow channel, burfl forth with an irrefjftible torrent, and carry away before them every bond that religion or morality has laid down as reftraints on the exuberance of human paUion. The cuftoms and habits of the place and time contribute to it; for, while the fevere reftridtions of the female fex for the refl of the year fharpen both inclination and invention on the one hand—on the other, the unbounded licenfc, the univerfal change of habits, cuftoms and laws—the total fuf-penfion of all diftinäion, care, or bufmefs which take place at that time, aided by perpetual mafquerade—and thofe moft convenient of all receptacles, the gondolas, with thofe moft expert and forward of all pandars, the gondoliers—afford ample fcope to their vvifhes, and_ form altogether a mafs of circumstances in favour of vicious indulgence, not to be found in any other part of Chriften-dom J to refift which, they mufl: be more virtuous than any other people—-a point never yet laid to their charge by the beft-natured and moft extenuating of all thofe who have written upon that fubječl. LETTER XXV. Profligate though the People of London are, I will not allow that it is lo vicious a city as Venice, That there are in it, and indeed in all capitals, individuals who have reached the higheft achme of fliamelefs debauchery and depravity, it would be foolidi to deny : but that concubinage is pračtifed in the fame open way, fo generally, or fo fy{l:cmatically as at Venice, no one will venture to affert. I trurt the day of depravity and indelicacy is far removed from us, that will exhibit a Britiih mother arranging a plan of accommodation for her fon, and bargahiing for a young virgin to commit to his embraces—as they do in Venice—not as wife, but as concubine. On that one cuftom of the Venetian ladies I reft my pofition; and have no liefitation to avow, that all the private concubinage of London amounts not to fuch a flagrant confummation of moral turpitude and lliamelefs indelicacy as that practice to which I allude. The Venetian men are well-featured and well-fliaped—the women, well-fliaped, beautiful, and, it is faid, witty: but I had ivithin which robbed every obječt of its charms j and I might fay lay with Hamlet, that " Man delighted not me, nor'Woman cither. "—Ill fliort, not all the beauties and novelty of the place, not all the pleafures that flare the traveller in the face, and folicit his enjoyment, not all the exquifite looks of the ladies, coiüd roufe my mind from its melancholy, or fix my attention-—I grew weary of Venice before I had been many hours in it, and determined to grafp at the very firfl opportunity that offered for my departure. I had arranged, in my own mind, a plan to proceed to Lata-chea, a confiderable fea-port town in Syria, and thence to Aleppo, whence, as it was a great Eaftern mart, I entertained hopes that I fliould find a fpeedy, or at leaft a certain conveyancc, by a caravan, acrofs the deferts, to Ballbrah, and little doubted-but tiiat I ihould find a velfcl at fome of the Venetian ports, either bound, or belonging to a fea-port of fuch commerical confequence, upon wiiich I could procure a pafTage—But in this I was difappointed; for, on the fulleft inquiry that I could make, I found that there was only one fliip ready to fail, and no probability of any other for a confiderable time after—I did every thing I could to avail myfeif ofthis conveyance, but was difappointed, owing to a young lady being pafienger, who was daughter to the owner of the veflel—and the old gentleman did not approve of an Engliili Officer being of the party with his daughter. I ufed every argument without fucceß, urging the Kefident, Mr. Strange, vi'ho had behaved very politely to me during my fliort refidcnce at Venice, to intercfi: himfelf about it: I likewife entreated Mrs. Strange, an aftable, pleafant woman, U 2 to tO exert her endeavours, and made her laugh, by propofing to lier to give me a certificate of my behaviour, and to pledge herfelf to the old gentleman that the happinefs or honour of his family would not be difturbed by me during the palliige. Hearing, however, that a fliip lay at Trielle, which was to fail thence for Alexandria in Egypt, I determined to embrace that opportunity, and, inAead of my former intended route, go to Grand Cairo, thence to Suez, and fo down the Red Sea, by way of Mecca, to Moca, and thence to Aden, where company's veffels, or India country traders are always to be found going to one or other of the BritiHi fettlements. I accordingly fet out for Triefte, with all the impatience of a fanguine mind, anxious to change placc, eager to pufli forward, and full of tlie new route I had laid down—the charms of which, particularly of feeing Grand Cairo, the Land ef Egypt, and the Pyramids, were painted by my imagination in all the glowing exaggerated colours of romance. The Captain of the veffel was then at Venice, and I accompanied him to Triefte, which is about fixty miles from Venice. Soon after our arrival at Triefte, I had the mortification to find, that the veflel was by no means likely to keep pace witli the ardour of my mind, and that, owing to fome unforefeen event, her departure was to be delayed j fo, after a few of thofe effufions which may be fuppofed on fuch an occafion to efcape a man of no very cool temper hanging on the tenterhooks of expetTtation, I found it it necefiary to fit down, and patiently wait the revolution of time and event, which nothing could either impede or accelerate. It has often been remarked, and is held as a point of faith by Predeftinarians, that fonic men are doomed by fate to difappoint-meiit—and that, when they are fo, no wifdom can obviate, no vigilance provide againft, nor no refolution relifl, her decrees j but, that, in fpite of ail the efforts of reafon and induftry, a feries of fmifter events fliall purfue them through life, and meet them at evei7 turn they attempt to take. Such has been my lot for the greateft part of my life—-but I have neither faith enough in Pre-deflination, nor felf-love enough, fo far to blind me to my own faults, as to fuppofe that hdy Fate had any thing at all to do with it. No, no J it was often owing to a temper, warm, impatient and uncontrouled, which, in almofi: all cafes of momentary embar-raffment, chafed reafon from her office, ufurped her place, and decided as chance diredted. Let every man examine the grounds of all his ferious difappointments in life with candour, and he will find phyfical caufes to which to affign them, without reforting to fupernatural. For my part, when I hear a man fay that he has been all his life purfued by ill-fortune, I directly conclude, that either he has been a blunderer,'or thofe he dealt with, brutes. In the ordinary operation of earthly contingencies, mifchances will happen; but an uniform life of mifchance can only arife from mif-nianagcment, or a very extraordinary chain of human injuftice— Thefe Tliefe reflections arofe from the following incident: I had procured a fervant to attend me on my journey, who, from my fliort obfervation of him, proinifed to contribute very confiderably to my comfort, my convenience, and, indeed, to my fecurity as he was apparently honcft, fincere, ačtive and clever in his duty, and mailer of feveral languages, and particularly of the lingua Franca, a mixture of languages, peculiarly ufeful in travelling through the Eaft. Finding that I was likely to be delayed at Trielle, and conceiving that in this interim letters from England, for which I moll; ardently longed, might have arrived at Venice for ^ me, I imprudently and impetuoufiy fent him to Venice, for the purpofc of taking them up, and carrying them to me. But guefs what rnufl have been my feelings when I found, almoft immediately after his departure, that the vellel was preparing to fail, and that I muft either lofe my paffage or my fervant: anxious though I was to get forward, and grievous though my former delay had been to me, I hefitated which to do; but prudence, for once, prevailed over inclination and I determined, at all events, to depart, under all the embarraffment attending the want of a fervant and linguift, and all the poignant feelings of having been acceffary to the difappointment, and perhaps the injury of a poor fellow, whom I really conceived to be a perfon of merit. In our paffage to Alexandria, we touched at Zante, an ifland on the coaft of Greece, belonging to Venice ; it was anciently called Zacynthus— is is about fifty miles in circumference, and contains fifty thoufand inhabitants. Never before had I tafted any thing equal to the delicious flavour of the fruits of this ifland—the grapes exquifite, and the melons and peaches of prodigious bignefs and unequalled flavour. The ifland is abundantly fruitful in wine, currants, oil, figs and corn, but is very fubjed to earthquakes. Near the fea-port which we entered is as great a curiofity in Nature as is any where, I believe, to be found. Two fpring wells of clear frelli water throw up large pieces of real pitch, in fuch quantities, that, it is laid, the people collect, one year with another, one hundred barrels of it, which they ufe in paying their fliipping and boats. In the firfi: ftages of melancholy, confolation is reječted by the mind as premature. The heart, intent, as it were, upon fupping full of woe, difclaims all advances of comfort, and feeds on grief alone. Hence the tridy fl<.ilfui in the human heart confider premature confolation as an aggravation of woe, and comfort only with condolence, well knowing that the tide of grief mull take its courfe, and that, until it be firll full, no hopes can be had of its retiring. The full force of this I began now to feel. The dif-quietude of domellic embarraflinent-—the bitternels of feparation from all 1 loved—the folitary liidnefs of ray fituation, wandering through unknown countries—-myfelf unknown and unfriended-aggravated at lengtli by the lofs of my lervant, who was a fort of prop to my fpirits—and ray being call into a lliip among a people whofe language I little underftood, without any foul or one circum- ftance ftance to mitigate my forrow, or confole me under it i all thefe, I fay, had wound up my feelings to the highefl; pitch of fortune-More miferable I could not be when the Ifland of Zante received me, and, for the firft time for a fad feries of days, raifed me with the tranfporting found of an Englirti voice. I have promifed, my Fredkrick, to give you a candid relation, in hopes that you will improve by it: but if I thought, that, on the contrary, any thing I faid fhould tend to raife in your mind a fentiment injurious to your principles, or reflečlive on your father's condučl, but to be an example and admonitory guide to your own, I fliould condemn my candour and curfe the hour that I wrote—but, I truft to your good fenfe and difpofi-tion, with my care to direä: them; and fliall, but not without hefi^ tation, proceed. But, as I have already fpun out this Letter to fuch an extent, I will defer my further relation to anotlicr. LETTER XXVL At the time I fet out upon my journey over land to India, I was (though married, and the father of children) very young, naturally of a fanguine conftitution: my attachment to the fair fex was no ways dlminifhed by a military education j and a warmth a warmth of temper, an ardent fenlibility of mind, and a frank imfufpicious difpofition, left me but too often to regret the facility with which I yielded to the charms of women. But the regret for each error was willfully fmothered in vain determination» of amendment—and the promifed amendment again broken in upon by fome new error. Thus it was, till riper years and cir-cumftances of weight (Irengthened my reafon, and gave it in fome greater degree that dominion it ihould have over my ačtions. Circumftanced as I have in my laft Letter defcribed myfelf tO be, and conftituted by nature and education as I have mention- I ed above, I landed in the charming illand of Zante, where Nature herfelf feems to have confpired a^ainft chaftity—making the very air breathe nothing but tranfport and delight. There I met a young lady, a native of England—extremely pretty, highly accompliflied, and captivating in the,extreme: flic had been at Venice for her education-^was a complete niiftrefs of mufic, and expreffed an intention of following it profeffionally on her arrival in England, whither üie was going palTcnger in a veffel bound there from Zante. To have accidentally met with a native of England, even of my own fcx, in fuch a diftant corner of the world, under fuch circumflances as mine^ juft efcaped from the horrid life I had for fome time led, muft have filled me with joy: allowance, therefore, may be made for my feelings on meeting this young lady, and for my thinking of X fome fome expedient to prevent our reparation. She laboured, perhaps, under the prefllire of feelings as difagreeable as my own, and ex-preffed her fatisfadion at meeting with a countryman fo very unexpectedly. Referve was foon thrown off on both fides: wc entered into a converfation intercfting and confidential, which in-creafed my anxiety to keep her with me, and in order to perfuade her to accompany me, I pointed out in the flrongeft colours pof-fible, the great advantages flie might derive from her accompliflx-ments in India, where her mufical talents alone, exclufive of her various captivating qualities, would be an inxehauflible mine of wealth. In Üiort, I lb very eagerly enforced my propofal to accompany me, and time was fo very fhort, that (he confented, and in two hours we had arranged every thing for our departure together-— and here with fliame and forrow I confefs (nor fhall ever ceafe to reget it), that this ecclaireciflement communicated the firfl: ray of fubflantial pleafure to my heart that it felt fince I left London. Thus far, our proječl failed before the wind: wayward imagination had deckcd it out in the moft alluring drapery that fancy could fabricate, and prevented us from feeing the impradticability of it, as it fl:ood in the nakednefs of truth; and when it came to be carried into execution, a thoufand difficulties occurred, that the wildnefs of pafTion, and the warmth of our feelings, had before concealed from our view. In the firfl: place, it was necefTaiy for her to obtain the confent of a lady to whofe care and protečlion file was committed: in the next place, accommodations were tobe procured procured for her in the fame Ihip with me—a circumllance of moft arduous difficulty i befides which, a variety of other impediments—infuperable indeed-—concurred to fruftrate our views, and put an end to our project. If my pleafure at meeting her was great, my anguifh at parting with her was inexpreflible. I had once more to face the world alone j and, on the fecond day of my fojourning at Zante, embarked with a heavy heart, and fet fail for Alexandria. ' The laft difappointments wc undergo, fcem always the heavieft; and tliis at Zante I thought at that time to be the greatcfl of my life. But—oh! fliort-fighted Man! bubble of every delufive fhadow! I never reflefted, as I have lince done, what feri-ous mifchiefs, what endlefs mifery, what lofs of time, means and reputation, I may by that providential difappointnient have cfcaped—for thefc are the almofl never-failing confequences of fuch affairs. It too often happens, that the fyren who deludes a man into her fnares, is the very perfon who inflids the deadly wound into his heart. Avoid, my dear Frederick! avoid all fuch, as you would avoid plague, peflilence, or ruin-~fteel your heart by timely reflection againll their advances. In all your tranfačtions with women, like a good General in warfare, fecure for your heart a retreat: for it will be too late to find that tbev are Unworthy when your heart is enfnared—and when you find them Wort]:y of your affedtion, it will be time enough to give a loofe to the fcnfibility of your heart. A virtuous woman is beyond all t'alculation to be valued, when Ihe is foundj but, alas! in finding X 3 her, her, yott may pafs through fo rnany fires ordeal, and run fuch danger, irhut it is almoft a doubt, whether a wife man (if he can fetter his paflions) had not better difpenfe with the bleffing, than run the hazard of fearching for it. On .my arrival at Alexandria, I found, to my frefli mortification, that>thc plague was raging all over Egypt—and as, if this was not of itfclf fufficient to block up my intended route, an irruption of the Arabs, who in formidable bodies infeftcd all the roads, put a period to all my hopes of feeing Grand Cairo, and viewing the curiofities of that Country, which all who, like us, have the Biblei put early into their hands, are taught to venerate as foon as they are taught to read. Here I thought to have viewed the pyramids, whofe antiquity, origin, or intended ufe, have baffled the learned and ingenious inquiries, lof fo many ages—of beholding mount Sinai, the ftone of Mofes, the track of tlie Ifraelites, all of which are faid to be clearly pointed out, and Geography by that means brought into the fupport of Sacred Hiftory. Thefe, and many things, 1 did wifh to fee—they are worth it: but I have had fince reafon to believe, that my ill luck was not fo great as I then thought itj for the fearch is dangerous, and made prodigioufly expenfive by the exadtions of the Mahomedan Magi-ftrates. It is as well, therefore, to travel over this Country in books, which afford us good information, and more of it, at an eafier rate than you could purchafe it in the Country. Alexandria was built by Alexander the Great, foon after the overthrow of Tyre, about 333 years before Christ, and isfituated on the Mediterranean; twelve miles Well: of that mouth of the Nile, anciently called Canopicum. A very extraordinary circumftance is related, as aproofof the fuddennefsofALEXANDER's refolution to build it: After he had direčled the number of public ftručlures, and fixed the places where they were to ftand, there were no in-ftruments at hand proper for marking out the walls, according to the cuftom of thofe times: upon tliis, a workman advifed the King to collečt what meal was among the foldiers, and lift it in lines upon the ground, in order to mark out the circuit of the walls: the advice was followed, and the King's foothfayer interpreted it to be a prefage of the future profperity and abundance of the city. This prophecy was certainly afterwards verified; for it foon became the exporium of Commerce, of Arts and of Sciences. By the defcription of Strabo and other Ancients, it appears that this city was built upon a plan well worthy the vaft mind of its founder; and the fragments of its ornaments afterwards com-pofed a part of the grandell: embelhlhments of Rome and Conftan-tinople. In the Mufeum of the Royal Palace, v/hich occupied a fourth part of the city, the body of Alexander was depolited in a golden coffin—nbut the deteftable Seleucus Cibyofactes violated the monument, took away the golden coffin, and fubftituted a glafs one in its place. This This city, like mofl; others of antiquity, has been the fcene of terrible maffacres. About two hundred years after its foundation, it was totally depopulated by Ptolemy Physcon—the very few who efcaped fkughter, flying into other Countries. Defirous, however, not to reign over empty houfes, he feduced inhabitants from the neighbouring Countries ^ and again, for fome flight offence, determined on a general maffacre of the young men; and accordingly, when they were one day affembled in the Gymnafium, or place of public exercife, he ordered it to be fet on fire, fo that all periflied, either in the flames, or by the fwords of his mercenaries, whom he had placed at all the avenues. Afterwards, in the year of Christ 215, the Emperor Car ac all a, having beenlampooned by fome of the inhabitants, ordered a general maffacre by his numerous troops, who were difperfed over the city. The inhuman orders being given, all were murdered, without diiUnčtion of age or fex; fo that, in one night's time, the whole city floated in blood, and every houfe was filled with carcafes: the monfler himfelf, retiring to the Temple of Serapis, was all the time imploring the protection of the Deity—-a proof that practical devotion and the mofl at-trocious inhumanity may meet in the fame bofom. As if this had not been fufficient vengeance, he flripped the city of all its ancient privileges—ordered all ftrangers who lived there to depart—and, that the few who remained might not have the fatisfačlion of feeing one another, he cut off all communication of one ftreet with another, by walls built for the purpofe, and guarded with troops. Not- Notwithftanding thefe maiTacres, Alexandria again recovered its former fplendour—and was again facked by Amrou, the infamous Saracen—and all the intrepid youtli of the city perifhed with arms in their hands. The magnificence of the tity may be cflimated from the account written by Amrou to the Caliph: " I have taken," faid he, " the City of the Weft) it is of an immenfe extent J I cannot defcribe to you how many wonders it contains : there are 4000 palaces, 4000 baths," &c. &c. The great advantages of the Eaft India trade, which was then carried on by the Red Sea, preferved Alexandria through feveral revolutions; but having" fallen under the dominion of the Turks, and the palTage round the Cape of Good Hope being difcovered, a fatal blow was given to its commerce, and it has fince fallen to decay. It is, however, even now, worth the attention of the claflical traveller. Entering the harbour, we pafled by the Ifland of Pharos, where Ptolemy built the enormous Tower which was once the Wonder of the world; and, when riding within the port, nothing could be more gratifying than to fee from thence that mixture of ancient and modern monuments that prefented themfelves to the view, on which ever fide the eye could be turned. Of myriads of antiquities which this place affords for the infpeä;ion of the curious, I lliall mention only two—One, the Column of Pompe y, on viewing of which, the remembrance of that great and good man's moil unmerited and cruel fate extracted ^ iigh from the bottom of my heart: this pillar engages the attention tention of iiU travellers; it is conipofed of red granite; th^ capital is Corinthian, with palm leavee, and not indented; the fhaft and the upper member of the bafe are of one piece, ninety feet long, and nine in diameter; the bafe, a fquare of fifteen feet on each fide; the whole column is one hundred and fourteen feet high, perfectly well poliflicd, and only a little Aiivered on the Eaftern fide. Nothing £an equal the majefty of this monument: feen from a dif-tance, it overtops the town, and ferves as a fignal for veflels ; approaching it nearer, it produces an aftoni/hment mixed with awe: one would never be tired of admiring the beauty of the capital, the length of the fl:iaft, nor the extraordinary fimplicity of the pe-deftal. Some years ago, a party of Englilh feamen contrived, by flying a kite, to draw a line over the pillar, and by that means made a kind of a fliroud, by which they got up, and on the very top of of it drank a bowl of punch, to the utter aftonifhment of a multitude who came to fee them; they broke off one of the volutes of the column, but amply compenfated for this mifchief by a dif^ covery they made, as, without their evidence, the world would not have known, at this hour, that there was originally a ftatue on this column, one foot and ancle of which, of enormous lize, are ilill remaining.—The other is the Obelifk of Cleopatra, ofim-n?enfe fize, and of one fmgle piece of granite marble. Here I obferved, too, a thick wall, with towers mouldering under extreme age, which contained, in its face, fragments of architedure of the moft exquifite workmanfhip, fuch as broken columns, friezes, &c. äcc.; thofe were the antique ruins of fome /alien pieces of antiquity, at the time that this antique wall waa buUt: „what, then, tnuft be the length of time lince they had firft undergone tlie hands, of the workman ? Thefe circumftances tend to demonftrate, that, far back beyond the reach of our calculation, the Arts flouriflied: and wht;n one thinks of the miraculous mafles of work done in former age^s^^-the magnitude of the pieces of whicl> thofe work» Were coiiipofe^, fuch as whole columns and obelifks of a fingle block of marble—the Coloffus of Rhodes, made ofbrafs, one foot of which was placed on one fide of the harbour, and another on the other fide, fo that ihips paffed between its legs—7,we cannot help yielding up the palm to the Ancients fc»r ftupendous magnificence, however we may furpafs them for the ufeful, the elegant and the good. At Alexandria I remained about twelve days, till, wearied of the confined ftate I lived in on account of the plague,;! refolved to devife fome means, if poflible, to get away, and at length hired a boat to carry me to the illand of Cyprus, from whence I concluded, that I fhould find no fort of difficulty in procuring a conveyance to Latichea, and fo proceed by my firft intended route. I accordingly arrived at Cyprus in perfečt fafety, where, to niy great forrow and aftonifliment, I found that an epidemical fever, equal in its effečls to a plague, prevailed: however, there was no alternative J I mufi: run the rifque, and I difmifled the boat that cai ried nie from Alexandria. ¥ Y Although Although the etymologies of the names of places are "of Very- little importance, and moft frequently uncertain, I think it probable that the Learned are right, who affert the"name'of this" is deriv'ed from KtrTTPOf- (Cyprus) or Cyprefs—with which flirubs the ifland abounds:^ "It had, in ancient times, a number 'of other names--- one of wliich was Paphia, whence Venus, who Vas worihipped m it, 'was called the Paphian Goddefš. ^^ It lies thirty miles Weft'fcif Syria', whither I was bound, ftretching from the South-we'fl to the ' ' . r ■' If-' North-eaft, one hundred and fifty miles in length,"" and'feventjr iit breadth in the wideft pa« of it. ' ^ " ' This ifland holds'^a very high rank in claffic lore—ft^gave birth to fome great Philofophers and conliderable 'Poets—TKc ApoflleBARNABAs was a native of it, and, aflilled bySr.PAUL, fini? I ^ r , introduced Chriftianity among them. Famagufta, a town on the Eaflern part of the ifland, oppofite to the fliore 'of Syria, is the ancient Salamis, built by Teucer the fon of Tel'amon, and brother of Ajax. ' • " < ii i' 'SymifTo, on the South-eaft, the befl: port in Cyprus, is the Amathus mentioned by Virgil' in his ^Eneid, and by Ovid in his Metamorphofes, And Bafib, on the Weftern coafl, is the }laipos (Paphos) of antiquity, famous for the Temple of Venus. As the branches of an Empire mofl: remote from' the great feat of Government are always more defpotically governed than thofe nearer the fource of redrefs, Cyprus has been continually ruled with a rod of iron fmce it came into the hands of the Turks. While it it was«under the domijiion of Chriftians/it was well-peoplc3, having 110 lefs than eight hundred or a thouland villages in It, belides fe-vera! handfome cities; but the Turks have ipread ruin and defolation over the country, and it is now fo thinly'inhabited that niore than half the lands lie uncultivated. The air of this ifland is now fur the moft part unwholefoine, owing to the damps arifing from the many fens and marfhes with which the country abounds—while, there being but few fprings or rivers in the ifland, the want of a plentiful fall of rain, at proper periods, diftrefles the inhabitants very much in another way; and by means of the uncultivated ftate of the country, they are greatly infefted with poifonous reptiles of various kinds."' 1 The moft remarkable mountain in Cyprus is called Olympus— ^ name common to feveral other mountains in Greece, particularly to that in Theflaly, fo famous in the poetry of the Ancients. That in Cyprus is about fifty miles in circumference; great part of it is covered with woods; and at the foot of it are fine vineyards, which produce admirable wine, not only in a fufficiency for their own confumption, but fome alfo for exportation—And although the greater part of the ifland lies uncultivated, as I have before obferved, it produces a fufiicient quantity of corn, unlefs in feafons when their,harveft fails, in which cafe the people are eafily fupplied from the continent. They have, befides, cattle enough for their own confumption—Many parts of the country abound with wild-fowl, Y 2 and and feveral forts of game, and they have plenty of fifh upon the fea coafts- ,, 1. The trade of Cyprus is not inconfiderable, and carried on chiefly by Jews and Armenians: the commodities in which they deal ara wine, oil, cotton, wool, fait, filk, and turpentine—befides, it produces feveral forts of earth, fit for the ufe of painters, particularly red, blacic and yellow. Its moft wonderful produdtion, however, is the famous ftone AtrSsfos (Afljeftos) inextinguifhable, or (Amiantos) im- pollutus, fo called from its extraordinary propertyi'of rcfifting fire. It is related that the Ancients made out of this ftone a kind of thread that would remain unconfumcd in the moft intenfe fire. It is even faid, that feme experiments have been made in modern days, which have fufficiently proved that the thing is not a fidlion. In fuch extraordinary queftlons as this, though I do not pofitively contradičt, I always fufpend my belief, till fomething ftronger than mere affertion is offered to convince me. There is one dreadful mifchicf to which this ifland is fubječt—-In the hot feafon, locufts come firom the Continent, in fwarms fo vaft and fo thick as to darken the fky like clouds. Thofe would certainly devour all the fruits of the earth, if they were not driven to fea by a North wind that ufually blows at the time of their coming. When that wind happens to fail, which fortunately is feldom, the confequence is a total demolition of the fruits of the Country. The whole ifland, as well as particular towns, was entirely confecrated to theGoddefs Venus, who thence was called Venus Cypria, or De a Cypria, and is reprefcntcd by the Poets as taking a peculiar pleafure in vifiting it—and this unqueftionably arofe from the loofe habits and lafcivious temperament of the Women there, who certainly are, at this time, not remarkable for chaftity. I muft confefs, however, that I felt great pleafure in entering Cyprus-—it was, as I have already ftated, claflk ground, and dedicated to the Queen of Love. But a traveller who vifits it with hopes of amufement, will be much difappointedj for in no one particular did it feem to me to refemble that Cyprus famed in the Heathen Story and Mythology. Of the Cyprian Queen's favours the ladies feemed to boaft no one mark, fave the moft naufeous, difgufting lewdnefs—and the natural fertility of the foil is half loft beneath the opprefiive yoke of the fervants of the Turkiih Government. Thus, in the extraordinary revolutions that human affairs are inccflantly undergoing, that ifland which for its fuperior beauties was fuppofed to be the refidence of Love, which gave birth to the Philofophers Zeno, Appollonius and Xenophon, is now a miferable, half-cultivated fpot, peopled with a mixture of 'W^retched Turks, Jews, Greeks and Chrilliians—groaning under tyrrany of a barbarous defpotic abufe of delegated power— "ifefted with locufts which devour the fruits of the earth—and difgraced difgi-accd by a nice of ignominious women, who efleem it to be aa ačt of religion to proftitute themfelvcs to all ftrangers. Our Richard the Firft made a conqueft of this ifland on his way to the Holy Land, and conferred the.Royalty of it,on, Gu\' Lusignan, King of Jerufalem. The Venetians poffeffed them-felves of it in the year 1480—but, in the iixteenth century, the Turks difpofleffed them, and have ever fince kept it under the voke—I lliould have remarked that their wine is excellent. , Continuing my route, I hired another boat, after only forty-eight hours ftay at Cyprus, and proceeded for Latichea, which, as I have fomewhere before mentioned, is a conliderable fea-port town of Syria, built on a promontory of land, which, running into the fea, occafions its being continually refreihed with breezes. Fortune, who had hitherto been not very liberal in her difpenfatlons, now favoured mcj for, juü: as I arrived at Latichea, a caravan was preparing. The Conful of the Turkifli Company at Cyprus received me with great politenefs and hofpitality—gave me a Letter to the Refident at Latichea j and by his inftručtion and aHiftance, after a very fhort ftay, I fet out on my way to Aleppo with the caravan. As I fliall hereafter have occafion more particularly to defcribe the nature of thofe caravans, I fhall, for the prefent, tell you, that this was compofed of no other hearts of burden than mules and afles, of which there were not lefs than three or four hundred in number. Mounted Mounted on a mule, I travelled along, well pleafed with the fertile appearance of the country, and delighted with the ferenity of the air—^.We were, as well as'I can now recolledt, near ten days on the roadjt during which time we travelled only in the morning early, and in the heat of the day repofed under the fhade of trees. I ' ^ I. w^is informed, j that if, inftead of going to Latichea.fl had goned t® Scanderoon (otherwifej Alexandretta), Jj fhould,. in the road from ^thence tt> Aleppo, have travelled through a Country, in which the moft fingular and extravagant cuftoms prevail that exift in any Country emerged from barbarifm-—Several of thofe I heard; but one in particular was, that t^e^men proftituted their wives and daughters to all comers-—and that this originated from a principle of religion, though there was every reafon to believe, that, like many of their religious inflitutions, it was at laft made fubfervient to the gratification of avarice.. On my way to Alleppo, I was met by a Mr.--, an Englifli Gentleman, who had heard of my coming, and who, in the moft kind and hofpitable manner, infilled upon my living at his houle inftead of the Britifh Conful's, where I fliould otherwife have refided during my flay there; and his manner of allcing me was fo engaging, interefling and impreflive, that I found it impoffible to refufe him. As the great public caravan had departed from Aleppo before «ly arrival, and the expence of forming a private one on my account was too great, as I was travellijig on my own account, and had had no dispatches to authorife or enforce my departure/ or bear me out in the expencej I was conftrained to remain at'Aleppo till £bme eligible mode of travelling occurred, or another public caravan was formed—This delay gave me an opportunity of feeing and informing myfelf of the city and furrounding countryi the re-fuit of which, I lhall, in as fliort a manner as poffible, relate to you in a future Letter. It alfo gave occafion to one of thofe unhappy incidents which I have fo often had occafion to lament, f not from any confcibufnefs of direčt criminality, but for the fcope it gave to mifreprefentation, and the injury which that mifreprefentation did mc in the opinion of fome of my friends. " '' ' ;ti" - A J, 1 M end of part i, I