ADVERTISEMENT. (continued 2)

As I approached the city of Brussels, I was struck with a mixed sensation of surprise and delight at the appearance it made——none that I had ever seen being comparable to it, and not one in Europe, by the account of travellers, being in that respect superior to it, Naples and Genoa only excepted: like them, however, it, when entered, falls far short of the expectation raised by its external appearance, being all composed of hills and hollows, which not only fatigue, but render the appearance of the streets, though well built, contemptible and mean.

Brussels stands on the beautiful little river Senne, on the brow of a hill. The city is about seven miles in circumference, has seven gates, with extensive suburbs, and is encompassed with a double wall made of brick, and ditches; but its size is too great for strength, as a face of defence of such extent could not possibly hold out a long siege——a great and insuperable defect in such a country as I have described.

Great as is the extent of ground on which this city stands, it is nevertheless very well built, and extremely populous. It is ornamented with no fewer than seven squares, all of them remarkably 60fine, particularly the great square or market-place, which is reckoned to be perhaps the finest in Europe. Around it are the halls of the different trades, the fronts of which are adorned, in a superb manner, with emblematical sculpture, with gilding, and a variety of Latin inscriptions. One quarter of this square is entirely occupied by the town-houses, a noble pile of building, in which there were apartments where the States of Brabant met, finely adorned with tapestry in gilt frames, and some 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 expected, and whose approach made such a bustle, and promised such a spectacle, as made me regret the necessity I lay under of proceeding on my journey. The town-house was put into the highest order, and subsequently fell a sacrifice to the great and important event for which it was prepared.

The steeple of this building is of a most stupendous height——three hundred and sixty-four feet; and on the top of it is erected a statue of Saint Michael killing the Dragon, of the enormous height of seventeen feet: this Colossal statue is so constructed as to serve for a weather-cock; and being made of copper, well gilt, is at once conspicuous, magnificent, and ornamental.

The public buildings of Brussels, particularly the Palaces and Courts of the several Princes, Counts, and other persons of distinction, (and, you may be sure, the Churches and Cloisters too), are spacious, expensive, and magnificent. Behind the Imperial Palace, 61which stood in the highest part of the city, but was burnt down many years ago, is a park, well stocked 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 pleasure-house, built by the Emperor Charles the Fifth, after his abdication.

The Palace is a magnificent structure: the rooms of it are finished in a style far superior to those 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 first rank of eminence. Of the other buildings (the grandeur of which entitle them to the names of Palaces), those of the Prince de la Tour and Taxis, and the British Earl of Aylesbury, are distinguished by great beauty and magnificence. Indeed, in all the Palaces, there are collections of original paintings, by the most eminent masters, both Italian and Flemish.

The Royal Library of Brussels claims particular attention, for the magnitude and liberality of its establishment, containing a grand collection of the most excellent books in all languages, and being open all the year on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, to public access.

The Arsenal of Brussels is extremely well worth going to see, on account of the very curious antique arms it contains——of which it is, at this distance of time, impossible for me to give you any account worth attention. The armour of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, together with the furniture of his horse, and state sword, 62are shewn: I could see nothing either novel or interesting in them——a strong mark; I presume, of my want of taste; but I confess my organs are not so refined as to feel any extraordinary emotions at the sight of a heap of inert matter, merely because it once enveloped the carcase of a Tyrant: neither were they so very coarse or dull as not to undergo very pointed sensations at the sight of the armour of Montezuma, the injured Emperor of Mexico, the victim of avarice and rapine, under their usual mask, religion. Why Montezuma’s armour should make a part of the trophies of a Popish State, and be triumphantly exhibited, is hard to account for in human folly: why that should be exhibited which is a stain of the deepest-damned black, in their black code of faith, is astonishing, unless we allow the truth of the old saying, “Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat;” and that, after having violated every principle of virtue, morality, and human feeling——after having surpassed in cruelty all that we know of the worst monsters of the earth, or of the deep, the fell hyena, or the ravening shark——after having successfully emulated the worst efforts of the most malignant spirits that are said to hold counsel for the ruin of Mankind in Hell——they were desirous to transmit the spoils of their ravages to posterity, to tell them what glorious things have been achieved in days of yore, for the love of Christ——to demonstrate what benefits are to be derived from a religion which has, for so many hundred years, given sanction to every enormity that strikes the soul of Man with horror, and thereby to make 63converts to their principles. Monsters! fools! Away with your idle cants, ye hypocrites, who would brand the cruelties of the present days, the massacres of the Jacobins, with the crime of infidelity, and attribute those much lamented defections from humanity to a falling off from the Christian Faith. Look to Mexico!——see a monster, a High Priest of your religion, collecting, by fair promises and sweet persuasion, a people round him; and, when a plain was filled, commanding his bloodhounds, armed with sword and crucifix, to fall upon and murder them——because one poor creature, who knew not what a book meant, had accidentally dropped a bible from his hands!——see him not sparing age or sex, 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, such atrocities as this cruel Priest committed in cold blood? when have they hunted down their fellow-creatures, massacred children, and given their yet panting members to their dogs for food, as pious Christians, headed by a pious Priest, have done in Mexico? Never! never!—— Learn wisdom, then, ye hypocrites! and if you cannot convince your enemies by reason, or conquer them by force, and if their predatory and wicked progress is not to be stopped, do not sanctify their enormities, or palliate their crimes, in the eye of reason, by a comparison with those of a deeper dye: remember, that “not to be the worst stands in some rank of praise,” and that the Jacobin cruelties of Paris, horrible though they were, were pity and tender mercy, compared 64with the Christian butchery in Mexico, in Europe, in Asia, in every place where Popery ever set its bloody hoof.

You are not, from what I say, to infer that I entertain any illiberal animosity to Popery, as many men, and more women, do, merely because its articles of Faith differ from those in which I was bred; I trust my heart and understanding are above such very degrading prejudices: but I abhor every thing that militates against human happiness——every thing that crushes the operations of intellect——every thing that stops the current of opinion, and prevents its course from enlarging and meliorating our condition: I abhor the impertinent and hypocritical intrusion of all Churchmen upon national or domestic concerns; the more, when that intrusion is mischievous; and more still, when it assumes the mask of piety——for that is at once a fraud upon Man and an abuse of God. All those causes of abhorrence attach, more or less, to all sects of the Christian Religion, the Quakers only excepted——but to Popery rather more than to any of the others; for it is observed, that while the very first principles of Christianity, as originally laid down in theory, are peace and good-will towards men, warfare, persecution and bloodshed, have practically marked its footsteps wherever it has trod, and its very essence been perverted by its own Ministers, who, entrusted with the key of the Temple, steal the vestments from the altar, to cover the deformed, crooked back of vice. But the rays of dawning reason now break with fuller light upon Mankind; and it hastens to meridian resplendence, 65before which those phantoms raised by pious jugglers will vanish, and, “like the baseless fabric of a vision, leave not a wreck behind.”

LETTER XII.

In the Arsenal of Brussels was another curiosity, which I overlooked in my last——a model of a cannon, constructed so as to throw seven balls at once. It is some consolation to philanthropy to reflect, that of all the abominable engines and instruments which the inventive faculties of Man have discovered to increase 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-house of Brussels, accounted the noblest and largest in Europe, is built after the Italian manner, with rows of lodges or closets, in most of which are chimneys. One of those, which belonged to a Prince, whose title I now forget, was hung with looking-glasses, in which, while he sat by the fire, took refreshments, or reclined on his couch, he could see the whole representation, without being exposed to the view of either the actors or the audience.

66The markets of Brussels are very remarkable. The Dukes of St. Pierre paid no less than forty thousand florins, or upwards of three thousand pounds sterling, for four pictures of them, painted by Rubens and Synder——Lewis the Fourteenth of France offered an immense sum of money for them; but they found their way at last into the collection of the British Earl of Orford. The value of them is said, by connoisseurs, to be beyond computation.

Brussels is extremely well supplied with water; for, besides the river, it has twenty public fountains, adorned with statues, at the corners of the most public streets; and the lower part of the city is cut into canals, which communicate with the great one, extending from Brussels to the Scheldt, fifteen miles: by means of this canal, which was finished in 1561, and cost the city eight hundred thousand florins, a person may sail from Brussels 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 most remarkable is that of Saint Michael and Saint Gudula, commonly called the Cathedral. It is a superb, old Gothic structure, and, from its celebrated situation, a most beautiful ornament to the city. It is not only grand in its external appearance, but finely adorned within. The pillars which support the roof are lofty and elegant: and against each is a statue of ten feet in height. There are no less than sixteen Chapels in it; and each Chapel is enriched with abundance of splendid ornaments, altar finery, candlesticks, crucifixes, 67&c. and with some excellent pictures too: a picture of Jesus Christ presenting the keys of Paradise to Saint Peter, which is reckoned among the chef-d’œuvres of Rubens, hangs in one of those Chapels. There are some monuments, also, of very great merit, in the choir of this Church. But that which I think by far the greatest and most admirable curiosity (I mean of human workmanship) in the Church, is a pulpit——one of the richest and most exquisitely wrought pieces I have ever seen: at the bottom are seen Adam and Eve as large as life, represented as at the moment when the Angel drove them out of Paradise: in both of their faces are deeply and expressively marked the traits of a mind agonised with anguish and remorse: behind Eve is a figure of Death, which follows them; and on the top of the pulpit are seen the figures of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary crushing the head of the Serpent. The strong expressions in the faces of all those figures, and the exquisite turn of the workmanship, is the more remarkable, as it is all cut out of oak wood.

Of supernatural curiosities, one of the Chapels in this Cathedral contains some, that, for miracle, yield to none in the long catalogue of Monkish devices. Three hosts or wafers are daily worshipped by the People; which hosts or wafers, the Priests firmly assert, and the People as firmly believe, were, so long ago as the year 1369, stabbed by a Jew, and bled profusely. They are exposed on every festival, in a chalice richly set with diamonds; and on the first Sunday after every thirteenth of July, 68there is a yearly procession in memory of this stabbing and bleeding, when the hosts are carried in great state round the city, embellished with all manner of precious stones, and attended by all the Clergy, secular and regular, the Magistrates, the Courts of Justice, and even by the Governor of the Province: the Chapel where they are kept is of marble, and the altar of solid silver.

Great God! what an opprobrium to the human understanding, that, at the time when the mind of Man is sufficiently enlightened to avoid the weakness of shameful credulity, a whole People should stoop to such extravagant imposition! what a shame to justice and honesty, that those who are trusted to guard the rights of a People, and who certainly are too well informed to yield their belief to such trash, should yet join in, and give the weight of their authority to so gross, so wicked a deception on a Community! The Magistrates, the Courts of Justice, and the Governor——they walk, too, in company with the bald-pated impostors—Good God! can more be said? volumes of comment could not elucidate or render it more conspicuously absurd than the bare recital of the fact itself.

It is impossible for me to recount to you the number of Nunneries, of various Orders, in which unfortunate women were cloistered up, some from bigotry, and others by force, in this city. There were, however, two of them English——one of Dominican Ladies, founded by Cardinal Howard, in the reign of Charles the Second, of which a Lady of the Noble House of Norfolk was 69always Abbess: the other is of Benedictine Nuns; the Beguinage of the latter is like a little town, surrounded with a wall and ditch, and divided into pretty little streets, where every Beguine has her apartment; the number of them amounts in general to seven or eight hundred, sometimes more.

If population be the true strength of a Nation, this part of Popery is very impolitic. The succession of women in this one Convent since the reign of Charles the Second, must amount to many thousands. Had those been married, and, on an average, had only two children each, with the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, down to the present day, in all the ramifications of descent, there is not a doubt but their number would equal that of the whole people of some extensive Provinces. What, then, must be the loss to the population of the earth, arising from the celibacy of so many millions of males and females as have been consigned to sterility in the Catholic Countries, ever since that extraordinary doctrine came first into fashion? It is out of the reach of calculation: not but, now and then, they may have children——indeed they certainly have; but those are generally disposed of in a way not to bring shame on the frail Sisterhood, or their Confessors.

In wading through such a torrent of offensive ideas as the innumerable absurdities and deceptions of Popish Countries continually raise in the mind, it is a pleasing circumstance to be relieved by the contemplation of some really useful, humane institution; 70and such a one presents itself now to my recollection: At Brussels, and, I am told, at all great towns of the Netherlands, there is a public office for lending money at a very moderate interest upon pledges: it is called the Mount of Piety; and was established nearly 108 years ago by the Archduke Albert, and Isabella, his wife. By this institution, the Poor are saved from the fleecings and frauds of Pawnbrokers: and, to render it still more perfect in accommodation, there are private passages for entrance; so that those who would with to conceal their necessities, are exempted from the mortification of being seen publicly going in, or coming out.

You have read, I presume, that in the days of Heathenism, the Deities of that curious Mythology were supposed to rejoice in the number Three. The Popish Code has fixed upon Seven as the lucky number. Thus they have seven sacraments, seven deadly sins, &c. &c. Brussels has improved upon that; and, taking the hint from their blessed Liturgy, has seven grand streets; seven parish-churches; seven Patrician families, out of which the Magistrates are or were elected; seven large squares; seven midwives, licensed and sworn by the Senate; and seven gates, leading to seven places of recreation and exercise, one to a place proper for fowling, a second to a place for fishing, a third to one for hunting, a fourth to pleasant fields, a fifth to pastime grounds, a sixth to springs and vineyards, and a seventh to gardens. Besides all which sevens, they boast of having once had the great good fortune 71of entertaining, at one time, seven Crowned Heads, with seven, thousand horse belonging to their retinue. If there were any spell in the number Seven, the People of Brussels surely must have been secure from all mischief; but the Sans-culottes have broken the charm, dispersed the necromancers, and lowered poor number Seven to its mere arithmetical value.

The Inns, or eating-houses, in this city, were equal to any in the world: a stranger might dine there better and cheaper than in any place, perhaps, on earth. The wines, also, were excellent and cheap; and coach-hire beyond expectation reasonable——And here I recollect to remark to you, that, all the way from Ostend to Brussels, one is obliged to sit, dine, &c. in bed-chambers; a circumstance which is extremely discordant to the feelings of those who have been used to British Inns, although the bed-chambers are, to say the truth, large and commodious. At the very walls of Brussels begins the famous wood of Sogne, from which the inhabitants were allowed to cut wood for fuel: as fast as the trees were cut down, fresh ones were planted in their stead; by which means the wood was preserved, and it afforded a continual supply to the Poor.

Brussels is so very remarkable a place, that I have taken more than my usual scope of description of it. Just as I had finished it, I read a paragraph in the public papers, stating that it is likely to be annexed to the territories of the French Republic.

72

LETTER XIII.

Hitherto, as I have proceeded on my travels, I have been purposely very particular in my descriptions of the towns through which I passed on my way to India, in order to give your mind a disposition to inquiry, and point out to you an overflowing source of improvement and delight. Having so far shewn you how amply you will be rewarded, even in amusement, by the trouble of searching into books, for the accurate topographical descriptions of towns, cities, building, &c. &c. I think I may spare myself that labour for the future, and confine myself to those points that more immediately apply to the enlargement of the mind——I mean, the government, laws, manners and character of the People of each Country; and only use the former as subservient to the latter purpose, at least until I come to those places where, the ground being but little trodden by British feet, more precise description may become necessary.

But, before I leave the Netherlands, I must make a few remarks upon the Country and People, which it would be unpardonable in me to omit, after having been already so minutely particular in things of inferior merit to the scope of my plan.

73Although personal appearance be, in the eye of Moral Philosophy, a very inferior consideration, and mind the proper study of Man; yet, in describing a People, I cannot think it altogether unnecessary to include their personal appearance, as it will be found that there exists a greater analogy between the person and the mind of Man than is generally perceived. Thus the lively hilarity, the restless activity, the levity and fantastic character of the French, are strongly pourtrayed in the national person. In like manner, the lusty, fat, clumsy and misshapen person of the People of the Netherlands, is strongly illustrative of the temper and habit of their mind, intellects and spirits: industrious and heavy; dull of understanding, but not defective in judgment; flow in work——but, persevering in effort, and unerring in the process, they are generally successful in the end: in war, cold and backward at offensive operations, but inflexible and terrible in resistance; like the boar of the forest, they seek not the combat with any, but will not go out of their way to decline it with the most powerful: their appetites and desires cooler than other Nations, but less subject 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 constituted by Nature, the effects of their industry are wonderful in every thing; but chiefly in their canals and sluices, which serve not only for the support of their commerce, and the 74facility of intercourse, but for their defence against enemies: this was in other times; but, alas! the former of these uses, commerce, has so entirely absorbed all their intellect, and possessed their very souls, that they seem almost entirely negligent of the latter; and from being, of all People, the most wise and vigilant in determining and ascertaining their rights, the most zealous asserters and defenders of their independence, the most ardent friends to Liberty, and the most determined enemies to Slavery, they are become a sort of strange, inconsistent, hotch-potch politicians, whom ingenuity itself would find a difficulty in describing. They retain so much of their ancient and noble vigilance as serves to make them suspicious——so much of their independence as disposes them to change——so much of their jealousy as stimulates them to resistance——but not one particle of their former wisdom, to instruct them where they should attach themselves, where resist, or where resolve to act——nor of their courage to carry any resolution they might form into effect.

In the year 1781, the Emperor Joseph the Second came to Brussels, in order to indulge his paternal feelings as a Monarch with the contemplation and view of his Subjects, and also to be inaugurated; and perhaps upon no occasion that has ever occurred in the most volatile Nation, was there greater joy more universally expressed. For some time before his arrival, the whole Country was in motion; and, even with them, domestic industry stopped its usual persevering pace, suspended in the eager, anxious 75expectation of his arrival. Every thing in the birth, education, natural disposition and person of the young Emperor, united to impress his Subjects with the most exalted opinion of his goodness, and to inspire all ranks of people with the most fortunate presages of a wise and beneficent government. Nor did he disappoint them: his conduct, when among them, is handed over to remembrance, by a variety of acts of benevolence and condescension, which shewed 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, domestic enjoyments of a Subject, than the stern and unbending hardihood fit for a King: for I am perfectly 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 preserve respect, should avoid familiarity, and keep his person sacred from too general observation. Shakspeare has put into the mouth of his Henry the Fourth, a beautiful expression on this subject, well worth the attention of Kings——

Had I so lavish of my presence been,

So common hackney’d in the eyes of men,

Opinion, that did help me to the Crown,

Had still kept loyal to possession,

And left me in reputeless banishment,

A fellow of no mark, nor likelihood.

By being seldom seen, I could not stir,

But, like a comet, I was wonder’d at:

That men would tell their children, This is he.”

76Of the number I have heard, I will mention one anecdote only, and one remarkable expression of Joseph’s, which will serve to shew in its true light what his disposition was; and when you consider them as the act and sentiment of a young man nursed in the lap of despotism and pride, you cannot but consider them as marvellous.

In his journey to the Low Countries, he visited Wurtzaurg; and, in his perambulating alone and incog. stopped at a little public-house, where the people were busily employed in entertaining themselves: he went in, and inquired why they were so merry——“Sir,” said one of the country people, “we are celebrating a marriage.” “May I be permitted to join the company?” said the disguised Emperor. The host obtained that permission for him. When he entered the room, the married couple were presented to him, and he received them with great gaiety, sat down, drank their health, and, having informed himself of their situation, took leave of the company: but what was their astonishment, when, on lifting up a bottle of wine, they found a draft for six hundred florins, signed Joseph, and payable for the use of the married couple!

At Luxembourg, when the People called aloud on Heaven to shower down blessings on him for his affability, he made use of this remarkable expression, while his feelings moistened his eyes: “I wish I could make you as happy in my care, as I am in your affection!”

77The affability of Monarchs has often been magnified by the foolish, and often blamed by the wise: But, if all the instances of condescension practised by Kings were like that I have recited of Joseph; if they arose from a sound, unquestionable spirit of philanthropy, not from gaping curiosity, broad folly, or a puerile inquisitive habit; and if, instead of conceiving those they visit paid for their intrusion with the honour of having conversed with Majesty, and leaving them churlishly, they would generously pay them with hard cash, as the good Emperor Joseph did; then, indeed, their affability might defy the exaggeration of fools, and must certainly command the applause of the wise.

On the 13th of July, the ceremony of Inauguration took place at Brussels. Nothing could equal the splendour of the place but the general joy of the People: the crowds were beyond all conception immense, and every thing was carried on with regularity till evening, when, in playing off some fire-works, that noble building the town-house took fire, and was burnt: six unfortunate persons lost their lives, and twenty were dangerously hurted: those who perished were absolutely roasted, and their cries were beyond description piercing. To such a temper as Joseph’s, you will readily conclude that this must be a most afflicting circumstance——it was so; and he left Brussels under the pressure of very different feelings from those with which he entered it, and was followed by the prayers and blessing of all the People.

78But now we are to view the reverse of the medal. The sound of their prayers for his welfare, and praises of his goodness, had hardly died away upon their lips, ere their minds turned to revolt and rebellion. I will not say that they were not right in one or other, or which of those two extremes: certainly they could not be right in both; much less can their subsequent conduct be justified, or accounted for, in any principle of human nature, but that of the most abject meanness, dastardly feebleness, and gross folly. They returned to their allegiance, and besought forgiveness: that forgiveness was granted. How they have behaved since, I have already informed you, (See Letter IV.); and I have now to add, that, pillaged by the French, and likely to be left unprotected, they have again held their necks out, soliciting the protection and the yoke of Austria, and have actually offered to raise 100,000 men for the Emperor, if he will again drive the French out of their territories——An excellent word that IF!

How a People, once formed for manly pith and love of Freedom, could bend so low, is unaccountable. It is a question hard to be determined, whether an obstinate adherence even to a bad cause, is not more respectable, than a fickle, alternate dereliction, and adoption of right and wrong, as it suits the caprice or convenience of the moment? Of two things so very contemptible, I think the former the least odious and least unmanly.

At the same time, my observations on the Country led me to conceive, that under the name of Freedom, they groaned under 79the yoke of Tyranny; for, though the Country was, as I have described it, charming, its fecundity unsurpassed, its face decorated with the best gifts of Providence——I mean, smiling fields and bleating plains——though Ceres profusely repaid the labours of the husbandman, 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 shillings of our money at most——yet, in spite of all this, the farmers were rather poor in general——not even one of them to be found rich or substantial, like the middle rank of that class of men in England. They wanted the great stimulus to industry——security of their property: they were liable to be turned out by their landlords at pleasure, and to be plundered when it should please some Monarch to make war.

The first of these, however, you will observe, is not the oppression of the Emperor: it is the tyranny of that worst of all constituent parts of a State, an Aristocracy——a vile Aristocracy!——that universal, that every-day despotism, under which all places groan, more or less——which is exercised in all the various gradations of life that chequer society, from the great man who, under the name of Minister, domineers over the Peer, to the country fox-hunting savage, who puts a poor wretch in jail to pine for years, (his family, the while, supported by the parish charity), only for doing that which makes the enjoyment of his own life, killing a partridge or a hare!——that Aristocratic tyranny which is seen 80scowling on the brows of a swaggering fellow in power, adopted by his secretary with increase, by him handed down to an upstart set of fellows in office, dependent on his smile, and by them displayed in all the nauseous, despicable forms which awkwardness and ignorance, lifted above their station, never fail to assume——the cold reserve, the affected stare, the listless nod, the feigned deafness, blindness, absence, and other fashionable perfections, which serve as vents for upstart arrogance, and indemnify the sycophant for the vile homage and submission which he has before paid some wretch mean and arrogant as himself!——I tell you, my dear Frederick, it is this Aristocratic usurpation of power, where power exists not, nor is necessary——this insulting assumption of superiority, this hidden petty oppression which rears its head in every manor, nay, almost every town and village in the Kingdom, that puts the Nations out of tune, mars the harmony of social arrangement, and renders power in the aggregate obnoxious. Why, our very women have their saucy, Aristocratic, supercilious front, their haughty stare, their contemptuous titter; and barter the winning softness of the sex, the dimples where the loves should dwell, for the haughty toss of the head, the ill-natured sneer, and the insulting Hector’s frown——And thus the spirit of Aristocracy, like a poisonous weed, grows and expands from one to the other with baleful luxuriance, gradually overspreading the whole face of humanity, stopping the wholesome current of the social atmosphere, 81and choaking up the less rank but more useful plants——Thus it goes round in shameful traffic; and, as the Poet says,

“The wh—re she kicks her cully,

Court-waiters are kick’d at call;

We are all kick’d, yet bully

While int’rest kicks the ball.”

I am persuaded, that if the grievances of the most despotic States were fairly estimated, and assigned to their real authors, the Princes of such States would be found responsible for a very small share indeed, when compared with the Aristocracy: and by Aristocracy, I mean not merely Lords, but all men who convert the wealth which Providence has bestowed upon them to the purposes of Tyranny, Exactions, Imposition, and Oppression——under which four heads we will again find, not only imprisonment for begging alms, imprisonment for shooting a partridge, but often seduction, adultery, and persecution for resisting or resorting to law for punishment of that seduction or adultery. Of all those things, the proofs, I fear, in all Nations, are abundant: I am sure they are so in the best governed State in Europe——I mean, England——-

“Qui capit, ille facit.”

I have thrown up a fool’s cap: how many are there who will privately put it on!

82

LETTER XIV.

As the time of my departure from Brussels approached, I found the bitter sensations with which I left London, in some measure, returning. My fortunate encounter with General Lockhart had afforded me a temporary respite; but now I was once more to face an unknown country alone, without the chance of again meeting a friend to solace my mind, or mitigate my woe, on this side of India.

Having seen as much of Brussels as my time and occasions would at all allow, and, in truth, having rather trespassed on my plan, for the reasons just mentioned, I determined to push forward as fast as it was possible, and took post for Liege, where I arrived, after passing through a beautiful, fertile, well-cultivated country, to the charms of which the renewed agony of my feelings rendered me almost insensible.

As we have now almost 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 Constitution of this vast Empire——over all which, while one great Monarch nominally presides, there 83are spread a number of petty Potentates, who really rule after as distinct forms of Government as almost any two Governments, however remote, in Europe.

Considering the nature of Government abstractedly, one would suppose that it arose from the general will of the society governed, and was formed for their use and benefit alone: but if we view the different systems scattered over the civilized part of the earth, we shall find that they originated from force and fraud; and that, in their first formation, when bodily prowess, not intellectual power, bore sway——when he that could carry the strongest armour, and strike the heaviest blows, was sure to govern——when mere animal strength and ferocity disinherited reason of her rights, and robbed her of that ascendancy to which the invention of gunpowder, aided by the art of Printing, has since in some sort restored her——the basis upon which Governments were raised was, one man, not the whole society; the point then was, how this or that strong ruffian could collect most slaves about him, not how this or that society should choose the best head: if he had strength to carry havoc through the ranks of their enemies, and then to overawe themselves, he was sure of dominion over the people, and left it to his son; but if it so happened that he did not also bequeath to him bodily prowess to preserve it, the next strong ruffian seized the reins, flung him from his seat, and kept it till he, or some one of his heirs, was again served so in his turn by some other usurper. Hence arose the cabals and intrigues of courts, the spirit of party, 84and intestine commotion; till at length the People, for their own security, and to avoid the horrors of civil war, made choice (from dismal necessity) of some one family to rule them. As society advanced, and opulence held forth temptation, some greater ruffian, followed by a horde of needy, famished barbarians, made incursions on those rulers; and being irresistible, as well from numbers firmly connected, as from the powerful impulse of necessity, under whose banners they generally robbed and ravaged, was submitted to on terms, and became Lord Paramount of a number of petty Sovereigns, who did homage to him, and fleeced the miserable subjects, to keep him in humour; and thus, in a series of time, the power of both took root, and remained immoveable, unless when torn up by some violent tempest that convulsed the State, and shook it to its foundations.

Reading this account, you will very naturally exclaim, “Good God! how absurd! how irrational!” Yet so it is; and from this source, muddy though it be, is modern honour, and modern greatness, and modern high blood, derived: from this foul and turbid fountain have most of the Governments of the world issued; from those strong men of yore have most of our modern governors descended: and as it generally happens (so equally has Providence distributed the gifts of Nature) that the strength of the intellectual part is in the inverse ratio of the animal, perhaps that is the reason why Monarchs are formed, in general, of greater bodily vigour than mental endowments, and better fitted for the Field than the 85Cabinet——and for this reason are obliged to take from the puisne ranks of their Subjects some assistant, so far removed from the great standard of antique dignity, as to possess understanding enough to govern.

Upon a retrospective view of the History of Europe, it will be found, that for a long time after the birth of Christ, Germany was divided among such petty rulers as I have described, who each held his little State in sovereignty, and was called Princeps in Latin, or, in plain English, Prince. After the downfall of the Western Empire, a Nation called Franks, from that part called Franconia, over-run a great part of Gaul and Germany, and in the fifth century took possession of that part of Gaul which lay North of the river Loire. In the year 800, Charlemagne, the son of Pepin, their King, formed an immense Empire in the West, comprehending a great part of Germany, France, Italy, and a part of Spain. About eighty years afterwards, the petty Princes of Germany shook off the French Carlovinian race, and elected an Emperor of their own from the House of Bavaria.

At last Henry the Fourth, having displeased that grand arbiter the Pope, was put under the ban, and in consequence deposed by the States; on which occasion His Holiness had the address to make that great dignity elective, he having uncontrouled power over the electors; since which it has continued so, with some modifications, and under certain regulations, formed by Charles the Fourth, at the Diet of Nurunberg. The election, 86however, has been always so managed, that it has never departed from the regular line of succession but when there was an actual want of heirs.

In a Country over which the Pope had such influence, it might reasonably be supposed that intolerance is carried to a great length; but it is not so, as a review of each particular State shews. The established religion, in general, is Popery. Joseph the Second, that good and wise Monarch, displayed a greater spirit of toleration than any other Catholic Prince since Henry the Fourth of France. He was not murdered by a Friar for it, it is true——those days of pious barbarity are past; but he was visited on the occasion by His Holiness, who, after a variety of remonstrances against the relaxation he gave to religious severity in his own dominions, finding him unmoved by papers, resolved to attack him in person: but, whether it was that the pontifical amulet lost its charm when out of the air of Rome, or that His Holiness was not properly anointed before (like Hecate in Macbeth) he took his flight, or that he forgot some of those relics which were expected to operate on Joseph’s mind, so it was, that the good Emperor continued inflexibly attached to his former resolve; and, after kissing His Holiness’ toe, and a thousand other pretty politenesses, sent him back to Rome again with his finger in his mouth; and a story to relate, that would, at one time, have set all Europe in a flame, and sent the good Monarch, like Henry the Second of England, to lash himself 87naked over the rotten remains of some vagabond fraudulent Priest.

In the election of Emperor, the laws of the Empire have laid down no qualification but that which ought to be the sine quâ non of all Princes, namely, that he be justus, bonus, et utilis——Neither have they made any limitation in regard to religion, nation, state, or age; nevertheless, the majority of electors being Papists, a Roman Catholic Prince is always chosen.

The rank of the Emperor is very great: he is looked upon by all Crowned Heads as the first European Potentate; and, as such, precedence is always given him and his ambassadors: he is the supreme Head of the German Empire; but his power in the administration thereof is very limited indeed. In ancient times, the Emperor had considerable domains and incomes; but warfare and prodigality have dissipated the greatest part of them, and they have been successively alienated or mortgaged, so that his revenues were very inconsiderable lately, and now, since the French war, are almost as nothing.

The present Emperor Francis found the Empire, when he was elected, incumbered with difficulties of the most enormous magnitude——a war on which the existence of every Monarchy in Europe seemed to depend, an exhausted treasury, and a disposition to revolt in a part of his dominions, the Netherlands. At this present time, his situation is, beyond that of every other Prince, lamentable:——almost all his resources gone, and an insolent, formidable, 88triumphant enemy, proceeding and carrying conquest by rapid strides through his Country. He called upon his People to support him. The States of the Netherlands, instead of assisting him to stop the progress of the enemy, invited and opened their gates to them, put them in their bosom, and were stung. Of the other States, some refuse their aid, while some have recourse to feeble expedients; and, to evade the weight, temporise, procrastinate, and shuffle, 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 save the Empire and themselves. The King of Prussia, one of those States, on being called upon, says he is busily employed in securing the plunder of Poland, and cannot come——while the tyger is glutting in the blood of the harmless flocks, the huntsmen are coming upon him, to cut him off. As an Englishman, zealous for the welfare of my Country, I wish the King of Prussia may not, by his attention to Poland, sacrifice all Germany to the French. As an honest man, I cannot help entertaining a wish, that the scandalous and outrageous wrongs done to Poland, and this treachery to the Allies whom he himself brought into the present difficulties, may be expiated by any calamity, however great, that does not extend to the interest or wellbeing of Europe.

It is a maxim in Courts of Equity, that a man coming to demand redress, should come with clean hands, and, seeking equity, should do equity. This maxim has unfortunately never yet extended to 89decisions between States: power is their right, and force decides——Yet, in a contest like the present, the very foundation of which is hostility to Kings, and which is carried on in the twofold way of arms, in the open field and private negotiation for insurrection; when, for the interest of the cause they espouse, as well as their own personal safety, Kings should assume at once their best form to appreciate themselves, and discredit their enemies in the eyes of Mankind——in such a state of things, I say, for the King of Prussia and the Empress of Russia to take the part they have done with regard to Poland, is so extravagant, that we can only account for it in the will of the Almighty predisposing them for some extraordinary crisis. No one would expect them to depart from their accustomed crooked path of policy, if safety did not loudly call upon them to proceed in the direct road. It is monstrous to see beings endowed with common sense, expending themselves in an unjust struggle for aggrandizement, while the sword of extinction is suspended by a hair over their heads.

But to return——In this state is the young Emperor at this moment, deserted by his People in the Low Countries, unaided by his Continental Ally, and supported only by Great Britain. What the issue may be, God alone can tell: but every one possessing a heart of feeling, or a single sentiment of honour or justice, must wish that young Prince a fortunate delivery from the difficulties which the impolicy and wickedness of others have led him into, and which the treachery of some of them make more formidable, if not utterly insuperable.

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LETTER XV.

The various districts or territories into which Germany is divided, go under a variety of designations, not known among us as independent titles to power——Principalities, Seigniories, Counties, Electorates, Margravates, and Bishoprics lay and spiritual. Of the lay Bishoprics, Osnaburg, the Prince Bishop of which is our Duke of York, makes one: and Leige, where we are now arrived, is the territory of a Bishop lay and spiritual, or spiritual and temporal, one of the fairest kind of that class——for he possesses temporalities, and enjoys them; whereas their Lordships merely spiritual, enjoy and have the ingratitude and impudence to renounce them: but no matter for that; the Bishop of Liege possesses a Bishopric, fruitful in corn, wine, wood and pasture, with air extremely pleasant and temperate; and while the latter gives his terrestrial clay health and appetite, the former afford him the means of preserving the one, and indulging the other, with true spiritual comfort, and high ecclesiastical voluptuousness. In cases of repletion, too, the mineral waters of the Bishopric, particularly the well-known one of Spa, offer their aid; and some of the best beer 91in the world, which is brewed in these territories, diversifies his spiritual Lordship’s cup, and, with its pungent bitter, sends back his palate to his wine with renovated relish.

It is astonishing how inconsistent with themselves, and how discordant in their constituent principles, some very wise institutions are. Thus Episcopacy, and all other branches, posts or ranks, high or low, commissioned or non-commissioned, of the Church, publicly and systematically profess poverty, abstinence, and an utter indifference to temporal concerns, while their livings are enormous, and themselves overfed. Nay, so cautiously has ecclesiastical law provided for that, even in our liberal establishments, that a Bishop, at his instalment, positively declares, in the face of God, at the holy altar, that he is averse to being a Bishop——nolo Episcopari. Under such conditions, what must not the charity, the condescension, the mortifying submission of a Divine be, to stoop to a Bishopric, and suffer such a heavy load to be heaped upon his back——against his will! Assuredly, the imposing a Bishopric upon him must be a great act of violence on his inclinations: for I cannot think it possible that a Christian Divine would, in the first place, commit the crime of simony by seeking preferment, and gaining it by prostitution; much less can I believe that he would be guilty, at the holy altar, of a solemn act of perjury, by swearing nolo Episcopari, if he was not actually, and bonâ fidê, averse to a Bishopric.

92The Bishop of Liege, however, may be fairly acquitted on the score of his temporal half, for the share of transgressions committed by his spiritual half. And unquestionably, as a Christian Divine, he must groan in spiritual humiliation, when he reflects that his title is emblazoned with the gorgeous vanities of Prince of Liege, Duke of Bouillon, Marquis of Franchemont, Count of Looz, &c. Such a set of proud worldly titles are of themselves sufficient (putting the wine and beer, and repletion, out of the question) to annihilate the spiritual merits of the Bishop, and expunge the grace of God from his name here, if not from himself hereafter.

Of all kinds of Slavery, that Nation groans beneath the worst, which has the name, without the essence, of a free Constitution; and Germany abounds with such. By the Constitution of this Bishopric, the Government consists of three States: the first is the Chapter of Liege; the second, the Nobility; and the third, the Deputies of the towns and capital. These, however, are very seldom called together, except to raise taxes, or on some such 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 Bishop, to make remonstrances, and demand the redress of grievances——from whence we may reasonably infer, that the People are well protected, or at least well governed; the continual intercourse between the Committee and Bishops, no doubt, tending to promote a very happy influence in favour of the People!

93In forming this Constitution, special care has been taken to give the first State a great preponderance. The Chapter is to consist of sixty persons, who must either prove their Nobility for four generations, both by father and mother, or have been Doctors or Licentiates of Divinity for seven years, or of Law for five years, in some famous University, before they can be admitted.

How is it that the profession of the Law should bear such potent sway in almost all Countries——that, even in Liege, a Catholic Country and Ecclesiastical Government, five years study of the Law should be deemed an equal qualification to seven of Divinity? In England, and its dependencies, the ascendancy of the Law is still greater; and even in America, that profession is the first step to State honours. The truth is, that the science of the Law, which, however despicable in practice, is the noblest of human sciences, quickens and invigorates the understanding more than all the other kinds of learning put together; while the study of Divinity (I do not mean real Divinity or Morality, but that whimsical jumble of miracles and incongruities, of fulsome cant and senseless rhapsody, called so by Churchmen) contracts the understanding, and bends it into a kind of crooked cunning. Formerly, the Clergy were the dispensers of the Laws, and they alone studied it——Happy times! happy People! When the united powers of both Lawyers and Priests were lodged in the same person, it is no wonder that they were able to enslave the persons, when they had got possession of the understanding, of the People——that we at this day see so many 94stupendous monuments remaining of their pride and power, and that the bloated load of Episcopacy still has its votaries and supporters.

The Bishopric of Liege is very populous and extensive, containing many large Towns, many Baronies and Seigniories, seventeen Abbeys for men, who must be all gentlemen, and eleven for ladies, exclusive of swarms of inferior note. In this distribution of the Abbeys, male and female, I do not think that sufficient regard has been had to equality of numbers: I really think the Fathers have been ill used. The ladies, though, I dare say, are well enough contented with the arrangement.

Although, as I have already apprized you, I do not mean to enter into a minute description of towns, so very easily found in many volumes of Geography and History, there occasionally occur certain curiosities in some of those towns, which it would be unpardonable in me to pass over, as they may not perhaps be found in such books of those sciences as fall in your way.

Liege, the capital of the Bishopric, is unquestionably a beautiful city, of immense size: its opulence, its pleasantness, its plenty and salubrity, may be calculated from the name it has long been expressly called by way of eminence——the Paradise of Priests.——Indeed, it must needs be a holy and a happy city; for it is chiefly occupied with Convents, Churches, and other religious foundations.

The Paradise of Priests!——Excellent! Why, if the Genius of Sensuality himself were to torture his invention for centuries, to 95strike out an appellation for the grand emporium of luxury, voluptuousness and sensual enjoyment, he could not have hit on one so singularly appropriate as the Paradise of Priests.

In a grand Cathedral here, are five great silver chests full of reliques, besides several silver statues of Saints; and a Saint George on horseback, of massy gold; and in Saint William’s Convent, without the city, is the tomb of the famous English traveller, Sir John Mandeville, from whom all lying travellers have been since proverbially called Mandevilles——an appellation which, I promise you, I will hazard the imputation of dullness rather than incur. I suppose it was for his truly priestlike powers in the marvellous that he was honoured with a birth among their Reverences. They have thought it necessary, however, to entreat, by an inscription in bad French, all persons who see it, to pray for his soul. In truth, poor Sir John’s marvellous stories were as harmless as ever were invented, and entertaining to boot. If so much could be said for their Reverences, they might venture to rest their future safety 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 serious account.

In the Bishopric of Liege, twenty miles from the capital, stands the famous town of Spa, so renowned for its excellent waters, that it has become a vulgar name for almost all mineral waters whatsoever. Those are said to open obstructions, concoct crudities, dry up excessive moisture, and strengthen the nerves and bowels; and 96such is their reputation, that prodigious quantities of them are carried into foreign countries.

Fortunate coincidence, to have such a choice and easy panacea for intemperance attached to the Paradise of Priests!

LETTER XVI.

Aix-la-chapelle——The imperial city of Aix-la-Chapelle, by the Germans called Achen, lies at the distance of twenty-fix miles, nearly East, of Liege. As it was a moderate stage, the weather fine, and the face of the country around beautiful, I found my journey extremely pleasant, and entered that famous city in as good a disposition to be pleased with it, as circumstances and reflections so melancholy as mine (which, in spite of every effort, would intrude themselves) may be supposed to allow. It is certainly a very fine city, and well deserves the reputation it has in all parts of the world.

Perhaps no city in Germany has a fairer claim to antiquity than Aix-la-Chapelle; for it was famous, even in the time of the ancient Romans, for its waters, and was by them called Aquisgranum, or Urbs Aquensis. It was destroyed by the Huns, who, like the French now, destroyed and trampled under foot 97every vestige of refinement, wherever they carried their conquests; and it lay in ruins till it was rebuilt by Charlemagne, who made it the seat of his Empire on this side the Alps. By him it was ordained, that the Kings of the Romans should be crowned there: and it has been famous, since 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 Protestants, both Lutherans and Calvinists, in this city, they are obliged to go to church two miles off, at a place called Vaels, in the Dutchy of Limburg; so that Popery prevails with some portion of its intolerance. Here, as in all other places subject to its power, it has raised the Gothic gloomy pile, accumulated enormous masses of wealth, and hoarded up treasures, under the gulling pretexts of religious paraphernalia: a golden casket, set with precious stones of inestimable value, is hoarded up, not for the actual 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 circumstance in addition, that a drop of the blood of Saint Stephen fell, or is said to have fallen, upon it, as he was stoned to death! think of that, master Frederick! Why, when those things occur to me, I feel myself agitated by a whimsical tumult of sensations, serious and ludicrous, sorrowful and merry, that it is impossible to describe——something like that state in which the spirits flutter 98when a person whimpers between a laugh and cry. But, to carry the matter farther, when we recollect that some of the wisest and brightest of Mankind, some of the bravest Warriors, sternest Philosophers, and ablest Statesmen, that ever existed, have been the dupes of those shallow artifices, and actually have knelt in devout homage to these bits of earth, bone, sticks and stone, &c. we must allow that it answers a great and noble end, by pointing out to us the infirmity of our nature, and shewing us, to use the words of one of our brightest luminaries, “what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!”

We have already had, and are likely yet to have, such a clumsy load of Cathedrals to attend to, that I should not mention that of Aix-la-Chapelle (a large, gloomy, dreary, old-fashioned, Gothic pile), were it not that it carries along with it some matters worthy of notice. What think you, then, of an Emperor, a Pope, and three hundred and sixty-five Bishops, in one company? Oh! precious assemblage! But where, I hear you ask——where, in the name of God, collect the Bishops? a Pope and Emperor are easily had! My dear Frederick, three hundred and sixty-five Bishops might easily be picked up in Christendom, and leave more behind, too, than would serve any useful purpose to the world.——Yes, the Emperor Charlemagne, and three hundred and sixty-five Bishops, were present at the Consecration of this Cathedral by Pope Leo the Third. That Emperor lies now in great state under the altar of the choir: Pope Leo rots in Rome; and for 99the Bishops, they are gone, perhaps, as Hamlet says, “to stop a beer barrel.”——

“Th’ imperial Cæsar, dead, and turn’d to clay,

Might stop a hole, to keep the wind away.”

From such a splendid and opulent attendance at the Consecration, one would naturally expect that this Cathedral would have been, at the very outset, enriched with costly and valuable trappings: but no——one image of that of Liege would purchase the whole. It should be recollected, however, that they were all, excepting the Emperor, Churchmen——a class, whose charity, generally speaking, has, like a ring, neither end nor beginning; or at least ends and begins in itself, where nobody can see it; or, according to the old proverb, begins at home.

To compensate, however, for those worldly, worthless vanities, gold, silver and jewels, His Holiness, and their three hundred and sixty-five Graces, presented the Cathedral with some exquisite pieces of relique, of more inestimable value, by their account, than the mines of Potosi or Golconda: the first, an old covering——it would be folly for me to say, whether gown, petticoat or shift——but they, that is to say, the Priests, say, and the Faithful believe them, that it was the shift worn by the Virgin Mary at the birth of Christ——how their Holinesses came by it, is hard to conjecture:——in the next place, a piece of coarse cloth, which, they also say, and are believed when they say, was girt about 100Christ on the Cross:——thirdly, a piece of cord, with which they say he was bound:——fourthly, some of the blood of Saint Stephen, now eighteen hundred years old:——and, fifthly, a picture of the Virgin and Child, embossed on a jasper, by Saint Luke. With all due deference to their Reverences’ knowledge, I should think a dozen statues in gold of the Apostles would be rather a more valuable gift, and more ornamental, than these rags and cords, which I dare say did not cost altogether six pence. We talk here of our blue ribbons, our red ribbons, and our stars, as great donations; but I think the presents of the Pope and three hundred and sixty-five Bishops to the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, beat them out of the field, whether, we consider the magnificence of the gift, or the generosity of the givers.

But that which, above all things, renders Aix-la-Chapelle worthy of notice, is the salubrity of its waters, which bring from England, and all other European Nations, a vast concourse of valetudinarians, who contribute at once to the gaiety and opulence of the city and adjacent country. Some of those waters are used for drinking, and others for bathing, resembling very much, in their quality, the virtues of those of Bath in Somersetshire, but that some of them are still hotter and stronger: they are unpleasant to the taste till use reconciles the palate to them, and most of them have a very offensive smell; but they are often powerful in effect and give relief in a great variety of maladies; and they are rendered still more palatable by the commodious neatness of the baths, the 101excellence of the accommodations, and the great plenty of provisions, which are at once good and reasonable in this city.

I staid so short a time at Aix-la-Chapelle, that I could not, without the aid of some of the miracles wrought by the Saints of the Romish Church, or Sir John Mandeville, acquire a sufficient knowledge of the People, to attempt a description of them, or their manners——but it and Spa are so well known, that you cannot have much trouble in finding a description of them already written.

As far as my observations enabled me to judge, there was nothing in the German character that had the power either to create interest, or excite great attention.——They are rather to be approved than admired; and, wanting those prominent features that so whimsically chequer other Nations with the extremes of bad and good, majestic and ridiculous, afford little subject to the traveller for the indulgence of sentimental reflection, or to the philosopher for the exercise of moral speculation.

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LETTER XVII.

Bidding adieu to the famous city of Aix-la-Chapelle, which, very untraveller-like, I passed without drinking of its waters, I pushed on, and soon arrived at the city of Juliers, the capital of a Dutchy of that name, sixteen miles from Aix. The Country itself is wonderfully fruitful, teeming with abundance of all sorts of corn, wood, pasture, woad, coal and cattle; above all, a most excellent breed of horses, 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 neatness is its greatest praise. It is not, like Liege, overloaded with enormous church edifices; but, what is much better, the People are opulent, the Poor well supplied, and all happy. In all likelihood, this is owing to the inhabitants being a mixture of Protestant and Roman Catholic; for, by a treaty between the Elector Palatine and the Emperor of Brandenburg, respecting the succession of the territories of the Duke of Cleves, both the Lutherans and Calvinists of this Dutchy, and of 103Berg, are to enjoy the public exercise of their religion, and all other religious rites.

If experience would allow us to wonder at any thing in the management of the Rulers of Nations, it must surely be matter of astonishment, that in an article of such consequence as eternity, and which must be directed by private sentiments alone, such violence should systematically be offered to opinion, and that Mankind should be dragooned, as they have been for so many weary centuries, into the profession of particular modes of faith. Combating opinion by force is so absurd, that I am sure those who have attempted it, never could flatter themselves with the slightest hopes of success. It is therefore clear, that it was in motives very different from real wishes for the eternal welfare of Man’s soul, that religious persecution originated. Political finesse and State stratagem are the parents of persecution: and until every Constitution is clean purged of religious prejudices, it must continue to be clogged with obstructions, and involved in confusion. If it be objected that certain religious sects are hostile to certain States, it may be answered, that they are so because the State is hostile to them. Cease to persecute, and they will cease to be hostile——Sublata causa tollitur effectus. It is folly, broad folly, to suppose that there are in any particular religion, seeds of hostility to government, any more than in any particular name, complexion, stature, or colour of the hair. Put, for experiment, all the men in the kingdom, of above five feet ten inches heightheight, under tests and disqualifications, (and it would be 104full as rational as any other tests)——and, my life for it, they would become hostile, and very justly, too; for there is no principle, human or divine, that enforces our attachment to that Government which refuses us protection, much less to that which brands us with disqualifications, and stigmatises us with unmerited marks of inferiority.

The States of this Dutchy, and that of Berg, consist of the Nobility and the Deputies of the four chief towns of each; and they lay claim to great privileges in their Diets—but they are subject to the Elector Palatine, to whom they annually grant a certain sum for the ordinary charges of the Government, besides another which bears the name of a free gift.

Some Authors say that this town was founded by Julius; others deny it; the dispute has run high, and is impossible to be determined: fortunately, however, for Mankind, it does not signify a straw who built it; nor could the decision of the question answer any one end that I know, of instruction, profit or entertainment. Parva leves capiunt animas. Those who rack their brains, or rather their heads, for brains they can have none, with such finical impertinent inquiries, should be punished with mortification and disappointment, for the misuse of their time. But what else can they do? You say, Why, yes; they might sit idle, and refrain from wasting paper with such execrable stuff; and that would be better. By the bye, if there were two good friends in every library in Europe, licensed to purge it, like the Barbar and Curate in Don 105Quixotte, of all its useless and mischievous stuff, many, many shelves that now groan under heavy weights would stand 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 Archbishopric of that name, but of the Circle of the Lower Rhine. My spirits, which were not in the very best tone, were not at all raised on entering the city, by the ringing of Church-bells, of all tones and sizes, in every quarter. Being a stranger, I thought it had been a rejoicing day; but, on inquiry, found that it was the constant practice. Never, in my life, had I heard such an infernal clatter: never before had I seen any thing so gloomy and melancholy——the streets black——dismal bells tolling——bald-pated Friars, in myriads, trailing their long black forms through the streets, molding their faces into every shape that art had enabled them to assume, in order to excite commiseration, and begging alms with a melancholy song calculated for the purpose, somewhat like that of our blind beggars in London, and productive of the same disagreeable effect upon the spirits. In short, I was not an hour in Cologne, when those circumstances, conspiring with the insuperable melancholy of my mind, made me wish myself out of it.

Nevertheless, Cologne is a fine city; and if it be any satisfaction to you to spin those fine imaginary ligaments that, in the brain of the book-worm, connect the ancient and modern world, I will inform you, that it was anciently called Colonia Agrippina, because 106Agrippina, the mother of Nero, was born there, and honoured it with a Roman Colony, because it was her birth-place. The mind, forced back to that period; and contemplating the mischiefs of that monster Nero, cannot help wishing that Cologne had been burnt the night of her birth, and Miss Agrippina buried in the ruins, ere she had lived to give birth to that scourge of the world.

Although the established religion here be the Roman Catholic, extraordinary as it may appear, they are very jealous of powers and though the Elector, by his officers, administers justice in all criminal causes, they will not permit him, in person, to reside above three days at a time in the city, nor to bring a great train with him when he visits it; for this reason he commonly resides at Bonne.

Cologne has a very considerable trade, particularly in Rhenish wine; and its gin is reckoned the best 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 profusion of churches, crosses, miracles, saints, and church trinkets; and I really think it has more steeples and bells than any two cities in Germany. As Liege was called the Paradise of Priests, this ought to be called the Golgotha of Skulls and Skull-caps. In the church of Saint Ursula, they shew, or pretend at least to shew, the bones of eleven thousand Virgin Martyrs. The skulls of some of those imaginary Virgins are in silver cases, and others in skull-caps, of cloth, of gold, and velvet. And in the church of Saint Gerion, are no less 107than nine hundred heads of Moorish Cavaliers, of the army of the Emperor Constantine, (previous to that Saint’s conversion to Christianity), who they say was beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to idols: by the bye, the Popish Divines burn, instead of beheading, for not sacrificing to idols——Every one of those heads, however, has a cap of scarlet, adorned with pearls. The whole forms a spectacle, no doubt, equally agreeable and edifying. It struck me, however, as an extremely ludicrous sight, malgre the solemnity of so many death’s heads: and when their story was recounted, I could not help internally chuckling, and saying (rather punningly, to be sure), “Ah! what blockheads ye must have been, to suffer yourselves to be separated from your snug warm bodies, rather than drop down and worship an idol, in which so many good Christian Divines have shewn you an example!” This, you will conclude, I said to myself: an avowal of my sentiments in that place might have given my head a title to a scarlet cap and pearls; and as I had some further use for it, I did not think it expedient to leave it behind me in the Church of Saint Gerion——so, very prudently, kept my mind to myself.

Coming out of the Church, a multitude of beggars, all in canonicals, or student’s habits, surrounded, beseeching me for alms——one, pour l’amour de Dieu; another, pour l’amour de la Sainte Vierge; a third, pour le salut de notre Redempteur; a fourth, pour l’amour de Saint Gerion; and so on!

108When I had gone as far as I wished in donations, another attacked me: though I told him my charity-bank was exhausted, he persevered, and was uncommonly solicitous——till at length, having exhausted the whole catalogue of Saints that are to be found in the Calendar, he raised his voice from the miserable whine of petition, and exclaimed with great energy, “Par les neuf cent tetes des Cavaliers Maures qui sont sanctifies au Ciel, je vous conjure de me faire l’aumone!” This was too formidable an appeal to be slighted; and so, in homage to the skulls and red caps, I put my hand in my pocket, and stopped his clamours.

Those miserable modes of peculation are the most pardonable of any produced by the Church: we have no right to regret a trifle sacrificed at the shrine of compassion, even when that compassion is mistaken; but our reason revolts at imposition, when it calls coercion to its aid, and assumes 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 system than any other that I know of: hence their Clergy are in general examples worthy of imitation, for learning, piety, and moral conduct.

109

LETTER XVIII.

Laboured investigations to establish connections between the history of the ancient and business of the modern world, and virulent disputes about trifles of antiquity, such as in what year this place was built, or that great man was born, when and where Julius Cæsar landed in England, whether he passed this road or that, what route Hannibal took over the Alps, and such like, are so essentially uninteresting, useless and unimportant, so unprofitable, and, one would think, so painful too, that it is wonderful how so many men of great learning have been unwise enough to employ their lives in the research.

It does not follow, however, that when information that tends to recall to our minds the great men of antiquity is presented to us, we should reject it. A man of classical taste and education feels a delight in those little memorials of what gave him pleasure in his youth. I know a Gentleman, who, being at Seville, in Spain, travelled to Cordova, for no other purpose but to see the town where Lucan and Seneca were born: and I dare say, that if you were at Cologne, you would be much pleased to see the Town-house, a great Gothic building, which contains a variety of ancient inscriptions; 110the first to commemorate the kindness of Julius Cæsar to the Ubii, who inhabited this place, and of whom you have found mention made by him in his Commentaries, and also his building two wooden bridges over the Rhine: a second commemorates Augustus sending a colony here. There is also a cross-bow of whalebone, twelve feet long, eight broad, and four inches thick, which they who speak of it conjecture to have belonged to the Emperor Maximin’s. There are also some Roman inscriptions in the arsenal, the import of which I now forget.

It is very extraordinary, but certainly a fact, that there are, about Cologne, families yet existing, who indulge the senseless ambition of pretending to be descended from the ancient Romans, and who actually produce their genealogies, carried down from the first time this city was made a colony of the Roman Empire. Of all kinds of vanity, this is perhaps the most extravagant: for, if antiquity merely be the object, all are equally high, since all must have originated from the same stock; and if it be the pride of belonging to a particular family who were distinguished for valour or virtue, a claim which often only serves to prove the degeneracy of the claimant, it could not apply in the case of a whole People: but this is among the frailties of humanity; and we are often so dazzled with the splendour of terrestrial glory, that we endeavour to be allied to it even by the most remote and ridiculous connections. I heard of a man, whose pride and boast, when drunk, was, that Dean Swift had once thrown his mother’s oysters (she was an 111oyster-wench) about the street, and then gave her half a crown as an atonement for the injury. On the strength of this affinity did he call the Dean nothing but Cousin Jonathan, though the Dean was dead before he was born!

But of all the stories I have ever heard as illustrative of this strange ambition, that which the late Lord Anson has left us is the most striking. When that great man was travelling in the East, he hired a vessel to visit the island of Tenedos: his pilot, a modern Greek, pointing to a bay as they sailed along, exclaimed in great triumph, “There, ay, there it was that our fleet lay.”——“What fleet?” interrogated Anson——“Why, our Grecian fleet, at the siege of Troy,” returned the pilot.

While those doughty descendants of the ancient Romans indulge the cheerless idea of their great and illustrious line of ancient ancestry, the Prince who rules them felicitates himself with the more substantial dignities and emoluments of his modern offices. As Elector and Archbishop of Cologne, he has dominion over a large, fruitful and opulent country: he is the most powerful of the ecclesiastical Electors: he has many Suffragan Princes, lay and spiritual, under him; and he is Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire. The revenues of his Archbishopric amount annually to one hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling; and as Elector, he is possessed of several other great benefices. I presume, because he is a Prince, that he is a man of sense; and, I will venture to say, that, as such, he would not barter those good things for the 112power to demonstrate that Lucretia was his aunt, Brutus his grandfather, and the great Julius Cæsar himself his cousin-german.

Christ chose his disciples out of fishermen. The Chapter of Cologne is, perhaps, on the contrary, the very most Aristocratic body existing, being composed of forty Canons, who are Princes or Counts of the Empire——Of those, twenty-five choose the Archbishop, and may advance one of their own body to that great and wealthy dignity, if they please.

From Cologne I proceeded to the town of Bonne, which is said to take its name from the pleasantness of its situation. Here the Elector resides, and has a very fine palace. The country around is extremely fruitful and pleasant, and is blessed with most of the good things which render the Rich magnificent and happy, and remind the Poor of their inferiority and wretchedness——particularly wine, which is here remarkably excellent. It contains Churches, Priests, Convents, Cloisters, &c.; but I need not mention them——what place could exist without them?

I should not forget to tell you, that, at this place, Julius Cæsar built one of his bridges across the Rhine——works which would have handed down to posterity the name of a common man, for the magnitude of the structure and ingenuity of the contrivance, but are lost in the crowd of astonishing talents which distinguished that brightest of mortals. The greatest Biographer of Antiquity says of him, that he was as great a General as Hannibal, as 113great an Orator as Cicero; and as great a Politician as Augustus; but it might be added, that he was among the first Poets of his day——that he was of the first mechanical genius, and the finest gentleman, in Rome.

Nature seems to have formed, in Cæsar, a compendious union of all human talents, as if to demonstrate how unavailing they were when opposed to strict rigid honesty and virtue in the character 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 hesitation 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 had ever seen. 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 opulence, and true prosperity. My anxiety, however, to get forward, and disengage myself from a species of solitude in a country where, though travelling is cheap, accommodations of most kinds in the public houses are bad, induced me to push on, without taking the time necessary for making accurate observations on the country as I passed; so that, gliding, as it were, imperceptibly, through a number of towns, of which I recollect nothing distinctly but the names of Coblentz and Mentz, I arrived at the great, free and imperial city of Frankfort on the Maine.

114Here I shall stop, for a short time, my relation, in order to give you time for just reflection and examination of what I have already written: and as, in the latter part of it, I have skimmed very lightly over the country, I desire that you will supply the deficiency of my information by close research in books; inform yourself of the great outlines of the Germanic Constitution; look back to its origin, its progress, and its establishment; thence proceed to the distinct parts, or inferior States, of which it is composed; ponder them all well; and from those draw your own inferences, and let me hear what they are with freedom: should they be wrong, I will endeavour to set them right; but should they be right, they will afford me the most lively satisfaction; for they will serve to correct one of the greatest errors under which youth labours——an overweening, sanguine imagination, that things in this life are, or at least can be modelled into perfection; whereas experience, and a just observation of the history of Mankind, will shew, that on this ball things will never be as they ought, but must remain as they are——imperfect.

115

LETTER XIX.

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, Saxenhausen, from the Saxons, who are supposed to have been the founders of it. The city itself is large, populous and rich, and distinguished for being the place where the Emperor and King of the Romans is elected——though, by the appointment of Charlemagne, Cologne has a superior claim to that honour. The Magistrates, and great part of the inhabitants, are Lutherans or Calvinists; notwithstanding which, most of the Churches are in the hands of the Roman Catholics——a laudable instance of the true tolerant spirit of a wise and virtuous institution, and a heavy reflection upon, as well as a noble example to the Popish Powers of Europe.

The territory belonging to Frankfort is of very considerable 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 itself, but to other commercial nations, and particularly 116to Great Britain, whose manufactures are sent to Frankfort, and thence circulated through the Continent, in amazing quantities.

The fairs of Frankfort are talked of all over Europe——of such importance are they in the world of commerce. They are held, one at Easter, and another in September, and continue for three weeks, during which time the resort of people there from all quarters is astonishing. Every thing is done by the Government to render them as attractive to Merchants as possible; and the taxes or duties are extremely low——a bale of the value of ten or twenty thousand crowns paying duty only about ten or eleven pence of our money. All commodities from all parts of the world are sold there, and circulated through the Empire; but, particularly, books are sold in prodigious quantities. After the fairs are over, the shops of the foreign Merchants are shut up, and their names written over their doors.

To give an idea of the great importance these fairs are to commerce, I need only mention, that in the present war, the impediments thrown by the French in the way of the transit of goods up the Rhine, and the shutting up that fair, gave a most alarming paralysis to the manufacturing establishments of England, and a shock to public credit in consequence, that would, but for the timely interference of Parliament, have, in all probability, been fatal to the national credit.

Frankfort is in many respects a pleasant place: the Merchants are extremely convivial and sociable, and form clubs, where they 117meet to drink tea and coffee, and play at cards. There is a play-house also, a great number of coffee-houses, and other houses of entertainment in abundance. The country around is covered with woods and vineyards; and the circumjacent villages are very pleasant, and well supplied with houses of entertainment, to which the inhabitants of the city resort in the Summer season; and the inns in Frankfort are excellent.

A singular custom 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-posts.

In the town here is presented the original Golden Bull, or Pope’s Authority, which contains the rules and orders to be observed at the election of the Emperors. This Golden Bull is never shewn to strangers but in the presence of two of the Council and the Secretary——It is a little manuscript in quarto, consisting of forty-two leaves of parchment, with a gold seal of three inches diameter, of the value of twenty duckets, hung to it by a cord of yellow silk. It is said to be written in Latin and Gothic characters, without diphthongs; and kept in a black box, together with two written translations of it into the German language.

It is said of Frankfort, that the Roman Catholics possess the churches, the Lutherans the dignities, and the Calvinists the riches. It is therefore one of the few places in Christendom where the churches and the riches do not go into the same hands.

118From Frankfort to Augsburgh, I passed through a number of towns, all of them so very inconsiderable as not to merit any particular description. 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 so scarce in it, that a loaf of wheaten bread, weighing eight pounds, costs but two pence.

The city of Augsburgh is the capital of a Bishopric of that name in the Circle of Suabia, and is worthy of the attention of the classical traveller for its antiquity. About twelve years before the birth of Christ, Augustus Cæsar subdued all this country, and, on the place where Augsburgh now stands, formed a colony, gave the town the name of Augusta 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 so often, particularly by that monster Attila, that there are scarcely any remains of its antiquity to be found.

Augsburgh is now, however, a handsome city——the public buildings in general magnificent, and adorned with fountains, water engines of a curious construction, and statues.

The most rich and splendid part of the town belongs to a family of the name of Fuggers (originally descended from a weaver), who enriched themselves by commerce, and one of whom 119rendered not only himself, but the whole family, conspicuous, by entertaining the Emperor Charles the Fifth in a superb manner, and supplying 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 goldsmiths’ ware; and its mechanics are equal to any in the world, for works in gold, ivory, clocks, and time-pieces; and they engrave better than any people in Germany, which brings them considerable profits. But what they are, above all other people, eminent for, is the manufacturing steel-chains so prodigiously fine, that when one of them, of a span in length, has been put about the neck of a flea, it lifts up the whole of it as it leaps; and yet those are sold for less than a shilling of our money a piece.

Controversy, and difference in religious opinions, which has almost, ever since the commencement of Christianity, disgraced the human understanding, and defaced society, imposes upon the liberal, well-thinking traveller, the office of satirist but too often. Augsburgh, however, is a splendid exception, and holds up a most glorious spectacle of manly sense, generous sentiment, justice, and I will say policy too, vanquishing that shark-jawed enemy of Mankind, bigotry. The Magistracy of Augsburgh is composed of about an equal number of Protestants and Roman Catholics——their Senate consisting of twenty-three Roman Catholics and twenty-two Lutherans, and their Common Council of a hundred and fifty of 120each: The executive power is lodged in the Senate——the legislative authority in both bodies. But, what is hardly to be found any where, they all, as well as the People, agree together in the most perfect harmony, notwithstanding the difference of religion; and at all tables but the Communion table, they associate together, dip in the same dish, and drink of the same cup, as if they had never heard of the odious distinction of Papist and Protestant, but as being bound to each other by the great and irrefragable bond of humanity: fellow-creatures, affected by the same feelings, impelled by the same passions, labouring under the same necessities, and heirs to the same sufferings, their means of assuaging the one, gratifying or resisting another, and supplying the third, are the same, though chequered and varied a little in the mode——the road alone different, the ends alike. Is it not cruel, then——is it not intolerable, that the calamaties inseparable from humanity should be aggravated with artificial stings, and the nakedness of human nature exposed, and rendered more offensive, by factitious calamities of human contrivance? Cursed were those who first fomented those disputes, and cast those apples of discord through the world: blind were they who first were seduced from the paths of peace by them; and more cursed, and more blind, must they be, who, in this time of intellect and illumination, continue, on the one hand, to keep up a system so wicked and so detestable, or, on the other, to submit to error at once so foolish and so fatal.

121

LETTER XX.

For the reasons mentioned in my last, Augsburgh is a most agreeable place to live in. Touched with the sensations natural to a man who loved to see his fellow-creatures happy, my heart expanded to a system of peace and harmony, comprehending the whole globe: my mind expatiated involuntarily on the blessings and advantages derived from such a system; and, taking flight from the bounds of practicability, to which our feeble nature is pinned on this earth, into the regions of fancy, had reared a fabric of Utopian mold, which, I verily believe, exceeded in extravagance the works of all the Utopian architects that ever constructed castles in the air.

Hurried on by this delightful vision, my person paid an involuntary obedience to my mind; and the quickness of my pace increasing with the impetuosity of my thoughts, I found myself, before I was aware of it, within the Chapel-door of the Convent of the Carmelites. Observing my error, I suddenly turned about, in order to depart, when a Friar, a goodly person of a man, elderly, and of a benign aspect, called me, and, advancing towards me, 122asked, in terms of politeness, and in the French language, why I was retreating so abruptly——I was confused: but truth is the enemy before whom confusion ever flies; and I told him the whole of my mistake, and the thoughts from which they arose.

The good father, waving further discourse on the subject, but with a smile which I thought carried a mixture of benevolence for myself, and contempt for my ideas, brought me through the Church, and shewed me all the curiosities of the place, and particularly pointed out to me, as a great curiosity, a sun-dial made in the form of a Madonna, the head enriched with rays and stars, and in the hand a sceptre which marked the hours.

Quitting the Chapel, and going towards the Refectory, the Friar stood, and, looking at me with a smile of gaiety, said, “I have yet something to shew you, which, while Lady Madonna marks the time, will help us to pass it; and, as it will make its way with more force and subtlety to your senses than those I have yet shewn you, will be likely to be longer retained in remembrance.”

He spoke a few words in German, which of course I did not understand, to a vision bearing the shape of a human creature, who, I understood, was a lay-brother; and, turning down a long alley, brought me to his cell, where we were soon followed by the aforesaid lay-brother, with a large earthen jug of liquor, two glasses, and a plate with some delicately white biscuit.

“You must know,” said the Friar, “that the Convent of Carmelites at Augsburgh has for ages been famed for beer unequalled 123in any part of the world; and I have brought you here to have your opinion——for, being an Englishman, you must be a judge, the Britons being famed for luxury, and a perfect knowledge of the savoirsavoir vivre.” He poured out, and drank to me: it looked liker the clearest Champaigne than beer——I never tasted any thing to equal it; and he seemed highly gratified by my expressions of praise, which I lavished upon it, as well from politeness, as regard to truth.

After we had drank a glass each, “I have been reflecting,” said the Friar, “on the singular flight of fancy that directed your steps into this Convent——Your mind was diseased, my son! and a propitious superintending Power has guided your steps to a physician, if you will but have the goodness to take the medicine he offers.”