,--p THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES \^^ JOURNEY IN THE YEAR TUROUGH FLANDERS, BRABANT, AND GERMANY, TO SWITZERLAND. BY C. ESTE. Nunc retrorfum Vela dare, atque Iterare eurfut Cogor, reli6toa. HoR* LONDON: f^IKTBD tO& }, DEB&ETT, OFPOSITB BU&LINaTOIT't HOUSE, PICCADILLY. «79S» ADVERTISEMENT, ^va^^* jl he Reader is 7iot troubled xvith a recapi- tulaiio?i of a?iy liberal Errors there may be, which he will at once he able to corre^, without any fug-^ gejtion hut his own. But there are a few verbal inaccuracies mi which the Reader's indulgence muft be defired, to obferve the alterations which follow. The book went to prefs at the end of the winter » Soon after, the writer zvent abroad. In his ab- fence thefheets zvere all zvorked off, Andfo, like two of our mofl memorable predecefjbrs, his works, for precifion, failed. For in the firft book, print" ed with a name and date, there is an error even in the title I '"And Lord Lyttleton, after unexampled toil about commas and points, lapfed fo egregioufly, as to fill with errata no lefs than nineteen quarto pages! — Sic ApicemRapax Fortunafuflulit, ERROR* \ f- f— «-^ iO» .-c , V... '•-.'•Vf-«^' .£-. ERRORS OF THE PRESS. 3K READ, »age 5 The Houfe of Taylor, and the Tomb of Hooker. 6 The hill is between Samer and Montreuil. 36 The better ftate of things in England. ^7 In firft inftances, and initiatory procelTes. 39 The Chef d'CEuvres of Reubens in the Churches at Antwerp, 40 Jncendia. Belli. 47 The woods growing to the very walh of Bruxcllcfc 78 Doyens de Cretiente. no Gros Gibier. J 13 1/^ of the Game. 330 They formed the Jus TraBust 141 The town connives not at fuch a dubious beinj ; 1J4 Vos patriamyi/^fiJi— Vos dulcia linquitis arva. 171 With equality, moral, civil, and politicah 181 Metamorphofe men into hired heroes. 190 There are at Liege, two fmall wards. 19* J. Koelholf de Proprietatibus Rerum, and St. Auguftinc. 193 De aptitudine ingenii muliebris. 199 14 or 1500 acres, with horfes, cows, and ail flock in proportioa. 1 ao I am fare we muft ! 124 Underwald, Uri, and Schvfeitz— cultivating aids. az8 That, he does not pay if he builds. 451 Omit the fecond ufe of the imprefling paflage from the Pfalmrft. aj8 £riitii-'—Merccs-—Magis. ^79 The Bible, is referred to a date, between 145a and »45i. a8i Canna neque aurea. Sed arte, &c. JOURNEY, &c. iiiUROPE, at leaft the better parts of it, being, by the malignity, of fomething worfe than fortune, plunged into the bitternefs of war, produced, among other evils, the following journey : For thofe evils, History muft be eager to account — with opinions and emotions, well becoming the offended miniftsr of policy and virtue ; but with equivocal conti- nence fhe refrains herfelf. It has been her cuftom, unhap- pily, to facrifice ufe to delicacy. Over each crazy gene- ration of the offending Adam, while they have been pre- fent, fhe has been fain to content herfelf, folely with expreffive filence : and it is not till the requiem fliall have been heard over the welcome tomb, that there has been a fignal for the found of unmolefted Truth ! From thofe evils, hard to fuffer, but harder to atone, what myriads of men, and of the beft bleffings man is heir to, were doomed, why we know not, to droop and to decay ! My family, at firft, felt them, except from fympathy, in a very mitigated degree ; but ftill they felt them. — For, of a fortune fo fmall, (Propitii an Irati Dii !) that nothing but caution and felf-denial could make it the independence of a very private gentleman, no fmall part was in France. And finally, I had a fgn, at that time, there, on a plan of ftudy ; £ ia ( 2 ) in fearch of fcience, no where elfe, perhaps, fo ftrenuoufly, fo frugally, fo extenfively to be purfued. My fon, thank God, had done his duty, to hlmfelf, and to his condition. He had turned time to good account. He had already forced forward into the foremoft clafles of that learning, of all others the mofl: indifpenfible to Xh^t fearful and nvotiderful make of man j and on more than one occa- fion, at once an adept in knowledge and in language, he had fhewn himfelf able to teach at an age when others are, in general, but beginning to learn. As France, alas ! by accidents never to be enough la- mented, feemed daily lefs and lefs likely to be allowed to retain for foreigners that free reception and repofe, hitherto fo amiably imparted to all, I determined to caft about, with due care, for fome other region, where there might be, like Monf. Dessault, fome fit reprefentative of our late coun- tryman Mr. Pott, that is, fome great mind j original and juft, applying the powers of philofophy and art to the relief and confolation of mankind ! — Where there might be, be- fides, fomething like that conftellation of ufeful learning from ViCQ^ D'AziR, from Jussicu, from Lavoisier and FouRCRoi — fome eftablifhments, if poffible, equivalent to the learned focieties, and to the public libraries of Paris— and where, altogether, thefe advantages might be as fyfte- matic ; as well applied to public inftrudlion, with the fame perfection of combined preferences, ample, laborious, in- ceffant, frugal, and free. Accordingly, the clever and experienced friends I con- fulted, referred me to an Italian University. For Edinburgh, though it may be rationally proud of firft-rate men, and there is ftill fuch good arrangement in the place, that it is in vogue to ftudy, and to be diftin- guifhed by a wifh for Ikill — yet Edinburgh, for what we wanted, offered only partial aid. Of fcience, philofophical, contemplative, there might be enough. But art was want- ing. ( 3 ) ing. There is no mechanical fupply. The fuperflitious prejudices of the place forbid it. As for London, from the nature of the market, with talents in fuch demand, and at fuch prices for them, there muft be ever many accompli fhed men in it; bur where is there any thing like a fage provifion for the collective ap- plication of their Ikill ? Where is there any fyftematic efta- blifhment for popular inflru(Stion ? Where are their public libraries, generoufly open to all ? Where are there any Medical Schools ? — As far as it offers to be a fchool, it feems challengeable on the various objedlions as being loofe and disjointed j therefore probably impradicable ; certainly very dear ! The Italian University before recommended to me, wasPAviA. — For Padua, iincethe time ofFABRicius, when it had celebrity from him and Harvet, has been gradually fading away. — Bologna has no academic fame, but for the imitat?ive arts — The Pope's State, heaven help him, has nothing *, but for the unaffifted ftudy of the antique ! — And Florence, though upheld by Fontana, who is in the firft rank of fame, is, through him indeed, pre-eminent as a mufeum !— It is not his objcdt to form a fchool. The idea of Pavia was thus forcibly impreffed, and wil- lingly received upon my mind ; yet I did not dare to let it take at once, an entire hold of me. I could not but be feared by the powers of diftance and of doubt ; for I could not find ways and means, like Francis the Firft, (though one of the leafl of his race thus inventive) when he went into the Milanefe ; « to raife new taxes, to fell the adminiftratioa ** of juftice in twenty places at once, to conveyy " Convey the wife call it." Shak«perk. <« I know not how many thoufand livres, in the fhape of a ** filver tomb, from our departed tutelary friend. Saint <' Martin, at Tours." Each of thefe is a grace, by the grace ©f God, peeulisir but to a few. B 2 However, ( 4 ) However, by degrees I did what miglit be expe(rted, and fufFering my thoughts to ferment into wifhes, I determined at once to make an effort rather above my power than below it ; to fee for myfelf, and to afcertain for my fon, whether the objetSV, obvioufly of fuch prime moment to him, really was as it was faid to be, and had merit equal to its praifes. Accordingly, taking leave of my ecclefiaftical fuperiors, from whom I never found any thing but elegant confidera- tion and ufeful kindnefs — confiding each fmall charge I hold to men better than myfelf, and having fold my notes before I had written a word of them (a peculiarity I rather mention to explain the title page, and that there may be no doubt as to my bookfeller's tafte or my own), I left London in July, and took the ftrait road to Dover — with my fon. There is hardly any part of Kent that is not interefting— for even the Hundred of Hon, as the vile amphibious marlliy objedl, is called, between the Medway and the Thames, I once heard much lauded by a neighbouring phy- fician ! who faid, rather dexteroufly for his art, *< that as ** for fituation, de acre et lecisy fpeaking after the manner of " phyficians, bad was the beft." In the Dover Road, among many fcenes that are plea- fing, perhaps thefe parts pleafe the moft. From the fifth mile-ftone to the ninth, both the plain and the hill are with difficulty any where to be much exceeded. — The ground at Danson Hill, where Sir R. Taylor gave the facade, and Browne formed the water for Sir R. Boyd. — The hill above Dartford, where the houfes of Lord Eardley and Mr. Wheatley are in the view. — The grounds and woods fo well undulated by Lord Besborough at Ingres. — The bridge at Rochester, with fweet fcenery in fuch flrong contrafts above and below it. — Chatham Hill, where thofe varying obje(5ls have an effect more captivating flill ! — From the winding courfe of the Medway, the bold uplands, the va- riegated agriculture on its banks, the fliipping, the arfenals, with ( s ) with the diflances of EfTex, Sheernefs, and the Norc— After thefe, there is Boughton Hill, the plain, with the fine water and woods on the top of the hill The four miles of Burham wood, and the four lafl: miles through the valley of Dover, In all thefe, there is many a potent, delightful charm, and where the mind can work upon it as well as the eye. On Blackheath, there is the beautiful bubble of Page's houfe, blown up by one man, and broken by another, each within the year ! At Gad's Hill, (about the 26th ftone) the fplrits may revel at the recolleftion of Falstaffe — and they who had the happinefs to know the late Mr. Hender- son, will, with fond regret, alfo think upon them — for his genius in comedy had no rival, in the laft half century at leaft ; and what is now of fo much greater moment, he was not more gay than he was good !— The bridge at Rochefter, a fine example of the arts in the fourteenth century, may contraft the modefty and fkill of the eighteenth, when, but for Lord Pembroke, a minifter and his workmen had made the bridge at Weftminfter of their congenial wood ! — At Dartford, now .of fuch gunpowder fame, the firft paper was made, and the firft iron was flit. At Boughton, in the de- licious plain and wood on the top of the hill, the view ranges over Canterbury and Harbledown in the bottom, where Becket's flirine at one place, and his flipper in the other, may virtuoufly and ufefully excite us, like Erasmus, againfl the wretched impoftors of Rome — though now, indeed, as we all know, talents are never proftituted ! — No man, otherwife iiluftrious, can now be mentioned, with fuch trafh as a wafer in his mouth ! The houfe of Jeremy Taylor, and the tomb of Hooker, are alfo in the fcene ! And at Barham Down, vifited even fo lately as the Duke of Marlborough's, with the barren and deleterious laurel, you may fee, with Stukeley, the re- mains of the old Watling Street, where paft barbarities have ( 6 ) have happily yielded to prefent elegance ; and where, inflead of Celtic barrows, and the intrenchments of the Romans, there is the uieful rapture from fo many villas and orna- mental farms. " Well ordered home— Man's beft delight to make." Stukelet was not a mere, dry, huflcy antiquarian, with- out pith, without tafte. He had both. His ideas and ex- preihons were vigorous j and he had the power of pleafing, where it was, obvioufly, difficult to pleafe. He paints the valley of Dover, like a landfcape amidft theatric charms ; with artificial diminutions as juft, as perfpedlive herfelf could figure it; converging to their point at Dover; where, the fea, between the pharos, is fo beautifully made to clofe the fcene. Such is a little of the praife which belongs to Stukelet. Thefe were the relaxations of his more ufeful hours, con- fecrated by the ftudies of a phyfician, and the efforts of a parifli pricft ! — He gave his life to learning, and, as we truft, his foul to God. As for Dover, if the winds, and they who live by them permit, which, if you happen to have a number of horfes and fervants they feldom do permit, Dover need not keep a traveller long, unlefs he afpires at novelty, and is ambi- tious to falute, with due emotions, the juft and neceflary office of the Cinque Ports — or unlefs he has the better luck to be drawn up the hill to the fine convivial talents, which, now and then, are to be found at t4ie top of it. Dover makes a figure, not only in the Dooin/day Booky but even fo high up as the Itinerary of Antoninus. But the more potent topics of the people feem to be, " that •* they have a market — that they have two members — and '* that the average returns of their trade, I mean every fix •* or feven years, are very curious and interejling indeed." Dover, like fo many other places, has been fomewhat overfhadowed by the llupendous laurels of the war ! Every quarter of a year the port clearances ufed to be about 600 vefiels. ( 7 ) veflels— In the quarter prior to my being there In Novem- ber 1793, the Cuftom-Houfe books happened to report, alas ! no more than 59 veiTel' ! When the firft pier was forming at Dover, <* the good Lord Cobham," as he was called, kept a daily table for the workmen ; and a Prince, with the hearf of a gentleman, made a prefent of feveral thoufand pounds ! The workmen have juft finiflied a new fluice on the North, fide, and a new pier head on the South, and they talk with becoming feeling on the liberality of modern manners. On the table and the prefent, they alfo have had in — Hope. Of the new pier head. Sir H. Oxenden was the en- gineer. The objedl of it is to keep off the fand, which hitherto, in fpite of all that could be done, has for ever been forming in the hajrbour's mouth. In.the churcli, at the bottom of the caftle hill, there arc two infcriptions, one to Foote, the other to Churchill. Poor Foote died at Dover, in the Ship inn. Churchill was buried there, having died at Boulogne. It was near the port, the firfl corner, on the oppofite lide after palling the Engliih Hotel. Mr. Wilkes lived in the houfe ; and Humphey Coates, the Wine Merchant, unluckily hap- pened to have the vaults under it. Andahere it was, be- tween them, acria pocula^ that Churchill met his death. Foote fell through the villany of an infamous woman of quality, though the fagacity and eloquence of Lord Mans- field dete^led the confpiracy, and quafhed it ; yet the effed of it was felt to the laft — Foote had a death-wound in his heart ! and he lived only a little to hnger towards his grave. —Foote's tablet was raifed by his grateful attendant. Jewel, recording limply the day on which the public loft their favourite writer for the ftage. Churchill's epitaph is in twelve or fourteen rhymes, of which it is ealier to comment the motive than the effecH:. The Passage to the Continent is three times longer by ( 8 ) by Oftend than to Calais or Boulogne. — Of courfe the dif- ficulties are trebled, and with them the bar againft home- bred folly clearing out fo many heavy famples to fhame us in foreign markets. — An advantage this, fhamefully over- looked, when wars are fo vehemently oppofed, and impolicy and inhumanity are the plea. When a league or two from land, the view is interefting — it reaches from Folkftone to the Foreland on one fide, and the high lands of the French Republic on the other. — The fouthern hill, feen there, is between Saumur and Monkeuil — The height North of that is the point which predominates fo well over the whole department of Calais. The town of Calais is feldom {een in this run : but you often catch a glimpfe of Dunkirk and Nieuport. The time is from feven to fourteen or fixteen hours — and even that, fhort as it is, may fatisfy moft people, and make them, glad to get even to Oftend. Such is the power of contraft when the change is from the worfe. And yet bad as the town may be, it has been the caufc of one war, and the ftrefs of three others. What the town then was, may in fome fort be computed by what it now is. — Geographical pofition cannot change — and" by the fucceeding Jkill and cares of man, the con- dition of the Port, &c. were likely to have changed, only for the better. — And yet, taking it as we find it, with the churches and town Houfe, which have arifen fince the laft bombardment in 1706, what compenfation do we find here! — What idea of apology hereafter, for contefi:ations thus fenfelefs and fanguinary, when on one fide or other, no lefs than One Hundred and Forty Thousand Men were cut down, prematurely, to the grave. In the fanatic perverfions of the time, horrid guilt like this, was, with effrontery, not fliort of blafphemy, re- ferred, to the /"r/? great caufe of all created good ? And literally, medals were ftruck to commemorate thefe foul enormities ! ( 9 ) enormities ! Enormities, which the foe of mankind would wifh to remember, to inflame the final fentence of th« condemned. Among thefe infcriptions, as elfewhere Puns are to be feen— and OSTEND-E nobis PACEM was their play of words even in their prayer thus. Two words make up the noife, Sports for Dutchmen, and for Enghfli Boys* thus far, was Cowley exaeSl in the local habitation of this folly ? A folly, which in weak allegiance to bad fafliion, even Shakefpere tried, and ever but once tried in vain. The town itfelf and the trade of it, fmall as they are, were yet fmaller before the late falutary improvements of Joseph the fecond ; — and even now, the population is not lOjQoo— and the port clearances are not more than 1,200 ▼eflels a year. A confideration on the ftate of Trade at Oftend may perhaps ufefully be extended. -It is fomething more than a bufinefs of the counting-houfe and quays : — It is a moral epoch in the furprifes of political perpetration ! For, when after two or three years well directed enter- prife of a judicious individual (La Merveille, a Frenchman) the East India Trade firft opened on the Netherlands — It became in the year 1722 a collc£live objedl for the com- munity — and every eye rationally looked forward as to the hope of approaching good ! — A good, unmixt with any evil, but the corporation fpirit ! — That fpirit, by an effort per- haps difloyal to the indefeafible fovereignty of truth and policy, had pent up, by a patent, partially to a few, thofe .independent indefeafible rights, thofe bleffings of our com- mon nature, which, dependent on the common elements, feem like them happily given, open, to all. The Trade of the poor Flemings, little in itfelf, and thus made leis, with five fhips only, and with funds not G more ( 10 ) more than fix miHIons (of Florins), ftill was enough to acl upon the jealoufy of mean competition. It roufed and feared the peddling politics of the Dutch. And with an eagernefs that explained the motives, the minifters of each contiguous monarchy, France, England, Pruffia, Sweden>^ one and all, were immediately on tip-toe to make it a pre- tence for war ! And, the affair ended as almoft every con- teft muft end, with no poffible popular profit! — But in- flruction, for the enforcement of Peace ! While, Govern- ment as in almoll every inilance of War, gained, pro- portionably, as the people loft. The Imperial Govern- ment, with the pragmatic fanElioUy had the hereditary fuc- feflion fecured- — and the Maritime Powers were fortified, by this new inroad, upon trade and navigation* Thus the people, like their property, were transferred at pleafure ! Thus they fufFered themfelves to be defpoileci of their birth right ! A birth right, unalienable, as longp as winds lliall blow and waters roll ! So the trade began ; »nd ended almoft in its beginnings. Some temporary efforts have been made for the trade to ftruggle up again ; atid virtue, which in political manc2uvre, as well as in pri- vate life, is the beft policy effected, in two or three periods, not only paufes from decay, but advances towards re- covery. — The beft of thefe periods were, fuch as might be expected, when in the Netherlands there were wit and virtue, enough, to efcape a War, and other nations had the guik and folly of committing it ! In the Neutralitys of 1733, and, again, during the ruinous znadnefs of our AsiERiCAN crufadc ! At prefent alfo, there is fome trade in the port. And indeed fo many veffels, loijel^ laden with money and ftores, to be wafted on foreign objects, but all Englifh, and with all thefe feemed fuch a wholefome ftir, fuch an utter ab- feace of all commercial diftrefs, that the place really looked like a trading towa in England, hejore tlie War i JBut ( " ) But this, cannot be counted upon ; it is a mere tem- porary flafh, and muft iinilh like the fulnefs in the tolls of Cork, at the end of the flaughtcring feafon ! The prefent government of the town is reputable to the pafhve virtue of the people. — For they amiably allow their chief magiftrate, the bailli, &c. to be named by the Emperor. Places in the magiftracy, have been, hitherto, thought objet!ls, lefs of profit than of honor. But fince the late attempts have failed of revolution and reform, the Bailli's place has been ^3,000 a year. — A profit rent, hardly conceivable by thofe who live and thrive, as we all do, in a fyftem, where not any appointment is ever called over paid ! As for the fubordinate objefts of Icgiflatlon, there fcems no great caufe of complaint. The courts of juftice, are never indecently clofed for any long recefs 5 and though the appellant jurifdiftion, is not, as it perhaps ever ought to be, within themfelves, yet it is not remote. — It is at Gand and Mulines — and the temper of the people there is favourable to truth ; for they are enlightened, and of courfe, properly eager to be free. The misfortunes of men, fo continual every where from accident and from human violence, have no artificial ex- acerbation. There are no ftamp impofitions, upon law proceedings. In Scotland, the lawyers are a tribe fo multitudinous, that their cloathing, black, is called the Edinburgh hunt. They over-run Flanders too. But their fees are fo Tmall, that it is not better there, to give up a caufe, rather than pay the cofts. The Port Duties too, are a vexation, comparatively light. Imports are free. Of courfe, there is a fcope alfo free to the commerce of fpeculation. — On the inland vent •f foreign merchandife, the duties are about ten per-cent.— As there is no cuftom houfe at the port, flrangers are C 2 unannoycd ( 12 ) unannoyed on landing; and efcape thofe petty, but mor- tifying ills, of delay and depredation, from fearching, fuf- ferances, and head-money ! In the manner of a well known Irifh rhapfodift, who fees, ad libitum, a ftrudlure, to be planned, upon the right, and the hope of fome other future glory on the left, fo the port of Oftend may as fafely be commended, for what it might be, if the fhallows were cleared and the pier was improved. — If the manufadlures and exports of the coun- try, were encouraged by Ikilful bounties ! But where is there any bounty amidft the rage and ruin of war ! No- thing can come of nothing. When an exchequer is empty, the fole folicltude muft be to fill it ! not to give, but to get ! "With other inflances of unexpected neg- left, there is ftill wanting the firft great neceflary of frefh water. It is ftill to be fetched from far. Though, the fine experiments of Sheerness will prove, the power of perfeverance, and that in regard to water, any body may have it who will dig deep enough for it — though through a quick fand itfelf, and even belov/ the level of the fea. On one of the days we were kept at Oftend, July 19, the colors were confecrated, for the French Emigrants, with fuch fapience, entertained upon our eftabliftiment. With Englifti pay in their pocket, they had an Enghfli uniform upon thejr back ; and in regard to -fentiment and language, they were as perfectly Englifti, alfo, as fome late aflbciations. — ^They were drawn up, in the great fquare, before the Hotel de Ville, and the regiment of Sir Charles Grey, was in a line, facing them It was an epoch for a man whofe heart was in the right place, and who had energies to utter what was in it. The Aumonier, of the regiment, analogous to our army chaplains, appeared. He fprinkled the colours with confe- crated water. He then attempted to fpeak, but the at- tempt, like the Amen in Duncan's murderer, ftuck in his throat. C ^3 ) throat. He might have profited on the very failure, and like the humane Lord, fo very luckily faultering when he nrged the neceffity of council upon each procefs for im- puted treafon, He, the Aumonier, might have made his emotions current for their expreffions — and the currency, like the paper of the American Republic, might have all at once mounted above par ! But no fuch matter — fine re et fine fpe— he flopped alto- gether. He might have burft forth into a glorious, heart-improving rapture ! He might have hailed the dawn of truth, the rifing hope of unclouded light, over the opinions and adlions of men ! — The blefiings of freedom were all before him. He might have expanded, with the expanding blifs ! — He might have looked backward alio with approv- ing delight. He might have gloried in the downfall of defpotlfm, — certainly, in one region never to be {een again ! — He might have rifen on its ruins ! He might have raifed around him with the plaftic promptitude of hope, every fine formed fabric, gracious, ufeful, venerable, and good ; religion rational, tolerant, and reformed j the equal law of liberty, the free intercourfe of truth. — He might have apofl:rophifed the genius of Rational Revo- lution, as far as it had fignally blefl:, the Englifii, the Americans, and the Dutch.— He might have implored the aid of that power, which called light out of darknefs, and order from confufion ! — And fain to atchieve, fome of thofe perfections which he adored, he might have clofed his oralfon, with reafonable afpiratlons after iinlverfal good — for Peace upon earth, and good will to men. The poor Aumonier had none of thefe things to fay; inilead of all this, he fet up a puling cry, like a child's brazed trumpet at an old French fair, with gingerbread kings and queens ! Steeped in the colours of his trade, he vrailed over the paffing pageant of a worthlefs court— and, God ( M ) God forgivt him, heaved a found, too like menace and revenge ! An officer, M. de C followed lilm, and rather in a ftyle above all this — but ftill not in the firft tone of mili- tary eloquence. — ^That, from its rarity feems the hardeft thing for a foldier to do. For, there may have been fomc who have fought like Cesar, but which of them could ever talk about it, half fo well ? The fcene, however, could not but have fome im- preffion, — as Titus fighed to lofe a day, as Xerxes wept ever the doom,^ too probable, of his embattled hoft ! But many men, many minds. Other people enjoyed the fight, and particularly an army agent, a jew broker, a crimp, a contractor, and an outlaw for larceny, all were trnanlmous, and voted it d -»- fine. — And one crazy fellow at the head of the mob, literally threw off hit hat, and huzzaed ! An Irllh ex-jefult juft efcaped from St. Omers, clofed the conference, fwearing bloodily, that he wifhed well to all the world, and therefore that he wlflied them all to be at war. For that there was no fchool like the fchool of adverfity, no good like evil, and no joy like forrow. — ^That war made men too poor, to bfi meanly loft in common enjoyments of life! — That it pre- vented building, the bane of our great towns, ever fincC Queen Elizabeth ! — That it thinned the community, with the hand of a great mafter ! And, that fooner or later, it muft keep down the price of provifions — at prefent fo difi trefling ! &c. &c. Sec. Nobody could deny the laft pofition. His arguments otherwife might have had weight — the majority thought as he did. The day thus far dedicated to truth, f o ufeful truth, was happily ordained to end as well as it began, for the parade 'ending, we met with the following curious infcription upon the quays. — It is a column, not of brafs, but cf wood— . erected ( 15 ) cre£Vcd to commemorate the late events, when the forces of the French Republic, chufing to retire, the Auftrians took their place — and the popular emotions is thus made to live, in expreffions nobody can doubt there. THE INSCRIPTION. Ob L/ETum Austriacui* Anno 1790, Reditum, Studio et Amore prius Erectam Dein ut Impiis Regicidisque Salvetur Manieus Furtim Abditam Sacriligiis jam Expulsis Aquilam Hanc. Ex VoTO, PiscATOREs Denuo Posuerunt Die. 18, Cal. Maii 1793. The devices are as good as the infcriptlon — For, belides the Black Eagle, emblem of comfortable power, fulminating on a tree, fuppofed to be the tree of Liberty — there are the fafces and the cap of liberty, the cock and the lyre ob- vioufly of no more ufe, all are in flames ! On another fide of the poft, are the words. Semper Fidelis. With three keys-, a dog, and a whale.— Somebody talked ©f a tub to the whale, but it is not true : at leaft we could not fee it. Thus we departed from Oflend. FLANDERS. { i6 ) FLANDERS. At Ostend, as in fome bad life touched by our great poet, nothing is fo becoming as the leaving of it ! There- is a canal, with a trechfchuyte on it, always once, and fometimes, as in fummer, twice a day. — Here, as elfewhere, this fort of inland carriage is delightful : as giving motion without effort, and accommodation with little coft. — Tht traveller is Vv^afted for a couple of Flemifh fchellings, 14 miles to Bruges, where Stivinus, the flying chariot-man, was furveyor of the dykes — and from Bruges, he may ge£ equally cheap and well to Gand — v/ith a table d'hote on board, of two tolerable fcrvices and a little defert, with fome intolerable wine, for three or four fchellings more. There are collateral canals to Nieuport, to Dunkirk, St. Omers, Lisle, &c. There is a carriage way to Bruges ; but It is fix miles further : and except in dry weather, thofe fix miles are made twelve ; the roads are fo infamoufly bad. — Of Bruges there is a record, municipium Brugenfe, as high as the feventh century ! And the roads, from their condition, may be prefumed as antique. Apart from their eafe and expedience, the canals of Flanders, are not an idle contemplation. For, they were begun fo early as the twelfth century ! That there fiiould be better worjcs of the fame fort now, in Holland, in France, and in England, is not at all wonderful. For the ameliorations of art are decided ; if, as Horace thinks er- roneoully, the advances of morals be not. In the FORMATION OF these canals, it was fortunate that the difficulties were fmall, when the arts of vanquifh- Ing fuch difficulties were, comparatively, fo fmall alfo. — There happened to be no complex confiderations as to ground, — when excefs in one fpot, was to fupply deficiencc m ( 17 ) m another. There were no fubtcrranean pafles as in the tunnels at Bezieres in the Languedoc Canal, or in the yet more memorable works of the Duke of Bridgewater. There was no obftacle to furmount, like that on the Ir- WELL ; and of courfe, nothing fo well wrought as the mafonry there, to fecure it. The fall was fcarcely any thing. There was almofl nothing to rife. There were no underwater fluices. It may be a topic of reafonable regret, that the accounts and details of thefe canals are no where to be found ; at leaf!:, my fon and I were not able to find them. — Such a well preferved record of a great public work would have been, obvioufly, precious, both for curiofity and ufe. — It had been an amufement, not uninftruftive, to have noted the changes and chances of time, as they afFe£led the price of labour, and with all, the. peculiarities of its value and application ! — There muft have been the elegant pleafure in giving well-earned unfufpe6led praife. — And fo to have hovered over the Brindley, the Smeaton, or the Stamford of that day — with any other names, with virtuous ufe dil^ tinguifhed, by perfonal facrifice to public utility, or by inge- nious art aiding the defign, or the execution !— And if there could have been before, fuch a man as the Duke of Bridge- water, fuch a glorious inftance of complex merit, and ufeful fuccefs, there would have been in degree, kindred emotions of felf-congratulation and of focial good ! to have hailed him with due celebrations, as the JirJ} citizen of the time ; the man of all others the moft illuftrious in the fervice of his country, for magnificent enterprise, for fublime atchievements! A name fo admirably exalted, by adventure and accom- plifhment, muft re-echo in every heart of the moft remote pofterity, and through unknown tim.e. And for the per- petual encouragement of enterprife, authorifed by flcill ; let it be known, that the duke of Bridgewater's fuccefTcs D hav ( I8 ) have been as brilliant as his purpofes ! That the work, hj the multiplied furprifes of genius, did not coft him above £ looo a mile ! And that the clear profits of his laft year, amounted to forty three thoufand pounds ! The canals of Flanders, probably, cannot be decorated with any ftory fo fplendid. Like Languedoc, and other fine '^ works in France, they have been the refult of collective efforts, half by government, and half by the province, or in better words, all by the people ! And thefe arc the works, in which they may rationally glory. For the advantages are obvious and fure. They are inalienable. They facilitate human intercourfe. They circulate human good. They diminifli animal labor. They augment vegetable bleffings. It may be only Virgil who can make his clowns tofs about the manure with grace, but V it can be by canals alone (and by the by — the Romans mar- velloufly had none)— that the clowns every where can have wherewithal abundantly to tofs it ! The Flemifla navigation, if made with every modern finefle, certainly would be more perfect. Their channels would have been more floped on their fides. And the bot- tom narrower than the top. There had been more fure provilions againfl the two extremes, of too much or too little water — better apparatus for the contiguous lands, as they might needs either irigation or drain. The Flemifh agriculture for want of this. Is proportion- ably impaired. The paflurage Is not flourifhing. The rains lie in pud- dles where they fall ; and there is no artificial flooding, when there Is none. The grafs lands therefore are few ; and till a better order prevails, there is no reafon for wifh* ing them to be more. The arable lands on the contrary, continue fine examples of that adroitnefs and induftry, for which they have been praifed tlirough three or four ages.— There are no wafles ! Every ( 19 ) Every bit of ground is well tilled. They give way to no fallows. By a variety of crops they clear the land of weeds, and give repofe to one ftratum of the foil, while they work the produ It has been the faflilon to attempt talking up the French Court, with artificial emotions, not only of fufFer- ance, but refpeft ! as if the human powers when not drag- ged and debilitated to the door of death, could ever fink into oblivion, over their multiplied enormities ! their un- exampled combination of oppofite ills, from levity and obduracy, from guilt in plundering the public purfe, and wafting what they had plundered — in the everlafting guilt and folly of war, in battles without caufe, in victories with- out effect ! Aloft, the town now talked of. Is one out of twelve towns «ver-run in one fummer, and laid low by the armies of French defpotifm ! When not only the king, Louis XTV. was there, but the queen, with the gentlemen and ladies of the court, fondly followed to the war-feaft ! not like blood- hounds, from hunger, but unlike every thing but themfelves, for fport ! — Abfolutely in pageant fliows and revelry, amidft the infernal horrors they had committed in fieges and in battle, with rapine, ravage, conflagration, and blood ? The utraoft exaggerations of all-complicated woes ! Miferies, of which, otherwife, there could have been no caufe on earth, —as, certainly, as on earth there can be no penal confe- quence, but remorfe, at all adequated either. — The exlft- cnce of this favage purfuit, as the refined amufement of the court, is a melancholy fa£l, I fear, not to be difputed. " La ** Campagne Raflembloit, plutot, a une partie de plalfir, <* qu'une operation de guerre.*' — Thefe are the words of a cotemporary authentic writer 1 For all thefe deep-wrought lefTons, of edifying woe, and ufeful inferences on the neceflity and temper of the court, the country of Aloft was, like Bruges, Gand, and Brabant, honored with a place in the Barriere treaty, and obliged to fupply their quota of fubfidy to the amount of 500,000 crowns ! Ga On ( 44 ) On obligations, like thefe, the Flemings fail not to ex- prefs emotions, with no fmall profit, examplary to the lefs manly citizens of other countries. In this fhock of infernal war, not every thing was loft. A iketch or two of Reubens furvived the wreck. And a jQcetch ufually has, from obvious caufes, more merit than works elaborately finifhed. In the church of St. Martin, which holds thefe fketches, there are objects, which probably will not have fo many ad- mirers as the lower animals by Reubens. There are a dozen of canons, a provoft, and a dean. The dean, however, is in fome fort rcfpedlable ; for he is at the fame time the cure of place, the officiating parifh prieft. A name and office emi- nently high ! and in every part of Europe I have palTed, re- garded with rational fondnefs, with well-earned efteem. Befides the eftablilhment of a chapter, a very dubious race, perhaps every where, there are no lefs than eight monafteries— as ufual, blafphemoufly thwarting the bene- volent deftinies of man ! Where, the guardian angels of our lot, labour and reft, ufeful bufinefs and innocent plea- fure are fupcrfeded by the foes of our common nature, the abominable brood of folly and defpair — by vain hope, and falfe fear, continual indolence, and contmual mortification ! There is, however, fome contiguous compenfation for the mind, in the tomb of Martin, whofe life, in happy oppo- sition to what was laft mentioned, . was aftively good, and ufeful ! — He had enlarged the range of his intelligence by travelling, and on his return from Germany, he brought the art of printing with him.— Flanders, therefore, owed him much ; but if it had been more, it would have been paid. For he was fo happy, as to have the friendfhip of Erafmus, and liis praife ! Thus, even in that country, dark in bigotry as it may be, ■4here is incidental ufe, from the exterior of religion. And the ( 45 ) the traveller, well difpofed enough to go to church, may hope to come back rather better than he went. ■' The chief magiftrate is a burgomafter, with a greffier and eight echevins. — Enough in all confcience to take care of themfelves. This they do here, as elfewhere, with nevcr- ceafing zeal ! And having done that, we would recommend to them, the ctre of the iick poor, and their petty gaol, as bad as it can be, from cruelty and negledt ! — From foul air, dirt, darknefs, dungeons, and chains I The people, however, not in the hofpitals nor gaols, now contrive to do pretty well. Like the fellows who made fetters under Nero and Tiberius, they fatten upon mifchief. They flourifh by the war, which, with becoming gratitude and good-humour, they fay, is juft and necelTary, and glori- ous to them. For their chief trade is felling corn. Which thrives proportionabiy to the number of ^ood people, fo very fenllbly, going there to eat it ! — Hence, the town, already, is enlarging, with fpacious rows of new building, flanting like Sloane-ftreet — and there would have been alfo, an hol^ pital for the foreign foldiers who are Hck and hurt, but that the wifdom of the towns-people ftopped it — for they faid, very properly, " That it was fufficient impofition to hear of « fuch mifery, and to pay for it too — but as for any thing << more — they muft beg to be excufed ! — to fee it, with ** patience, was impoflible I" BRUX- ( 4« ) :bruxelles. tr is xvkh men as with the herbs and plants they tread ^pon ; they affeft all the diiFerent afpefts and foils that can txift between the Alpine, the rocky, and the bog. — - Lou- vols, the man who firft exacerbated the peftilcnt art of arms by magazines, admired, as a beaft would do better, the flats tof Flanders for their fscundity in forage ! — And Crequi, 5s faid, for a different reafon, to have curfed the country, becaufe the people in it were too wife and happy to be re* emits — and thus, in other words, to be fhot at for fomething Icfs than for a farthing an hour ! A traveller need not ftir from home to be infulted with tlOnfenfe and barbarity like that. As we approached Bruxelles we aimed at emotions and bbje^ls rather better than thefe. The fun fhone — in all the glow and glory of July ! yet ft fprightly, genial, wind from the north-weft, afted as a cover from the heat. The hedge-rows and viftas, out of number, gave a quivering fhade. The vallies ftood thick vith corn. And, if they who were at work in them, did not laugh and fing, the misfortune was their own — and the fault was not Nature's ! And to their Lord owe more than to the foil. At Bruxelles, a town fo old as to be named in a patent of Otho, 976, according to an hiftorian very venerable, and not always childifh, all things are at fixes and fevens. — *' The •* number of houfes are twice feven thoufand fix hundred — «* and feven times as many the people who dwell therein." —Of thefe, feven are pious houfes — and, at leaft, more than as many not fo.— There are feven tribunals, of courfe feven reafons for not going to law, with feven places,and feven gates, where you may hang yourfelf — if you do go to law !— The river Senne, rifes feven leagues up between Xrivelle and Roeu;!:, < 47 ) Hoeux, aiKl you may follow it into the Dyle, Sec. feve* leagues down, if you will. Seven crowns were once feen, and felt, at Bruxelles — and what is not always the cafe feven heads were faid to be under them ! But Bruxelles has fomething better than all this — viz. a fquare. The park, which is, in refpedt to the cultivated ground, and the woods and walks in the centre, the befl thing of the kind in Europe ! as the Palais Royal at Paris, and St* Mark's Place at Venice, are the two fquares beft built ; and a rampart, where you may walk and ride amidil gentle fcenery, with views over two hundred and twenty villages and woods (La Foret de Soigne), flowing up to the very walls of Bruxelles i The dryads here, the penates of BruxelleSji give them moft of the wood they want to burn. They meafure 16,52^ arpents (an arpent is neai-ly 2 EngUlh acres),— and of thefe, a hundred acres are cut once in a. hundred years— and i^o it is hoped, and believed, they may tut on for ever. Let their plantations ftretch from down to down- Now ftade a country, and then build a town. The rampart itfelf, is in itfelf, cheering, not only that it is tolerably planted, and that it may raife a good natured wifh, that it may be better kept— .but, becaufe, it prefents another order of objeits day by day, approaching nearer, thaq before, to the caufe of what is true, humane, and ufeful. Nunc campuf, ubi troja fuit. The fortifications are abandoned, and aboliflied — and all the grounds before wafted on fuch mifchievous toys, as the angles and inequalities of gunnery, now are fubjeft to the plough-lhare, and the pruning hook! — We faw fine craps of corn already waving over one part, and I truft, we fhall have credit for the deflre, that they may be feea withouth delay, in as ufeful triumph over all. *' Rich harvefts bury all their care had plgnn'd, ** lAxid laughing Ceret reailumcd the laod." Swift, ( 48 ) Swift, witli proper fcorn, palling by the laurel of the war* rior, celebrates with due praiie, the man who can make two blades of grafs, or two fplkes of wheat, grow, where there was but one before j what would he have faid to Jofeph the Second, who, in fpite of the prejudices, and evil accompanyments of his rank, was thus friendly and active in the caufe of man, releafing the towns from the miferable tyranny of gates and outworks — and fupcrfeding the dirt and debauchery of a garrifon, with the farmers glory, with a nations blifs ! In good, as well as evil, one acl with fure propenfity feems ever leading to another. With the food and accom- modations for men ; this encreafe of men were encreafing likewife. Before the war, which checked and blafted every human good, there were feveral plans for new build- ings, and the fauxbourge were going to be included in the privileges of the town. — The circuit of the town is about a league and a half. The population of the town, an object no where afcer- tained with the wifhed-for precifion, is lefs conjectural here, than in fome other places. — According to the beft documents which could be collated, the people average nearly, if not quite, to feven in an houfe, including in the cal- culation, the inhabitants of religious houfes. — A population that is very great, confidering the number of perfons thus unhappily wafted on monaftic vows, and the enormous col- le^live ills, with which the town has been fore vifited ! For, beildes a peftilential epidemic, fweeping off half the people in the preceding century, within thefe laft hundred years, it has been eight times the feat of war ! And as fuch, rent and wafted with all its flasitious horroi*s ! Be- fieged 5 feized ; evacuated ; pillaged 5 bombarded j and burnt ! Amidft fuch ravages of mifchiefs, for the moft part un- provoked, and unprofitable, in the extreme ; there have happened, now and then, eventual coiilblations. The Ro- mans ( 49 ) mans left their roads behind them. America has thus had fome European arts. — Poor Bruxelles has nothing to brag of, but a fimple fluice, which prevents the river Senne from overflowing the lower town. And that the people owe to the French in the year 1747. Of the population, when thus taken, as accurately as circumftances allowed, about twelve or fifteen years ago, the amount was no more than 7^,427 — and the diflribu- tions as follow — but the returns were lefs than the truth- there was an alarm of new impofitions, and new levies — many perfons for a time abfented from the town — and from the regifters, many more. — From 80 to ico,ooo, is a computation nearer the truth. 1 Of chief merchants, bankers, nobles, &c. above - - - - - 7>o5S 2 Of church-men, regulars, and feculars, with thofe of both fexes in convents, above IjS^J N. B. This is equal to one entire fixth of all the parifli priefts in England — and nearly half the eftablifhment in Ireland. 3 Infants, above _ - - - 14,099 4 Shop-keepers, above - _ _ 9,883 5 "Work-people of both fexes, above - 20,908 6 Servants, ditto - ^ - 8,443 7 Beggars ! Ditto, above - - i>97-1- 8 Military, and travellers - - 2,474 N. B. The beggars are what are commonly called fo. The placemen cotne under the firll article— fee und:r number one. The military and the travellers, are particularly variable as to number. At the end of the year 179:, when I was firft at Bruxelles, there were 3,000 French fugitives, and mors than as many troops, the regiment of Bender, part -f the Augfbourg regiment, and a corps of cavalry.— The mperial forces, in the Auftrian Netherlands, were then, according to the office returns, 42,000 men ! Forty two thoufand men, at three FUmifh fous a day ! ! H The ( s^ ) There is the more aftonifhment and regret in this, be- caufe, as day-labourers, in Brabant, they might have earn- ed, with good to the community, from one to two fchel- lings a day ! And for labour, at all ingenious, the pay is double. The opportunities, however, of ingenious labor, feem alas ! lefs and lefs. Formerly, there was a tapeftry ma- nufa(5i:ure, fcarcely lefs thought of, by thofe who could think of it ?t all, than the Gobelin and Sabloniere at Paris — in fine thread lace, before Mechlin and Valen- ciennes, Bruxelles was the beft — and, at the great fire, when 1,460 houfes were burnt, no lefs than 400 of them were prime manufadlurers of cloth. — At prefent, with a little lace, and lefs tapeftry, they make a few woven cot- tons, and fome cloths and ftuffs — of which the camblets are the beft. The town is tolerably well built, as to the walls of the houfes j but their windows, and doors, are after the falhion of the French. Tlie lower windows are alfo deformed with iron bars ; ofFenfive, even beyond the eye — as imply- ing fomething wrong in the place, either from real danger, or from falfe fear. However, there may be hence a refource in thofe emer- gences, to which all ftates in their turn are liable — and when the beft of metals, iron, may be wanting, they may find it here. As one of our great brewers faid to a wretched nobleman, who had threatened to ufnrp a venal feat, nay, though it coft him ten thouland pounds, by mere weight of metal — " Tell the gentleman, like Zeno- «« phon, to be diftinguiflied, by the retreat of the ten thou- «' fand, that if his poor power can go no further than to " _^ 10,000— all the old iron fliall be fold off my condemned " cafks — and I will thus beat him, at his own weapons." The buildings at Bruxelles, compare in one point, advantageoufly with Paris. For, the hcufes having fewer ( 51 ) fewer floors; but three or four, generally have but one family under one roof. — There is none of that huddled abomination, Tigribus Agni, the human head under the ferpents tail, fo fliocking over fome of the moft fubftantial fhops in Paris — and which ufed to make the ftreets there, a Jakes for morals, no lefs than for health. In another way, the buildings at Bruxelles cannot jufliy be denied praife. For, as one of the wirtieft men in. Europe faid of the things called modern comedy, " they " are moral at leaft, if not entertaining"— fo of the chief houfes here: they raife but little envy without, and ufually, the fpeclator may be quite cured, if he vvill but enter with- in. The houfes of Aremberg, Tour and Taxes, de Ligne, d'Egmont, d'Urfel, de Homes, with the governor gene- rals, and the Imperial Plenipotentiaries, arc the few, to be conlidered rather highlv. — We had occaiion alfo to vilk a Princefs, on a commiffion from Lady I, — and we found her fo lodged, that in all qualities of lituation, fpace, con- venience, and tafte, a man that knows how to go to mar- ket, would be better off, even in London, at a rent of 60 or j^7o a year. But no.'i quo fed quomodo — in houfes, as in thofe who fill them, it is not how much, but how well ; and there- fore, it was a well judged compliment to our relidenf, then intellectually fit to reprefent Englifhmen, \\'\\tn the Duke and Duchefs of York left the hotel de Gailes, and de- lired Colonel Gardener to invite the Court, the Arch- Duke and Duchefs, Prince Charles, M. de Lambefque, C. de Metternich, &c. &c. with all the Englifti fit to be feen — and they all met at Mr. Gardener's lodgings, in the pretty little mezzonines, fcarcely 16 feet fquare, at the Belle-vue. The places for a traveller to fee, if he has time, are the Arch Duke's chateau de Schoemberg (in the village of Lack), and the villa of M. Walkiers, the banker. — They Ha are , ( 52 ) arc not half an hours drive from Bruxelles, and clofe to one another; befides, the way, is through the Allee Verte, thofe beautiful viftos, of elms and limes, where the canal goes to join the Scheldt ! Viftos, which the French fo handfomely refpefted in the year 1746— but which, they would hardly have refpe^led now. — For, they were filled, with hay-ftacks and other forage for the army, in the moft fad wonder of profufion, from tree to tree, through a fpace perhaps of near half a league. The Arch-Duke's chateau is a modern building, Ionic without, Corinthian within, with two fronts of 260 feet, the depth 150 — with a central portico, at the entrance, and a bow in the centre behind. The efFccSl of the building at a diftance is gay, and im- pofing enough ; when clofe to it, the effect is maimed by bad figures at the top of the building ; and the pediment of the portico being filled by a clock, which feems fit only where the charafter of a building is appropriate, as at Inigo's church in Covent Garden, to fimplicity and ufe. — The gate of approach, loaded with bad ornaments, cupids and what not, is at once lofty and trifiing, elaborate and dull. In the internal diftribution, the beft rooms arc forty feet fquare — a dining room 52 by 40 — a chapel 27 by 22 — and the ftate room a circle, 54 feet diameter — the dome is the cieling of this room ; and nearly midway, between the bot- tom and the top, there is a fmall gallery on 1 2 Corinthian pillars. — The floors in the other rooms are inlaid mixture, angular fhapes of oak, m-ahogany, and petrified cedar. In the circular room, the floor is fhewy, formed of various marbles.— There are five windows, which fliould have had five looking-glafTes oppofite — there are but two, with three glafs doors, but not luoking-glafs. The looking glafles are the manufaclure of Venice. And thefe, eight feet by fix, are among the largeft ever blown there ( 53 ) there. For that Is the Venetian procefy ; not by the mould, as in France and Enghind. There are few obje■' Bruxelles. Lord Aylefbury's houfe was fronting the fountain, near the church. Thus the fecond James, though good for nothing In him- felf, unlefs the invention of fea-Iignals be good, was the caufe of good to others. — ^Thus Louis XIV. advanced beyond the oftentation of his nature, became elegantly bountiful — and thus, this fountain was made. THE ( 59 ) THE GOVERNMENT Of Brabant is mixed, and not altogether according to the Afiatic idiom, where the word mixed implies a concurrence and confummination of evil. The monarchical portion predominates. It is vefted in the governor general : who, by the Walloons treaty, (1574) ought to be of blood royal. His authority is fupreme. In the form of fovereignty, and to the fame extent^ — \n the ad- miniftration of old laws — in the origination of new laws — in a power, executive as well as legiflative, equally uncontroul- ed. The governor general can alfo naturalize ftrangers, legi- timate illegitimacy. And after all, he can undo what he may have done •, for he is abfolute over life and death. He pre- fcribes the taxes j (fur I'entree et fortie) the quantum of each impofition ; and dooms where it may fall ! He nominates all chief magiftrates ; and can cancel or continue the fubor- dinate officers, who feem to be nominated by others.— He convenes the ftates : and, as he pleafes, may prefide in them. —He appoints, with fome referve, to each ecclefiaftical bene- fice — to all eflablifliments, civil and military ! — he can cre- ate officers, in addition to the immenfe number already, ■with fuch produdlive influence, created — and to crown ail, he is chief of the golden fleece. The power of the office reaches even beyond the grave ! for it is abfolute over opinion itfelf ! at Icaft as far as goes to the public profeffionof itin the everlaftinginterefl:s of religion! For all thefe great efibrts and fatigues, as necefl!ary as ex- pedient, as juft as they are wife, the remunerations are fuch as might be expe£led. He has a court. And two com- panies of guards, paid by the people. He has palaces and grounds in and out of town — he has the edifying fatisfac- tion of having half a dozen ambafladors about him — with a million of florins annually levied in the low countries— 60,000 more left by Maria Terefa — and 200,000 beiides, furnifhed from Vienna ! 1 2 The ( 6o y The office, like certain popular prefcriptlons here, is cre- ated by patent — under the iign manual of the emperor. The referves and modifications of unlimitted power are as follow :— The emperor referves to himfelf the donation ofbifhoprics and abbayes — the creations of nobility — and of the difpenfing power over lands in mortemain, to alienate er to exchange theai. The modifications are not to change, whatever there may be of the lion's fkin and the lions fhare, but to cut it up, and to divide it — not to qualify, but to ap- propriate the abfolute nature of the Supreme Power — there- fore not for the people, but for the prince. — Thus, the minif- ter plenipotentiary from the court of Vienna to the court of Bruxelles Is fuppofed to have, whenever exigencies urge, powers equivalent to the governor general — over property, life, and political opinion ! — to convene affemblies ; to give places ; to remit punifliments ! — He has not, indeed, fuch authority by patent j but he does it all on the foot of In- ftrudlion, as it is called — and a grave and fignificant Bra- banter added to us, " that there could be no doubt of the *< minifter's power too over the golden fleece." The minifter plenipotentiary is an appointment of modern date. Charles VI. began it in the year 1716. The Marechal Koneyfegg was the firft who filled the office. The prefent minifl:er, M. de Meternich, is a gentleman of capacity and fame. That he is acceffible, knowing, and polite, I can fay from my own, fliort, experience. The more material forms and conftltutlons refpeiling the governor general and the goverment, are thefe : Though the legillative power Is eonfidered as being folely In the reprefentation of the foveregn ; yet, the ftates are confulted, where the objects of a new law are local — and where their import is extraneous, they are referred to thQ fuperior tribunal, the council of Brabant, For the council of Brabant, though in fome fort re- duced to a mere court of law, and by arbitrary alter- ations, as the introdudion of foreigners, &c. may be very fup- ( 6I ) fuppofeably impaired in its purity and power, ftil!, accord- ing to the Joyeufe Entree, retains tlie prerogative, that no law can be executed, witliout the participation of tlie coun- cil, teftified under the figiiature of their fecretary, and by the feal of Brabant ! — A right, this, often very properly thwarting the plans of bad minifters, who would mifapply the imperial jurifdidlion over Brabant and Limbourg, with, their dependant lordfhips of Dalim, Kolduc, Fauquemont, and Outre Meufe. There is the routine of a law paffing which does not iffue at once from the prince. — The firfl: propolition and plan, the bill as we fhould call it — is fubmitted to the privy council — ^when they have deliberated, it is communicated by the minifter, to the governor general. It is fometimes fent to the emperor. The governor general pafles the bill intou law at the council. The law is promulgated in his name, and bearing the great feal, which is affixed by the president Such are the charailers efTential to a law. The ftates of Brabant are form.ed of the clergy, the nobles, and the tiers etat, or deputies from towns. The clergy are the archbifhop of Malines, the bifhop of Antwerp (in right of two abbeys they hold) and eleven other abbayes. The nobles are twenty-nine. They niuft have the rank of barcn, at leaft : with a qualification in manorial lands ; of which the minimum muft be according to the follow* jng rates : A Baron - - - - 4000 florins per ann, A Marquis _ - - - 10,000 do. do. A Duke - - - - 20,000 do. do. The proofs of fuch property mufl be thus properly regu- lated. J. If it be alledged to have been ceded by a parent, there muft be a proof of the cefiions being complete, 2. The vouchers, as to title, defcent, donation, &c. muft be equally exact, 3- To ( ^2 ) •7, To prove every fix months tLat the lands, Sec. contirwic with each member, and are not encumbered 4, The proofs and vouchers to be exhibited on oath— and the firft depolition to be in fix months after taking the feat. 5, The vouchers to be by exhibition of leafes— by receipts for rents— by proofs from the neighbourhood that rents are not overcharged — by valuations precifely prefcribed, viz. — of lands by the bonnu-, proving the menfuration upon oath. — Plantations upon commons are valued at a fourth part ©f the rated value of the foil — in plantations on the road- fide, each tree is valued at two fols a year. Manorial rights are cftimated at "an average of ten years. 6. Finally, the rents muft be proved to be three-fourths, clear of ail impofitions and outgoings whatfoever. 7. Thefej with the leafes, title deeds, pedigrees (alfo attefled 0:11 oaths) are to be depofited with the proper officer. N. B. The lands muft meafure at leaft twenty-five bon- niers, with a haute juftice, or power of criminal juf^ ftice, a village, and a church. The farther perfonal qualifications are thefe : 1. To be 25 years old. 2. Not to be in foreign pay. — Nor to have a foreign order of knSdithood — for fome minds in the Low Countries O are fo very weak as to be moved by a bit of ribband, as much as by amaffed gold. 3. Not ennobled by the property of a wife ; however that property may have on it a feignory in lands and tythes. 4. The pedigree to prove — firft, the four quarters — viz. two on the father^s fide, two on the mother's.— N. B. the firfl: ennobled, as is fo often obferved in other qountrieS|, to go for nothing. Finally, to exhibit, including himfelf, feven paternal genera- tions of nobility : that is, a father and five grandfathers. And ( ^3 ) And to regifter all this, fatisfinSlorily, before tlic College of Anns ! — Which is condu6led no lefs gravely within, and is refpedtcd no lefs folemnly without, than a fimilar eflablilh- nient in another country ! In the province of Hainault, there is a fenfible improve- ment upon this, by a fpecification and proof (as every body- fees it is conftantly with us) that the fource of the nobility was meritorious ! — that the line has run on in legitimacy, undoubted, for loo years ! (another point equally our boaft) —And that where, unluckily, nobility has happened to be bought (which being fo unknown in England, mull be pro- portionably incredible and (hocking) that then, in the firfi: inftance, there niufl be fix generations exhibited inftead of four ! A title, though of a lower order in nobility, if with more antiquity of creation, takes precedence of a higher title lefs ancient. Such are the memorable peculiarities of the nobility. The third order in the ftates, the tiers etat, are deputies from Louvain, from Antwerp, and from Bruxelles — ^They ufed to be nominated at difcretion ; and of courfe, were then, more numerous than now. They are now only the firO: bourgmafter and penfionary council of Bruxelles, and the firfl: bourgmaftcr, firil echevin, penfionary of the other towns. — ^Thefe deputations are renewed every three years. Thefe deputies do, as the Englifh reprefentatives ufed te do, on all leading difcuffions, refer to conflituents for their inftru(Slions ! As might be expe(Sled, the prelates and nobles are not In- ftru£led. The tiers etat are chofen, not by univerfal fu3rage of all the people ! but by the magiftrates alone ! To conftltute a refolution, the ftates mud be unanimous — and when the clergy and the nobles agree, as unhappily they are too apt to agree, to a fubfidy, impoiition, &c, the exprcfs ( ^4 ) cxprefs compa^l of the conftitution demands the concur* rence of the tiers etat ! The words are, *< a condition que *' le tiers etat fuive, et autrement, pas I" The feffions of the flates are ordinarily in March and 0»5laber. But they may meet at any other time — as when the fovereign wants money, Sec. &c. So, of late extraor- dinary meetings have not been wanting. — To the honor of the flates, fuch requifitions for money have oft been made; but were made in vain ! The laft memorable inftance was in the year 1790 ! — and again, in confequence of the four mil- lions and a half requefted in November 1 793 ! The flates have attendant officers, as a council, a greffier. The greffier affifts at each meeting ; ftates the caufe of it ; and may debate : — but he cannot divide. The ftates have alfo a receiver general in each chief town. To him all other receivers are accountable and contri- butary. Such are the chief characters of the ftates : their rights, and their powers. As for the grand tribunal, the council of Brabant, that through a long period it was compofed of a definitive num«» ber i and they all natives — viz. The Chancellor, 8 Council in each chamber, 2 Greffiers, 6 Secretaries, 7 TranllatorSj 8 Ufhers, A Fifcal, Receiver, Notary, Chaplain, 400 Advifers. 50 Procureurs, By late conftitutions, the emperor has the power of aug- menting the numbers ; and of introducing forciOTCrs, as two of the council, and two of the fecret«3^ies. Two of the council are eccleliaflics. The oath of inauguration is to obferve the Joyeufe Entree. Their ( <5s ) Their prime political prerogative, that of participating in the legiflative power, has been before explained. Their more conftant occupation is, as a court of juftice. — They form the firft tribunal — to judge each infradlion of the buUe d'or — to grant letters of emancipation — alienation licences to ecclefiaftics — and permiffion to will away fiefs. — They have the power of grand reverfion and appellant jurifdic- tion, from Flanders, Luxembourg, Namur. — And they judge in the firft inftance, all town officers, gentlemen, royal caufes, caufes upon feudal tenures, prelates, placemen, churchmen, members of the collateral councils, prince's houfhold, and what feems ever in Brabant the top of each climax, even the knights of the golden fleece — with all trials for coinage, treafon, &c. The judgment of this court is pronounced by arret, of which, when deemed oppreffive, there is no reform by any other tribunal ; no remedy but by the procefs called, in Bra- bant, the grand revifion : — on a propofition of error in the proceedings — to review them, within the year. — And that revifion is final. There is no further appeal. — On fuch revifion, to the ufual judges are added from eight to eighteen afiiftants, and a law do6lor from Louvaine, named by the chancellor. The councils, juft called collateral, {from their being ad latus principis, and meeting in the palace till it was burnt, 1731) are the three councils, d'etat, prive, et des finances.- — All formed by Charles V. The firft, le conceil d'etat, was the organ of chief fway. The prince in perfon, fometimes prefided in it. "When abfent, his reprefentative, the governor general. The other members were, the archbilhop of Malines, the treafurer, chancellor, fecretaries of ftate, of war, &c.— And all the prime objedls of the ftate, peace and w^r, foreign treaties, home employments, finance, &c. all were under their con- troul. On hard queftions, and urgent need, the council K were ( 66 ) were properly accuftomed to call in and confult other men, advanced to notice from known Ikill in the law, in the church, in trade, or in the fcience of government. Their opinions being given as they pleafed, orally, or in writing, they withdraw. Leaving the council, on fuch documents, to deliberate and to decide. In the time of Charles VI. this council fell into difufe. The places became merely honorary, as they were called. And as fuch, multiplied accordingly. Flung about, like the chamberlain's gold key through Germany, on every obje£l: about the court, to increafe influence, and reward thofe humble enough to obey it. The fecond of the three, the privy council, was alfo efta- blifhed by Charles V. in the year 153 1. It lapfed into dit- ufe: but it was reconfirmed in the year 1725. The board is formed of a prefident, fix council, three fecretaries, one receiver — all named by the fovereign. The prefident is generally an ecclefiaftic, or an advocate, graduated in law at Louvaine. There have been but few of the nobles in the lift. — The members are appointed by letters patent. Their objects are, the matters of fovereign authority, and of liigh political import ; legitimation ; naturalization j warrants •, pardons ; patents j the donation of each office, civil, military, ecclefiafi:ic, in the prerogative of the prince, in which it is his bufinefs to fign and fpeak. — By a fpecial delegation from the goveraor general, they exercife a jurif- didlion, independent, and paramount. — When in other tri- bunals the judges differ, in the privy council lies a power over appeal. — The applications for new creations of nobility are referved by the prince to be made to him alone. This council has, at the leafl:, the rational pralfe of activity and diligence. They do not deafen the peo- ple who employ them with any fuch infulting nonfenfe as the fatigues of their fitting ; though, with % recefs of a few days only at Chriftmas, they meet throughout the year every morning ( 67 ) morning, from nine o'clock to half paft one. — And in ardu- ous cafes, they convene opinions, and confult. It is the office of the prefident to make a report, daily, to the governor general, of all propolitions held fit to be re- folved fpottry etre refolu par elle ). The communications to the governor general are, pro- perly, in writing. For refponfibility, in every government, cannot be too accurately preferved. The third council (de conceil des finances) has continued from the fame date. — It is formed of a treafurer, feven coun- cil, two greffiers — and it is their practice alfo, as it ought to be the practice of every government, to confult out-of-door opinions j as good or better than their own. There ufed to be fome receivers-general. But here, as elfewhere, they were found good for nothing, but to them- felves. — To cofl much ; and to profit nothing. They were therefore becomingly difraifled. And in 1784, the general audit and receipt were adjufted by two common clerks, called for the purpofe " prepofes principaux." The chief obje6ls of this council are implied in their name. But, befides the taxes and fubfidies, they take care of the royal lands, &c. And as for the prefent council, it is faid that they do not take too much care of themfelves. — A re- putation this, rather rare, any where, in men whofe trade n in the finances of the people ! The laws, fuch as they are, thus conftltuted, are adml- niftered as follows : All proceedings are in writing. — Of this the confequences are good. Though not without evil. — Truth, certainly, is lefs liable to be difguifed and perverted : as the paflions are not urged to adl againft reafon. But there will be lefs hope of thofe glorious, complex, energies, which conftitute elo- quence ! — Which, if always on the right fide, would make the occupation of our great popular advocate as enviable as bis nature. — I cannot help faying that I had named him K 2 in ( 68 ) in the rough draft of this leaf. But my pen, I could not help it, now hurries acrofs his name ! He knows, how unfeignedly, with what zeal, I refpecl him. And I would have others know, how againft inclination or intereft, a writer, fhould refpeft himfelf. On the occurrence of any cafe, for which there may be no provifion, in the prince's edi£l j and no precedent, efta- bllfhed by ufage, it is, then, the pra£lice of the courts in , Brabant, to follow the Roman law. — On queftions of trade, they are directed by the ufage of Oftend, Antwerp, Holland, and France. Their criminal law, is chiefly that, promulgated under the Duke de Alva. The number of law pradlitioners, is, in Brabant, as in fome other places, perhaps, more than their value. In the court of the council of Brabant, the advocates are reck- oned 400 ! The procureurs, are 50. The tranflators, are feven. The tribunals, befides the abovementioned, are as nu- merous, as former governments could delire, or wifh there are. J, A chambre des comptes, where all revenue caufes have their audit.-"-This eftablifhment began at Lifle, in the fourteenth century. In fubfequent periods it was trans- fered to Bruges and Bruxelles — and after a feparation, the jurifdidlion of the two countries was again united in 1735- 2. A high feudal court (la cour fouveraine f?edale) fupreme over fales, alienations, &c. &c. Every fief, not only in Brabant, but in Liege, Juliers, and Cologne. — This is the court, which at the beginning of the prefent century, was the arbiter over the territorial claims difputed by the Em- peror and the King of Pruffia — and, the decifion had at leaft a fhew of vigor ; for it adjudged the town of Turn- hout to the latter. In this, and in other courts, the per- fons who afpire at prefiding, muft make proof of certain fpecific ( ^9 ) fpecific qualifications. So that it cannot be there, that the good biihops apprehenflon is realifed, of the bench be- ing filled with the refufe of the bar ! — The qualifications at firft were, noble birth, and that, legitimate. But as it was foon found, that ignorance and folly could be equally- well born ; breeding alfo, was by degrees demanded — not only in common law reading, which in every country is little more than an affair of eye-fight and memory ; but in other accomplifhments, as moral fcience, and the lan- guages dead and living, Latin, Flemifli, and French. 3. A third tribunal called Thonlieu, prcfides over roads and rivers, foreft lands, and royal demefnes. — In this confti- tution there are three afllftants, who muft have practical knowledge in hydraulics, in mill-work, and other water architecture, engineering, mechanics. This is rationally fatisfadlory to the people — and what muft be equally foothing, to thofe who admire the influence of the court, they have contrived to make, even for this fole eftablifh- ment twelve judges, befides greifiers, advocates, and pro- cur eurs ! 4. A tribunal for the chace, &c. fifheries, &c. — with feven judges, under a grand veneure, &c. &c. &c. 5 A ditto — with cognizance of all cairfes, conne - 17-I ftivers - In winter - - 14 N. B.— A florin is nearly 20 pence Englifh. A fchelling - 7 do. A ftiver - - i do. Travelling poft — 3 fchellings each horfe each poft — the carriage (when fupplied by the innkeeper) pays as one horfe— the driver is the fame amount as another. M 2 Price ( 84 ) Price of provifions: Bread 2 ftivers — the pound — 1 between Liege and Louvaine! This ,was the very ground, chiefly between Neerwinden and Landen, where a century before fjuly 1694), there was another dire confumma:ion of the infpired poet's worft imagined curfe, " the people being fold for nought" — when, the Marechal Luxembourg bought, with fuch pro* digal guilt in blood, the barren honours of the field. We were fhewn the place, by a divine old man, He was; a fubftantial land-holder — venerable in hoary headed flrength ! but more, from the flrong wifdom of age .'—with all his ideas and wifhes julliy bent upon good will an4 peace. ** There," faid he, flill fighing heavily from his inmoft heart, " there is the fatal fpot — there— there — now, near " a hundred years are paft, fince the earth was thus blafted <* by the defpots of that time ! Then, thirteen of my kinr; <* dred, I have been made to know — thirteen were doomed <' in one day to die ! God help their endangered fouls ! « I hope they had no niifdeeds, as to the death of « others!" The excellent old man broke from us in fllence, and in tears ! We found, after enquiry, he had a frefh grief too— but that, why we know not, he was too proud or too fore to, tell. We looked after him as long as we could, with flrong emotion! emotion yet foothing too l for it was fympathy additionally ennobled by every preference, rational and good, by pity and by efteem ! The country in this route, continues productive of every growth, but anecdotes and inflnnTtiou. For almofl every objedl:, artificial or natural, roads, foil, hufbandry, habita- tions, &c. have no fpecific differences, from thofe men- tioned in the preceding chapters. Tirlemont, three leagues from Louvain, is a paved town, which ( 1^9 ) which has been large i but is (hrunk and fhri veiled by age, by fire, and by war. It once was of prime political con- fequence i and had that fburth rank in the aflcmbly of the ftates of Brabant, which is now held by Bois-le-Duc. But now, like !the ebbed finances of one out of place, every thing feems to hang about it lofe and empty. There are nO' longer houfes to fill the walls : nor people enough to fill the houfes. — There is a fpacious open area in the middle of the town, with a good church, and a better inn, — ^Thc church, however, twelye or thirteen perfons, probably, think well enough ; — at leaft, if it be in the power of fo many canonries and a deanery, to make them think well. Thefe are in the patronage of the chapter of Liege. There are, moreover, no lefs than fix convents for men ! ^nd feven for women! — But no other trade or fa^lory was ftirring when we faw the town — except that dubious craft of turning human creatures into hulans ! At the inn, we had a gay table d'hote ; with feme foreign officers, and an Englilh gentleman, of vivacity and of tafte. — He faid, " he had been told, by people probably ** difaffedled to England, malicioufly and eager to defame *< it, that the new levies were for us." " They are, faid a Hanoverian leader, ** they are in the « fervice of Great Britain !" ** In our pay, rather than our fervice. Colonel !" — was the dexterous replication of our companion. " They are called the legion of Y— k"-~continued a Walloon. <* For they are manf — faid our whimfical conntrj'man.— Our lively friend, we found, had been no flight traveller. And was then on route, as v/e underftood, to mix in the hunting parties of the Englifh Vifcount B , in the eleftorate of Cologne and Weftphalia. He had been alfo at the Due d'Arembero's eftablifhment for the chace, in the neighbourhood of Louvain. This, he defcribed ( iio ) <3efcrlbed as being very ample ftill — loo dogs— 200 horfes —with keepers, riders, &c. &c. in proportion. — Stags and foxes were the ufual hunt. But now and then, more ambi»- tious, a wolf and a boar. The chief misfortune in Due d'Aremberg's life, the lofs of fight, is well known.— It was thus in a (hooting party, that the fad accident befel him. The party with him, were, his father, and our former engaging ambaffador at Bruxelles, Sir William G . The ground they that day meant to go over, they divided, as ufual abroad, into equal parts, each perfon going on in an appointed dre£lion, and knocking down all before him. Sir William and the father advanced through the Avoods with more fpeed than "was expe£led. The fon advanced with lefs fpeed. He was by fome accident delayed. Embaraffed and deviating from his dir.eiSt line. As he was thus pufliing on, as well as he could, through a very clofe and dark thicket, the ruftling, moft unfortunately, came to the old duke's ears as the ap- proach of fome grofs gib'ier^ as it is called, fome piece of large game. And with the fudden heat of a keen fportf- man, he urged Sir William, who was next the place, to fire. — Sir William, alas ! did fo. And the loading, luckily not a bullet, lodged in the young duke's eyes ! A difafler, like this, happening to a fon, on the importunity of the father, and by the hand of a friend, made up an enormous mafs of hideous woe, at firfl hardly to be borne ! And fuch are mere corporeal ills, and fpecifically fo light, when com- pared with ills upon the mind, that the lofs of eyes, though fo grievous in the extreme, feemed the leafl fore predica- ment of the three ! literally, lefs dire than the agonizing thoughts of thofe who had, though unintendingly, inflicted agony upon another. — Time too, the chief afluager of all harms, feemed likely to be more adlive for the former than for the latter. Be it as it may, the Duke, then young, bore his calamity like a man j who, in the perfe^ion of moral thought ( 'II ) thought and action, derives his principles from the befl ap- pointed fource. Indeed, privation of this fenfe, feems, with much lefs effort of moral energy, fupportable more readily than in another. For focial comforts, the ftrongeft Hay of man, come, through hearing more potently, than through fight. And even for mere fclf-prefervation in the abllradt, con- verfation, preferably to all that books can do, offers aid much more conftant and complete. — It is eafier alfo to find fub- flitutes for vilion. Memory, and the other powers, all pro- portionably more alive and active, are found to join their forces, and among them to do what is wanted, aftonifli- ingly welL And above all, the blind, free from dejection, the fymptomatic torture of the deaf, the blind generally have gay fpirits, which never fail. All this has been, very cheeringly, {ccn in recent well-known inftances. In a late prime minifter's undiminiflied flow of talk — in Mr. Stanley the mufician : who with memory admirably apt, even be- yond his art, ufed to play well at whift, and carry his vifit- ors about to the prettieft points of fcenery, near his villa on Epping Foreft — and again, in Due d'Aremberg, who, like our young Lord D. flill has got on horfeback, and with a long leading-rein, has even followed the chace. As to the chace, thus incidently mentioned, it Is but fair to fay, that it does not here, as in fome other parts of Europe, offer the fame violence to juft and civilifed feel- ings. — The chace is open. Each owner or tenant may do what he will wuth game, as with any other vermin, or good produce upon the land ! — Nonfenfical violence there is none, iike droits de chajfe^ thwarting nature, and perverting juftice —with refentments beyond all poffible provocation, ftrain- ing right into wrong, and to objects fo infignificant as a hare and patridge, facrificing that moft folemn truft, the life and liberty of man! Abominations^ ( 112 j Abominations, fuch as thefe, ended through France, with £he Revolution ! — Italy alio, through decency, or through prudence, has already vouchfafed to amend in this point of duty, lelToned by the near amendment of their neighbours. The farmer may be at length allowed to reap freely where he may have fowed — and if invaded by the boars and foxes, he iiow tnay rid himfelf of his invaders — " To give the devil his due," faid one of the moft enlightened noblemen in Italy — « To «f give the devil his due, we do owe this change to the " great changes in France — ! Till then, there was lefs ** danger of human punifhment in Italy from a farmer <* murdering a man, then if he armed his hands to get rid « of a wild boar!!!" Such mifdeeds, enormous tranfgreffions of what is hu- man and divine, were perpetrated formerly in France by every puny monfter with a lordfhip or a manor ! But the tyranny was perhaps no where fo outrageous, as in the fyftematic wrongs of the H of Conde. The game eflablifhment at Chantilli, has at different times, condemned, terrible to tell, near a thoufand men to the gallies I Many hundred peafants, it is now well known, fell murdered by their keepers I Literally hunted down and Ihot 1 And the bodies of the dead were thrown into the next ditch, or hid under a little mould, grubbed up in the park! — Such were the abufes, when each power and privilege of man, were fuperfeded and overborn by the beafts of the field, the birds of the air, and by— vermin the moft vile — as thofe who could execute the extremity of tyrannical abufes for a trifle, fo inflgnificant as a chace I abufes which now, thank God, are no more — but which only a fliort interval paft, really raged, with no hope hut in the Kielancholy virtues, to yield any thing like refuge or mitigation^ Avrov; ^6 EAw^ia T£'j%5, Kvvia-(7it Apart ( tl5 ) Apart from this, which properly moving to indignation every jufh and virtuous man, lliould have had a chapter in Beccaria, the recoUcdion of Chantilli may not be inaccept-k able. — For Chantilli was the mofl extraordinary eftublilh- ment of the kind in Europe ! The following long lijls were copied from the houfehold regiflers there ! — And, what feems unaccountable, they never were printed before — not even in France! The copy was taken in the year 1788, and the gentleman who kindly affifted me in tranfcribing it, is of all cotemporary Men but Doctor D ■ mod fit to perpetuate by an ode, the viciffitudes fo extraordinary in the place. This ftatement, as an obje£l, in natural hiftory, is no fmall curiollty ! And as fuch, it is philofophically interefting ! — But it interefts much more and edifies, when referred to a political con- fideration. The neceffity which urged for French reform in that department of life ; and the rational approbation wherever reform can be wholefomely effetSted, THE FIRST LIST States the total grofs numbers of game killed at Chantilli, year by year, through a feries of 3 2 years — beginning with the year 1748 — ending with the year 1779. FIRST OF THE GAME. 54878 33055 26371 37160 50812 19774 S37I2 40234 19932 39892 26267 27164 32470 25953 30429 39893 37209 30859 32470 42902 25813 16186 31620 ^0666 24029 25994 13304 27013 18479 17566 26405 18550 BIRDS { SI4 ) BIRDS AND BEASTS. Their bill of mortality- — The numbers in detail of eachy fpecific defcription, thus regiftered, to have been killed at Chantilli, in the above-mentioned feries of years — Hares Rabbets Partridges Red, ditto Pheafants Quails Ralles (the male quail) Woodcocks Snipes Ducks - Wood pigeons Lapwings Becfique (fmall bird like our Wheatear) Curlews Oycs d'Egypte Oyes Sauvage 77750 587470 I17574 12426 86193 19696 449 2164 2856 1353 317 720 Buftards Larks Tudelles Fox Craoeaux X Thruflies Guynard Stags Hinds Fawns Does Young Does Roe Bucks 67 Young ditto 32 Wild Boars 2 106 3 I 8 1313 4 1712 1682 519 1921 135 4669 810 1942 3 14 By GAME KILLED Pieces of Game. M. deCayla - .4.60 M. de Canillac 953 Comte d'Artois 553 Due de Bourbon 403 Due d'Enghien 9 Prince d'Henin 170 Due de Polignac 330 M. de Roucherolles 93 M. de Choifeul . 195 M. deTremouelle 86 Marcaffins (young Boars) 818 IN ONE YEAR. By Pieces of Game. M. Vaupaliere - 75 M. Loftanges 247 M. de St. Hermine 29- M. Belinage (three of the fame name) M. Damezega M. St. Cloud M. Boazola M. Goulet M. Brieux 10B68 522 29 471 lo- 62 M. de ( "5 ) By Pieces of Game. M. Sarobert - 78 M. Bateroy *. 6 Mr. Franklin 119 Mr. Franklin (his fon) 198 *^* No other Englifli gen- tlemen are in the lift. Stag hunts - po Eoar hunts » 207 The prince's name does not appear in the lifts 1779 — That year the prince did not {hoot. —But from the years 1748 to 1778, the archives of Chantilli, with all due dig- nity rehearfe — That, the pieces of game, killed by S. A. R. Monfeig- neur le Prince de Conde, were in number 65-524. That the nine pieces killed by the late prince's grandfon, ihe Due d'Enghien, were all rabbets. That the pieces killed by the Due de Bourbon were thefej By Pieces of Game. M. Balli de Crufol 196 Abbe Baliviere 54 Baron de Chatelie 26 M. de Valou 8 M. Nedouchcl - 16 M. Mintier 770 M.P. deTallcmont 17 Conte d'Autheuil 403 M. d'Autheuil 822 1254 J43 1 1 09 115 Pheafants 1451 Partridges Hares 1207 Red ditto And by C. d'Artois, thefe Pheafants 978 Partridges Hares 870 Red ditto The eftablifliment was alfo thus extraordinary through- out ! viz. 2 1 Miles of Park ! 48 Miles of Foreft ! The Horfes, when the family were fit the place^ were jibove 500 ! The Dogs, 60 to 80 couple. The Servants, above 500 ! The Stables, are well known to be called the fineft and beft in Europe. — They are called fo by thofe who know not what is good. As a building, it is, in the French ftyle, fuperb — As a Qj5. ■ ftable. ( n6 ) ftable, It fails in the firft requifite, fitnefs and accommoda-a tion ! — What does it iignify, that there may be 136 places for horfes to put their heads in, if thofe places are fcarcely five feet wide, and fubdivided only by fwing bars ? Stalls, enclofed on each fide, there are but 40 — and they are fcarcely fix feet wide in the clear. The heigth and width above 50 feet each, and the fpace in the centre, are the excellent parts of the building. This central fpace, an p6tagon of 80 feet diameter, and aimoft as high, is the place •where the king and queen fupped with mufic in the gallery, and jets d'eaux, about the ftatuary of the horfes. — Some of that ftatuary is not bad. In this part of architecture, as in every other, as indeed in all the arts and anions of men, the pretenfion to pofitive good, muft in fome fort, be adjudged by each comparative approach to it.- -It is not how much, but how well. Thus analyfed. What is this boafted building of Chan- tilly ? — With all that lavifh wafte and ornament, baflb-r relievo and ftatues can do for it (and the very fanes are horfes heads)-- Yet v^hat is there fo pretty and complete as the fmall ftabling at the Duke of Queenfbury's, at the Meufe, or Lord Milton's?— In flcilful contrivances for ufe and comfort. Lord Fitzwillam, Lord Egrgmont, the Duke of Bedford, with their loofe rooms, all exceed Chantilli ! It ftill remains to fay- -that the Duke of Devonflaire's ftables at Buxton, are the beft in Europe-- the beft in plan and execution for accommodation and effect. The Duke of Orleans has the only buil4ing> of the kind, an Englilhman could think complete in France.— It was at Paris, oppofite the Palace Royal. The Dog houfes at Chantilli, are alfo far inferior to ^hat ^ve have in England — particularly at the Duke of P.ichmond's in the park at Goodwood, where there is a good characleriftic facade, from a grey, grim ftone-work, in Doric, making an obje^Sl to the houfe and grounds— While withiui. ( 117 ) ■rkhin, the arrangements of diftributing the dogs, theii? rooms for eating, lleeping, airing, &c. when Tick nnd well, with running water and underground drains, — the whole fliewinp as far as can be fliewn on fuch a work, both hu- O manity and fkill.- And there is pecuniary magnificence too--For it is faid to have cofl: five or fix thoufand pounds, Dante in the Inferno, ufefully figures the lower limb of one man, efcaping uncondemned ; faved by one a6t of cafiial bounty, having once kicked a ftray bone into the reach of a poor chained up dog I- -After this we hope to hear no more of the SufiTex Squire's flouting at this atchievement, as inexcufeably flung to the dogs. After this, without fome little diftance and bar of repa- ration, like the fpace above, it feems not eafily poflible to fay much of St. Trond, which can fay fo little for itfelf-- which is a little dirty town, with a dirty inn — one parifh, with a dozen prebends, and a deanery ! The magiftracy, made up of two bourg-mafters and Ccven echevins, are named, half by the Prince of Liege, the other half by the Abbaye of St. Nond. — To fhew that the magi- ftracy, have not always been what they ought to be, there are half a dozen convents in the town^ humble and fcanty as it is. In the ten leagues fromTirlemont to Liege, the three large, rounded, grafly mounts near Tirlemont, are the only notice- able appearances in the way. They are evidently artificial, and lefs likely to have been a funeral folly of any Roman, than a device to commemorate a triumph of fome Goth. — But if the reader has a mind to make a quefl:ion of this, it will not be debated — he may have it which way he will, Aperere procul montes, ac voluere fumum. We mud hafl:e away to the hilly fcenery, with the mines and manufactures of Liege ! For popular politics, as well as pit-coal fires, a rival to Birmingham itfelf ! LIEGE. C ns ) LIEGE, BRACTON, the Judge of Harry III. in his workDe Con^ fuctudinibus, lays down the law upon ftray fturgeon, that the king may claim it all. But touching a whale, he opines, and moft people muft wi£h the fame, that the king may have a head, and that the queen may be well pleafed to take vp with the tail. De fturgione obferv-etur quod rex ilium habebit inte- grum — de balena astern fufficet, li rex habeat caput; et jregina caudam. Thefe are his words — and the reafon is, from due regard to the wardrobe of the queen, that her augu ft and facred perfon may never want whalebone. Which, by the bye, proves the ugly ufe of hoops and fcays to have prevailed ^mong the deformities of the 13th century. Now the city and country of Liege is like the fturgeon laid down by Bradlon. The prince would have it all — head and tail, iniide and out, body and foul— civil and ecclefi- ^ftical — temporal and ftill when time fhall be no more. The people, however, happen not to be altogether of the fame convenient way of thinking. They have got up a rude notion, that all can look after one another, and that each may take care of hinifelf. And in the mere fpirit of trade, they fee;Ti loth to pay others for what they vainly fancy all men able to do for themfelyes. Hence they have been at different times, of late, rather refractory and rude. They grumbled, fprfooth, at fuch trifles as the taxes ! And when the prince only wanted to bring in a fucceflbr, in the fhape and title of a coadjutor, Uiey, fhocking to tell, put them.felves on the defcnfive, and relifted ! C "9 ) tefifted ! As much as protefting in downright political blafphemy, they would not perpetuate the breed. No, they could not be prevailed upon ! Not even when the Pruffian army, with their ufual beneficence, marched into the town. Not even when they were offered the nephew of the late Emperor. Nay, not even when his late Serene Highnefs, Monfeigneur Le Due d'Orleans, equally ambitious of doing good, had gracioufly condefcended to prevail upon his half brother, Abbe St. Farre, to have fub- mitted to the toils of the high oface. Still amidft all thefe offered bleffmgs the people, fye on them, feemed infenfible — they and their town magiftrates, Cheftret, Fabi-is, &c. perfifting to fay, nay! — For the language of this part of Europe is, according to Steevinus, beyond all others fruitful in monofyllables. Such was the very uncouth ftate of things, when they confpired with the French. And parting with their prince, would fain have formed a government upon the plan of, if not in union with, the French Republic. And when the confequences of a republic v/ere urged^ — and their dangers to liberty and property, the hardy Liegeois difdained to anfwer at large, but called upon their fellows to look at Genoa and Geneva, at the Swifs, the Americans, and the Dutch ! It was mariifeft there was no talking- with people fuch as thefe. So the allies, as they are called, with logic of a :T:ronger •fort, made the people know what they thought fliould be done ! Dumourier infenfibly let fall the wreathe, which amidft theatric captivations, wit and beauty had placed upon his brow ! The French, however favoured, were forced to fly. And all the bleflings were reftored, of a Prince-Bifhop and Chapter, Canons, Convents, Maffes, Indulgencies, and Proceflions ! And finally, that the towns-people might know when they were well, and to make them remember it, the Prince- of ( i26 ) of Cobourg made a levy upon the town.'— The amount of the impofition was half a million ! How the French loft Liege, or as they there were too apt to fay, how Liege loft the Frenth, is a fadl that will make no great figure in hiftory. For it was by a device ast far afunder from fkill and prowefs, as a mere bargain and f ale ! Hence the whole economy of the campaign ! Hence Du- mourier, quite unprepared for what he pretended, without an army at all adequate, without even the charts and plans for the route, M. Dumourier wafting time and ftrength at Williamftadt, at the Moerdyck, and at Dort. Hence the refu- fal of reinforcements, (lo or 15,000 men) urged by Miranda and by Bournonville. Hence the iiege of Maeftritcht un- fupported and abandoned. Hence Lamorliere and Champ- morin were left with force ill matched to their work — to keep the Pruffians in check, and to cover the left fide of the Meufe. Hence Valence, when he ought to have been aiding the army of obfervation on the eaft, was fuffered to' lofe himfelf fo long at Liege. Hence Lanoue, not able to difpute the pafl^age of the Roer — was attacked on the right and left, driven from his cantonments, and his pofition after it, evacuating Aix-la-Chapelle, and retreating to Herve. And hence the 35,000 men who were thus let pafs at Wyck, had all their fubfequent fucccfl^es, in the attack upon the ifetreat, ere the jundlion with Leveneur — in the attack at Tongres — in the enforced retreat to St. Tron — and fo on, at Neirwinden, La Montague De Fere, &c. to the flight through Bruxelles, and the final evacuation of Flanders and Brabant f Yet the French Republicans, retreated and retreating, continued formidable all the while. And in the laft great action near Louvaine, they would have finally defeated the' Germans, but for a corps of Emigrants, who had fallied out of Maeftricht. The Emigrant regiments of Saxe, of Bir- cigni. ( 1" ) ralghn, of the French royal allemagne, were the men whofc prowefs turned the fate of the day. Among the many wonders of this extraordinary retreat, the conduft of M. Yhler, a French general, in faving the laft detachment of ten thoufand men, was the moft rational and the beft. In value as well as number, it was a counter- part to Xenophon's ten thoufand. M. Yhler had to col- ]eOi his men from all the out-pofts, piquets, and advanced guards, pofts of obfervation, foraging, recruiting — and fuch was his fpeed, his flcill, and his fuccefs, that he collected them all, and conduced them, without lofs, to the main body of the army at St. Tron. — Though the laft fix bat- talions had to repulfe and route a corps of cavalry, that pur- fued and harraffed their rear ! — and though they had to make their way through Liege, the head quarters of the enemy! — the French, led by M. Yhler, marched through Liege in the night ! And the army of the enemy, either were not aware of it, or dared not to difpute the paflage if they were ! The confequences of this to Liege, muft appear and be felt heavy by all!— for, added to the caufe of reform, thus obvioufly, to unknown time, deferred — there have arifen interruptions to free intercourfe and fecurity. — To pay the German impoiltion, there is a houfe-tax, now colledling, from door to door !— While, what is worfe than all, there is a large diminution of the people to pay it ! — For, no lefs than 1 8,000 inhabitants of Liege departed with the French, in their retreat ! — And all thofe people, loft to their native fettlement, continue adding to the population and to the welfare of France. Some, indeed, in the army ; but the greater part in the mine works, in the founderies, and in the factories of fire-arms, fo rapidly augmenting by the French ! For at St. Etienne, near Autun, on the weft between Macon and Lyons, a prime eftabhfhment for fuch work ; it R has ( 122 ) has been much extended and Improved fince the revolution^ When the work began, it was neceiTary to have aid froni England : our firft mechanical genius, Mr. Watt, of Bir- mingham, had been confulted before — but on this occafion, being otherwife occupied, the French applied to another chief artificer of our's, Mr. John Wilkinfon, whofe flcill has made the names of his furnaces, Burfham and Brofeley, every where known and refpecled There he made the firft cylinders for that of St. Etienne, for Paris, &c. — but at pre- fent, fuch is the fure creative power of neceffity, the French truft no aid is wanting but their own. A young man of Lyons is the chief engineer nowj and has already difplayed a genius able to advance his very ufeful art ; and accords ingly, the works are fpreading in all directions, — in the mine and fmelting furnaces j but mofl in the founderies for cannon. In fuch a number as 1 8,000 perfons thus leaving Liege, there muft have been many viciflitudes, very violent ! many a fortune, by the flaock of accident, thus going to the bottom ! — Poor Fabris, was among the moft remarkable of thefe. When I faw him firft at Liege-r-he was in the fulU nefs of municipal power. The bourgmafter there. He had mixed in politics with the Pruflian adminiftration : and, indeed, had been received at Potfdam with little lefs than the vain pride of embafladorial (liow. — He is now, I hear, keeping a ginguette (a fort of fuburb hop and cake- houfe) in one of the Fauxbourg's at Paris ! Yet, notwithflanding all this change, by accident and human violence, and in fpite of all this lofs in the popula- tion of Liege, the politics of the place remain unaltered ! They are highly popular, and feem to wait only for a con- venient feafon to give their government a radical reform ! For the people of Liege would be independent in the extreme. They affect to be too plain, they pretend, in- deed, to be too poor, to bear the taking indulgencies, the winning ( '23 ) %vinriing fplcndori of a court. — Tliey objc^l alfo to thrt mixed conflitution of the perfon they employ for their chief magiftrate; and aflert, that the ecclefiaftical part of the chara(Ster feems hurt by it. This objeif^ion we repelled, as might be expecled from Engliflimen, in clue allegiance to truth. But in vain ! — for we were aflced imjiiediately, where is there fuch another family? All of fuch equal confideration— each as virtuous as wife ! — Reference was then made to the very authentic annals of Liege; and they were ftained, undeniably, with infamy, not feen in any other lift of biQiops, that we could recolledl. So long ago as ths tenth century, Huduiri, afterwards archbilhop of Milan, came with money in his hand, as avowedly to corrupt the elciftion, as a perjured candidate would he in a rotten borough — if there could be fuch a candidate, or any borough ever rotten. In the eleventh, Reginard got into the place, by money, to Conrad the Em- peror ! Some little time after, another prince-bifhop wa5 a convict, on the complicated guilt of felling canonries in the church ! He was tried, caft, and condemned ! The man's name was Alexander: the date of his reign 1130.— In the fame century, two of them were cited to Rome, on a charge, little lefs than of privately ftealing ! — viz, having made away with, to the count of Flanders, feme lands about Malines, belonging to the church of Liege ! Another abufe, enormoufly oppfeffive, and from which it is impoiTible to feparate, juftly, clamour and refiftance, is the monjirous number of ecclefiafiics ! — draining the country < into the verleft inanition of poverty ; and yet more, if pof^ lible, fpoiling fociety, by the bad example of plunder, wafted often by ignorance, always by floth ! &c. &c. &c. The number of churchmen, like the number of any other men, applying to collective life, muft be an affair of relative expedience j afcertained by rules derived from the R 3 propofitions ( 124 ) propolitions of each community to which they apply.—-' Though a great political queftion, it is at once made very tradable, by arithmetic and analogy. The population of Liege has been much over-rated, when called 100,000. — Before the late diminution, 80,000 might be the h£t. Yet the ecclellaftical eftablifhments are as follow : A bifhop. He is a fufFragan of Cologne — and alternately with Munfter in the imperial college of princes. ' A fufFragan biflaop ! The firft fufFragan was in the I3tli century. Eight grand de^ns ! Twenty-feven rural ditto ! Two hundred and one prebendaries ! Thirty-two parillies ! Seventeen monafteries ! Eleven convents for women ! Twenty-four fee. abbayes ! With provofts, treafurers, chancellors, officials, chaunters,, &c. &c. out of all number. — The archdeacons are feven. All this in the town, merely ! — And, tantum fuadere malorum, making the ecclefiaftics to amount altogether to 8000 ! That is, within a ninth or tenth part of all the clergymen in England ! For in the territory of Liege, little as it Is, no more than 105 fquare miles, three are 1500 parifhes ! — ^With two or three priefts to each parifli — and to every chapel and con- vent, almoft as many more — the canons, alfo, are above 800 — ^the nominal population of the territory, never more than 200,000' — and now, probably, may be lefs. In Weftminfter, fo far exceeding the population of Liege,. the pariflies are but eight — the prebendaries, happily, no more than twelve. The bifhop, eledled by the chapter, is confirmed by the- Pope, and had inveftiture from the emperor. — But that is- no vr ( '25 ) now difpenfed with — and the bifhop only docs homage for his fiefs. He has the prime authority — he can ilTue edi£ls and ordinances, for ordinary regulation and police — he convenes the ftates — their refolutions are prefented to him— and when revifed by the privy council, are fandlioned by him — in his name they are promulgated, and afTume the com* manding chara6ler of laws ; to which, in his name, obedi- ence is enforced. He names military and ftate oflicersj who take an oath to him and the ftate. He can coin ; but the new money muft be according to the fixed denomination and ftandard. He is, moft wifely and ufefully, refi:raincd from levying any new tax, from making war, or even any alliance, without the confent of the people, teftified by the ftates. Three-fourths of the land and houfes, through the whole diftri^ of Liege, are the property of the church. And tythes are exacted with a rigor and minutenefs, which Englifli clergymen, in general above fuch enormous mean- nefs, do not know ; and would difdain to pra(Stice, if they d?J. There are many hops about Liege, and the harpies abovementioned, however inconceivable, decimate the poles! Ihere are fome vineyards too ; and though hardly worth a word, there alfo the fame nimble exadtion is at hand, and tythe is taken, fometimes of the grapes, and fometimes of the wine. Of trembling contributions, the prince bifhop has one from a fmall chapelry ! It annually pays him, why, we know not, 80,000 meafures of wheat ! The revenue of Liege, about i,2O0;0O0 florins, refults from a 60th levied on all merchandize paffing the Pays dc Liege, by land or by water, a light duty on wine, and a petty impofition on land. Of this i,2CO,ooo, the bifhop modeftly fwallows, for his fhare, 800,000! Each canoa has about 200I. fleriing per annum. A deanry cofls the people about a double canonry. The parochial clergy arc paid ( 12^ ) paid not with the fame difproportion as in England, and iif France before the Revolution — we heard no inftances of in-- fufficient income, as in our eftabliflriments, mocked as it were by cruel mercy, in the tardy augmentation of Queen Anne. Their provifion, in general, is from 6o or 70 pounds fterling to 120 or 130. — ^There are fome churches which produce more : but very few indeed, if any, above 300 or 350I. fterling a year. And this is ample for celi- bacy ; and in a country where life is accommodated for half what it cofts in England ! — No man holds two liv- ings. The appointment of the prince bifhops, in diflant periods, occafionally ufurped by the emperor and the pope, is now veiled in the chapter — they name the coadjutor too, who fucceeds, of courfe, on the bifhop's departure. — The pre* fent fuffragan, after all the compoiitions abovementioned, is M. Stockhem, a fon of the baron, whofe anceftors have 'been fo often archdeacons of Brabant, &c. and who have been honoured with fubfcription monuments by the chap- ter, even at Calais and Bologne. For a canonry in Liege, proofs of nobility are generally demanded. — Though in fome inftances the cuftom is not enforced, as particularly in the admiffion of Granville (after- wards archbifliop of Malines, cardinal and prime miniller of Charles V.) He was, un homme nouveau, without any hereditary diftin<5lion whatever ! — And again, in the cafe of Wazon, in the eleventh century, who was not only a canon, but the prince bifliop, eledled unanimoully by the whole chapter.— And he had been a finging boy in the choir ! Where the pedigree may be imperfect, they prop it (like a crazy joint-ftool with a bit of wood under it) with- a certificate of college refidence — five years in the law- line are fuppofed to do -, and in divinity feven ! The patronage of church livings, chiefly with the bifliop and the collegiate churches and abbayes, is not, we were told. ( 127 ) told, fo well adminiftered as by the concurfusy or eleflion, properly eftablifhed by Jofeph II. in the Netherlands. — By the privelegium trailus, the univerfity of Louvain pre- fents to livings lapfing in the month of November every year, and alternate year in January — the emperor and the king of Pruflia, and a few other pofTelTors of manorial rights, claim, here and there, fome patronage — alfo pur- chafed. Another virtuous regulation of Jofeph 11. the aboHtion of dotesy or receptions into convents, is, we have reafon to fear, eluded ! The emperor prohibited the abufe : but wd heard of its being done fecretly. — And we could not but feel the more regret, as fuch a perverfe payment had been made for the facrifice of a fine young woman from Eng- land — Mifs , the niece of Lady C ! 12,000 livres was the money paid for her ! The fhort ftory of Mifs was interefting. She was beautiful, highly accompliihed, and very good.-— Among other admirers, whom (lie could not help, was M. le ci-devant Due de M . His duchefs was only at Maeftricht j but, as the devil would have it, flie was fliut up with the fiege. The duke was no difgrace to the late French court — or to his plan of a(5lion, which was furprife !— fo there were none of the impediment a virtutis ; no time loft in refledlion, no morbid fenfibility, no falfe fhame ! The lady, however, received him as infignificance and guilt ought to be received. — She brulhed him off dire(fl;ly — and left him ridiculed and failing — " Flagitious, and not great." Her affections, manifeftly worth winning, were then fairly ventured for, and won by a young man — not only of her own country, but who had merit alfo like her own But foon after that, they were fbparated. — He had left her for a journey of a few days — but, alas! they never met more ( 128 ) more. He was doomed to go, where no traveller returns, jHe died fuddenly ! Thus the poor girl was given over to grief ! — Aftonifhed with the ftroke, fhe had no ftrength to rally ! — and they who ihould have rallied for her, feemed alfo ftruck ftupid In their turn. In the thick darknefs of a bad perfuafion, they carried her to a cloifter, and laid her in a cell ! Not four months after, error was glutted with another Ti<^iiii I From the fame family, another victim to the veil ! Such are the feducllons of romance, however dull and monftrous. — Such the poffible triumphs of nonfenfe and barbarity, overbearing humanity and truth. The details of the pious fraud, it was not poffible to hear without aftonilhment and difguft — yet an eccelefiaftic that we met, praifed them all — and complimented his order on the activity of their zeal ! — " Comme elles etoient eveilu « lees ! Bien ! divinement bien !" — were among th'e leaft extravagant of his words. Shakefpear's " Divinity of Heir~may be among thq ^ords of the reader. LIEGE. ( 129 ) LIEGE. *rHE government of Liege is placed in the States, viz. 1. The Chapter. 2. The Nobles. 3. The Tiers Etat of Liege, and from the other towns in the Principality. They meet apart, or altogether by a delegation from each of the three conflituent corps, viz, 4. Canons. 4. Noble Gentlemen. 4. Private Laymen, for the Tiers Etat.— Half of thefc arc chofen by the Walloon towns, half by Flanders ; with two Bourg-mafters, and two Subftitutes, who in the abfence of the Bourg-mafters niay vote. The Prince alfo has a power of fending three or four Deputies, but they have no power to vote — with a Greffier for each Etat, and two Receivers, On each occurrence exceeding the power of the Delegates, then there are the general meetings of the States *. — They met for inftance, at the end of 1 793, to authorife an impo- iltion on each houfe to repay the money feized by the Auftrians. They are convoked by the Prince. The two Bourg-mafters and Twenty Council who form the town magiftracy, have been, fince the year 1648, no- minated every year, half by the town and half by the Prince. The town here, like the definition of the world by forae clever writer, is a fmaller circle within the greater. The town, here, means no more than that part of it which have the ele£^ive franchife, viz. The City Chambers and • From Liege, as frQjn the reft of Germany, the final appeal is to the Court 3 Corporat« ( 130 ) Corporate Companies, each of which confift of thirty-fix—- and who draw lots, divide and fubdivide, as they do at Venice, and with the fame effedl j to thwart, intrigue, and to make corruption yield to theto the lefs odious dominion of chance. "What armed force is in Liege is paid by the States, and therefore moft properly appointed and officered by them. They were but five or fix hundred men, at 5 fols a day, (4jd. Englifh) and were no more ofFenfive than fo many conftables in red. Their annals have not to blufli at any barbarous treaty for troops. Though a town perfc£lly mer- cantile, they have no fuch trade as dabbling in humaa blood! The Councils and Tribunals are not, as they might bet- ter be, ele£live, but are named by the Prince, viz. 1 . A Privy Council, generally, but not neceflary, of Canons and Noblefie, from each balllage. Other perfons may be appointed. The number is ten. The Chancellor pre^ lides. This court has an appellant power— it revifes pro- pofed laws, and propofes them upon criminal punifh- ments and taxes. 2. Chambre des Comptes — the number indefinite. 3. The Tribunals, Civil and Criminal, viz. 14 Judges, pro- perly named, not by the Prince, but by the States— ani to them 4. Appellant Jurifdi£tion — a council of hine~-fele(5ted as they fhould be, from each order. 5. A Feudal Court — fifteen members. 6. Allodial Court— thirteen members. 7. Tribunal de Vinty Deux — has an inqulfitorlal pow^r over every court and office — fometimes it forms a court of police, and fometimes occupied in external negociatioh fc—as with Louvaine, they formed the privileges cum traclus mentioned before. Very properly they are renewed every year. Of thefe 22, eagh order fupplies fgur judges, and eack ( 131 ) «icli of the outlying towns, as Dinant, Tongres, St, Tron,* Thuin, S torn-fields, hops, manufaftures, roads, villages, churches, thickets, groves, woods, and fcattered trees, all are in great abundance. About Spa, like the Derbyfhire Matlock, the chara^er of the country has more captivations, from wildnefs and irre- gularities — the idea of grandeur there may be, prevails from what is rough and mifhapen, from fharper edges and ftronger lines — from furfaces more broken, falls more pre- cipitate, wooded rocks, romantic water, deeper hollows, higher hills ! Indulging a little leifure in one of the moil enchanting fcenes about Chanfontaine, fome fcattered trees, which al- ways fhew to more efFedt from the top of a hill than the bottom, difcovered, with uncommon minutenefs, each An- gularity in each j of age, of colour, and of growth. The analyfis was made at once — how much the vigor and beauty of a woody fcene may be aided here and there by deformity and decay. A Swifs gentleman who was there, recolle£ted well the good-fenfe of the Pope, on the power of contraft and the doctrine of final caufes j but the eloquence of Pope was unknown to him — for he quoted not the fine verfes themfclves, but the tranflation of De Cronfaz, in flat, cold, profe. At the bottom of the plantation, were a few young thriving oaks — clinging together, and precaiioufly holding up a crumbling foil. The impreffion was very delicate. For it afTociated with the idea of a riling family, that could iuflain their falling flock— the ground, from which thej^ grew! Aix la Chapelle may now be entered without any necef- fity of leaving your chaife; or, probability, ©f its being broke to pieces, and lb leaving you. Formerly, indeed till lalt year, the road, for ever dirty, crept in si bottom between two ( M9 ) tvra high perpendicular banks — and it was fo narrmv (net feven feet wide) that carri:>ges could neither turn nor pafs. The horn, therefore, (necelTary alfp on other roads of Ger- many) was kept conftantly at work by one poftillion, to pre- vent meeting with another ! Now, parallel to that road, but on the high ground above it, another road is made — as wide as Kuightfbridge at Hydepark-corner — ^and dry throughout as any road may be that has convexity and air. Different princes have been talking of this almoft from the time of Charlemagne. The army of the French Republic did it ! on their march ! in a couple of days, though dark and fhort as in December I and though the work was a league long — though the road ftuff was to be fetched from fome diftance — though they had a wood to clear — to level holkivs — to fill them up with facines \ A clever partizan of the popular politics, giving this a dexterous turn vv^ith a ftrong hand, made us the more ob- ferve this—" they filed f he hlloivsy' faid he, « but the liill, ** as here, wherever fightly and wholefome, was not lower- " ed an inch ! — As the late Due de Penthievre, &c. &c. ** each honeft harmlefs man, never loll a (hilling of his ** eftate j but only the weeds and vermin on it — (he meant «< the game) feudal ufurpations, the tyrannical impofitions \ " — the tenants were his j but they cealed to be his flaves • " — They had their rents to pay, as before— but no more <* corvees, lots-et-ventes, droits de chaffe, droits de change, « tous les droits de diable !" The French certainly did this good work. And good works, whatever they may be, are, as certainly, leldom to be done in vain. For, if their new road was a point to them in their rafh advance to the Roer — it was of ten time* the value, when they were forced to retreat ! God forbid that any man fhould be fufpefted of exulting Jn the fuccefles of defpotifm. Trafh and iniquity, like that, muft ( 15® ) mufl: be openly foon, as it is tacitly now, in juft abliorfeilcc and difdain, wherever men are men, with hearts in their bofom, and an atom of any thing like wit and judgement in their head. And God forbid, too, that, at excefles from the oppofitc fource, the averfion fhould not be equal! — Nulio difcri- mine. No matter from whence it comes, Rapine and ravage fhould be refifted by all. The French had no authority, from rectitude, to inveft Aix — becaufe, unHkc Piedmont, Flanders, and Liege — at Aix the people did nbt ■vvifli it. — And becaufe that wifli not exprelTed, as through fome other countries undeniably it had been exprelTed, the French attempt funk into the deep enormity of an in-- vafion ! and therefore, unequivocally, it was abominable j upon every principle of refponfibility to God and to man ! Accordingly, when the people at Aix relieved their town, I felt, as every independent mind fhould feel when in joy, at hearing that there is relief from the oppreflbr. And the people there,' as they may have every where if they will, had the honefb well-won fatisfaction of thus re- lieving and righting themfelves altogether ! For thus the peafants took up arms ! or rather, they made head againil: the iFrench — for many of them had no other weapons but Mcks and ftones ! and with thefe, and thefe only, they encountered the troops, even fuch troops as the French ! — They received the firft fii'e — and then ruflaing on, in a mafs, overpowered the French before they could fire again ! — taking two pieces of canon ! and driving all the troops be- fore them out of the town ! — In the fame majmer, on the fame principles, and with the fame fuccefs, as the Marfeil- lois, feized the two canons in the Caroufel court of the Louvre, againft the laft adlive confpiracy of the Swifs troops, with the army of minions who were within ! — in the fame manner as the tactic-mongers, the moft hackneyed in the trade, have been, at once, driven from the field, by men — arifuig ( i5i ) ar'illng from the lefs fhewy, but the more honefl arts of making cluy-raoulds, and minced pit^s ! — By men, however, with the unconcjuerable will, on Nature's fole advantage- ground, and raifed, as by a voice from Heaven, to arm in felf-defence ! inilinhey have no games but what are adapted to all capacities, not C I50 not of fkiil, but of chance.— Hazard, with great gravity, 4s forbid.— The time of the play is till midnight ; the two laft hours, a half-crown may be ftaked •, but till ten o'clock nothing lower than a crown can ihew his head. — At any time, whether of the gros jeu, or the petit-pont, there is no limitation upwards — you may be ruined as faft as you pleafe— you may ftake what you v/illr-the bankers are ex» pedled to cover it. Formerly there ufed to be very deep play, both at Aix, and at Spa. But fmce the holy war (indeed thence alone probably called holy) the gamefters have been, in all fenfes, iliallow.— The few times that we happened to be looking on, a few louis-d'^or, never more than fifty from one player, could be feen And generally, at every deal, more lilver than gold. — And the coin, of both forts, was all French — The refort formerly, too, ufed to be very different from what it is at prefent — and the records of the rooms, fti'l vaunt the princes who have been there — as in fome ftables of Spain, they regularly commemorate each moft egregious afs they may have had come from Caftile ! — Among thefe, the princes to wit, there have been not only the common figures of courts, the Navarres and the Valois, your grand- dukes, and your infantas, but thofe rivals in romance, the King of Sweden and the Czar !— The infcription touching the latter is as follows, at Spa.* Petrus Primus, dei gratia, Rufforum imperator, pius, Felix, jnviclus, apud fuos mllitaris difciplinae reflitutor, fcientiarum omnium, artiumque protofator— validiffima, bellicarum navi- um, proprio marte conftruda claffe — auclis, ultra finem cxircitibus fuis ! Ditionibus tam avitis, quam hello partis, inter ipfas bellonx flammas in tuto pofitis — ad exteras fc convertet, variarumque, per Europam, gentium luftratis mori- bus per Galham ad Namureum atque leodium, has ad Spada- nas aquas, tan quam ad falutis portum pervenit — falaberri- inifque prjefertim Geronllerici fontis feliciter potis, priftjno robori^ ( '53 ) foborl, optatJEque incolumitnti reftitutus fuit anno 1717— du 22 Julii, revifis dein Batavis, avitumque ad imperlum reverfus, oeternum hocce gratitudinis monumcntum hie apponi prxcepit — anno 17 18. At that time the Geronftere fpring, diDout a nille out of the town, had more vogue than the Pouxhon fpring — indeed was taken as the befl. — There is a trade ftill for the waters of Aix and Spa; but it is, and probably will be, gradually lefs and lefs. — For what are the waters without the cirange of j^ air, the change of fcene, and the refreflriing'gaiety of the jaunt ?— Whatever they are, it is obvious they may be had wherever chymiftry can be had, with fixed air and foffil fait, with fulphur and fteel. The Englifh and the French ufed to be the chief buyers of this folly — but if ever there fhould be a peace again^ and any body have more money than they know what to do with, they had better give it to encourage firft-rate ufeful parts in their own country, to jfuch men as Pearfon and Black, Lavoifier and Fourcroi, than mock expectation with bottled vapidity from the waters of Weftphalia— febres difcutere calculorumque vitia, &c. is the praife of Pliny, and therefore enough to pafs, well diluted, through the puffs, to the end of the world, of the lodging- houfes and the dippers at the wells— but who has ever found \/ them ague-proof —or, what would be a niore fignal bleifing, deed, a folvent for the ftone ? Their power as a difcutient, can be only over gold, and over gloom— for it is hard Indeed, if in the fufion of fo much money as fuch a journey will coft, fome quantity of bad fpirits will not fume away. — Curiofity, and the love of change, both natural emotions, are no doubt inftruclively occupied on foreign travel, when their objects are be- comingly, the mind and the manners of men — but apart from thefe, whether right or wrong, there is nothing at . Aix or at Spa, that an Englifhman cannot have better, dry- ^ fiiod, without ftirring from home, — Bath has no competitor ( 154 ) In Europe, for the combined captivations of town and coun- try — and for mere fcenery, it is not Germany, at leaft in this part of it, which can be mentioned, with the more cxquifite perfe but thofe which came from him, like a colliquative Diarrhea, — when he tried to make, a teft of adion, from the prince's raife ! As ( i66 > As if virtue couIJ ftand by and bow \ — And manhood— moody manhood, had nought to fay, lofty as he may look f — Tho' truth and fpirit bid him on! — Tho' wit and hberty would make him Tcnturc \ — Though heaven has bleft him with a form erecl ! — and placed before him, palms pluck'd from Paradife- if he is, but ever upright, and ready to reach them i Horace, however, tho' " himfelf had been a foldier,'* never faw any thing like Aldenhoven, — nor any othet horror in battle ! His fhield left behind, he went upon court ! "Where> difcreetly, turning his back upon death and ruin, he could know nothing of war, but the fortune of thofe who balk upon the parade of it—patronage and promotions, con- tradls and commifllons !^ Where, befides thefe and other winning adjuncts, in the court-dreiTes of the objedl, he could fee no more of that, than of nature ! Where Bel- lona, in the lavilh graces, in the prodigality of pleafing, peculiar to himfelf ; contrived, fomehow or other : to find favours for almoft all ! Rain'd influence to jud^e the price Of wit and arms ; while both contend To win her fmiles whom all commend f So much for Horace and Aldenhoven, the fame of the tipUed ( i68 } tiplled Chapters and Abbays. As the population is not quite 2300, they fupport no more than one parifh. And what refers to good conduct in a point higher ftill, the communi- cants at the facrament, have been more than 1200 ! This, a h&: obviouily interefting, was told to us, by one of the clergymen in the place. —The young people, I believe, are o"n this article, better ordered than with us. They begin to frequent the altar at an earlier age than we do ; and con^ tinue, lefs interruptedly, the practice fo well began.— The Dutchy of Juliers, forms with Cleves and GueldrC;^ the flates in the eledorate of Cologne. — In the circle of the dutchy are feven baillages, befides the town of Juliers, the Abbaye St. Cornelle, two baronies, and two contes, one of which is Metternich. Aix la Chapelle is locally in it toOj but politically it is out— as being what is called an Imperial and free city. — ^The population of the dutchy is called 296,500. And the meafurement of the territory is 75 fquare miles. FROM r i 169 ) FROM JULIERS TO COLOGNE. THE road for fome confiderable diftance, is through flourifhing aged woods, which belong, half and half, to the Dutchy of Juliers, and to the Eleftorate of Cologne..— Thefe are followed by two or three miferable villages, where there is nothing to be feen but hay and ftraw, and nothing to be heard of, but another memorial of mifchief — in a bat- tie near Berghen. It was on the plain, the fouth eaft fide of the village— A bloody bufinefs— for which M. Turenne has to anfwer. At Kulick's-dorfF(Anglicc King-ftreet) a village and con- vent, two leagues from Cologne, there is a hill in the road, where the eye wanders, not undelighted, over a vaft quan- tity of ground. Far below Dufleldorff on one fide, and on the other the feven mountains beyond Bonne, to the round hills over Mayence.— -In the intervening grounds, large undivided lawns, corn fields, potatoes and hops— with many trees, particularly good road-fide viftos, and among them the fpires, towers, and pinnacles of Cologne. — For extent, variety, and charming animation, it is among firft-rate views ! Andfo on roads, through the whole diftance, not paved, which in fummer therefore are good, but in winter evil,— with well grown viftos, but no hedges, and of courfe no cattle alfo— Avith few farm-houfes, and confequently where the farms muft be large- -So, your chaife, if you have it, pay what you will to the poftillion, flowly will enter Cologne. Z COLOGNE. ( X70 ) COLOGNE. Maxima Cognatl Regina Colonia Rhenl, Hoc te etiam titulo mufa fuperba canet. Romani flatuunt --habitat Germania — terra eft !)Selgia, ter Felix ! r-nil tibi diva deaft. Scaligefr Cologne is not a little interefting. In the firft place, you may have Rhine wine and Weft* phalia ham, at not more money than elfewhere you muft give for pale town-made bacon, and dead fmall beerr— with ■ no bad bonus into the bargain, of fifh from the riyer, and gibier from the woods ! 2dly — It was the birth place of Nero's motl^er, fp thp reader, when he has dined, may, if he can, write about Agrlppina, as well as in the fine fragment of Mr. Grayl 3d — ^Which would have come firft, jf the dinner, at 9. moft excellent table d'hote had not come in before it.-»T. The people are worth talking about— For, true to them* felves, they are full of popular politics. Their confi:itution, once Republican, and in fa£t, fi:ill pretends to be fo in form, That conftitution they are labouring to refl:ore ! To reforni what is living ; to regenerate what is dead ! 4, 5, 6,&c. — Thpre is an univerfity — Infcriptions— A new theatre, dedicated to the decent graces, Mufis Gratiifq ; Decentibus, with never ending farces out of doors, almoft rivals to the fhew, tricks, and the mummery of Rome— And which as times go, is new and comfortable alfo, an4 worth all the tricks in the world — There are fevsr if any 39 ( I7X ) So that if the immortal flatterer of Auguftus had been, like the wife of Claudius, born here, he muft have efcaped what is perpetuated by Dryden, as an afperfion on him of hereditary taint. There being no taxes, his father could not have fufpicioufly traded by a place in them, nor could the proftitutions of genius, been imputed, to the mean- nefs of birth* The people of Cologne, are diftinguiflied by political preferences by allegiance to the duties of citizens, by ambition for their rights. They are equally a£live in both. Their government, fundamentally like the admirable Republic of Rome, fhould be Republican alfo. There are manifeftly the bafe and plan of the fame happy fplen- dors •, but, further, thofe fplendors are made to fade away. The plan is abandoned, and without order or effe<^, pefti- lent rubbifli is, clumfily, piled upon the bafe. The people of Cologne are, conftitutionally as the phrafe is, acknowledged to be free. — With legitimacy, equality, moral, civil, and political. The laws, with each privilege of them, and each penalty, are ordained to be adminiflered to every individual alike, each franchife is properly the appointed appurtenance of all — Offices are elective — Every citizen is an elector, and is alfo eligible — and when eleiSted, is bound to bear each faculty of his office, in popular conli- deration, equally to all ! Moreover the town is fo far undergraced by the corpo- ration fpirit ! — All occupations are open — And every occu- pier is a citizen ! Thefe principles of political affiDciation, univerfally wife, becaufe juft and beneficent to all, feem to have been, how- ever, offisnfive to the few at Colognne, who, by indireey regulate by one or other of the firft four. Of money at Cologne. Of this that is modern money, the wary traveller will take as little as he can-^-for what pretends to be the beft, will not go beyond Bonne; and of the beft not a little. Is very bad. Not fo of the ancient coinage In Cologne — which makes a figure In the colleftions of the medalftis there, from the fixth century to the prefent. The tenth century, 200 years C c 2 after ( 19^ ) after the archbifhopric had been formed is the date of the firft archiepifcopal coin. Till then the little fpecie in circu- lation came from the interior of Germany, from the Francs, and from the Romans— Formafque noftre Pecunise Agnof- cunt, atque Eligunt. Though the bulk of what little bufinefs they might have had,muft then have been managed by barter. FROM ( 197 ) FROM COLOGNE TO BONNE. THIS (hort ride, of four or five leagues, is interefting. There are not the abrupt, romantic charms of the Rhine above. But the fcenery is powerful — from the extent of the iurrounding hills, whence the eye roves from Cleves to ^ayence — from the gay fpirit and varied plenty of a valley twelve or fourteeen miles wide —and from a river beyond all Others in Europe, imlefs it be the Elbe, of a temper that is magnificent. As was well faid of Dryden's genius, and in his own words, ** The long majcftic march — the energy divine." The road, too, is in itfelf fprightly and handfome~-\vith many well-continued flourilhing viftas of elms and limes.— The agriculture too, begins to imprefs the traveller with a little force of novelty. In the deflorate of Cologne are the vines firft feen upon the Rhine. There are none higher north. The culture of the vine, as of almoft every thing elfe, has fome difference or other in different regions. In the chief wine countries of France, about Bourdeaux, in Cham- pagne, and Burgundy, the vines are kept down to two or tlxree feet high.— There is a pretty fpecimen of this in three acres of vineyard at Painfliill, near Cobham, in Surrey — where the fkill and unconquerable toil of Mr. Hamilton (the uncle of Sir William) flaewed the power of cultivation ! over every difficulty predominant ! forcing fruitfulnefs from the wafte, and amsenity from a moor- heath ! While in foreign trees from all lands, and in the precipitated enlarge » ment of them all, there is the chearing demonflration for genius, that climate and time mufi; obey it ! Such are the vineyards there. Thofe ( ips ) Thofe in Italy are hung in fine-fonned feAoons from tree to tree — gracefully waving with the common wind. Of all Italy, about Modena, the beauty is at the beft. Horace has this well, but Milton paints the vifion, which in the coun- try before-mentioned is bewitching -- he paints it with more They led the vine To wed her elm— fhe, fpjufed about him, twines Her marriageable arms ! — and, with her, brings Her dower -the adopted clutters, to adorn Her barren leaves ! There is a little vineyard, after this fafhion, in the gardens of Germany, except that there is fome fruit-tree inftead of the elm. There are alfo fome vines reared about poles, like hops. But the greater portion of them grow, as in France, fupported upon flout laths j and, in general, are about five feet high. The Rhine wine moft efleemed is not here, but about Oppenheiin and Mayence , at Hochheim, a village at the north-weft extremity of the Mayne, where it unites with the Severn. Yet there is fome wine about Cologne and Bonne, which is not bad. And that upon the black ba- faltes hills is the beft. For black, as is well proved by the familar experiments of Dr. Franklin, is the moft powerful agent upon heat ; to attra£l, and to retain it.— This wine, of which there is not a great deal, is reddifti ; from the fruit fermenting entire ; unftrained from the huiks and ftones — It is fometimes called claret. In the garden-grounds of Cologne, a full third of the "W'holc fpace within the town-walls, there is fo much vine- yard as to have yielded 16,000 and 18,000 aume of wine— the aume is a meafure of 42 Englifli gallons. The agriculture In this part of Germany, yields hops and cyder, both but indifferent, particularly the laft. Their corn, of all forts, is clean, large, and heavy, but the oats, rye, and barley are better than the wheat Much of it was houfed before the end of July, and the farmers, who were ( ^99 ) Were active, had given the land a ploughing. — ^The hemp and flax feemed uncommonly vigorous and abundant.— The grafs lands they cut twice. — Padurage muft be little ; for there are no hedges. And that evil leads to another j for the want of enclofures, enlarging the lots of land, encourages the takings to be proportionably large.— There are farmers, we were informed, who rent {a immoderately as four or five hundred acres ! —and have ten horfes, iifty cows, and other ftock proportionably large — Their forage, failing of hay, is in the artilicial gralTes, chopped ftraw and coarfe bread— which is, and probably ought to be, thought better for horfes than unbruifed corn. The foil, for the moft part, is a light fand. Gravel rare. — ^The rents are generally paid, not in money, but in at ftipulated part of each crop. The leafes from three to nine years— a term too fhort for any improvement of much coft. — The mere price of lan4 is cheap: commonly lefs than a rix-doUar (4s. 6d. Englifh) an acre. Labour too is cheap, eight to twelve fols a day. For his markets, S<.c. the farmer has the river- carriage as well as on the road. — Sua li bona norint, the farmers are happy here ! They are not labour- ing under ruinous impofitions, with which fome countries are lafhed by the daemons of rapine and defpair!-and they muft foon be politically free. As furely as there is pro- grefs in light, and immutability in truth! — as furely, as under the providential fway of what is wife and good, the fame principles, like the fame planets, muft be the fit appa- ratus for all ! Whatever may be the efficient caufe, the barbarities of feudal ufurpation at length fall away ! they are hurrying to the diflolution they deferve— to the darkncfs from whence they came. Even in Italy and Germanv, they v/ill, in a few fhort years, be known only by memory or defcription. Yet, even then, they may raife offenfive fenfations, like the nion- fters who have devoured one another on the Ohio, at their ' horrid ( 200 ) Horrid quantity of mifchief-doing power, yet poftible to be conjectured from their remains — in the enormity of their phangs, in the havoc of their grafp I As to the people, their ihol't defcriptidn by Tacitus may be taken as authentic flill- -in their perfon they are coarfe and bulky—'their countenance is ftern — their eyes are often light— their hair reddifli. And what mtift be true of every people, may be faid fafely of this : viz. that the capacity for ikill and labour muft be differing in diiferent men. Taci- tus thinks they are able to bear heat and thirfl with lefs force of refiftance than they can cope with hunger and cold. I have travelled in Germany, in the middle both of winter and fummer; — I was fure he muft have been pleafed if he (Tacitus) had been with us in the chaife — he would have feen, as we did, that they are equally infenfible to both ! Cdofolove ajfueverunt. In conftitutional habitude, happily or unhappily, inacceffible to each extreme of thermometrical heat or cold, they fit aloof and indifferent, and bid equal defiance to both ! Again alfo, in contradiftion to Tacitus, and his argentutn quoqiie magis quam durum fe very happily for his fellow citizens, his neighbours and friends, one of the few gentlemen of that order, who feem to underftand themfelves and their condi- tion—that they, like every body elfe, are ordained to live iinder the univerfal and equal laws of refponfibility. — That with fo much privilege and enjoyment, there fliould be lb much duty and merit. — That pre-eminent rank ought to arife proportionably with pre-eminent ule ! Accordingly his life, embodying thefe ideas, has been adorned unceafignly with a feries of exertions, manifeftly tending to the public good ! — None of the German trade in war — no lliuffling into corrupt influence — no pilfering of a private treafure! — All was the policy of virtue, pure, difinterefted, humane !■ — He began with the moral glory of felf government, to fhew that he was fit to govern others. He difcharged the debts of his predecefTors, though their fuperlHtious facrifices, wafting their lands, had diminifhed his means of doing it. — He reformed and retrenched in every department. Religious toleration was unbounded. The game laws and all other feudal oppreffions he abolifhed. There are no longer any droits d'Aubaine, no arbitrary fines, no impofitions upon property, whether bequeathed or fold — no taxes upon ingenuity and labour — no perfonal conftraint. The place is free to all ; and every tradefman or artificer, who has any thing to do, may do as he pleafes. Each new comer has at once the rights of citizenfliip — and nothing to pay for them, but, after four or five years, like the other citizens, a contribution of two half crowns. — And even G g 2; that ( 228 ) that, he do not pay if he builds — if he builds with ftone he has fifty years exemption — if in wood, he has ten years. The ground, fof a houfe, Is given by the prince to every fdttler, without any quit-rent whatever ! Thefe and other privileges were ratified by a public gua- rantee, in a placard written, figned and publifhed by the prince himfelf; dated March I2, 1 762. And from that time to this, they have never been known to fail. With the moft liberal conftru^tion, with the mofi; beneficent obferv- ance, every iota of each declaration has been fulfilled to all ! The fequel of the ftory gratifies as much as the begin- ning. Thefe virtuous plans, in each part, have been exe- cuted with fuccefs, equal to their merit. The town and territory, already vaunt a new afpe^, one of the befl: upon the Rhine ! The population is doubled ! and ingenious arts and economic indufliry, and manufactures referring with the befl:, becaufe the moft necefl"ary applications to life, all have encreafed ten-fold ! Iron works, cotton weaving, paper mak- hig, printing, watches, cabinet making, flourlfli daily, more and more ! — ^The iron made there, has already made a great imprefilon on the market of Holland — The forges and foun- deries, already give plenty, to above a thoufand men, and cheap as life is, and all that keeps it well together, in Ger- many, there are feveral men who are carriers about the works, earning with only a fingle horfe, above 30 crowns a month! — The fteel trade, alfo looks to be very thriving. The cotton manufu6lure is already important ; and not a month pafl^es without its being more fo. This was the firft cfl:ablifhment of cotton work in Germany, It is not much above 20 years old, and yet, there are now near 3000 men at work, and their circulation at a fair, has been forty or fifty thoufand florins. Their chief articles are nankeens, hand- kerchiefs, and figured goods, either for furniture or drefs, l4ike the Swifs, their colours^are very ihevvy ; they dye well. Th&ir ( 229 ) Their paper trade, includes furniture paper. — And tKeif defigns and colours are of the beft fchool, Reveillons at Paris. In education too, as well as watch-making, they feem rc- folved to follow the Genevefe and the Swifs. — And there Is a plan of ftudy, in an eftablifliment faid to be very thriving, for the living languages, as well asi the dead — for mathe- matical learning and mechanics. Their printing, like the trade in Flanders and Holland, goes to other books rather than German — Chiefly French literature and the moft popular Latin claffics. — And there are already two Journals, one in French, and one in German, printed at Nieuweid.-^For it is not found necelTary to have any impofitions on the prefs there. In public condudl, as well as private life, what is wife and virtuous, cannot have any thing to fear ! The prince in the mean while, has advanced in the ad- vancing welfare of all around him. And without the fmalleffc fcandal, hke begging or extorting a fmgle rix-dollar from his people, but merely from his own money funds, he has built two new palaces, from which the eye of morality, as well-landfcape, may revel with fair fatisfadion, over the ruins of the old. — The caftle of Frederickftein upon a rock, is another fine objedl to him. But his beft objefts, though he has an horizon of thirty leagues, are thofe which have been raifed by himfelf. Each fubftantive good work, for the profperity of the common weal, to foothe the lot, and to fatisfy the neceffities of our common nature. — To aid the advances of civilization—- and on his appointed ground, to leave life better than he found it. Such is the praife of the prince of Neuwied. The rare and enviable praife. He began life with the treaty of Vienna, and he ends as glorioufly as he began it. He was employed, in making peace, once — but in making war, never. And yet, as times go, he might have pleaded poverty iri apology for any affedtion he might have had to the obvious profits ( 230 ) pfofits of -war — for there are but feven and twenty vlttage^^ and three towns, in the whole of his httle territory — and his revenues at the firft, were not much more than an hundred thousand florinsi Blafh, grandeur, blufh— -Proud courts withdraw your blast Ye link ftars— hide your dimiiiifhed rays. COBLENTZ. ( 231 ) COBLENTZ. THE time for feeing Coblentz was in the winter of 1 791-2 — then the French princes were there; with all their followers — a council, an adminiftration, anibafladors, and an army. — It was then a hard matter to get into the town, and ftill harder to get any thing when you were In, liOrd S - - , then going down the Rhine, from his friend Mr. Gibbon, at Laufanne, was, I believe, forced to flay and ileep, if he could, on board his bark. The princes chen lived in the hotel of the Comte Vander Leyen, Rue St. Caftors — the ftreet going down towards the Pont Volant. — A large old houfe, built on all fides of a quadrangle -, where there was nothing good, but the fpacc of the building, the court-yard, and the garden.— They held a kind of court five times a week — and for thofe occafions, two rooms were laid into one — that they were not the fame as to fymmetry nor fize — and that the furni- ture, curtains, girandoles, &c. were totally different. The court was at night, about feven o'clock to ten. And open, I believe, very generally to all comers. Almoil every man there feemed a foldier — and whether in uniform or not, all, with no exception that I faw, were in boots. — Comte d'Artois himfelf was fo dreffed, and all his people— in fliort, every body but Monfieur and the Elector. Four or five hundred people might be prefent. The room was as full as it could hold. At one end of the room, the right on entering, there were four or five card-tables, where the French princes were at play, the Elector and his fifter, fome other ladies, a German nobleman or two, two or three French ofiicers, >nd Prince Naflau (tliat Prince NafTau who is now in the fervice ( 232 ) fcrvlce of Pruflia). They play.d very low— and at fmall games, as Loo and Calino. There were fifteen ladies prefent, of whom twelve or thirteen were French. Their names, for obvious reafons, it yet might be improper to mention. Mad.C. afterwards openly In Champagne, was not in the room. Nor another beautiful lady of great elegance and merit. And there were nearly, if not quite, all the French women of much fafliion then at Coblentz. The card-playing ceafed about nine o'clock — and then the princes mixed in the crowd, who made openings for them as they paffed. They, both, were very unafluming : nodding and talking, familiarly, with all around them. When the Ele thev muft be protefced on the Saturday in the fecond week, l^etween t^vo o'clock and fun-fct, At any other tjme, the yfance ( 255 ) ufance is fifteen days, reckonino as one the day of accept- ance—with four days grace, Sundays and feftivals not in- ckided. At four days fight, there is no grace. The courfe at par with London is 14^- batze a 4 Icreutzers for a pound fterling. Frankfort, as a refidence, is not expenfive. Being a re- public, the government is a cheap tiling. And being pacific, there is no pretence for any very burthenfome taxes. There is no impofition on real property, in the fhape of land or houfe tax, no tax on windov/s, hearths, &c. — There is no poor-rate — no burthen for ftreet-police, lights, and fcavanjrers. What little money is requifite, arifes from cuf^ toms, droits d'entree, on confumption, and from a capitation alfo well proportioned, and bearing very lightly. The capitation is this, a fortune of 10,000 florins a year pays 52 florins — that is little more than one-half per cent. — like, the land-tax in Mary-le-bone and fome other places, not a penny and half a farthing in the pound ! Thofe who have 5000 florins, pay 26. And they who have no more than 500 florins, pay but five kreutzers (not quite an Englifh halfpenny) — in this rate and exhibition of circumftances, there is no fchedule made officially, as at Nuremberg, &c. but each individual rates and reports himfelf. The droits d'entrei mufl: vary as the quantity of commo- dities mufi: be variable. But the revenue from all, including the capitations, at the maximum, but 600,000 guilders, or 30,0001. The magiflrates of th'is refpedlable and free republic, are of courfe eledlive. The electors arc the bourgeois, about 14,000. They chufe a fenate of fifty-one, and two bourg- mafters. There are three judges, alfo ele(5live ; and all of the Lutheran perfuafion. None of thsfe places are jobs. Their remuneration, lefs in profit than honor, is held in this popular preference of their fellow citizens. The judges have 300I. a year. Such is their fimple and unexpenfive apparatus ( 255 ) apparatus for the little law-making they find wanting at Frankfort. For the execution of the law, in civil and criminal caufes, the fenator and judges fit in rotation. The proceedings, as elfewhere through Germany, are in writing. And the appellant jurifdi^lion at Wetzlaer, in actions for debt, a ftranger may be arrefted for the fmalleft fums — but a bourgeois of Frankfort mufl have a hearing before a judge, prior to any arreff attaching legally upon him,— When im- prifoned, the creditor muft maintain them at an expence of about fourpence Englifh the day. There were no debtors nor criminals when we were there. The criminals are puniilied by labour— which is by beating tlie tarras (before defcribed) to powder, for ftucco — capital punifhments are very rare. The iaft we heard of was nine years lince, a woman for the murder of a child. And the criminal fuf- fered, we were told, not by the gibbet, as men are punifhed» but by having the throat cut ! — a punifhment more offenlive and abhorrent than the guillotine, as it imbrues a human hand (if an executioner can be called human) in the needlefs abominations of blood. The guillotine, by-the-bye, is faid, not truly, to have originated with the penal law of Scotland. It is of more antiquity, for a fac-flmile of the inftrument may be feen in the well-known work of Bochius, of Antwerp, the i8th plate, with fixteen or eighteen Latin verfes, hexameter and pentameter, not worth repeating, on the oppofite page - and according to a report, eafier given than received, the dra.w- ing was aided by Caracci ! On Baron Reifbeck's authority, the money fpent in law- fuits was faid to be 50,000 rix dollars a year — Avhatever they might be in his time, they are not {o now ; for the game-laws, one chief fource of the mifcliief, are every where relaxed— and the other caufe of quarrel, contefts in the ( 257 ) the burgefs court> and for the magiftracy, oppofitlon, we found, gradually abating. Reifbeck, whom, by-the-bye, I never met with till March laft, was praifed and tranflated by Mr Matty, a gentleman whom it is impofiible to mention without fond and ftrong emotions of regret, regard, and praife—" fewper acerbumt *« femper honor atum .'" — It was the book, which flumbling in his way, urged him to learn German. But the book was over-rated by him, whether referred to amufement or to ufe —it is not ample nor correct enough for what is to be didac- tic — and it wants elegance and vivacity for what would be gay. The amufemcnts of the town, though not inelegant, are lefs commanding than the ferious objefts of it. There is a *heatre, new within thefe twelve years, a rounded oblong, with three floors of boxes, not ill-accommodated. As we fauntered about in the ufual fearch after the fine arts, we could hear of none but a Mr. Phorr, a painter of horfes — from whom there is nothing to fear by Stubbs, by Gilpin, or by Gerrard. The military eftablifhment is no annoyance to the place. For though they have a few foldiers, they very properly keep them, fparingly, on fix kreutzers a day. A peafant whofe mind may be in fuch a ftate of exaltation as to go for a gentleman foldier, may think himfelf well oft' with the cheap celebrity of a hero— it feems to be fuperfluous that he fhould be infulted with pay ! Yet, as Mr. Cuftine had thought proper, againft all or- ders, to play booty, and marching a detachment to Frank- fort, had levied 1,500,000 florins, and demanded 500,000 more, that, had been a pretence for foreign troops ; and a corps of Heflians and Pruffians were in poffeiPion of the town ! The hofpital was held by 2000 Pruffians iick! More formidable than thefe, were fome freebooters we faw at the inn. Where, after fupper, in the great public L 1 rooms ( 558 ) f66mSf a |*nmg bank was opened, with rouge jmd noir ? —but with the good policy and virtuous induftry of Frank-? fort, it is impoflible fuch an evil, fo deadly, can be fttffered to remain. Such is the free city of Frankfort, which has the praife 6f Scaliger, and what is niore, which deferves it. Multa laboratis debet Francfardia fulcis Multa racemiferis vinca culta jugit. Ncc tamen in Brutus fola hssccommcrcia rcbus» Hie, animi, ztemz fed cumulenturopes! Quod Cv res, paucai, opcrofa eft dicere merct, Non mages eft, cunftas rei operofa dare. If the traveller does not go to Mentz, he may fee at Frankfort fome of the great curiolities in early printing, of Fuft and Schoeffer As the Pfalter and Breviary of Mentz *— the Agenda Moguntina— and Boccatius de Certaldo— Fa- bula de Segifmundae Filiae Tancreda Principis Salernitani, Amora in Guifcardum a Leandio Aritino, in Latinum tran- flate— 12 pag. 8vo, Without the year, but with the marks at the end of Fauft and Schoeffer. There are three citations alfo remarkable, of Charles V, —two of Pope Paul III. to the Archbifhop of Cologne — three of Nuncio to the Dean and Canons of Cologne — this is in eleven pages by Schoeffer. And the Bible of 1462 — with a variation in the printing of the date, viz. in Vigilia Affumptiones Gloria Virginis Mari«. — The epithet is sot in the other copies^ THE ( 259 ) THE RIVER MAINE TO MENTZ. To Switzerland from Frankfort, the dlre£l road is through Hefle Darmftadt; and fo croffing the river Necker, to purfue the palatinate. But recoiling from the black and barren mountains athwart the way, and yet more difgufted with the name and the notion of Hefle, we took 2. boat at Frankfort, and went down in five hours to Mentz, Rivers, wherever practicable, are fo delightful as to turn a journey into a jaunt. It is fo on the Thames, the Severn and the Wye- It is much more fo in Germany, where what you enjoy is enhanced by what you efcape. — Where the rivers rid you of the roads, and all thofe multiplied abo- minations, of a certain Prince of Tours and Taxis, being ftill fufFered to monopolize the whole market, in the fhape of poftillion in chiefs Another bias to this courfe was given, by curiofity with an object lefs humane ; to fee the laurels, as the craft call it, which the Pruflians had purchafed at Mentz 1 " Of Viftories^ for which •* The conqueror raourn'd— fo many fell !" The fiege was juil finKhed. On July 15 the laboratory fired, and the citadel was burnt ! On July 22 the town fur- rendered. On July 25 the Pruflians had pofi^eflion of the leading forts, Charles, Philip, Welch, Elizabeth, the Dou- ble Fencibles, and the Two Gates of Cafl^el. — On July 29 the capitulation was figned. — On that day and the following, the French evacuated, the convalefcent fick going to Metz and Thionville, &c. — And on July 2d we entered it, but being flopped at the gate, we profited, like Fabius, of delay } and fairly wrote out, the Memorabilia of the Maine, L 1 2 THE ( z6o ) I'HE MAINE, Says the dictionary*, " is a river ! which arifeth on the ** eall-fide of the circle of Franconia, and running from *' eaft to weft, difchargeth itfelf into the Rhine at Mentz," — ^Wafhing, at Franiifort, if it could, not the Augean ftable, but the electorate chamber, in the way. At Frankfort we firft became acquainted with the Maine, And though he was moving flow, when we wanted to be going quick, yet difference of opinion did not keep us apart. In the manner of one of the fineft pafl'agcs in the fineft biography we honored him ; and he endured us. He had to endure much more ; for he had to witnefs, with us, the monftrous preparations of the war. At the firft village we faw, where the magnificence of the houfe would not let us reft on the outfide, we were doomed to find nothing but varied wretchednefs within ! The mafter of the houfe, M. Volungarro had not long fince died. And his widow feemed to have had enough to kill her too ! For fhe had been moft inhumanly bandied about, with all the aggravations of cruelty and fport.— Her houfe had been pillaged, alternately, by the ruffians on all fides. The family of M. Volungarro were of prime note in the trade of Frankfort. — And this mafs of building, is far more vaft and fhewy, than any thing we have among our merchants in London. The facade, with the wings, was above 500 feet, as we meafured each part by our fteps. It had ferved at once the three purpofes of a villa, a manufacHiure, and a tobacco warehoufe. When we were there, all was gone! It was forced to be an hofpital for the Pruflians ! Above two thoufand of them were in it ! They were wounded and * Vide the Dift. of Arts, &c. &c. — grand thick oftavo edition! Owen Loud. 1764— p. 2001 — Art. M. A. I- £t Vide — M. 8. Penas Me. drooping ( 26l ) «ifooping more grlevoufly than even the reft of their mircr- ■able remains at Frankfort. We were not of thofe, to refufe pity to Pruffians. So after ■a fhort ftruggle, we checked the thought tliat they were fuch warriors; and fairly yielded, folely to their woes ! After this great building, there is no other on the river at all a confpicuous mafs. And even that, expenfive and jftiewy as it was, was deftitute, like a town-houfe, of every recommendation beyond the walls.- -A few rails on a piece of dwarf brickwork was the feparation from the common dirty towing path, with but little garden upon one fide, and no land on either. The river alfo there is uncommonly dull, jDarrowed by a bad ayte, which is made worfe by Ihabby wiliows. — The choice of fituation and the furrounding cul- ture of landfcape ground, both feem to be very eafy, yet both are to be found in frequent inftances only throupji Great Britain. I had added Ireland too. But I know too little to fpeak about it. And if I recolledl: right, the Marinoj beautiful building of Low C. has very indifferent ground, though the pofition is fo very exquilite. And as to the fcenes of Switzerland, to infiance from the mofl: capable men, M. Necker has a high wall between hjm and the lake of Geneva, andVoltahe from whom, as from Mr. Pope, better things were probable, and the origin of a line tafte, Voltaire, in the midft of fcenes fit for his aftonifhing mind, has, more aftonifliingly, a barn at one window, and a horfe- pond at another ! — Such is Ferney ! The river, though it continues without any artificial ob- je6ls which are remarkable, has many natural charms j and fometimes there are fuch fwellinor bills, woods fo flouriflimg upon the fl:eeps, and fo many dwellings among them, with fuch bold, mountainous, lines in the back ground, that the country brings to mind fome of the fcenes the mod enchanting, upon the borders of the river Soane. And for a mile or two, before the two rivers join, the Maine uniting with the Rhine, ufed to be the force of cultivation fuperla- tlve ( 262 ) tive in all its charms ! trees, gardens, vineyards, villages and villas, while the points and pinnacles of Mayence clofed the fcene with the objedls and ideas of fcience and commerce, of neighbourhood, order, and blifs — multiplying and pro- greffive, from man to man, from the individual to the com- munity, from Mayence to the full country ! through all the region anterior to it. Triend, parent, neighbour, firfl it will embrace. His country next, and then all human race- Wide and more wide the o'erflowings of his mind, Take every creature in, of every kind — Earth fmiles around, in boundlefs bounty blefl. And heaven beholds his image in hisbreafl! Such ufed to be the honeft fplendcrj the virtuous gaiety of this delightful fcene. But they were all no more ! All had fled, and yielded up the field to rapine, havoc, and difmay, the foe of mankind and the dcemon of defpair! Gravafc^ue. Principum Amicitias ! Et Arma ! Bellique Caufas! ct Vitia ! et Modos— Nondum Expiatis unda Cruoribus ! At one contiguous village, Cofteim, before flourifhing with all things ordained to make nattite gay, the retirements of virtue and the dwellings of health, every thing was one unrelieved mafs of curelefs defolation ! Every bit of building, with the exception of but two fmall ruins, was razed to the ground ! One of thofe exceptions was the altar end of the church —as to the other, was a petty band box of a dwelling ! Of thefe little walls, five-eighths were remaining ; with two cafe- ments of a cottage, and in one of the two windows a toilet ftood, feemingly untouched ! A Venice glafs, fays Sir Wil- liam Temple, may laft as long as an earthen pitcher. At another diftri^, Hockheim, fo renowned for the ex- cellent ( 263 ) tellerit wine, hence called Old Hock, the whole vineyard wjfij laid wafte ! By that aflaflin, fortification, the fpawn o! Quackery and fear, the whole glory of it was cut up ! into the hideous forms of angles, traverfes, ditches and proje fo vaft at one time, that the people on the Lower Rhine had, not quite unreafonably, fome appreheniions that the dead bodies ( 2<57 ) bodies, in fuch numbers, might for a time poifon the river! As fiicli, it was incidentally a year of jubilee to the fifh in the Rhine below Mentz.- At Bonne and Cologne no body would eat them. Of the townfpeople in Mentz, during the whole fiege, but iive people were killed! This may feem almoft incredible ; but it 'S precifely true. And one of them, a rafh young man, riiked his perfon needlefsly— more than once neglect- ing the common care, by which, to all appearance, he might have been faved — a fa£t communicated to me by his bro- ther ! two of the five were women. What number periflied, indiredliy, from the war, but with no other efficient caufe of death, pining under curelefs woes, cannot be detefted till the period when all things fhall be known, till the final allotment muft ordain a catalogue of punifhments, equiponderant to each catalogue of guilt ! At prefent, in darknefs more than natural, they feem to have been almoft ever induftrioufly hid ! While inanity, has let them on unchecked even by reproof; and monftrous! not a word -been heard, either of reparation or of remorfe ! not even of common fympathy ! Dii qui' us im erium eft animaTum, umbraep' filentes Sitmihi fas, audita loqui! Sit, Numine vcHro, Pande e res alta terra, et Caligine Akrfas ! The fufferings from dearth and deprivation during the fiege, fell raoft heavily on thofe who had leaft deferved them! The French army had abundantly moft of the chief articles held necelTary to life. But the townfpeople not having ma- gazines, were forced to buy, and to pay enormoufly for what they bought ! Mutton fold for 60 fols a pound of 16 ounces — beef 100 fols.— The price before the war was three fols, and when I palTed on my return before Chriftmas, it was nine fols. — Bread and fait, now but two and three fols the pound, were, • M m 2 in ( 268 ) in the fiege, nearly as much raifed as mutton and beef. — « Woollen and linen cloth was trebled and quadrupled in price, and flioes were at almoft any price, ten to twenty florins ! Eleven florins make a louis d'or. After the capitulation the price was fixed at five florins — and before the war the people had them for a florin and a half, or two florins — for the ufe of draft oxen, and the quantity of oak bark, make the materials, like the manufadlure of them, very cheap. The army of the French Republic had fl:ores which were prodigious. Bread corn, woollen cloth, v/ine, and gun- powder, all for many months. The artillery which were taken were faid to be 400 — 150 of which had belonged to the eledlor. The wine, which had alfo been gathered by the prince, the convents and chapters, was the perfection of Rhine wine, the firfh growth and the greatefl age. The woollen cloth, of which there was enough to clothe the army for two or three years, was not like the flimfy worthlefs linfey-wolfey rags which are the living flirouds of hired heroes, but was cloth of prime coarfe quality, flout, thick, foft, and elafl:ic. It was as good as Yorkfhire —far better than any thing at Abbeville. We aflced a French prifoner whence his coat came, but he could not tell us. . When the French general chofe to furrender, the only thing he pretended to want was medicines. As if they could be wanting where there was bread and water, vinegar and wi)^e. One Pruflian officer, a partifan of this hypothefis, which was convenient, told us that he had been a prifoner in the town, and was flightly wounded — that, with the ufual decency of prefent war, the French had allowed him to fend for his own, a Pruflian furgeon, but when he came to drefs him, no medicines were to be found. But another gentleman, with as much intelligence and lefs refliraint, fcouted that idea as untenable •, and declared the want to have ( 269 ) Jhave been of fomething very different from medicine — - and that If there had been no other weapons ufed than iroij and brafs, and lead and fteel, the town might have defied the attack, and repelled it for ever. The pecuniary lolTes of the town refift all eftimate. For where is the financier, however hackneyed in his trade of calculating on the calamities he has caufed, who can work precifely, without any given proportion, on a feries almoft infinite ? — on interrupted trade, maimed intercourfe, blight- ed population, artificial dearth, multiplied dangers, and pre- cipitated death ? The debts of the French were very inconfiderable ; ad- verting to the long time they were ut Mentz, and to other circumfl;ances, not infeparable from armies as mofi: nations know to their cofl:, viz, their negligent economy, and their unbridled power of doing harm ! On the firft rough calculation, the oflienfible debts were computed at no more than five or fix thoufand pounds fi:er- iing. And even fome months afterwards, when a number of collateral articles were brought Into the account, as the expences of prifoners, money, as ufual advanced to officers, &c. &c. the total was lefs than a million of French, livres. For the payment of this fum, the French general, D'Oyre, and the French commifl'ary were kept as hoftages. So at leaft it was faid, on one fide — while the popular party, by far the moft prevailing In the citizens of Mentz, give another reafon for their fi:ay. The French, during the greater* part of their fi:ay at Mentz, made all payments, very fairly, in the gold and filver coin of their country. When the town was invefted by the Pruflians, and of courfe the fupply of the precious metals failing, they then had recourfe (as in Sweden and other countries, where there is confi:antly the fame fort of want) to certain arbitrary figns, ftamped upon paper and bell ( 270 ) feel! metal, which had no value but what was agreed to be given to them. Both thefe were on the capitulation, Vi^hen the accompts were clofed, very properly called in and deftroyed— the French commilTary, the recognifed agent for the French Republic, giving in lieu of them, a formal acknowledg- ment, payable to the bearer at Paris. Like an Englifh vidjialling bill ? faid a gentleman inter* rogatively. " O yes, very like — the victualling of a camelion," faid another. In one point, thefe acknowledgments are rather better than our navy bills, as they are for much fmaller fums ! — The largeft bill, as the brokers would call it, being for no more than 200 French livres. One of thefe was fliewn to me by a very refpedlable tradefman (the brother to one of the five perfons who were killed) — and he, among others, really certified to me the general good conduct of the French during their ftay at Mentz, that they were unop- preffive, civil, and juft. The bell metal and the paper money are both already curiofities ! for both are exceedingly rare. This is the fu- perfcription on the paper money, The paper money — Monnoye de fiege, lO fols, a changer contre billon, ou monoye du metal fe fiege, (Signed) Reubell. Houchar, 'biege de Aiayence, Mar. 1793. 'i'l'^delaRep.Franc. The difference in the fpelling of the word monnoye (thus ( 271 ) (thus according to all good authority), is noted In my me- morandum to have fubfifted in the paper money which I faw. But whether the words and date marked within the in- cloling line belong (as I think they do) to the affignat or to the bell metal money, I forgot to mark ; and at this dis- tance, I cannot remember. The bell metal money I faw, though I tried In vain at my bankers and elfe where to get it.^— It was a very fmall and very bafe coin. If I recollecl right, with the Roman fafces on one fide, with Le Rep. Franc, round It, and Siege de Mayence on the other. But, again, I muft own it is not in any note, and therefore I cannot fpeak pofitively. The new coin, both gold and filver, of the French Re- public were found to be not only unexceptionable, but un- afually good— and as fuch, as foon as circulated, they were cngrofled by the Jews — who fold them to the Dutch for a few fols (fix or eight on each crown and piece of gold) more than their price current ! This is very extraordinary — but it was undeniably true. The King of Prufila alfo circulated new French money, during the fiege, viz. crowns, loul d'ors, and double louis. They were dated 1788 — and of courfe with the king's head, and the ufual faperfcription. The gold is more red than in the louis d'or of the French — and the value, both of the gold and filver, differs fo little from the real French coin, that we received both indifcriminately, at Mentz and Man- helm.. What difference exifts, is however below the par value of the French money, as the bankers there told us, two or three fols in the crown, and four to eight in the louis. Till the King of Prufila fell upon this expedient, his pay- ments to tradefmen, troops, &c. ufed to be in the money of the petty German ftates contiguous, particularly Hefiie, — But ( 272 ) But the money was fo very vile that it would not pafs b'uf with a difcount of ten or twelve per cent. The French prifcners made a very interefting part of this lingular fcene. It is but juftice towards the King of Prufiia to fay, that they were treated well. And it is equally due to the fortitude of the French to fay, that they deferved it. We faw them under the firft heavy prefilire of their cap- tivity, and we vifited their hofpitals. We talked with many of them ; and all were uncommonly well tempered — un- extravagant and calm, but determined and fanguine. They fpoke with aniraofity only of the perfidy which had betray- ed them. A large party of them, above two hundred, were marched each day, at noon, to receive their bread — and the manner of giving and receiving, quite unembarrafled and free, was equally reputable both to the Pruffians and the French. In a fliock of accident fo very violent as in the attacks and defences of a fiege, it was not improbable to expedl, that the emotions and practice of men might be found flung up into fome rare extremes of good and evil. We heark- ened after both, and in both armies ; but we could hear of neither. The character of either army, as to mere intrepidity, wc tried to colle£t, as well as it could be collected from recipro- cal report. The French praifed the Heffians, as decidedly the beft troops. While the Heffians, the Pruffians, the Ba- varians, and the Auftrians were, without any exceptions, in our hearing unanimous to acknowledge the never-ceafing vigor of the French. At the table d'hote we mixed with fixty or feventy officers of the Germans, and there we heard them fpeak upon the exifting tallies of the French. Their praife was unquali- fied, and of the higheft order. They told us, to lee their new ( 273 ) new works at Caflel ! (the village fronting Mentz on the confluence of the Maine with the Rhine) they protefted <* they were all aftonifhed when they faw them. That ** they were unique — for the fpeed of their performance ; f* and their Ikill, yet more admirable when performed !— «* That in the whole complex confideration and conduft of «* the place, in underftanding and takipg all the advantages <« of the ground — and combining with new fcience," (if fuch an obje(5t can be called fo) " all the oppofite excellencies f* of the old mafters, of Blondel and Pagan, as well as »* Scheiter and Vauban. It was a work to wonder at ! a «* work of fuch genius and fuch labour, as they never heard ** of before, and did not imagine they Ihould ever hear of *< again!" We had neither inclination nor power to difpute the point with him, and we were inclined to admire the ex- cellence of that temper which could be fo generous in an enemy's praife, A Swifs gentleman, however, referred it all to circum- stances, and the power, which occafions ever have to make nien, f' On a given quantity of impofition and oppreffion," faid he '' a nation muft arm — and what an armed nation *f may do, in any direction, cannot but be ftupendous ! « Look at our cantons of Switzerland! — little as they are *< — yet what have they not done ! What will they not <* ever do, as long as men are men, while there are any ** fuch nerves as William Tell, and the rough hand of a ^« tyrant to brace them !" The flame of truth, like material flame, will fpread by conta£l and approximation. It caught even a Hungarian volunteer, who ferved on horfeback ! He faid — " what will ** not a man do in defence of a Free Conftitution? — For ** our country, Hungary, has a conftitution, and we are not ** to be thought like the Croatians and Sclavonians, the Nn « HuIacSj, C m ) « Hulans, and the CoflTacks— animals, little lefs' inhumam « than the favages of America !*' As the HejQTians knew America to their coft~the cou- verfation iinifhed there. Faffing from the Drave and the Don to the Delavvar and the Schuilkill, from free-booters to free men -from the State of Hungary, which the fecond Jofeph did make a little lefs flavifh, to the Republic of Ame- rica, which Mr. Wafhington, &c. happily made- a little jnore free ! t MEINTZ^ ( 275 ) M E I N T Z. OLD PRINTING; " Thou haft caufed printing to be ufed ! and contrary to the king! «' His crown! and dignity ! — has built a paper-mill!" SuAKSPtAR.< THE moment humanity could efcape, and we could fairly turn our back upon the heart-rending horrors, the diabolical barbarity of a fiege, we betook ourfelves after that art, which may yield counteraftion and reftoration to the mind, when perverted and degraded by the craft, of all others the moft mifchievous contemptible. The art of printing at Meintz, is, philofophieally, the feature the moft prominent, and the moft attractive ! For at Meintz, the art, fo magnificently bountiful, began ! though no fmall preparation for it might be atchieved, by the luckly labours of Lawrence Cofter at Harlem. And therefore, the people there, do well to aflert what little honor they can claim, and confecrate the name, and woodea moulds of Cofter-, on which alone that claim can be at- tempted. — The Mirror of our Salvation (Den Spiegal Van Ouze Zaligheyd) is the title of the book, which he thus worked off. And the book and moulds are'depofited in % coffer of filver and filk, with other treafure, at the town- houfe 5 each magiftrate being entrufted with a key. All this is done not without fome fhow and folemn cere- mony ! and it were well if parade could always juftiiy it* felf upon fo decent a plea. There is a ftatue too of Cofter — and his houfe, in th« market-place, is ft ill diftinguiliied by an infcription : /-* Memorise facrum Typographla, ars artium omnium confervatrix, hicj primuoa Inventa, circa annum 1440 ! N n ? Tkg ( 276 ) The perfon who pointed this infcriptlon to us, though a Dutchman, was aftonifhed when, in anfwer to his demand for feme infcriptions in England, we told him there were none ; on the houfes of Shakfpear, of Bacon, of Newton, and of Locke. Another gentleman prefent faid conclufively, there were no infcriptions in England upon any houfe whatever. — It never was the fafhion. The Dutchman, however, who had a guide and dull de- fcription of London, faid that there were infcriptions on fome of the tax-offices — as " femper eadem" upon one, and " dieu et mon droit" upon another. There was no anfwering a reafoner like that. This work of Cofler has no date. The firft work printed ivith a date at Harlem, is 1485 — ** De proprietatibus re- rum." Still, however, for the work of Cofler being of a date prior to this, there is a lurking probability, not eafily to be got over, at the bottom. — A probability from the compara- tive inferiority of his performance — that Cofler, like every other man, would do the befl for himfelf— that If two modes had been before him, he would not have taken the worfl — he would not have flamped the paper as he did, only upon one fide, with moulds made of wood, and im- moveable, if he had known, what his fuccefTors at Meintz certainly did, the mode of printing on both fides the paper, with types moveable, and of metal. The Bible, the Latin Vulgate of Meintz, printed with moveable metal types, was finifhed in the year 1450 — if not in the year 1450 — from thence to 1455. Of this the copy is lofl, which was in the Benedi6lines convent at Meintz ! Another copy (and now the only one known) remains in the Mazarine College at Paris. At leafl it did remain there, when I was lafl at Paris, Auguft J 792. And there I doubt not it is flill — and will be, as 5 originally t 277 ) originally meant, among the other numberlefs curloflties, fplendid and ufeful, in the new Gallery Mufeum and Public Library, forming by the Republic — a colledtion, which In various excellence, will rival Florence and Naples, the Bod- leian and the Vatican. Such is the fure evidence, better than what Cicero can produce to fix the birth-place of Homer, to prove the birth- place of printing to be Meintz. A printed book anterior to this Bible is not known. The honor of producing this Bible has been again a con- tefted point, fome attributing it to John Gutenberg (or Gut- tenberg, for his name is fpelt different ways) and to hini folely j before his partnerfhip with John Fufl. Clarus Joannus en Guttenbcrgius hie efl A quo feu, vivo flumine, manat, opus ! Stemmate prseftabat, vicit virtute, fed illud — Dicitur hinc, verse nobilitatis eques ! But legal inftruments, flill extant at Meintz, prove a partnerfhip then to have fubfifled between them. Guttenberg, who had, as thefe lines of Arnoldus Bergel- lanus fpecify, fome luflre of genealogy, which he by his merit made more, is generally admitted to have been the inventor of the moveable types, and to have began them. And that Fuft, alfo a citizen of Meintz, joined him, both with money and ideas, when Guttenberg, if not nearly ex- haufled, had laboured under a confiderable drain of both — that metal types, the matrixes and punches, &c. if not in- vented by Fuft, were by him eflentially improved. His types were firft of brafs — then of lead. Types at prefent have 3-25 of iron, and as much antimony with the lead. Peter Schceffer was not concerned with them in the Bible. It was not till feven years after that he was admitted — mar- rying Fuft's daughter, making further advances in the foundery. foundcry, and finally, when Guttenberg and Fuft were no more, continuing the eftablifliment by himfelf. As LipfiuS faid afterwards of Moretus, the fon-in-law and fucceflbr o^ Plantin, the typographical wonder of Antwerp, he was the heir of his ikill and conftancy, his merit and his fame ! The firft idea of the types is faid to have ftarted upon Guttenberg from the fortuitous impreffion of his feal-ring, *' Annulus in digitis erat illi, occafio prima." And from thence he advanced to the fimple experiment of marking his name " Redderet ut nomen lltera fculpta fuum." Thence by an eafy tranfltion, and by multiplying only, he advanced to printing books. Making his wine-prefs a prinf- ing-prefs. As the art of dying black, and making ink, had before come from the wine lees — *' Robora profpexit dehina torcalaria bacchi " Et dixit, preli forma fit ifte novi !" Such is the operation, when talents go to work kindly upon accident ! and fuch the real tranfmutations, the ufeful ■wonders, matter is made to fhew, under the fubliming chy- raiftry of the mind. And thus a tranfcendant glory in Newton and in Harvey, arofe from the glimpfe of a mo- ment, and the frolic of a child. The expence of printing the Bible is not exadlly known —of the firft money advanced by Fuft upon his partnerftilp, no fpeclfic voucher remains ; but the fecond depolit is proved (viz. December 6, 1452) and that incidentally efta- bllfties the firft — for it ftates Fuft to be fupplying another fum of 800 florins. And if tradition is uniform, that Gut- tenberg had expended 2,200 florins more. (They are gold florins) In all, therefore, 4,000 florins. Though the prime copy of the Bible be loft, there re- mains another at Melntz, evidently printed by Fuft — but a$ certainly after he was joined with Schoeffer ! This ( 279 ) This Bible is 'without name or date ; but it is toberefer- red, with almoft a moral certainty, to 1465 or 1462. — ^Thefe ^re the chief ubfervable peculiarities in it — there is no tide —no initial crtpitals but what the illumminator has painted in red or in blue — no letters to mark each flaeet — no numerical piark of pages — no catch-words — no pundluation — no diph- thongs. There are other more minute, and lefs conftant, particu- larities. As the letter c for t in fan^tificario — jufticia — and in Jefaiie, chap. 27.— This error— ponam circulum in avi- |dus tuis. Inftead of " naribus tuis"--as in our tranflation, fo well fortified by the beft commentator, Biihop Lowth, citing Hieron. The Talmud — and Jonathan's interpretation of the Hebrew taraj;. There were errors of the prefs, though not fufpicious as that of Nic Janfon, in his date of 1461— for 1471 — (in his edit, of Decor Puellarum.) And fcarcely conceivable, as in the appendicular title-page of the Pfalms — which, though the firft book printed by Fuft and SchoefFer, and with an oftentation of care is printed Spalmorum Codex, inftead of Pfalmorum. In this book, for the firft time, appeared the name of the printers, and of the publication — the year and day are both mentioned, viz. " 1457} in Vigilia AfTump- tionis !" — The name there, by-the-bye, is printed SchcefFer. A perfe(St copy of this is faid to remain at Meintz. It is extremely rare, and for a long time, but only two more per- fedt copies was thought exifting — viz. at Vienna. The copy in the library at Freyberg is very incomplete ; but lately the librarian at Leipfic found a perfect copy — and another pafling through the hands of M. de Goze and the Prefident de Cotte, was fold, in the colle^Ion of M. de Gaignel, for 1340 iivres. Lord Spencer alfo, I am told, has a copy in }iis fine coUed^ion at Althorpe — and if fo, that is the only copy ( 28o ) copy in this country. The Duke of Marlborough has it pot — ^nor the King, This was the firft book produced after the jun6lion of SchoefFer with Full. Fuft's department was the cojnpolitor's — SchcEifFer that of the preflman. Between this and another edition of the Pfalms, alfo in folio, there was no publication with any date. In this fecond folio, of 1459, Schoiffer (for fo he is fpelt) is ftyled « Clericus"— -a term expreffive not only of the facerdotal fiinflions (which SchoefFer did not exercife) but of ^ny man who had a chara£ler for literature and fkill. This book is faid, by the French critics, to be as rare as the firft folio — but it is not fo. Of the copies remaining at Meintz, one only, they told us was burnt — three are pre- lerved. This is in the King's library at Buckingham* Houfe. The Pfalms being fo very rare^ the different fubfcriptions to each edition may be very acceptable here : SUBSCRIPTION TO THE EDITION OF 1457. Prsefens SpalmorumC odex, Venuftate Capitalium decora- tus, Rubucationibufque SufKcienter Diftin£tus, adinvencione artificiofa imprimendi, & caracterizandi, abfque calami ulla Exaracione fie EiBgiatus, et ad Eufebiam, Dei, induftria eft Confummatum, per Johannem Fuft, Civem Moguntinun? et Petrum SchoefFer de Gerufheim, Anno Domini Mille- fimo 1457, in Vigilia AfFumptionis. SUBSCRIPTION TO THE EDITION OF 1459. Prefens Pfalmorum Codex: Venuftate Capitalium De- coratus, Rubucationibufque SufKcienter Diftindlus adiven- tione Artificiofa Imprimendi ac caracterizandi, abfque ulla Calami exaracione fie Effigiatus, et ad Laudem Dei ac Honorem Sande Vacobi eft Confummatum, per Johannam Fuft ( 281 ) Fufb Clvem Moguntinum, & Pctrum Schoefher de Geru« flieyiii Clerlcum. — Anno Dei Millefimo. 1459> 29 Die Menfis Augulti. On the junction of Schosffcr with Fuft, Gu'tenberg efla- blifhed a yji-inting-rcfllce apart at Strafbourg ; and in the year 145!^, one year after their firft Pfalter, and one year before tiie fecond, the Dialogues of Pope Gregory were publiflied by Guttenberg alone. It may be curious to know the other works, publiflied by Fuft and Schosffer j and as they are few, they may be ftatcd —^viz. — Anno 1459 — Durandi Rationale Divinorum Officiorum —folio. Still to be found at Meintz — though it is believed two copies were deliroyed in the fiege. It is not very rare. There arc copies in Lord Spencer's, Duke of Marlborough's, the King's, and Mr. Cracherode's libraries. Anno. 1450— Catholicon— a grammatical work. By Jo^ de Janua — Folio, John of Genoa (not Geneva— (though each was called Janua, or the Roman entrance into Italy)— was a Domini- can, who fo early as the end of the thirteenth century had Greek literature j and, like that fine writer of our own country, with fo much Greek literature now, diftinguifhed by manly virtue, and rational piety. Such a name, there- fore is an honor to any church j and as fuch his is confe- crated at Pavie. This Catholicon is extant at Meintz. 1460- -Conftitutiones Clementis V. That year they had a fecond prefs at Meintz. 1461 — Decor Puellarum. 1462 — Ihe Bible —in 2 vol. bound in one. 481 pages— 242 in vol. I. —239 in vol. 2. Each page has double co- lumns. The placing is thus different from our Bible, After the O o fecond ( nH fecond book of Chronicles— the other there followij thus : MrnaiTeh, Efther, Efdras,, in 4 books, Job, Tobit, Pfdms, Judith, . End of vol. i. ■• Second vol, — Prov?rbs, and fo on to Malachi inclufive j except that they place Baruch between the Lamentations 5ind Ezekial. The Maccabees follow Malachi. The i'mall part of the Apocrypha, not before mentioned, ;sre omitted. The volume continues with the four Evangellfts — all the Epiftles of St. Paul follow, as in our order. The & follow at the end of the Hebrews ; Then refumes with James till it finifhes, as with us. Of this, commonly called the Meintz Bible, more than one copy is at Meintz — and fpveral, eight or nins, at Paris. A copy on vellum fold for 4086 livres at Paris in 1784. — This alfo is in our four great collcclions. 1462 — The German Bible (the firfi) abovementioned. No copy now to be found at Meintz. — !Put one, in the ponfifloriai Library of the Duke of Wirtembcrg. There is alfo a copy at Buckingham-Houfe. 1466 — Two copies of Decretal's —and two of Tull/s Offices— r** Non atramento plumali, canna nequg. Aureaj «* fed arte quadam perpulchra, manu & Petri de Geru- <* fheim pueri mei (Schceffer) feliciter effeci !" The improvement, that great objeft in printing-»ink, has been of late years, chiefly with the Spaniards. By the ;i6livity of the Prefident of the Royal Society, the Spanifh ambalTador, and the King's librarian, fome of the ink was brought to England, and by the fubtle experiments of fuch chymills as Dr. Fordyce :|id Dr. Pearfon, London now has ink yet more perfect than even that of Madrid. Whai^ Fuft ( 2^3 ) ^uft did cannot be judged* For who fiiall guefs at ifif thing like proportions in decay, from the evanefcence of colours, and the attritions of time ? — From Fuft all is gone but his Gothic forms, and the merit of founding them* And in the fourth century from hence, where will be the fplendid captivations of Bodoni and Buhner ? Their pro- feffional fliill and tafte entitle them to be thus mentioned with Guttenberg and Fuft ! On the books chofen to be publifhed by the nrft "printers fit Meintz, a different judgement muft be formed. Theii^ bible, both in Latin and in German, manifeP.Iy coniecrates their labours towards the beft everlafting praife ! — But apart from that facred work, and their edition of the pfalms^ moft of their feledlions muft be difmilled with indiiFerence, if not ATith neglecl:* Guttenberg, it is true, died in I468 — and Fuft in 1466^ tvlthdrew, and went to Paris, But Schoeffer continued for five and thirty years longer, publifliing always one book, and fometimes two or three works in a vear. Yet among them all how little is there beyond the dark ages, or, at moft, the ehill tv/ilight beyond them, except another bible and the pfalms. The only works with any reference to elegance and ufe, were a Valerius Maximus^ and Fuft's Morfel of Cicero, above-mentioned— with Juf-» tinian, fome of Auguftin, and of Thomas Aquinas, the Epiftles of Hieronymus, the Homilies of Cryfoftom, a Her- barium with figures, and a Hortus Sanitatis. The Vale- rius 1471 — and the Cicero's OiHces 1465 — are the only firft editions. There was a German Llvy too, in 15CO— by the younger SchoefFer. And this was all! At' a'; a time too, when moft of the chief Roman Claftics„ and fome of the Greek, were elfe where palling through »ne or two editions ! Rome, early, had given Virgil.— O o 2 3Milan| ( 284 ) Milan, tHe year after, Horace and Quintilian. Paris, at the fame time, Lucretius, Juvenal, and Feriias. Naples, Seneca* Florence, Homer. And Venice, Ariftotle, Theocritus, and Ariflophanes. London, MeminifTe Horret, London was, I f^ar, the fole analogy to be found of practice equally bad ! of courfe im- plying a corrcfponding defe<£l on one fide or the other> either in the demand or the fupply, in the public patronage, or in the printer's fkill. Till the year ninety-feven (1497) there was no Latin Claffic ia England ! then Pinfon printed Terence, fome,' perhaps twenty, years before Boethius had appeared ; but it was with the verfion of Chaucer. They had printed alfoj Lord Worcefter's tranflation of Gicero de Sene^tate, and Cato's Diftich, by Burgh the Arch-deacon of Colchefter — a profe narrative of the ./Eneid, the Metamorphofes, and the Fables of -^fop — and above all, Lydgate and Chaucer. All the reft of the books printed in England, till the opening of the fifteenth century, were little more than the publication of difgrace, both as to power and will ! that the country was dark, and wifhed to continue fo, and that there were no organs for any founds but thofe of childhood and inanity, cant and horfe*play, chivalry and fuperftition !— Such barren abfurdities as the Siege of Rhodes and the Golden Legend, Sti Catherine and St. Elizabeth — the Hif- toryes of Troy, King Blanchardyne and Queen Eglantyne his wife, the Ladder of Perfection, Coat Armour, and the Golden Fleece ! In the ignorance and vulgarity of the people who direft- ed fuch obje£ls for the prefs, the Dutchcfs of Burgundy and the Princefs Margaret, &c. there might perhaps fecm fome apology at the time; but how will our firft printers, Caxton, Pcnfon, and De Worde, anfwer to their cotemporaries and t9 ( 285 ) to therrfelvcs, for fuch cruel Inculcation of ill, fuch a wreck of confequences from opportunity and art? It was monftrous to look back over fuch a dreary waftc, without any thing like a living principle in all around ; the principle to look upward with common inftin£V, and to open, for the dew of Heaven ! For the religious fenfe, as in literature and fclcnce, the country, and they whom the peopk trufledwith the govern- ment of it, feem to have been equally unafiiamed of fterility and negle«n, while every other nation rationally gloried in having their bible before them again and again. In Eng- land, the ten commandments and the paternofler were the only parts of it to be feen. Even they were not vouchfafed to be thought neceflary till the year 1484. — And as for any thing like ufeful learning, there was no attempt to divulge it, till forty years after, when fome of Erafmus came forth, as it were, in fpite of us, and the Greek phyficians began to be given by Linacre and his friends ! Such was the bright and benignant objedV, which arofe Tritli fuch happy fplendor upon Meintz ! fuch too were the firft curious appearances which followed, like meteors in the dav.'n. .Proceeding, as its progrefs were more or lefs free and open, to mark, with more or lefs felicity, all the workings of man — creative of each fpot it lighted on— in its privation, charaifleriftic of darknefs and decay. Quid tantum oceano propercnt fe tingere foles, Hyberni, vel quae tardismora nodlibus obftet. The liberty of the prefs, which Blackftone, in common with all mankind, m,aintains, eflential to a free ftate, was not annoyed in the firft outfet of printing. Guttenberg, Fuft, and Schoeffer, all departed in peace, without having their prefs groan under any fuch flavifh impofition as a li- cence ! That { 2S6 ) That flate device, of a licence (for it is nothing naofe thztx a bungling copy of that vile original, the ftatnary under the paw of the beafl), was firft enacled in the year nineteen (15 19) upon the fecond SchoefFer. The book was Ulrichi de Huttcn Eq. De Guaiaci Medicina Sc Morbi, &c. liber unus. At the end after his name and date — «' Cum privilegio Cafario Sexctmii." The Livy of the year before this (and by the bye the aforefaid Mr. Hutten was the editor of it), has been men-^ tioned as thus ill diftinguifhed j but erroneoufly, for that decretal of the Emperor Maximilian is for a very different purpofe — for inhibition to other bookfeilers, the better to fecure a monopoly to John Sc:hoefier.i The words exprefsly are. Omnibus Chalcograph'is inhlhswus, Sec. Volentes tibi, turn omni vcl ob hoc divinum inveiitum, favore et commen- datione dignum fuccurrere* The Intercourfc, if the confequences had ended with SchoefFer, would have been no more than right, of one pre- tender impofing upon another. For, though Maximilian might not know it, there had been feven editions of Livy before his appeared ; and he could not help it, that in fpite of his inhibition there v.'ere more than feven editions after it. But what was a more material point to him, the power of a licencer was thus acknowledged and familiarifed ■^-of courfe was eafily to be exercifed ever after. SchoefFer had at the fame time another reafon for his getting the monopoly — for he had local power worth transferring, be- ing, befides an extenlive tradefman and artifan, a leading tnunicipal officer in the town. In the fubfcription to the Mercurius Trifmagiflus, 1503, he is fpecified with this ad- dition — " Primarius Civis Metropolitans urbis moguntinae." —At Bath and Gafllc Rifing, they have ftill old ftories of burgefles ( '^S7 ) burgefTes that wf^re imperative, and mufi: have had what- ever they would atk. In regard to the Livy, SchoefFer Ihould have difdained any meretricious aid from humbler acceiraries, as he was lucky enough to have a prefatory pufF from Erafmus him- felf — who compares John Fauft (for fo he fpells the name) to Ptolomxus Philadelphus ! and as Faufl's fon-iu-law claims for this pubiiflier of Livy, all that he deferved, hereditary praife. In the fubfcription, or appendicular title page, to the Pfalter and the other books printed by Fuft and Schoeffer, the words expreffivc of their pious humility cannot be over- looked—Ad Eufebiam Dei, or Dei Clementia, are in theiu all. Like Mr. Boyle himfelf referring every work to the fupreme being, whom he never dared to mention with- out a paufe, and a fenfible alteration in the tone of his voice. The younger SchoefFer at firft did the fame, and Deo J'avente, and Gloria Deo, are in his early works, till he got l;he monopoly from the prince — and then (cum privilegio Caefareo) he pleads his privilege, and we hear no further of the firil rendering which fo well became hin^. The Devil and the King divide the prize, And fad Sir Ba aam, Sec. &c. The power of a licencer thus affumed, was too con- venient to certain perfons, not to become a mode. It paiFed as the gag did from Germany (the German word is gaghel) to every region round about! And in various fliapes of charters, bulls, and proclamations, till at length it ended in the Star Chamber of one pountry, and the In- quifition of another ! Not only gracioully condefcending to prohibit what books fhould not be printed — but prohibit- ing, alfoj books that were printed^ from being read, — The firft ( 288 ) firfl ilatutc with fuch polic}'', as venerable as it is gracious, yet, was in a period not fo bad as its neighbours, viz. that of Edward VI. ' ' So much for the Typographers of Mentz. With wifdom's voice to print the page fublimCj, And mark, ia adamant, the ftcp* of time. ( '^sp ) OF THE EARLY PRINTING, THE rOJ^LOWING SPECIMENS ARE IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AT CAMBRIDGE: CathoHcon J. de Janua. Fol. Mogunt. 1460, Cicero de Officis. J. Fuft; Mogunt. 1466. And two copies of Durand (Rationale Divinorum Offi- ciorum) but without place, date, or printer's name. The Cambridge hbrary has not either of the Meintz Bibles. The moil ancient copies there are, Bib. Latina per' Matt. Moravura. Fol. Neap. 1476. lb. per Nic. Jenfon. Fol. Venat. 1476. Both of which are very rare — though that of Venice is the leaft — for it never fold for more than feven or eight pounds.— After the Mentz Bible, and before thefe, were three copies, all of the fame year, 1475 — ^^ Venice, Pia- cenza, and Nuremberg— and one without a date — the firft Paris Bible, which is extremely fcarce, was 1476— the Eng- lifli Bible by Miles Coverdale, 1535, is at Cambridge. Dr. Farmer has a folio Vulgate, with a falfe date— viz. 1463 inftead of 1476. He has alfo Fauft's Tully's Offices, 1466-4 Feb. And Schoyffer's Valerius Maximus, 147 1. The library at Emanuel College, Cambridge, has Fuft's firft TuUy, 1465. And a Catholicon, 1460, The Durand is not at Cambridge — Dr. Afkew had a copy (1459) and it fold for 61I. to Mr. Willet. Conftitutions Clementis V. — No copy of this is, I be- lieve, at Cambridge, Lord Spencer lately got a copy through Pp Mr ( 2t}0 ) Mr. Nicol (the beft aid on fuch occafions) or Mr. Ed- wards. The libraries of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies arc without them. The Mufeum has not, I believe, any copy of thefe books, the firft printed at Meintz. In Sir Hans Sloane's coUeftion, it feemed not unlikely to have expedl'ed Schoyffer's Herbarium, 1484 — but neither that nor the Hortus Sanitatis, 1491, are, that I faw, there. Linnseus had no copy. — his two moft ancient botanical books were • — 1540 and 1 54 1 — Dortftinus Botanicon. Francfort — and Ortus Sanitatis, in fix diviilons, and a Medicinal Table. Of no value, but as a fpecimen of mere antiquity, black letter, and wooden cuts — they have a running title, and initial letters are capitals — but no numbering of the pages — no catch-words. Thefe are, with his other books, added to the library of Dr. Smith, the celebrated botanift and phyfician. He bought the whole collection of Linnseus ; and from nature and by fludy he happily has what could not be bought. In Sir Hans Sloane's colledlion, the books of the oldefc date was Hutten, de Morbo Gahico. Prjnted at Mentz, 153 1 — they both are duodecimo. In the Britifh Mufeum, the oldeft date of which I have any memorandum, is the Venice Livy, 1495. At Oxford, I was informed that there are line fpecimens of Schoeifer and Fuft — but by my friend's accidental ah- fence and failure of letters, the fpecification cannot be precifeo MENTZ, M E N T Z. THE TOWN AND TERRITORY. Defcenderet Sacra catenatus via ! Scd ut, fucundum voia parthorum, fua Uf bs ha2c perirct dextra ! THE town and territory of Mentz ought to be a fpot moft favourable to the powers and purpofes of man — if with all the prime ingredients in hand for external eafe and confolation, he could be left at liberty to mix and compound them as he would wifli — If the wafte of folly did not bring to nought the wantonnefs of fortune — if the froward impofitions of human violence did not thwart and fruftrate the bleiTings of nature ! Thofe bleffings of nature are here no kfs affluent than they are kind. In the beft glories of all land, in corn and wine, in milk and honey — with concurring rivers, the Maine and the Rhine, ftreaming magnificently at the bottom — with the fruitful mountains, of the Rhinegau, are glittering to the top ! — V/ith an here- ditary fpirit In the people for deeds of good renown, of labor and dlfcovery, of hardihood and ufe ! The contemporaries of Gefner, Klobftocke and Leffing, the defcendants from Stuptiz and Luther^ from Schwartz, and from Fufl ! But what, apart from all the power of ufe, are the pre- rogatives of nature, and the prodigalities of chance ? — Wealth that cannot circulate, and vigor not to be enjoy- ed ?— Sacra catenatus, chains, whether of fuperftltion or deC- potifm, mull: maim the limbs, and leave their bulk and elafticity, for defpoilers, like Ca^far, to calculate in vain i — In vain too, the winds Woy/ and the vx'^aters roll, hile each freight and tranlit for human good, llich mulciplied impoli- P p 2 tlons ( 292 ) , t'lons as tolls and cuftom-houfes, alfo are concurrin?- ta dam ! The North American republic ftretches through a length of 1500 miles in latitude — the territory of Mentz has but about 170 fquare miles— in America the population is four millions, in Mentz there are not 320,000 people ! — And yet the expence of government, over all America, is no more ^han the mere allowance to the Bifliop of Mentz ! a yearly, total amounting to 160 or 170,000!. flerling ! An expendi- ture, which referred proportionably to the relative circum- flances of each country, muft have all the differences there can be, between good and evil, between each poffible ex- treme, from profperity and praife, to infamy and ruin ! He who travels with fit emotions, muft be aftonifhed and fhocked at fuch an outrage upon public policy j at fuch a wreck of public good ! The revenue paid to the Prince has been Hated as equal to the whole eftablifliment, civil and military, in America ! The ecclefiaftics are above Ave thoufand, that is more than half the number of parochial clergy in England ! — And the nobles, again more numerous than in England, differ alfa from our noblemen in education and accompliilimerits ! It Is really difScult oui of England, to find men (baking off the impediments to virtue from hereditary wealth— and in fpite of the deceiving meannefs, the fpoiling fubmiflions which befet them, riling into the rank of good citizens, at all exemplary, for patriotifm j for learning •, for ufeful arts ^ or for any other adminiftration to the public good ! In the detail too,* of each order there feems much equally to be blamed ! As to the nobles, a few of them, perhaps near twenty, have from twelve to five and twenty or thirty hundred pounds a year — and two or three have ten thou- fand pounds. Yet the majority of them are unprovided of any thing but hope in cafual aid. Yet, though poverty- ftruck, * By the Cenfus laft. made, 3 933,412 inhabitants. ( 293 ) ftruck, they are flothful— and though mendicants, they ar« proud. Though candidates for promotion, they are not ftudious by any talents to delerve it — and for the badges of diftindlion, as gold keys, &c. which are fo plentifully flung about, there is, too commonly, no plea, but pedigree and an empty pocket ! The ecclefiaflics too, are equally ill-conditioned, both as to idlenefs and ignorance. Their educaton, inftead of pre- paring men — and men who may philofophife upon life., and flir well in its ufeful energies, turns its back on all vir- tuous pradlice, and waftes time in all the aukward vanity of antiquated fpeculation ! — Inftead of men, there are monks and canons — fit for nothing but the vice and impertinence of their order, the Impofitions of their cloiller, and the jargon of their fchool ! All this were bad enough, if literally unexpenflve. But it U much worfe, wh,en the expence of it, v/ith enormous prefTure, bears hard and heavy upon the people. Trade languifhes j and is at death's door — by the mere drain of duties, more and more multiplied. In the whole eftablifli-. ments of 5000 eccleuaflics, there are but 677 parKhes, and of courfe need have no more than 677 to 1000 priefls — and that number, comparatis comparandis, would be as five to one above what the priefthood is to the population of Eng- land. While, in regard to the civil eftablifhments of the country, common fenfe and feeling are equally infulted by the multiplication of appointments, no lefs finecure and ex- cellive! — Councils of Regency, councils of diftridls, and councils of provinces, aulic courts, courts of aids, courts of woods, and chambers of wa;er — fix courts of juftice, an ecclefiafiical court, three committees for impofitions, thirty cuftom-houfes — bailii.es, juftices, and runners out of num- ber — grand marechals, grand ftevv^ards, grand chamberlains, grand mafters of the hunt— with above feventy provofis and dc::ns, and eight hundred canons, to fay nothing of the aaniiuaFs ( 294 ) animals, ufelefs, if not vernmlnous, in abbeys, convents, and monafterics. Since the confecration of Nebuchadnczzars idol, there never was any thing like it. Undique coUefti invadunt, acerrimus Ajax £t gemini Atridas, Pyrrhig excrcitus omnis Mynnidonum, Dolopumque, aut duri miles Ulyflci ! Ilicit Obruimur Numero ! Abufes like thefe, fome of which England fliook ofF at the Reformation, and which no conceivable fociety fhould bear, long fincc began even in Germany to be feen, and efiiimated rightly. And the late Eledtor, who was a prince with fome fenfe, %vas admonifhed by the figns of the times, . aidftrove, like an honeft man, to prevent convuliion by reform. «' As in the body,, politic of natural," faid he, *' plethoric ill has its appointed check in timely evacuation ! <« — or, as when a veflel is overburthened, you fave it from *« finking, if you will but lighte?i the lading!'* Accordingly, he ftruck at the abufes which feemed mofl offenfive and injurious. He infcantly abolifhed fome of_ them. And the people were called upon to co-operate for the abolition of more. With the revenues thus refcued from waflie, he mitigated the ravages of rapine j and dif- pelled fome drearinefs from the fchools. Two taxes (poll taxes) vrere given up ! and a grant of 3 cool, fterling a year^ was wifely applied to introduce fome ufeful learning into the univerfity. His purpofes are acknowledged to have had the vigor and purity of what is wife and good, and without any alloy from the imperfefllons too rife in each of his profcllions ! Though an overpaid ecciefiaftic, he wifiied to retrieve a primitive funplicity for the church ! and though a prince, he felt a generous fympathy for the people ! — For the citi- zens, he was anxious that they fliould recover their fliare in the conltitution ; a fliare wrefted from them by the af- fumptions of the ariftocracy. And, in regard to th^ church* ( 295 ) cliurch, he would have retrained and abolifhed the prao tice of pluralities ; a pra(Slice which the laws of the Elec- torate forbid; but which, in fpite of dormant laws, is fo ynblufliingly perpetrated, that more than one of the mofl powerful men in Mentz, have contrived to grafp out of the church, in multiplied pluralities, above 7000I. a year 1 A revenue, prepofterous any where for an ecclcfiallic, and % celebate; and additionally fatal in a country like this, where a guinea, Chefterfield might have faid, has a four- fold efFeifl:, as well as a fourfold figure, when reduced into .German crowns ! All the chief families, in the beft plight, have become fo by the plunder, which, through the church, has been taken from the people. Even the late r lector had vafl wealth, and left behind him much more than became him ! —And the families of Schoonboin, Elz, and Ollein, each of thc;m have inherited from their anceftors, in the receipt of deaneries, provoftfhips, and various commendams, above a quarter of a million fterling !— iS^za'r nepotibus criior \ in enormous peculation, and family aggrandizement from fuch enormity, the church of Mentz follows the church of Rom.e —and at the diftance only which is due between the dif- ciple and the mafter ! Thus converfing upon the fubje^l of finecures and unne- cefTary placemen, a gentleman of Mentz, with more fancy than is ufual in the expreffion of a German, faid, *« As for *« the caterpillar tribe, nay, the locult, I can dilcover Tome ** incidental good from them — for they have excited the « ingenuity of fuch obfervers as Swammerdam and Mal- pighi ! Put as to the other reptiles we were ment;oning, « I can find nothing for it, but to ftand ftoutly to my phi- " lofophy and my creed ; to refer to the do^Hirine of final ;f< caufes, and however arduous, to be refigned ! " I flrive to bear them as I would other evils— but true *' to myfelf and to my condition, I mull firive alfo to cor- « rea ({ ( 296 ) «f reel and to annihilate them. It is the proud flefh of " morbid places, which muft be kept under by what is ** ufefully phagedenic f — It is, as it were, a wen, for which ** there can be no cure, but cutting off, and radical extirr « pation !" "We thought he was infpired — at leaft as much as Saint Boniface ever was. The military eftablifliment of Mentz may be cited as an ' example of ufe to fome other countries, periodically pil- laged by army tricks and official connivances ! The mufters and returns are never falfe ! There are no corps, kept pur- pofely, incomplete. No fraudulent differences between each Hated quota of men, upon paper and upon fervice ! All the men paid for by the people, are fairly producible — and what js more material ftill, the ellablifhm.ent is reduced into a compafs not intolerable — there are but two tlioufand men in all, which are five times fewer than there have been ! And in the time of peace, a large portion of them prefs with a mitigated weight upon the country, by the aid of foreign pay, or home labour, in works of public welfare ! Except in having half a dozen generals, there are no jobs, nor undue influence by the multiplication of officers 1 ' And the few troops there are, for the mere theatre of parade, are not always fo farcically employed ; but in reality are of fome fervice, by faving watchmen in the ftreets, and horfe-patroles upon the high-roads — like the gens d'armouries of the French Republic. The expence of all this is about 170,0001. fterling — and the taxes to produce that fum, are on the land, on water- carriage, on confumable articles, and by capitations — which are here, as every where, objectionable, as being arbitrary, unequal, precarious, and unwife. They were fo in France under the late monarchy there ! they were fo in England when the Third William vifited the country with them from Holland. Lotteries, ( 297 ) Lotteries, another evil which was caught of the Dutch, re alfo to be complained of at Mentz ! And there, as in every other country infefted with this, the worfi: fpecies of gambling, the fame complex mifchiefs break forth among the raoft ufeful orders of the community ! Through floth and vain hope, the government makes men poori through poverty they become profligate— and through pro- fligacy, defpairing : they are driven down from depth to depth, in proftitution and rapine— till, in the inevitable de- clenflon of guilt, and its fure confequence, woe, they do violence on themfelves— or fufFer the laws for doing violence to others ! It is an a6l of undeniable merit in the French that they have rid their land of this abomination — and it is an unaccountable overfight in another nation, individually as lofty and enlightened as they are, at times, colleflively hood-winked and mifled, that they flill fufFer fuch dele- terious quackery of a mean mind, to taint and wafle the people ! The government of Mentz is advantageous, fo far as it is eledlive : and thence increaflng the pi-obability of per- fonal merit in the Prince. The right of eledlion is with the prime chapter ; where the twenty-four canons have the reciprocal powers of chufing, and being chofen. A power, which, as far as independence implies redlitude, they have exercifed vigoroufly and well ; refifting with fortitude the mofl: expedient, all foreign influence whatever, even of the Emperor himfelf ! In the other ecclefiaftical flrates, the admiffion of fuch undue interference, the ele^lion of foreign princes, have made the bifhoprics in virtual vafTalage to the houfe from which they fprang ; and involved them, more or lefs, in each rude fliock, and temporal ftruggle of their family. Thus it was, when Liege had fo mixed with Auftria or Bavaria — thus, Treves at prefent, feels an agitation fpread through the Houfe of Saxe, fmall, comparatively, as Saxe Qjl^ ma ( 298 ) may be — and thus Cologne, in electing to the archbifhopric, an archduke of Auftria, feels with a kind of morbid fympa- thy, a confent of parts, with every council that may happen to agitate Vienna. Thence it was that Mentz determined to rid itfelf of this impoiltioD, and with the moft zealous unanimity in the chapter, they refolved never to admit into the office of Elector any candidate a-kin to the princes of the empire. A refolution, not more wifely conceived than furely executed For to be in any manner free, nothing can be wanting to any people, but the well-formed will to be fo ! The chief magiftrate of Mentz is an office of high rank* and power, both ecclefiaftical and civil ! The jurifdiction of the archbithopric is vaft and complex. The fuffragan bifhoprics are fourteen. Of them^ three or four are of great grandeur, as Augfburg, Conflanee, Paderborn, Worms, and Spires. Another yet more confiderable, Strafburg, was loft to Mentz at the revolution ; when the French, in the juft fpirit of the Enghfh Reformation, properly renounced all jurlfdidlion but their own. The Archbilhop is primatii of the empire. To the Archbifhopric thefe offices attach : The Primacy, Arch-Chancellor of the Empire, Dean of the College of Electors, Ct»nfervator of the Archives. Infpeclor and Director of the Supreme Imperial Tribunal in the Appellant Jurifdiction at Wetzlaer. Thefe offices, together, give great plentitude of political power I at the elections in the empire, he is a fort of pre- fiding returning officer — he convenes the electors, folely by his own authority, when an Emperor is to be chofen — and by a delegation from the college, when they are ta chufc a king of the Romans, he fixes the date of the con- vention. He opens the diet. He directs the detail of it, flibject ( 299 ) fubjefft to the month's duration fixed by the golden buUe j he coUedts the votes — ?j\d which, in many cafes, may be a point of preference, not only from opinion, but for ufe, the vote laft given is his own. The vote of the archbifhop of Mentz, as of Cologne and Treves, is paflive merely ; he can chufe an emperor : but he cannot be chofen. The eledlorate has the rights and functions of fovereignty, vefted in the archbifliop, but chiefly exercifed by the chap- ter. All acts and edicts ilTue in his name. In legiflation, for the tribunals, the taxes, the coinage, public works, trea- ties, and all ftate papers and inftruraents whatever — pri- vileges, donations, difpenfations, derive in his name : mili- tary eftablifhments, arfenals, and fortifications are at his con- troul — his power is abfolute^ as to peace and war, life and death. With a truft of fuch vafl: magnitude and extent, it might be natural to fuppofe, and not impofitic to exact, fomething a little like commenfurate qualifications. And that as the perfonage is happily elective, there Ihould be proofs efta- biifhed, as in other befiiowals of public confidence, that the perfonage is no lefs happily eligible alfo. But, no ! in Ger- many they do not find it necefiliry to infift, like other peo- ple, upon this. Beyond the examination for orders (there not very ftrift) which the candidate canon muft have paffed when on his probation for the diaconate and the priefthood, no further fearch is made after his pretenfions, either intel- lectual or moral. The obvious grand requifites of ex- perience, temper, judgment, the knowledge and the prac- tice of life, with the capacity for governing others, implied by the prevloufly proved felicity of felf-government; all thefe, and more, are afcertained, at leaft: are held afcertainable by two brief fimple operations, viz. the produdtion of a pedigree, and of the parifh regifi:er. If the family have been uninterruptedly noble, in both male and female line, for fixteen generations j and if a man, with their hereditary Qjl 2 claia: ( 3^0 ) claim to wit and tvorth, has completed his thirty-third year, he is then found in the ecclefiaftical ftates of Ger- many, at one time as well as another, perfedlly qualified to, be a prince. This peculiarity, though omitted by Tacitus, or not ex- ifting in his time, is a very curious national character ! For in mofi: other countries, age and name do not imply a moral certainty of the character and qualifications necelTary for ofiice— though the office may be the moft menial, nq more than a cleric^ a fubftitute conflable, or a watchman. The fpecific merit of a living ele£lor it may be difficult to afcertain or to deliver ! for expreffion is ndt always ready with proportioned fame ! — and, celata virtus, perfeclion over- delicate, may fo chance to be unknown. One excellence, however, in fpite of all, broke forth ! 1% could not be concealed, that he had antiquity in his pedi- gree, even more than was bargained for ! — that he had ac- tually the barony of D'Erthal ! that when eleded in 1774, he had twenty years above the ftatutable age ! and that ftill, notwithftanding his years, the venerable archbifhop has the fame arde;it love of natural fcience^ and followed it with the fame avidity as was fo very aftonifliing in the late Lord B- The fcene of thefe experimental refearches ufed to be \xy the palace of La Favorite. Therefore, as far as they could give collateral curiofity to the place, the deftruaion of it i^ the war could not but be additionally lamented. In the private life of this unhappy politician, no other noticeable peculiarity occurred ! Neither for political merit, is it poffible, with truth, tQ comphment the councils of Mentz ! There has been ever in them an affected elation— indeed, an oftentation of apa- thy and difdain, utterly irrelevant to each of the recipro- cal interefts which are concerned. Bad for thofe who employ government ; worfe for thofe who in governmen|. are. ( 301 ) are employed. For, fay they at Mentz, " without a *' fit regai-d to popular couliderations, what is our govern- ,« ment, its origin, or its end i" Popularity, at once a duty and a reward of man, cannot be too flrcnuoufly enforced by every teacher upon aftive life. It is well worthy of that dignifying recommendation which it has from the elocjuence even of apoflolic wifdoni faerfelf ! Here too, as elfcwhere, the providence of the plan is at once apparent : and the growth of popularity, like the moft ufefui vegetables, where moft wanted, is proportionr ably with eafe to be fupplied. The procefs is neither difficult nor dear. The cheapeft courtefies, of a few words and looks, an addrefs commonly cautious i conliderations decently humane — thefe^ in ordi- nary cafes, have fufficed. And if fuperadded, there can fubfiil the captivations of manners at all fuperior, if there appear any knowledge of effedl, and ^ny power of pleafing ; —any thing like philofophical flcill of diving into character, and applying it with colloquial talents to life and practice, then who can calculate the produft, and limit its extent ? Charming in any rank, in high place, irrefiftible, the in- fluence of fuch powers of intellect, Co ufed, is feen and felt by all — in fpite of impediments, of all others the moft dif- couraging, both from public mifchief, and from private vice ! Our own Charles the Second, and Henry the Fifth (not to mention Henry IV. of France) are proofs in every body's way, the one an unprincipled invader, the other no lefs un- principled, as a fcandalous debauche in felfifh obdurate excefs. And yet, odious or defpicable as they both eflentially ought to have been, they lived and died neirher one nor the other ! Even their memory, to this time, embalmed, even beyond the power of Egypt, by the fame of their manners, by the popularity of their fway. Wlien, therefore, as too commonly occurs, the reyerfe of this C 302 ) tliis is {een and deplored, when a chief magiftrate can fufter himfelf to lapfe mto hard opinions and difrepute; there mull be fomething much more wrong than the mere error of chance ! And when further degraded, as now and then, alas ! has happened, and prefented as an objefl of penal law, what then muft be the popular opinion upon chara£ler and defert ? Certainly Charles the Firft, and Louis the Sixteenth, wei-e the leaft ofFenfive of their race. As certainly it is not needed, nor is it truly poflible, to accufe them with the provocations, fo well urging to capital refentment, the peo- ple of Rome againft Nero. Yet, undeniably, with fo much to deplore, there muft have been not a little to condemn. Their powers and purpofes muft have been no lefs froward than their fate. If not at once heady and heartlefs •, with- out fibres in the one to feel, without faculties in the other to underftand, that they were amenable to the laws of con- fcience and i'ympathy, what was there in the world to hinder them from any conceivable afcendancy of fame and of merit ? With any thing thing like common manhood, good faith, and the charities of nature, they might have foared far from the doom which they endured, confpi- Qioufly dear, through generations fucceeding even beyond their own, in the rapturous energies of unfuborned regard — in fact, realiftng fome of the beft charms which poetry has imagined for the lavifli decorations of a willied-for demi-» goi ! S.efle£lions fuch as thefe, more or lefs apt to rife on the contemplation of any great power in popular difregard, are infeparable from the prefent ftate of Mentz. The popular fentinents ran very lofty and vigorous ; and there is, kmentably, nothing we could hear of about the public coun- cil to \keep pace with them.- The enemies of the govern- ment talked, openly, of its abolition ; and even by friends, we heard the word abdication as an advice. In ( 3^3 ) In the mean while we could not find any perfonal fct- off! at leafl not any popular fentimeni at all propitious, like the lucky circumftances of the eledlor's lot. If his wealth has been at all enhanced by focial excellence, the people are to learn in the fenfe of obligation ; the voice of gratitude Is filent. If he has patronized good works, ad- miration alfo is no lefs reprehenlibly njute. And even the genius of government, loquacious every where as he is apt to be, abfolutely fails in his allegiance, if the elector's coun- cils have at all laboured to leave the ftate better than he found it — lefs burthened, and lefs fliackled — more en- lightened, and more free ! With fome of the hereditary princes of Germany there might be, for all this, fome hereditary excufe. But where tlie prince is ele<51:ive, the claims on him muft be ftronger, for knowledge and pradVice lefs defective : in the fame pro- portion, as his opportunities have been more, from a birth more favourable to the ufeful energies of human nature, from a difcipline towards good upon one fide, and from folicitations to evil lefs feducing on the other fide — a difci- pline more cogent, from wider experience, and from praiStice more matured. The refiftance of the tempeft may prove the ftrong hold of the root. The unpopularity of the councils in Mentz yet prevails, in fpite of the late Itruggles ; fi:ruggles not more hideous to them from their enemies, than their friends. The people feem decided for a fyfiem the mofi: democratic. And, whether right or wrong, fuch Is their wifli for change, that they feem bent upon it, undeterred by any Ills, fo probable, in the changing. He muft be fick indeed, before the mind can be forced up, to fufter a gra%e operation — though that operation be not painful in itfelf — but full of hazard only from accident or violence —from the ignorance of the aids, and from the barbarity of the by- ftanders. Again, ( 3^4 ) Again, there fliould be confldered too, each horicfl: in- ference from fa£t. The government, comparing what it is, "ivith what it was, has fome benefit of comparifon. The adminiftration, particularly of criminal laws, has been of late, within thefe feven years, elTentially reformed. Each procefs is quickened. Each expence is diminifhed. The accufed are admitted to bail. And each accufatioii muft be tried within feven or eight days. The infliction of the law is, in many points, commend- able ; and may exemplify, to more fhewy regions, on the complex objects of the law j and that it does but half its duty, if it does not try to rectify error in its fource, to re- claim no lefs than to punifh. Such, to their credit be it faid, is the difpolitioti of their punifhments ! Death, a difgrace to the fagacity and temper of each fyftem where it is frequent, is at Mentz almoft un- known. At the prifons their right obje£t, correction, is in view. They purfue it, by the tract which alone can be fuccefsful, by folitude, by difcipline and labour. And that the traveller, too heedlefs and unprofiting to enter the houfe of mourning, may ftill be admonifhed by its outfidej there is over the gate of the prifon a device, which may catch the eye of vagrant curiofity, and well indicate the hu- mane and wholefome purpofes which are within ; where the controul and education of neceffitv, and its reforming power over the unruly paffions of men, are fairly prefume- able, from the dominion obtainable over beafts, and beafts the leaft docile, from ftubborn mifchief, from levity, and from ftrength. Thus ftags, boars, and lions are reprefent- ed drawing a draft carriage. Ideally tenable, at leaft, from what all muft know, the undifputed wonders of the yoke ! The prifons of Mentz are further to be commended for their humanity. That man is not fit for his office, either as a gaoler or judge, who, untouched by the confcioufnefs of his own imperfe(Stions, can audit, unfympathiilng, the imperfections ( 305 ) imperfe^lons of others. It cannot be hoped that every one /liall be like Boerliaavc and Sir Thomas More — becaufe, in the lottery of Jiuman diflributions, there are not many fuch prizes, as the wit and temper to emulate fages and faints. But what they do at Mentz, can be done every where. — There can be a refpeil which man owes to man ; the rc- fpe That contiguous wood was another aceldama which thofc jnonfters had made ! Mmes, abbaties, and batteries, with all the brutal abominations of their train, and their effe£ls yet more abominable, furprifed and fliocked us at every «* turn. — ** Vallum illentium ! — Secreti colles ! — Fumantia •* procul te£la ! — Nemo exploratoribus obvius !" The condition of thefe Germans is deplorable. The wild beafts, in their woods and highlands, they have cour trived to exterminate or fubdue. And yet they fuffer other animals to range and lord-it uncontrouled- to perpetuate and to fatten on calamity !— Animals, whether living or dead, abfolutely of a lower order I whofe natural gifts for mifchief are comparatively poor — who, when they are called to atone for blood, cannot even then repair any part of the wrongs they have done with one poor, pofthumous, relic, equivalent to the fkin of their precurfors— the wolves an(| bears ! — *• Rapacious at the mother's throat they fly ! " And tear the fcreaming infant from her breafi! *' Even beauty — force divine! at whofe bright glance •' The generous lion flands In foftened gaze " Here bleeds a helplefs, undiflinguifhed prey!" Till the opinions and emotions of the people fhall of themfelvcs learn to rally as they ought ; their moralifts and politicians fhould be inftant in their endeavours to teach them. They fliould excite thicm, as when intereft is their duty, to defend themfelves againft the vices : they fhould ilrike the door-pofls of each dwelling with the prophyladlics of experience, wich the blood of the flain. There fliould be, like a Court Calendar, behind each door, an elephant fheet compendium of the dead, from the firft murder to the lafl, through all diftridts and ages, treaty by treaty, and battle by battle ! Whether to be fufFered or to be done, they fliould determine againft fury and fuccelTes, that de-r flruclion fhould ceafe— that wars fhould be no more ! Even I 321 ) Even where havock takes a kfs hideous form, and the {leps of invaders are not marked by blood. Yet the tyranny pf it, fcarcely lefs oppreffive, has been infupportable to the Germans, and fo they fhould have refifted it ! When the French were ufurping in this country, and entered Worms, they did not add to the many millions which, by human violence, have been fiain. But as far as exaction was poffi- ble, they were guiky of it.— They feized fix hoftages, the beft people of the place — and at their peril demanded, ia three days, the payment of above 1,200,000 livres ! The contribution for fuch a petty place was enormous ! It is true, it fell chiefly on the fmecure chapters and con- vents ; a department in fociety, not a little enormous alfo, for the harm they do, and the extravagant profits they have for doing it. Yet, as men, and tolerated in civil fociety, they fliould enjoy each right of man, fo conftituted ; and, till they are regularly abolifhed, fhould be regularly un- molefted and free. The detail of the contribution, as it was called, out of which the French thought proper to plunder Worms, was thus : TheBifhop - - - * - 400,000 hvres. The Chapter - - - _ 200,000 Three Convents of Capuchins, Carme- lites, and Dominicans - - 150,000 Other Convents - - - _ 400,000 Four Collegiate Chapters - - 30,000 The Corporation - - - _ 30,000 Traverfing the wood, which at the bottom leads to the Rhine, at the top to the high road, and in all parts to re- fle£lions, fuch as thefe, the way winds on to Oppenheim cheerily enough ; — not with the fi;ronger attra£lions of vol- canic phenomina, and fcenery at all fublime : — for the abrupt highlands, the tuf-ftone, and bafaltes, are no more— but tlirough a country, that, with fine features, is placid and T t feren'e. f 322 t ferenc. The Rhine falling on one fide of the road, and % gentle hill rifing on the other. The eye revels over the bold blue hills of Suabia in the diflance. And the fancy, with deepeft iufpirations, begins to open for the pureft air of health and liberty, from the approaching mountains of the Swifs. The country, as to mere foil, is fandy ; but light and prac- ticable. The agriculture, juft on this fide of Blama, is chiefly arable j and open and inanimate, without cattle or fliade, for there are no inclofures, and few trees. — Yet, if not exquifite in itfelf, what may not be made fo by accident. Quod petis in te eil:. Every thing is an affair of temper. And the circumfiiances which furround us, take their form and preiTure from the emotions which we feel. If it happen to be the birthrday of an obje^l: that you love — if a tear fhould fi:art, as in the eye of a father, touched by hope and gratulation, then — if the fetting fun fhould fall through a dun water-cloud, there will form be- tween them a half-tint of fuperlative tendernefs and grace, If ever there was a purple light of love, it mufi: have been from this precife degree of denfity and refraflion to proi duce it ! A bewitching hue, like this, coloured exquifitely every thing around us j from the highlands of Hefie, and the fum- mits of Suabia, where there is a pillar, to we knew not what, over the long line of wood, (like Rouffeau's coffee to Eioifa, additionally dear by being rare) to the little points and projections at Oppenheim, and the new bridge of boats over the Rhine, then forming by the Prufllans. The Pruffian army had here a very large depofitory of forage and food, horfe-corn, hay, and ftraw. And this bridge of boats was for the convenience of fetching thofe neceffarics from the other fide of the Rhine. A bridge of boats, as here pradlifed on the Rhine, is a line of veffels, like the lighters on the Thames, and of the fame fame dimensions, lafhed together at the bottom, and united yet more firmly by the connecfting wooden platform at the top. This advantage is obvious on rivers in all mountainous countries, where the ftreams are thence apt to fwell — for the boats, and with them tlie whole fabric floating, the bridge rifes as the waters riie.^ — Belides this bridge at Oppenheim, there is another at Meintz and at Mainheim.— For the pa{^ fage of the river, twa of the barges open, with a valve on each fide. — At Oppenheim, the barges were towed up from Meintz (for at Mentz there is fome fame for boat-building) about fixteen of them, as we computed, for the bridge was not quite finifhed, would complete the paflage. So that the projeft has cheapnefs alfo to enhance its value. Such a bridge, we underftood, could not coft fo much as 400I. Oppenheim, ap:irt from its vineyards, has few, if any, fubfiantive perfedlions. It looks like a little acommodat- ing borough in England* Yet, where but in England, if the moft expert travellers may be believed, are the com' plete accommodations, as of horoughsy to be found ? The wines of Oppenheim and Nearfbain are thought the heft on this, the weft, fide of the river. — The years 1726 and 1748 are the vintages in moft renown. The beft wine We found on the route was, at tke banker's at Mentz. He faid it was thirty-three years old. That was November 1793. Of courfe, if he was exadl, the wine was of the vintage 1757. Chefterfield, in his letters, talks of wine a hundred years old, for which they afked on the fpot a gui- nea a bottle. And even at that price, without a fenatus con- Jultumy not any could be had. The whole, however extra- ordinary it may feem, is very credible, for on the Rhine, and on the Rhone, I have met with wine above eighty years old. And fuch are the impofitions praftifed upon travellers, half-a-guinea a bottle has been given for her- mitage — and at Auxerre, and at the convent in Burgundy, then owning the vineyard of moft fame (Le Clos de Vou ; T t 2 geot) ( 324 ) gcot) five llvres a bottle I liave feen given there.— Th« price of the beft new tvme at Oppenheim was 55I. to 60I* for a calk, which would yield 45 or 46 dozen. From Oppenheim, pafiing through Wonderfbloom, where the Comte de Leinengen has built a pretty town-gate, and planted poplars in a vifta, to adorn his feigneurie and fief, over fix or feven miles of flat arable land, relieved by no- thing but fome few orchards, and a good reach or two upon the Rhine, the eye lights upon the churches and convents of Worms. — Churches any where, by the affociation of ideas, infeparable from every difcipline and nature, come cheeringly into a view ; as they foothe the mind with the befi: fenfe ; connecling each dependant blefling of peace, of neighbourhood and order ! and therefore the mere fabric for external worfliip ** being when bells have knolled to churchy* is well-urged by our moft philofophifing poet, as a crite- rion of probable chara£ler, as a proof that civilization might be warrantably implied. The town and government of Worms, in part merit fuch anticipation in their favour; for the points and pinnacles which they prefent, feem unfullied as toleration can make them. Popery is the eftablliliment of the place. And of the churches which appear, four are doomed to that pro- feffion: but, there are the fame number devoted to a more rational fyftem, three for the followers of Luther, one for the reformed. The well earned fame, the venerable memory of Luther was indeed, I believe, a prime motive for preferring this road, and for loitering a little in the place. The chamber where the good man meets a doom, Is privileged beyond the common walks of life } It is not poffible to {hake off the foul's allegiance to the ;iatural and iit fupremacy of virtue, of utility, and of truth! That man knows nothing upon the attributes and enjoy- ments ( 325 > ments of man, who can ponder, without exalting energies at heart, over the achievements of any virtuous Hfe, burft- ing with generous ambition, over each intervening bar, from pain, from difafter, and from difmay, and, altogether fublimed, above every groveling caution, for himfelf, can devote his powers to others: to toil, and to adventure, for a remote poflerity, perhaps for unknown time ! It is not eafy to enter the town of Worms, without glowing at the ardor which once fo glorioufly adorned it. No outfet could be more inaufpicious — more difpropor- tioned to any fplendor of promife in the clofe. An indi- vidual, unaided and alone, Tallying forth, amidft the thick and chilling darknefs of the lixteenth century, from the difqualifying cloiflers of Auguftine, in queft of chimeras no lefs dire, than error leagued with ufurpation and impolltion, than Imperial Edidls, than Popifli Bulls ! To think of him under the menace of fuch prodigies, unmoved, advancing ! and, in fpite of the fate of Hufs and Jerome of Prague,' trufting to the vagrant wind, to a fafe conduft, from the Emperor ! To fee him, thus fortified alone, approaching "Worms, amidft fuch multitudes of hard thoughts, and hoftile paffions, as made his few friends hold him back — left (in language then not judged inapplicable, nor extra- vagant), the devils in the ftreets fhould be as numerous as the tiles upon every houfe-top ! To mark his fteady power as he proceeds, and that fpirit of redlitude magnanimous inflexible and pure, that nafpno-.a, as Atterbury fo finely calls it, formed, indeed, altogether fuch a fcene of com- plex excellence, with fuch difficulty to do, and fuc^i ad- vantages when done — fo admirable, fo preceptive, that it is abfolutely vain, perhaps, to think of any parallel, but in the age and infpired accomplifhments of the apoftles them- felves ! There is delightful admonition to be gained from rccol- k^ing too the progrefs of his opinions j and from thence •to to infer favourably for any furare advances of trutKf fot^ that i*eligious confiimmation, of liberty and found words^ ■which Englifhmen fo well, thank God,, are taught to prize, that ridicule and averfion with which all Europe, as it en- lightens, muft difmifs the frauds and follies of Rome, that glorious reformation of this country, and that authorifed hope of like reform which the tranflated bible gives to every other region of the book-learned earth, all thefe, were, when they firft arofe to decorate and blefs the exiftence of men, in their pretenfions mifunderftood, in their confequcnces miftated! the cry of innovation and alarm was bandied, about, like an echo upon brafs, through every empty head, through every hollov/ heart. Luther bore the brunt of obloquy and oppreffion. Exile and excommunication tried, to drive him, if that fignified any thing, from the Romifb Church, and from the Ban of the Empire ! The other re- formers and their profeffion were befet, like the fun-beam with motes, with the childifh brawling of nick names \ Such puny efforts as edifts and proclamations attempted to fufpend all liberty of fpeech ! The art of printing, then additionally dear from the love infeparable at a new wonder, was flopped. The bible forbid to be circulated. And all copies of it already printed, ordered to be delivered up ta the mapiftrates and the runners of the time ! Such was the fate of Ijuther, even in times when men far lefs defpicable than moft of their fucceffors were in power, Leo X. and Charles V. And yet, even then, and though he made his grave with the virtuous! amidft the praifes 'of Erafmus and Melan£ihon, and embalmed in the memory of the juft — yet, the malice of ignorance and Im- pofture, purfued him ftill ; and, as far as mere clumfy in- ventive could ansoy, their efforts were not wanting to dim the luftre, which better induftry will ever form, upon the" name and charafter of Luther. It is not unpleafant, if nonfenfe and mifchief under any modi- ( 327 ) 5T>odifications can be fo, to note fome of the expreflions thus preferved in Jnn^inus and Cardan. Expreflions in which things apparently moft ufunder are united, the ideas and languages of both fnperftitions, in "agan and in Papal Rome. Aftrology fettles the demerit of his death under the malignant planet of Mars, and then fate configns this moft atrocious and prophane enemy of Chrift, to the three fabulous furies and their poetic laihes of fire.— Chrift ianss religionis hoftem acerrimum ac prophanum— ad martes coitum religiofiilimus obiit— ejufque anima fceleratiffima ad inferos navigavit, ab Aleclo Tyfiphone, et Magera flagellis jgneis cruciata. — Such is the fidelity of cotemporary report ! and fuch the credit due to the difparagements and condem- nation of any doclrine, when that doftrine may thv/art the paffions of its opponents, its accufers, and its judges. Thus has it fared with almoft every martyr to truth, moral and divine ! Thus Hampden and Sydney were deemed traitors — Galileo fuffered as a heretic fciolift, and St. Paul, as well as Luther, was deemed to be a blafphemer. Befides the memory of Luther, the town of Worms is of no mark nor iikeiihood, It is dependent on the Electorate of Meintz j and the bifhopric, a fuffragan on Meintz, is held in commendan by the elector. The territory is about 7t fquare miles. The town is very fmall. The population about 3000- of whom 400 are Lutherans— 800 are Reform- ed. Yet the biihopric contrives to fqueeze out of them a revenue of three or four thouilmd pound a year. And the reft of the ecclellaftics, who fare proportionably well, are almoft as numerous as the people. The churches, convents, and chapters have been mentioned. With this literature, and fome there muft be in the midft of fo many opponents for ftudy and leifure, yet learned eftabliftiments, ufeful efforts, there are none. I knov/ not any claffic book ever edited at Worms. Their laws and cuftoms are included in thofe mentioned at Meintz. The ( 3^S ) The contribution levied by the forces of the French Re* public was incidentally fpecified before. The pretended caufe of this violence, was the archbifhop's partiality, need- lefsly ollentatious to the French princes and the other fu- gitive French. Befides that contribution, the Republicans did no further mifchief. They ftaid there in winter quar- s ters from D^ober to March i. They very fairly paid for ivhat they had ; and left no debts whatever behind them. The fugitive French, with M. de Conde and M. Breteuil, &c. were at V/orms, while M. d'Artois and Monfieur were at Coblentz. And from thence they drafted to Join the Auftrians and Pruffians in Champaigne, to partake of the compound immortality of their proclamations and retreats. George the Second returned to Worms after the battle pf Dettingen. It is the fate and follies of moft battles to leave their confequences quite unatoned, without any laft- jng good effe£l whatever. This battle was not abfolutely fo jr-for it produced Mr. Handel's Te Deum. MANHEIM. ( 3^9 1 h-^ rO MANHEIM. THIS is a coanti7 diftingulflied, mofl potently, by the blefTed efle6ls of the late difcharged defpotifm in France ! Nature in ,making itfl at, moill, loomy, and fertile, fcems only to havfe laid it out as a granary for Germany : but art and man's device have laboured to make it fruitful of pro* duce, lefs trite and humble. This is a country which is im- mortalized by the vifitatlons of the moft Chriftian King, the Fourteenth Louis— Louis the Grand! Here — in the pro- per forcing-ground of laurels — in a magma animalifed with compoft more precious than the tribute of the brow, even though that appointed tribute Ihould be paid in tears — here he, Louis the Grand, reared thofe blufhing wreaths, which fcemed in fome eyes, to give fuch artificial grandeur to his ftature ! Here an order came from the Moft Chriftian King, and figned Louvois (the minifter) to lay the whole country in aflies ! — And, here, that order was obeyed ! Here the blood-hounds of war were let loofe, under Lorges and Turenne ! They raged without controul ! nay, without any difcoverable remorfe in the very wretches who led them ! with apathy that rivalled Nero, they fported with fire and fword. They infultingiy ferved the inhabitants, as the phrafe is, with formal notices to quit ! — Notices ! with all the infolence of office, though they might be without the jargon of law. And then havoc made his mafter- piece ! The Palatinate fell— inftantly — under the moft devouring fire ! The whole Palatinate was ravaged ! every populous diftri*Sl:, each flourilliing town ! the tombs of the dead, and the chu):ches of the living ! fifty caftles were U u burnt y ( 33<5 } burnt ! And from the caflle to tlie cottage, fcarcely S fingle tenement could efcape ! The Elector, rifing from fhort, interrupted endeavours after repofe, faw at one time from his window, two cities, and twenty-five villages in flames ! and even that fight, flupendous horror as it was, is faid to have been but as a fpark to a conflagration oom- pared with the fucceeding fliapes of guilt and cruelty — of cruelty unprovoked, of guilt irreparable ; which fo mon- fl:roufly over-topt it ! , Louvois, the minifler, had been long in place ; and that, fays a fubtle and animated hiflorian, muft be feme apology, for inevitable abomination. And, to bring off the ICmg, they faid he was ill-advifed. Forfooth ! as if advice could oS'er to him, without the power of reje^lion! Even the contemporary Courts of Europe blufhed — exclamations came from thofe which were contiguous : from Bonne, from Munich, and from Treves. The colledled princes of the empire protefted. For the air aU around was rent with the bewailings of the outcafl: ; and Germany, at leafl: the weftern fldes of it, was defaced, Avith every fad veftige of woe. And then the amiable gentleman upon the throne, the Chriftian King did vouchfife — what ? — a modefl:, courtly fummons to to do hhn homage — why ? — for the lands he hadfeized in Alface ! Such is the memorial of Louis the Grand, in the Pali- tinate ! And yet fuch are the people in the Palitinate, and fuch their fapience and refignation, that troops have been allowed to form, to forage, to fly there, whofe only pur-- pofe could be a weak, if not impoflible, attempt to rellore the great grand-children of the gentleman thus remem- bered. It is pleafant, therefore, to travel through the Palatinate. For with a new infight into the human mind, you learn to' fpeculate upon its poflible pliancy. And from this proved promptitude to what is ridiculous and vain, you may leari^ to ( 331 ) to compute the probable improvement of the human powers towards what is ufeful, what is wife ! Otherwife the Palatinate is not very pleafant. For the whole region is a flat. Well watered, indeed, by two fine rivers, the Necher and the Rhine. But with no decoration from wood, except viftos, chiefly poplars, at the cliicf towns. The foil, almoft ever, is clay and fand, when it changes, therefore, it is quoad the traveller, what Dr. Young would call a change of woe. The agriculture is in the flile of Flanders, and with the fame excellence, and the fame de- fers, good where corn is grown. Bad where it is grafs. The intervening crops of potatoes, turnips, and cabbages, are in a flmilar feries and fuccefs. There is, not i;nuch natural grafs. The artificial graffes are the chief forage. They ufe animal manure. But not with the fame afllduity and contrivance as in Flanders : and now in France. The roads in the neighbourhood of the chief towns are paved : but where not paved, are nfegle^led, and therefore bad. The approaches to Manheim, on all ildes, are pleaflng, as there is pleafure in the fight of cultivation and fuccefs. Tlie viftos have not fuch magnificence from the trees, as at Caverfham or Bufliey-Park ; nor fuch a grand efi'ecl: from extent as at Chantilli, but they are weH kept, and gay j and though poplars, they feem in fome fort to fatisfy byjiheir plentitude and uniformity. Qualities which, perhaps, make the gratification to the eye, on the review of an army in. array. Beyond the eye, this array muft be to all fenfes the fame. What Xerxes faid, when he v/cpt over it, muft be faid and done by eveiy fentient being, by every being who can reafon and feel. At the entrance of Manheim, by a bridge of boats over the Rhine, and the fortifications on both fides of it ; with the palace and ' other public buildings, in large mafi^es, con- tiguous, theeflecl is various, and a little interefling. It was the more fo when we were thcre,by the valves of they bridge ( 332 ) bridge opening to give a pafiage to a large detachment of the French. They loaded two large veflels, like our weft country barges. And they were, according to the cartel, when the Pruffians got pofleffion of Meintz, removing from thence to Strafbourg. And though they were the contents of the military hofpitals, and few of them yet adtive convalefcents, yet they were fingjng their politicat fongs, fo popular in France ; and fome of them, while the papers were examining by the town-officers, wandered gaily into the town to buy bread. It was cheering to fee fpirit fturdy under calamity : — and it felt it further ani- mating, to fee fome Germans juft to the fair claims of a foe : with pity for their diftrefs, with applaufe at their for-? titude in bearing it ! Manheim is, as far as It goes, one of the moft handfome little towns in Europe. And it is fo from the width of the ilreets, their regularity, and the fe^lions and interfeclions being all at right-angles. Not that this excludes the plea- fure of variety. For there is no tyranny of prefcription as to outward form ; and fo, in the variety of plans and materials, you may, if you will, fee and feel the gradations of fociety in the well-aflerted variations of the conditions, nay, and humours too, which may have produced them.— Sir Jofhua Reynolds taught this, as he was accuflomed to teach other points of art, well as a painter : — and every obferver who will be enlightened and free, felf taught, will feel it as a man. For the pleafing effect all feel in the ftreets of Manheim, there is another provable caufe, viz. the fpace which the houfes have j they are not high, but wide. ' This is equally favourable to the buildings, both of good and bad for- tune : in wealth, for magnificence ; in poverty, for eafe. The ftate of fociety in crowded towns would be de- plorable, if It were not ludicrous by being voluntary. To fee two or three hundred pounds a year paid fo^- dwellings, whichj. ( 333 ) which, in rcfpc^l to health and fcenery, cnnnot phyfi- cally differ from a prifon but in name, where the fun is •never feen to fliine but upon a brick wall, and where the common air cannot be felt, but loaded with all-furronnding vile effluvia from the oppofite rooms on one fide, and from their own ftables, &c. on the other. — While the poor are much worfe otf iHll. They have not elbow-room If they are lucky enough to enlarge, it mufl be upwards. They cannot fpread. Their houfes are like their deftinies ; who- ever wifhes them well, muft wifh them well towards Heaven. When Voltaire wrote comparatively of the chief towns In Europe, for ftreet police, of pavements, &c. Paris appeared to him to be the bell:. What Paris was then, may be mani- feft from what it is now, without raifed foot-ways or under- ground drains. London is, at leafl, half a cejitury before «very other town in the vvorld. And Manheim, even as to lireets, is far preferable to Paris. The Mainheim foot-ways are like thofe in Privy-Garden and Scotland-Yard. If the trees and walk in the middle of the High-ftreet had been well- encouraged, it had been one of the handfcmeft flreets- any where to be found. For the trees, if planted after the laft conflagration, would have had above a hundred years growth.— As to the gravel for the walks, feldom found but in Englifh gardens, that too might have been had, if looked for, as well as wifhed. The Palatinate cannot be worie oiF than Edinburghfhire. Yet, where are there better walks than at Dudingfton ? When the old Lord Abercorn was flueftioned as to the difficulty of geuinor the pravcl — he ■* ^ o o o . faid, in his cool odd way — " There was no difficulty at all, *' he had it from Kenfington Gravel-Pits." — Our moft ac- compllflied ambaflador that we have abroad, told me that he had propofed the fame mode to the King of Naples, for his garden at Caferte. And it would be, manifcftly, very c?Sy,. Fur ( 334 } For the gravel might go as ballaft in our fhips, u-hich are fo numerous, or at leaft will be, to the fair at Salerno. At Manheim life is not lew. It is not without intellect tual recommendations. There is a library; fome experi- mental fcience : and belides that apparatus, there are col» leclions in natural hiflory, with occaiional le£lures, not very ample in all. The multiplication of petty princes pror duces, with much evil, undeniably fome incidental good. For what palace, even on a plan of oftentation, can be com- plete without mufeums and book-rooms ? And again, v/hat are books, and the arts, without aible men who can make the moft of them ? Learning is one ladder of ambition. And there are not a few who have mounted only by felUfh patronage, and the politic affectation of it. Hence, if not from better motives, in all the fubdiviflons of Germany there are univerfities or academies. Even Heidelberg, the fecond town -in the palatinate, has an uni- verilly, with a large appointment of profelTors, chymiftry, botany, anatomy, natural hifcory, experimental philofophy, with learned focieties for the cultivation of political eco- nomy and practical arts. Heidelberg is indeed the moil ancient in Germany, viz. 1386. At Manheim there are limlar eftabliflim.ents and pro- fellbrs, and with more parade in their appointment and ap- paratus — in natural hiftory and the obfervatory. There, as ?.lmoft every where "tipon the continent, the inftruments are EngliOi ; artifts. Bird and Dolland, Arnold and Siflbn. The feftor of the one, and the time-piece of the other are their moll: modern importation. Ramfden and Herfchel's improvements are already in Italy ; but are not here. In Italy, I fliall delight to ftate, in the fucceeding volume, that the fame of Herfchel is equal to his modefty and his merit. One of his inftruments arrived, fortunately, while I was there : and when he had the praife of the moft praife- worthy ( 335 } "Svorthy of the profeflbrs, Oriani and Fontana, we fhareil accidentally in the honours paid to Herfchel, and felt inno- cently elate, as coming from the fame country, with dif- coveries fuch as his ! Belides each ufual courfe of philofophy, chymiftry, ana- tomy, &c. there is a fchcol of fculpture, drawing, &c. a military fchool, comprifing the arts acceiTary to engineering —a fchool where every fage-femme muft ftudy and be vouched — an academy of fciences, with premiums, &c» and there is a fociety (Societe Allemande) whofe objeft is the German language — io define, to depurate, and to atteft it,- The meetings of the fociety were iinifhed when we were there. But, as far as I could find, it was more and more the fafhion to follow the French academy, and adjufb contefled orthography, with reference to pronunciation and ufagej more than to analogy or derivation. Thus their primary object is philology : but the elucidation of language, if they purfue it well, will lead to fomething higher, both in fcience and truth. For in learning, as in virtue, one advance faci- litates another. As they analyfe meaning, they may leara to rectify it too. The lectures, which are all gratuitous, are from Oftober to July. The library, a fine room loo by 48 feet, is open three days in a week. The books are ufeful, rather than curious, or rare. There are about 70000 volumes. There are fome antiques in the palace, and five or fix hundred pictures, which they fhow — and many of them are worth feeing. Denner's two fmall heads (twelve or fourteent inches) are the favourites of the place, to thofe who look no further than minute fidelity and fuper-ferviceable detail. Yet what is the art which is fein deep only, however high wrought, as thefe are, and to each petty prominence and pore, to the more arduous and more ufeful energies of a painter who dives into character, and can identify in every fibre each fenfation that ever ftrung it ? The firft is the praife ( 33^ ) i^raife of Dcnner's heads — the fecond of every maficrl/ portrait in exiflence — 'from Raftaelle, Pops Urban, and-, the head of Leonardo, by himfelf, to the well known chefs d'oeuvres of Vandyke and Reynolds, the Duke of Bucking- ham and Mr. Fox. — Denner was paid immoderately, twelve or fourteen hundred ducats for the two, while two living artifts, for the head of Mr. Lock, of Norburjj and for a head of Mr. Kemble, the a£tor, a head yet more energetic flill, received for thofe moft admirable works but twenty-' five or thirty guineas a piece ! Were painters only doomed to fee a difproportion between merit and reward, not only Roraney, Stuartj and Lawrence, but Beechy and Weftall might repine, that the Paris Rigaud, a century paft, had a hundred louis d'ors for a head* , In the Manheim collection thefe works are the beft— the flcetches by Reubens and Vandyke, a fmall R affaelle, a Caracce and a Pouffin. Modern piftures there are none, but two landfcapes, with much luftre, by the French Claude, Yernet — and a head of the eleftor by Pompeio Battoni, one of his beft portraits. There is no Englifh pidlure, but a hare, by a Mr. Hamilton. So tardy at times, and fo local: is fame. Literature and the arts give great circumftantial recom- mendations to a place. And Manheim would be no bad refidence, to thofe who can be content with a level country, if they can bear German crokery, and are ague proof.— J'or agues, we underftood, are frequent at Manheim — from the confluence of the Necker and the Rhine, both mountainous rivers, and both therefore liable to overflow a land, naturally not above the level of the river at low 1i?ater. The drinking water is vapid and foul. Li the cure of thofe agues they give emetics and the bark. But in other Fevers antimonials are not in ufe. James's powder is little known. The fee to a phylician is a half- florin. But little medical learning from jEngland has found its ( 337 ) Its way yet Into the palatinate. Wc faw tranflatlons only of Cullen, Pott, and Mofcly. The hofpital Is ill ventilated and dirty. And the only regulation worth any praife is, thart there is a fliort fcrics of inftru^ion given by a pro- feflbr to the nurfes, with rules and explanations on their condu£t, general ideas of medicine, and inflructions to pre- pare them for emergencies, as haemorrhage, fainting fits, &c. There is a lying-in-hofpital with twelve beds. This is the place where each fage femme muft ftudy practice ; each community fends one fo to ftudy, with an allowance of fifteen kreutzers a day. And that is found enough for her fupport. For the fupport of the poor there is no compulfory rate ; but there is a voluntary colle(Slion, to which all people of fubftance would feel it derogation not to contribute. The receivers and managers are men of rank and chara597 The deficit i of courfe, as in France before the revolution, is prodigious. The late ele^lor reiided at Manhelmj and the palace there, is fuch as muft be expected when a bad original is imitated, worfe. Verfailles, that vice of the times, that difgrace of moral manhood, (for it was reared on peculation and the pillage of the people) was the vain model which made fo many empty mimics over the continent ! and every folly, abfurd and culpable, in the compafs of laboured quarries above ground, was perpetrated, unblufhlngly, without fear of ridicule or remorfe — private theatres, gaming rooms, tennis courts, and what not ? Even the Third William, who lived by being antagonlft to that mifchievous mountebank the Four- X X 2 teentli ( 34':> ) tesnth. Louis, yielded obelfance to his falfe tafte ; ir\d thus made Hampton Court, among the things not raemo^ rable for wifdom. Manheim is fo too. And --.vith the fame awkward pomp, and unwieldly profufion, ahnoft with a fimilar difguft at accumulated irregularities, as in the ftreet facade at Ver- failles.- Verfailles is likely to be an univerfity ♦, and fo, by the popular diffuflon of ufeful learning, may make atone- ment to the people for the enormous plunder they infa- moufly bore in its production. What the palace of Man- licim may be, we know not. At prefcnt it is abandoned. The eleclor has not feen it thefe five years. He, and his mulicians, live at Munich. The ele£lrefs lives at Oker- flieim — the houfe and chapel, in a fmall town, between IVIanheim and Worms. The King of Pruffia had two or three rooms in it, in his late campaign upon the Rhine-* and it has been an afylum for the Due de Deux-Ponts, his dutchefs, and their fon. Prince Maximilian, fince they burnt their fingers and their own place, by wifely meddling in a war with the French. The palace is not otherwlfe remarkable than as being ill- placed j and without any ground. There is a little walk or two between the houfe and the Rhine ; but, little as they are, they are made lefs by a part of the fortification v/hich is in them. And the centinels and the artillery, E^ to Avs-- Tvx'-», produce efFefts and alTociations fupremely gratifying at the palace. The pofition of the palace, bad in point of accommodating ground, is however good for the town in cafe of hoflile attack. For in cafe of a canonading on the north and north-wefV> before the town can be battered, the , palace muft fall. The Kino of Pruflia, when at Manheim, lived, in regard to hdiifehold and attendants^ with much manly fimphcity. Two valets, three footmen, three fecretaries, and three or four officers, were liis whole train. He dined about three o'clock, ( 341 ) fc'clockj and about fix o'clock was at the play, which, hav- ing nothing in it, left him all the merit of rifing from his wine. It was fix days after the fuccefTes, as they were called upon the Rhine, when the French officer fold out at Meintz, when the king entered the theatre there was no vulgar flattery from the mufic. The fiddlers were begin- ning; but the king had too much good fenfe and high fpirit to permit it. Thus if they had read the fixth book of Virgil, and knew what he got by his Tu Marcellus cris, from Oclavia — their motive might be the fame ; but not the confequences. The king had wit enough not to give them any thing for it— " I damn ye all! go! go! ye are bill" The play was not in the private theatre at the palace, but at the public playhoufe. There were no trappings to dizen out any particular place for the King. He fat in the plain unaltered balcony (on the left fide of the adlors) up one pair of firairs, Prince NaiTau, Gen Geyman, and two other officers with him. The King's drefs was quite fimple : a blue frock, and red waifi:coat. The Prince Nafiliu Avas befet with fi:ars and firings. — The King was difi:inguiflied by an apparent cour- tefy, good-humour, and, indeed, as it fliould feem, good- fenfe. Shakefpeare talks of a man looking April and May. The King of Prufiia is fifty. And his weight, chiefly be- tween his breaft-bone and his hip, mufl be, probably, eighteen ftone. His countenance looks as if he had never Sinched from weather or from wine. And yet — fuch is the force of manners, and manners which are fenfible, that before the firfi: five minutes are expired, he feems engaging, and has an advocate with all who fee liim. The ucrlieft: man in England ufed to fay, " give me but a fortnight in « any houfe, and I will cope with an Adonis/' The ( 342 ) The King of Prufiia is a proof that he would win. For the efFedt of manners, in things indifferent, is not to be re- £fted. On his entrance, he had no trick of pretended conference with his people. He came in, inartificiah Simple. Alone, The people applauded. As they will always do, without being hired, if there is merit, or if there is even dexterity, merely. The King bowed. But not like a Charlotan, whofe object is by bowing, to beg for more. He bent over to fpeak with one adjoining box. He nodded, and kifTed his hand to a fecond and a third. And to a lady in another box, he reached out and fliook hands ! — The whole fcene, in point of good fellowlhip, was very amiable ! — During the performance, which was an opera, he went into the lobbies, and converfed, not in the miferable iterations of vacuity, but in founds fit for fenfe to hear, with the people who were introduced to him. — He left the theatre, and without any ridiculous ceremonial, before the Vaudeville. — ^The next day he went to the camp near Frankenthall : in a coach and fix. The coach was his own, but not better than a good hackney-coach. There were two outriders i and one man behind the coach. As to the particular detail of the Pruffian manners in the camp, we heard a Uttle. But there feemed no good reafon for wififing to hear more. Each other memorandum at Manheim is but mifcel- laneous. The troops were between fix and fcven thoufand. Each corps were Bavarian. Their uniform, French grey, with various facings of green, yellow, red, and blue, like Otway's variety of wretchednefs. All wear caps, which, with me- tallic ornaments, are weighty, viz. 51b. — the epaulet alfo is folid and mafly.—They are cloathed every two years.— Their ( 343 ) Their great-coat, like lord lieutenants and admirals on cer- tain ftations, takes three years to be made new. — The troops in Bavaria and the Palatinate, amount to 60,000. And heroifm and happlnefs are fo cheap, that, with two pound of bread and a little flefli meat, your hero there ferves for fix kreutfers (not threepence Englllli) a day— - The difcipline is rigid, but not cruel. The call is twice a day. They are the fecond beft troops in Germany. They look the neateft. But the Heffians are, too probably, the beft. There are a few Irifli officers In every corps. And their reputation is, juftly, fo very high, that each Englifhman muft willi to fee them in his own. Trade at Manheim, there is little or none. A German writer imputes it to the abfence of the court. As if any body ever heard of a court trading even in patronage or promotions ! — ^Timber, which is floated down the river Neckcr, and fome Necker wine, appear to be the articles of commerce which are beft. TO ( 344 ) TO THE SWISS AND TYROLESE ALPS, WHEN the traveller has turned his back on Ma.inheim, he will have additional reafon to be thankful. For, whether he is going to the Swlfs or the Tyrolefe Alps, he will meet with nothing but fands and German poflilions to flop him for a fino-le moment. Bruchfal is a central point, from whence the roads de- verge. — Thither you may go by two ways, the longeft by a poft and a half, is through Heidelberg j the fhorteft, through Schwetzengen. If you go by Heidelberg, you may fee the books which did belong to Grsevius. And thence recolleft your obligations, if you are oblitred, by his Heliod, the Variorum Claffics, and the antiquities too, alfo derived from Grsvius and Gronovius. — And you may fee a few more books, chiefly on commercial arts (Technology they call the department), fuggefted, if not fupplied, by the Due de Deux Fonts — who fo far has a merit, which belongs to no other petty principality in the neighbourf. hood, that his town was at work on a neat and cheap edition of the clafTics: we faw it was well appearanced ; and they told us it was correct. — Among the decoration^ was, a head of Trajan •, a fac-fimile of our great aclor in Coriolanus. There is a new bridge over the Neckar, where you have 720 feet of mafonry, twenty-nine feet wide, and ii"ne arches, for 85,000 florins. Every body ^ill tell you of the HeidelberiT Tom, and vou mnv tell every body in re~ turn, that if they affect the art of cooperage, and are ame- teurs tlierein, they need not go further than to "VVhitbread's or to Thr,nlc's. JBettcr than all, at Hciaclbcrg as at Manheim, the eye will ( 345 ) TvUl be footlied with the. cheering viilons of toleration. — . Oppofite religions, in unbroken concord, dividing the town between them. And though the petty policy of govern* ment is elaborate to adorn the Papal forms, yet the Luthe- ran and the Reformed, by the prevalence of limplicity and truth, augment their followers, without ceafmg. If Schwetzingen is your route, you may fee what has not been feen before, the fl:.te of ornamental gardening in Germany. It is the prime villa of the Eledor when he lived In the Palatinate : at prefent it is unoccupied. The ground plan is 360 acres, w^th a contiguous wood, which is immeafurable, and three or four hundred thoufand fuperficial feet of water, with trees and fhrubs enough. But the land is almofi: all in llralt alleys and terraces : the water in half a dozen ponds. And bad vafes, ftatues, and temples out of number. Orangeries 700 feet long : and doric wings to the houfe, 1200 feet taken together. From a little artificial rife in the ground, fome outlying obje£ts are feen, as Manheim, Heidelberg, and Spire, the lofty blue highlands of Alface, Suabia, and Darmftadt, on one, which is Falfberg, is a bulky granite column, left by the Romans. But httle was wanting to make it a noble palace. Which from tafte, as well as moral preferences, had been far better than the idle, the cruel wafte of fo much money at Man- heim. — What figure can difgufl more, than extravagance pampered by extortion ?— Yet, it is the ofFence which in- fults and iickens you, in almoft every court upon the Con- tinent ! It is to the reputation of our own court, that they had wit enough to avert, from the imwieidy gloom of St. James's — and that they had honour enough not to burthen the people to build for them another palace. The only fpot completely gratifying was, a piece of twenty acres, which the Elector had given from his chace to a company, who were adventuring in the cultivation of rhubarb. — And y we ( 34^ ) rre underftood there had been a new plant fupplied by Condoide, phyficlan to the Czarina. From Manheim to Schwetzlngen, the road is through fandy woods, the chace of the Elector Palatine. From Schwetzingen to Bruchfal, the woods, chiefly oak, con- tinue, the property of the EIe<5tor and the Bifliop of iSpires j a gentleman, who, for dv/elling in a good town-houfe at Bruchfal, and for exercillng, with great advantage to him- felf, a petty fovcreignty over that Bifliopric, and the Pro- voftfhip of Weifienbourg, a little diftridl of eight and twenty miles, is lucky enough to find people who will let him have an annual revenue of eight and twenty thoufand pounds fterling. — This Bifliop of Spires is one of the examples of violence, unworthily, fuffered fince the war. M. Cuftine extorted from him a levy of near a million of livres. The military eftablifhment of this petty prince, is no lefs than 300 men! And that rnay give a ftrong idea of the pre- valence and cheapnefs of their folly in Germany. To the Tyrolefe Alps, you may hurry through the terri- tory of Wirtemberg, which is ranked next to the Elec- torate. Where a Catholic prince contrives to draw a re- venue of two hundred and twenty thoufand pounds from the people : who, as in the Palatinate, are Proteflants — where the country is not bad, and tlie wine is good, upon the Necker — where there are tvv^o or three clever ProfefTors at Stutgard; — and where there is fome refpedt paid by government to popular opinions, and to public good ! — For the public debt, formerly fo oppreffive, (above fourteen millions of guilders) is at length nearly difcharged. Ulm and Augfbourg then conclude for you the circle of Suabla. Ulm, a free city, which will launcli a traveller down the Danube for five livres, and, in five days, to Vienna : and Augfbourg, another free town, of larger popu- lation {33.JO00) and tvhich will do better for him flill ! If referring • ( 347 ) referring to the Diet and the ConfefTion of Auglbourg, he can profit from the Proteflant Reformers. And rifing at th^ ennobling perfcftions of Luther and Melandhon, their zeal for truth, their magnanimity and eloquence — the Tyro- lefe Alps, then bold, and captivating as they are, will yield to the more noble exaltations of his mind. To the Swifs Alps, the route is through the territory of Baden to.Bafle. A flievvy, variegated, unequal country — Non arborum impatiens — non paludibus faeda, pecorum fecunda. Full of wood. Full of wine. Where the nml- tiplying peafants eat the labour of their hands, and repofe in their appointed reft, with no caufe, from oppreffion or from extortion, to execrate the government which they have chofen. The errors of paft adminiftrations have been rec- tified. Wrongs, redrelTed. Taxes, remitted. The Mar- grave has the heart of a gentleman. His fame has ever been unftained by avarice or ambition. He has no hid treafure. He has never dealt in blood. Hofpitality and public bounty are his objects : thefe occupy his revenues ! and great as they are, (above 170,000!. a year) he is carelefs of his own ftate, and lives in a wooden palace at Carlf- ruke! The country and the government are Lutheran. Com- pared with the intervening diftridls of the Emperor, and which are Papal, they have all the benefit of contraft — in every energy of colledlive or individual merit, candor, in- duftry, wealth, fecurity, peace, and every other indication of fenfe and fpirit in the people. The road has many charms. The agriculture has an interefting air of novelty from tobacco and vineyard, as well as pafturage and corn, here and there, all along in veins. The Rhine carries health and beauty through the valley. The diftances are Alface and the Suabian hills. And after Friburg, Switzerland rifes to the longing view. It is hiftoric ground too : and anecdote, now and then, Y y 3j adds (^ 348 1 adds a good ingredient to the charm. The fcene exults tit feudal ruins! a rational triumph- to every friend philofo- phifing and free ! — Here the Imperialifts and the French accurfed the country with the guilty infatuation of war! And here, at Raftadt, Villars and Eugene, the firft inftance of generals pacificati»g, met, authorifed, after the campaign ' — and formed the preliminary articles to the peace of - XJtrecht. — " Is it peace or war ?" faid Eugene — <' We arc not enemies," rq)lied Villars — « Your enemies are at yaur court, and mine are at Paris." . It was on Sept. 7, Eugene ligned flrfl, followed by M, M. Goes and Cellern — Villars followed with M. M. Con- tell, and Comte de Luc. To Kehl, a petty fortrefs fronting Strafbourg, Bafker- ville's types were carried, by Beaumafchais, from Birming- ham, to print his complete edition of Voltaire ! . For the riohteous and delicate mind of the Cardinal de Rohan, the Archbifhop of Straibourg, of Madame ue la Motte and the Necklace, could not tolerate, fucli a lln as that of printing Voltaire in the town ! Kehl was planned by that defpot, Louis XIV. as the avenue to ufurpation on the eaflern fide of the Rhine. Thus becoming a printing-houfe, it reverfes that doom, and counteracSts the ufurpations of defpotifm in their fource. After Frihurg, the fummjts with fnow on them, appear? And advancing, by eafy afcents, over lands flourilhing with cattle, cultivation, and woods, amidft the highlands of Suabia and Alface, united by the providential bounty of nature, diffevered only by the mifchief of man ! And then the view revels over the valleys and mountains of Switzerland ! The fenfations on the eye thrill with rapture on the heart. Each emotion rifes with the furrounding wonders of the fcene— and the fublimities of nature, ira* prefs morals and politics equally fublime ! Dole is the entrance into Switzerland^ where the open<» in^ ( 349 ) Jttg, as at the Blenheim portal, is worthy of the whole f where the Lakes appear! and the feries of Aips, from Dauphine to St. Gothard ! Bafle is but a wicket. With a few fliowy mountains, and the Rhine, there is a ftream of paftoral and romance. But all other, the ideal preferences prevail,, and rufh with undiminilhed blifs upon the mind ! Each excellence of the people, and their inftitutions, perfonal and foclal ! Their cafe ; profperity and peace ; their power of forcing fortune — peopling the defart, and fertilifing the rock! — Maintaining, venerably, the fimplicity of nature, and the dignity of man — admired for fafe virtue, for pra(5lical know- ledge, for defenfive valour ! Thus you approach Bafle. — You breathe the air of free- dom. And your wifhes v/ould fain afpire to virtue. Preju- dice and perverfenefs, like the dark and foggy meteor are below you. And the fpirit brightens at the look of light and life ! Memory fondly ftrains after Euler and Maupertuis, Bernouilli and Erasmus — and, firm and lofty in natural elation, you would foar after the objedls you are privileged to attain, the complex perfections of thought and action, the FAME OF THE KNOWING, AND THE MERIT OF THE €OOD. *rKE ENS AT Augfbourg the late Lord Baltimore printed a meagre quarto of profe and poetry, Latin French, with Vignettes and engraved title page. He infcribed it to Linneus, with a prediction, foon well fulfilled, of the eftecm and admi- ration which awaited him. The title is — Gaudia Poetica, Latlna, Anglica, et Gallica, Lingua Compofita. A, 1769. Auguftje LItterls Spathianls, 1770. At Augfbourg this book is not to be fotmd. The only copy known is in the colledlion of Linneus. There are the four following letters from Linneus to Lord Baltimore. They are a curiofity, and elfewhere not to be had. The reft of the work is not worth remcmbei- ing. ff= FAMILIAR AND FRIENDLY LETTERS, BETWEEN LORD BALTIMORE AND C. L I N N .£ U S, • N THE SUBJECT OF LORD BALTIMORE'S WORKS. EPISTOL^ Urbanitatis Caufa Scriptae, Inter F. B. & C. L. Ad Originem liujus operis fpectantes. VIr longe fapientiffime, Si omnes, ficut ego, cogltarent non folummodo capfulas aureas, fed maximos honores et emolumenta pro te darenf Felix qui te audit, et eft ter felix patria, qux te pofTedet. Res abditoe, quas non fcripiifti ex timore cscse maligni- tatis human^e, plus valent quam thefauri fcientiarum tuarum, quos fumma confideratione perlegam, et te inter celeberri- mos philofophos in oethere locabo. F. B. Holmiiej die l6 Jan, 1769. Z z To ( 354 ) To C. LINN^US, &c. Moft learned Sir ! WERE all men of my mind, not only golden coffers would be at your fervice, but every thing which honour as well as emolument can do. Happy he who hears you. Thrice happy the country which poflefTes you. The un- divulged difcoveries which you muft have, and which from fear of human violence you may have fuppreiTed, I hold in more account, than even the treafure you have made known. Over thefe I ponder with incefTant conflderation. They muft raife you to the higheft exaltation of philofophic fam^, F. B, Ztockholnty Jan, i6, 1769. T. C. de B. S, P, C. L. UTI In te, illuftriffime domine comes, prsefente miratus lum, fummam fapientiam poiTe nafci in viro opulento, ita ct nunc magnanimitatem tuam : dum projicis aurea dona vi- liffimis homuncionibus, qualis ego fum. Mehercle cana prius gelido defit abfynthia campo, quam uti immemor vivam. Incede viam tibi foli perviam, dum ego lega^a fuaye manuum tuarum opus. JJpfaliaj Junii dk 18, J']6g. To LORD BALTIMORE. Mv Lord, WHEN we were together, it feemed to mc aftonifliing that a very rich man fhould ever become a very wife man. Now, um I ftruck at your magnificence; which can be thus lavifh ( 355 ) lavifli to a man fo humble as I am. The wormwood (hall fooner ceafe to love the cold plain, than I can think to live with any coolnefs in my remembrance of you. Go on in advances acceffible only to yourfelf, and let mc profit by what you may produce. LINN^US. Upfalj June iB, i'j6g, Illuftriflimo Comiti, de B. S. P. D. C. a L. QUOD tam cito attigifti eras Ruthenicas, illuftiflimc comes ex animo gratulor ; quod vero mei, homuncionis, non oblitus es, mihi pleno gaudio gratulor. Pro continuatione carminum tuorum de itineris progrellu grates reddo devotiffimas. Video, quam tu non lis fadlus fed natus potta ! Dum Virgilius defcribit MiriiJi.\vxoa-iy feu animarum tranfmigrationem, de fe dicit: olim Achilles cramfic tu dicere poflis : olim Virgilius eram. Audivi multa de imperatricis magnificentia ; nullus tamen earn magis te ▼ivide delineavit. Legi jam bis opus tuumde itinere orien- tal!, idque fummo cum oble£lamento. PoUes ea fapientia, qua potes paucis verbis magis vivid e delineare argumentum, quam alii diffiufiffimo fermone. Sequor te votis meis, teque tanquam coram me lifto, quoties intueor donum tuum, pretiofiffimum omnium, quod ab ullo in vita accepi lint tibt fata profpera. Up/alia, 1769, 15 Aug, To LORD BALTIMORE. My Lord, I congratulate you very heartily, that you are foon^^ar- rived in Ruffia: and, it adds to my congratulation, joy, tjaat you can, in fpite of diftance, be mindful of me. Z z 2 You ( 2S6 ) You have my fincerefl thanks for the continuation oi your poetical tour *'. It is manifefl that poetical compo- fition In you is not an artificial knack: but, that you are a poet born ! If Virgil, defcribing the metempfychofis, could fay of his own tranfmigratlon, that in a pre-exiftence he had been Achilles. To you it may be equally fuppofeable that you have pre-exifted as Virgil ! I have heard much of the Czarina's magnificence. The mofl vivid delineation Is from you. Twice have I read the oriental part of your tour ; and with undiminifhed pleafure. You can, fuch is your Ikill, fay more in a few words, than others can exprefs in an ela- borate declamation. I follow you with my befl good wifhes. And, Indeed, we are not afunder, as I think of your bounty to me. Bounty f the moll magnificent, I ever found In my life. May fate, fir, ever favour you. C. L. Vpfal.Aug. 15, 1769. Viro Immortali de B. S. P. D. C. L. ACCEPI aureos tuos Verficulos, Illuflr. D. Comes, qui- bus iter tuum Drefdam ufque defcripfiftl; nee pulchrius leg! unquam. Sele£la enim verba ita exprimunt puriffi- mos fenfus, ac li oleo inundta afTent. Ledlor horam tam- quam per pafTus Te fequor toto itinere, ita vivis coloribus depingis peragratas regiones. Faxit Deus, at feliciter ab- * In hexameter Latin verfe. No lines of which appeared tolerably wortk repealing. + It does not appear what the prcfent was which Lord Ealtimore had fent (• LiRR«U8. folvas, ( 357 ) folvas, qure reflant itlneris, dum me partic'ipem redderc, non dedigneris fatorum tuorum, fcias neminem te puriorc ct majore efFeclu profecuturum, neminem puriore grati- tndine te culturum, neminem c tuls litteris majorem volu- ptatem unquam obtenturam. In te enim pr'ifca virtus radiat. Tu in fumma felicitate non fuco, non auro externc fplendes, fed fumma fapientia interna fulges. Te fapinti- orem certe vidi neminem. Aurea tua carmina legi et re- legi millies ; quod me his exhilarare voluifti, grates reddo, et reddam dum vixero, fummas. Mihi fumma gloria erit, numerari inter tuos cultores vel infimum. Deus te fervet incolumem. Up/alia, 1769. November 13. To LORD BALTIMORE. My Lord, I HAVE received your excellent verfes, ■which defcrlbe your journey to Drefden. I never read any thing more beatuiful : either for purity of idea, or for feledtion of phrafe. Labour never was more fuccefsful. The Reader can go with you all along : and difcriminate throughout the whole form of each veftige — the very colour of every view. May God grant that you may end as well as you have began : and let me not be difdained, to fhare in whatever may befal you. None can follow you with more grateful emotion. The pleafure I have from your letters, is as great as can be. For, in thee beams forth the antique virtue. Your diA tin6tions are not external only, from mere hue, and fepa- rable circumftances ; but from internal qualities and in- alienable fkill ! More fkill, I never faw. Your admirable lines I have read again and again. And as you wifh to pleafc (358) pkafe and chcrer me, again and again yOu have my thanks ; as long as thanks fhall be mine to give. — It is a prime wifh in my heart to be among thofe who refpedl and love you, — May God blefs you, Sir, &c. &c. LINNtEUS. Upfaly 13 Nov. I'j6p, llluftriffimo GeneroUffimoquc Comiti, B. S. P. D. C. a L. ACCEPI tuas, vir fapientiffime, d. 6. Januarii Auglburgh datas, cum inclufis divinis iis carminibus. Nefcio, utrum in his idearum puritas an etiam verborum pi6lura praspon- deret, ubi ambse faciatiffimo connubio ita jundlae lint, ut fimile non viderim. Quod autem mihi infcribere velis im- mortale opus, non cupio; vereor magis, ne meo rudi nomine nitidiflima tua carmina tanquam levi figura obli- nas. Novit nemo me melius deblitatem ingenii propriam ct ^a.fo(ezf^ocTx mea heu nimis multa: nifi eo velis umbram addere pi£lurje, ut purior exfurgat tanquam pulcherrima Venus fuliginofo Vulcano nupta* etiamnum formoiior eva- dit j vel etiam cum fata tibi foli et concefTere fatis opum, et iimul fapientiam fummam, ut non opus habeas jleElere genua regihus \ eos imitaris, qui, cum non habeant panes, bcnefi- cia fua conjiciunt in infimos homunciones. Nunc vero, dum •video pi acuijfe tibiy mihi infcribere immortale opus, id efFecifti, Ut anxia femper mente colam fapientiam in te fummam. Dabam Up/alia, 1 770. 6 Feb, To ( 359 ) To LORD BALTIMORE. Moft learned Sir, I HAVE your letter of January 6 from Augfbourg : with the very fuperior verfes which were inclofed. Again, I know not, which to prefer, your imagination, or expreffion ; both are united ; and with unexampled force. That you fhould incline to infcribe the immortal work to me, cannot be my defire. I rather fear it. Left there may- be fome fhade from my rude name to dim the fplendor of your verfe. — Though, perhaps, knowing myfelf, my few powers, and many overiights, you may, perhaps, purpofely take them for the effedt of contraft, as fhadow to your pidure. For beauty herfelf, in contiquity with Vulcan, feems, as from a foil, inore captivating and fair. Or it may be, as fortune favors you no lefs than know- ledge, fo that you have no need to fully your knee in courts, you may afpire after that fyftem which we adore — which, far above all, is lavifh of bounty to the leaft ! In your determination of infcribing your immortal work to me, you do it, I fuppofe, that my anxious mind may be ever obfequious to your worth. LINN.^US. IJpfal^Feh. 6, 1770. lUuftriffimo Comiti de B. S P. D. C. L. HODIE iterum habui honorem fapicntiffimi comitis, d ■25 Januarii fcriptas accipere ; ad mores devotiffimum meum refponfum dedi ante aliquot dies. Quotidie lego et religo tua divina carmina, et quotidie magis magifque intelliao pro- ( 36o > profundiffimam tuam fapientiam. Te non non tangat ma- litia humana : novifti homines elTe natura malosy fola cultura ct fapientia evadere bonos. Letare, quod habeas invidiam, €t rideas m'tjer natus e/}, qui caret invidia. Quo major feli- citas, eo major invidia. Tu longe fupra invidiam pofitus es ; te non attingat. Profedlo, fi elTem in tua felicitate, ut tu, viverem. Qu^ major felicitas quam pofle vivere, ubicum- que placeat, videre orbem et gentes, habere, ut nihil deficiat, omnia ? Pro honore, quo me velles cunmulare, grates red- do devotiffimas, novum hoc efTet documenlitum favoris tui in me : fed dudum receptus fui non tantum in Societate Regia Londinenfi, fed et in Anglicana occonomica qux curat, et Edinburgenfis etiam ; fum enim metnbr?ini Socie- tatis Londinenfis, Anglican?e, Edinburgenfis, Parifinse, Monfpehenfis, Tolofanse Florentine, Bernenfis, Cellenfis, Berolenenfis Petropolitan?e, Holmienfis, Upfalienfis, Na- turje curioforum vifi de bonenfis, adeo plurium, quam quibus polTum fatisfacere. Tu ne cede malls, te noverit ultimus ifter, te Boreas gelidus. Te feliciorem novi neminem, modo ipfe fcias Qviid levius homine verba metuente Luna properat fuum curfum, nee tetratus cannm curat. Tibi plura Dii concefTere* O! ter quaterque felix ! bona fi tua noris. Dab am Upfaliay 1770, ( 3^9 ) throws— but not, as before, each burA: followed by a de tonation ! — This abfencc of all found, they note, accurately to have happened eighteen times together ! The nineteenth burfl: they record to have been with detonation, as before — and therefore the detonation, they rationally conjecture, to have been anomalous, or accidental ! — A conje(5lure, afterwards well fortified at Naples by the Abbe Fortis, who obferving on the fame object, had made an inference which is the fame ! In the ufual progrefs of curlofity, he was led from contemplation of this phenomenon, to the tracing of its caufe. And thus, very ingenioufly, he tried to trace it.— The caprice In the phenomenon, if it can be called fo — that is, its irregularity, its intermiffions, the reader fhould be re- minded, has not been noted by any preceding obfervers on the volcano. The theory of Spallanzani is this : The fire is, of itfelf, not fufficient to form explofions. There muft be with it an elaftic fluid, which difengages it- felf from the liquid lava, forces up on high a portion of it as it flows. Thus, it may feem, that it muft ever.be. But, continues Spallanzani, but I do not think I err if I fay it can be only in certain limits. Every time that the elaftic fluid difengages itfelf acting againft the lava, then with a force, fingle, abrupt, and violent, the explofion or report of fuch a6lion muft be pro- portionably loud. — But, on the contrary, the report iliall be little or none, when the force (of the elaftic fluid difengaging from the lava) fliall be in a feries of actions uninterrupted, uniform, equably fuftained ! And this difference of explo- fion may furely happen, though the matter exploded may be the fame. This perfpicuous idea is well and beautifully expanded by • 3 B the ( 370 ) the familar inflance of the pop-gun* — let that well known toy, the aperture at each end well clofed, as ufual, on the at- mofpherical air, fills the tube within, if the pellet be addition- ally driven out with fudden force, the found of it will be fmart — if the force be flow, the found will be little or nothing ! — for it is the prerogative of fplendid parts to brighten wherever it touches — to aggrandife what to common eye feems little^ and fometimes faint image of creation, to draw light out of darknefs, and form fomething out of nothing. — Thus every body may recolle£l, the chief fages' dodtrine of light and colours, from the fchool-boy's foap bubbles as he trifled in wafliing his hands ! And thus a leading fyfliem of the uni- verfe became explained by obfervations fubtle and pro. found, on the fall of a common apple ! This clever train of new thought on the volcanic hail will end as v/ell as it was began ; for he fays, that though there was no perceivable detonation, it is by no means con- clufive that there was none :— on the contrary, probably there might be fome, though from cafual circumfl:ances of diflance, &:c. the obferver could' not hear it. On the lava then, thus falling on the flank of the moun- tain, the obfervations of Spallanzani were thefe — that be- tween the fouth and the eaft — that the diflance from the crater was about half a milc^ — that the vent-hole?, or chim- neys, (his word \sfumajoIi ) on the declivity, Virere more than fixty — that the opening in one of them v/as about nine feet diameter — that the cavernous part of it had but little depth —that the foil on the fpot from which thefe vent-holes rofe was of a yellow tint, as formed by murratico-ammoniac fait —that the heat of the ground was fuch, the foot could not bear it, though at fome diftance, even for a few feconds.— As for this local heat, he traces it to the Angle fource of contigruity and communication with the fire within. • The wind -gun, - * On ( 371 ) On the fouth fide, at fifty yards diftance from the fpot, 'fv'here three months before the lava had flowed, the lava was now as hard as a ftone. He faw it flow, firfl: in a troush ; it then ifllied at two miles diftance from the fum- mit of Vefuvius, forming a current, quite uncovered, to the open air ! Curious to infpe^l the trough— thefe were the appear- ances he has preferved : The figure of the trough wos an oval, twenty-three feet diameter — the fides, ahnofl: vertical, were four feet and a half high — the lava was old, which filled the bottom— and had a movement from north to fouth.— A thick fmoke rofe, and reverberated by, and on the burning lava produced a red light, which hurt the eye, at a great diftance during the night. This fmoke was loaded with acid-fulphurious exhalations. Thefe hid the liquid lava. And it was only when the wind favoured the view, and by getting to windward, that the obferver could fpeculate at his eafe. Then leaning over the trough, and his lov/er limbs but five feet diftance from the lava, the heat was fuch, as, from time to time, forced him to retire!— The lava flowed from, north to fouth — and hid itfelf in the fiffures of the lava which had become hard.— Its furface was red— like burning coal ; but without the leaft fliow of flame. He compared it to bronze fufing in the furnace ! covered with a whitilh foam i at times, bubbling •, the bubbles foon burfting, not without noife, and a little throw.— After which the lava fmoothed and flattened a-new. Spallanzani then let fall into it fome fragments of the old lava the only hard fubftance which prefented itfelf — and on dropping, the found was fuch as when a ftone falls upon foft earth. Of thefe fragments, about one-third of their volume was fteeped in the lava, and thus were carried by it as it flowed. 3 B 2 The ( 372 ) The velocity of the lava's current became cognizable hj this experiment ! for the fpeed of the ftream was defined by the motion of the flone — which in half a minute had over-ran a fpace but often feet and a half! — A tardinefs of motion to be explained only by the little Hope in the ground. It was obvious why the fragments of old lava, when flung in, were fteeped only one-third of their volume — for they were of a fpongy texture, and of fpecific gravity, lefs than the body on which they fell — In the fame manner as a globula of glafs caft upon glafs in a flate of fluidity, is obferved not to fink, but to fwim. As for the degree of heat in the lava, as It flowed, unfor- tunately he could not afcertain it ! He could have done it eafily and furely, with the ther- mometer of Wedgwood. But that thermom.eter he had not with him. With that thermometer, he could have attempted to de- cide, not only the fuperficlal and external heat, but that which was deep feated and within ! Falling of that Inftrument, he would have ufed the £oU lowing expedient. He would have had one of the cylinders clofed in a fphere of thick Iron, fufpended by the Iron chain, as the iron fluxes not in a common furnace, there would have feemed a probability that the metal might have re- fifted alfo the lava as it flowed — but. If it had not, the metal had melted. Thus melting fo far, it would have be- ine a kind of thermometer In itfelf. Though this experiment may not afcertain the heat of every lava — yet, iu this Inftance, as far as it went, it was declfiye. And not being able to return to Vefuvius, ha could decide no more. To thofe who would repeat this experiment, there is no denying that there was fome danger in it. But they, who have ( 373 ) have too quick a Tenfe in finding danger, -muft be content, without fearching into the awful wonders of volcanos ! Having departed from the trough, and pafilng over a mile of ancient lava, they make record of thefe d Icoveries, That, in the ancient lava, there was flill fuch intenfe heat as to burn their flioes ! — and that under the folid lava, they were as fenfible of a fluid; they heard and they felt it, as indifputably as in paffing a frozen river; there is often a fure fenfe of floating water under the upper furface of ice ! Thus, luckily, illuftrating the elements and qualities of nature, by their contraries the moft oppofite, tire with water, and burning lava with ice, Spallanzani reviews his fenfations under each extreme — and, as might be expedled, he adjudges the imprefTions to be lefs from mountains of fnow, than from flreams of fire! And no wonder, when againfi: Alpine horrors there are the obvious mitigations of diet and clothing — thefe fimplify the fufFering — there may- be hardfhip, but without hazard. It is fatigue only, but it is not fear ! Following then the lava, it defcends over an inclined plain, forming with the horizon an angle of about 45 de- grees — the run of the lava was then eighteen feet in a minute. There, in fpite of the heat, intolerable when the wind blew towards them, Spallanzani and his friend, approached the lava within ten feet ! They threw into the burning flream fome more fragments of the hardened lava — and the found was the fame as of one fi:one upon another ! A ftate- ment this, agreeing with the obfervations of Sir William Hamilton : he alfo flung a larger fragment of the har- dened mafs into the fluid lava as it flowed with fuch fingu- lar rapidity in the year 1766, and the imprefl[ion was very irifling, though he flung with all his force. Of ( 374 ) Of this lava, the light, the liquidity, the fpeed, all were In different degrees proportioned to the diftance from the fource, and the contadl with cold air diminifhing its heat. After two miles the current flopped, forming a kind of folid lake, folid at lead fuperficially — and it loft all the colour, red, at 200 fteps before it finiftied its career! in contracambia. Here it is that Spallanzani, fuperbia qusefita meritis, ad-» dreffes M. de Luc, and invites him to the Univerfity of Pavia, to fee in the unrivalled mufeum there, a cylinder of lava i'6 Italian inches long by 5| thick ! The cylinder is curved. The curve it received from the hands of the perfon who had curved it, when in a ftate which was femi-liquid. The Monf. de Luc above-mentioned, is a ftudious gen- tleman of Geneva, who, fo far back as 1 7 58, had fhevvn, in his cabinet, with fome fmall elation, a fpecimen of lava, marked alfo when it was foft and plaftic, with the ferrula of a walking cane. Thefe obfervations are then compared with thofe of the Do£tor Serrao, of Father la Torre, of Monf. de Luc, and of our accomplilhed countryman Sir William Hamilton— and with thefe opinions, Spallanzani on the chief points for the moft part agrees. But he differs utterly from others who have erroneoufly aflerted on Vefuvius, that the lava was not liquid, but only foft — that it falls in a ftream-like form only by the effe*£l of its proper weight. Affertions which he difproves from his better views of the lava, not only in the open air, but where a judgment on it muft be moft fure, and where and before him unattempied in its paffage through the trough. Analytically examining the lava, he found the bafe of it the roche cornea roccia de corno — the colour a blackilh grey — the fubftance moderately hard — dry to the touch— whea ( 375 ) xrl\en broken, fliewlng earthy particles mixed with colour- lei's granites, and with Ihorles — it moved the magnetic nee- dle at three lines and a half diftance — it ftruck fire — the Jhorls exifting in the fluid lava were not altered by the fire — while on the contrary thofc burfting from the crater in globular forms have endured incipient fufion. In the furnace of a glafshoufe, and by the word furnace he means that of a glafshoufe always, the lava changes into an enamel (boUicofo) coloured like fhining pitch, fticking to the fides of the crucible— the fliorls were fufed — -but the granites become whitifli without lofing their luftre. After infpecfting this recent lava, he was eager to exa- mine that which fell in November 1785, and his obferva- tions on it, he very allowably thinks may be the more in- terefting, the fubject for what he knows not having been, touched by any body before. Of the lava in November 1785, the extent was great. The greateft quantity was in a valley under MafTa, and on the fide of Salvatori, formed in beds feveral feet deep, but the continuity broken by many a cleft. The furface was irregular and often rendered rugged by a vaft number of cylindrical bodies twifted like ropes, and probably formed by the lava when It ceafed to flow. As this lava, in its precipitation from a high rock muft: fall as a fort of cata- ract, its appearance in the darknefs of night muft have formed a fpeftacle very rare ! Although in this fall the obvious aflion of the air muft have much mitigated the aftual heat, yet notwithftanding the fluidity, one evidence of remaining heat continued very far — and on the fide of Mafia, meeting a plantation of oaks in its track, fome of the trees where the current came, in- •ftantly dried up and withered ! while in fome on the fide oppofite to the current, vegetation and verdure were ftlU kept! There i; ( 3-« ) There were other difaHrous phenomena in its track? 'The church of La Madonna della Veteranna, now quite de- Terted, was the firft fpoiled ? The lava flowed againft the door. The door was burnt ! The walls next were eafily demoliihed, for they were of foft tufTo, and the lava then fpread throughout the church. In the church-yard feme lime trees were blafted and black ! For fifteen months the lava flowed ! and in the twentieth ■month, after it had ceafed to roll, there ftill was heat, and it fmoked lightly here and there ! About a mile from Vefuvius, below Salvatori, is the ample hollow, called Fofla Grande. It was formed by the rain. This was the way by which Spallanzani returned to Naples, and thefe are the conflderations which made him glad that he did pafs that way. For thus he has been able to illuftrate, with new light, a part of mineralogy hitherto obfcure. On the formation of thofe curious fubflances which arc ^called fhorls and feldfpates (there is, the tranflator thinks, no trivial name) naturalifls are divided. Some think them 'to have been formed while the lava was ardent and fluid, others when the lava begun to cool and to indurate — and many, perhaps more, judge them to have been primitive cxiftences, original in the rock, prior to any produdlions from a volcanic change. Even Bergman, who opened on the queftion, has not clofed it concluiively. And Spallan- zani himfelf was not able to decide till he faw the above- mentioned appearances in the Fofla Grande. His deciflon, as might be expe£led, is, for the lafl: opinion, that the fhork and feldfpates are exifl;ences not derivative but primitive in the rock. The nature of the rock in one part is mergaceas, with >lime-fl:one (carbonat de calci) however prevailing ia it, no calcined, but as we fee in ftones not volcanic. ( 377 ) It is proveable that they have not fuiJered from fire— for on breaking them numerous feldfpats are feen cryftal- lifed and externally the fame as thofe in other currents of the lava from Vefuvius. There are to be feen many feld- fpats, and yet more fhorls, untouched, that I could, and I would, augment the clafs of undamaged ftones. But, as for the prefence of the feldfpats and the fhorls, and their different cryftallizations in the lava, there is now no difficulty to afcertain and i^nderftand them. There is no need of recurring for their origin to any circumftance of the lava, whether hot or cold, or fluid, or fixed, fince as they are found in the lava, we can alfo find them in the ftony fubftances from which they derive their being. Such were the obfervations, fuch are the opinions of Spallanzani on the volcano of Vefuvius. Our learned rea- ders have of courfe perceived that he has done much, per- haps as much as could have been rationally expected of him — he has been fedulous, acute, inventive, original, and juft ! He has feen appearances which had efcaped preceding feers ! He has thought with novelty and with force, where fo many qualified perfons had been thinking before I 3C APPENDIX APPENDIX. ■aS WHILE the publication was by an accident delayed, the affiduous kindnefs of two or three friends fupplied further information relative to the books firft printed afe Mentz, &c. The following are the copies of them, ia other libraries at Oxford and Cambridge. IN THE BODELIAN. Biblia Latina — 2 vol. fol. circa 1450 f/ed ahfque nota loci ftve annij — Editio Primse Vetuftatis. Typis Mogunt. Joh. Fust Evulgata, Cujus Parifiis Adfervatur Exemplar in Bi- bliotheca Mazarinea. (The Mazarine Bible fuppofed to be unique). ^^"^ Such is the opinion now given to me, and it is to be received with the attention due to learning and judgement, both of great account. Yet there are grounds for doubt — and till minute collation fhall decide the abfence of all va- riation between the copies, the probability, from paft trials of the fame fort, muft be in favour of the prevalent idea, that the Mazarine copy is unque. Of the copy which was fold in M. de Galgnat's fale, 1 769, there was for a time a flmilar opinion ; but, on comparifon 3 C 2 with -y 380 APPENDIX. with the Mazarine Bible, the opinion was found not tenable. The two or three bibles lately brought into England are, it may be conjeftured, the fame as that fold at M. de Gaignat's. Continuation of the Bodelian Books. The Durand^ 1459, is there. The Bible, by Fuft and Schcfiffer, 1462, (tom. imus. in membr.) — This is what is commonly called the Mentz Bible, Idem Liber, 4 tom. 1462. Tully's Offices, by Fuft, 1465. T. Aguinas, by SchcefFer, 1467. St. Hieronymi Traftatus et Epiftole, by Schoeffer, 1470. Valerius Maximus, Schoeffer, 147 1. St. Auguftine, 1473. Pauli de Sanfla Marie Scrutinium Scripturarum. Pet. Schosffer. 1478. Barth. de Channis Interrogatorium. P. Schoeffer. 1478.— Thefe are all the Bodleian Library has by Fuft and Schosffer. . — There is the Livy of the fecond Schoeffer, 15 18— but neither the Catholicon nor the Conftitutiones Clementis V. The oldeft Pfalter in the Bodleian is 1476 — printed at Naples, by Hen. Aiding and Perigren. Bermentelli — 8vo. — A fcarce book this ; though not fo fcarce as the Venice Pfalms in i486 — nor the third edition of the Mentz Pfalms in 1502. — The firft and fecond have been mentioned in the chapter upon Me'mtz. AT CAMBRIDGE. Added to what was alfo ftated in the chapter upon Meintz, there is nothing by Fuft or Schoeffer in the libra- ries of Trinity or St. John's. At St. John's— the firft Pfalter is by Aldus, at Venice, 1495- Their firft Bible, by Coburger, at Nuremberg, in the APPENDIX. 381 year 1500. — This Is remarked, by Thoinas Baker, to be the laft book printed by Coburger. — This book, he might have added, I believe, is of no great value. Lefs, indeed, than the iirft copy by Coburger, 1477. And that never fold in any of the great fales of M. de Soubife, Due de la Valiere, &c. for four pounds. ^ Their firft Tully (de Officiis Lugd.) is 1556. The firft Valerius— Milan, 1508. At Trinity College — Alfo, there are not any fpeclmcns of the earlleft printing. The firft Pfalter there Is, the Paris Quincuplex, 1508— the Bible — that by Aldus, Venice, 1518 — the Ximenoi Bible is at Trinity. INDEX. INDEX, Page Pago Mr. Pott,Fourcroi,LavoIfier,&c. z Eaft India Commerce 9 Edinburgh, and London a Pragmatic Sani5lion 10 Pavia and Padua • 3 The American Crufade JO Fabricius and Harvey 3 Cork II Bologna 3 Government and Law 11 Florence and Fontana 3 Scotland II The Pope's State 3 Sheernels - - 11 Francis I. - 3 Emigrants 12 County of Kent 4 Sir C. Grey I» Sir R. Taylor, Lord Eardly - 4 American Republic » 13 Sir R. Boyd 4 InfcriptioTi - » »J Sir Gregory Page 5 Flanders 16 Falft fFe, Mr. Henderfon J Travelling in Flanders • 16 Weftminfter Bridge 5 Stivinus 16 Bccket and Erafmus 5 Nieuport, Dunkirk, St. Omer, Taylor and Hooker 5 Lille j6 Stukeley 6 Canals - - 16 Dover and Cinque Ports 6 Duke of Bridgewater 17 Itinerary f Autonir.us . - 6 Brindley and Smeaton 17 Sir H. Oxenden 7 Coft and Profits of the Bridgewater Foote •• 7 Navigation - jS Churchill 7 Virgil 18 Mr. Wilkes and Humphrey Coates 7 Roman want of Canals 18 Paflage from Dover 8 Flemifli Canals 18 Samer and Montrcuil 8 Agriculture in Flanders '9 Oftend 9 Implements of Hufbandry '9 Trade « • 9 Ploughing *9 Manur^ INDEX. Page Manures - - ao Scavengers in London and Paris 20 Pradlice at Bruxelles - 20 L'Ecole Vettrinuire - ao M. ChubertandM. Flandrin, and Ducde Charrot - :o Buffon - - 21 Boerhave and Linnjeus - 21 fens, Flcmifh and Romney Marfii 22 Jurifprudence for Cattle - 2a Vi j8 The Government of Brabant 59 Marechal Koneyfegg and M. de Mcternich - 60 Routine of Law - • 61 Qualifications of Nobles ib. Englifh Nobility - - 63 Tiers Etat - - » ib. Seflion of the States » 64 Charles V. and VI. - 65 Privy Council - - 66 Conceil des Finances - 67 Law Proceedings - • ib. Roman Law, and Commercial and Criminal - - 68 Liflc - - - ib. Bruges and Bruxelks » ib. Liege, Juliers, Cologne ib. Turnhout - - - ib. Qualifications for a Lawyer 6g Thonlieu - . ib. Mayor's Court - m ib. Imprimatur - - 70 Judges and Town Officers ., ib. Alexander Farnefe and Charles of Lorraine - » 71 Revenue and Intereft of Money ib. The Chi.f Prifon - - ib. Lotteries, a little atoned by their application - - . 74 Italian Lotteries - - ib. Mont de P.ete - - ib. Pawnbrokers - - ib. Coeberghcr - - - 73 Page Intereft of Money •• 73 Minors - • ib. The Chancellor - ■ ib, Van-de-Velde - • ib* Due d'Aremberg - 74 M. Walkeers ♦ ib. 7'he Carnival - > ib, Vandernoot ard Vonk » ib, Spiegeleus and Vefalius, Breighel and Van Meulen - ib, Boilcau and Racine « jc '* One Arnold'* and Gen. Bur» goyne » • ib. Le Grand Arnaud « - y5 Duke Albert » ^ ib, French Fugitives— Conde, Mon^ fieur, &c. - « - ib. Louis XIV. and James 11. ib. Julius 1 ipfius • • ib. Van Vein - , -7 Laws, &c, adminiftered by the people . . ib. Marriages, Baptifms, Burials ib. Pluralities, Orders and Rural Deans - . . 73 St. Gudule — the Revenues ib. Hofpitals, Madhoufes, &c. ib« Lyons, York, Milan - 79 Length of Life • ib. Population, England, Naples, Holland - = 80 Difeafes and Meteorological Ob- fervations - - ib Georgical and ManufaAures, Printing, &c. - - 8j Roads and Streets ^ ib. Wine and Water » gj Academy (des Belles Lettres) ib. Syfteni of Life - - » ib. Freight, Labour, Travelling, and Provifions — their price 83 Taxes " • - 84 B Bij|« INDEX. Page SJills of Exchange, Germany, Switzerland, England, France, Italy, Dantzig - - 84 Defeat and Slaughter of the Ger- mans and French - 86 Scenery on the Road from Brux- elles - » - 87 L.ouvainc - - - S8 The Univerfity - - 89 Boerhave,Blackftone,andLipfius ib. paennial Bill - - 91 Popular Decline - - ib. Brewery - - - 9* Warburton - - ib. Graduation and Patronage ib. Apoftoiic Months - - ib. Emprefs Queen ■ - - ib, Le6lures, Seffion, and Vacations 93 (preek Manufcripts, and Bible of Bcffarion - - - ib. Schools of Divinity, Law, Medi- cine, &c. TextBocks and Claffics 94 Printing, Elzever and Plantin 96 Emigrants, Nonjurors, &c. ib. The Reformation - - 97 Thomas Stapleton - - ib. Sir Thomas More and Garetus 99 Garetus - - - ib. Juftus Lipfins ; his Epitaph 100 Infcription on Alardus, by Eraf- nius _ . - - xos Infcription on Profeffor Lupus 102 iLick'us - - - 103 Gclrifmith - - - ib. Reform at Louvaine - - ib. Horrid adlions about St. Tron, Neerwinden and Landel loB Marechal Luxembourg » ib. Tirlemont and Hulans - log Due d'Arembcrg and Sir W. G. 110 Elindnefs - - in Mr. Stanley, Lord D. &c. ib. Game Latins - - ni Game Laws in France and Italy 112. Chantilli - - I13 Liftiof Game and Pcrfoni I14 Dogs and Horfes - - llj Stables— Buxton, Petworth, Wo- burn-Abbey, D. of Queenf- bury, D. of Orleaas, ^c. I16 Dog-houfes— Goodwood 11 f St. Trond - - ib» Brad.on • - 11 S Liege - - » ib. Abbe St. Farre » - 119 P. of Cobourg's Levy - i2« Lofs of Liege and fubfequent operations - - ib# Yhler's Retreat = - lai- Depopulation of Liege - ib* French Iron Work?, Birming- ham and Brofely - - I2X Fabius the Bourg-Mafter ib. Fame of the Liege Prince-Bifliops 1 « j Number of Ecclefiaftics - 124 Tythes and Church Lands 125 Queen Ann's Augmentation 12$ Proofs of Nobility - - ib. Card, de Granville and Wazon ib. Patronage - - J27 EngliSi taking the Vail ib. Government of Liege - i«9 Law Proceedings and Lawyers 131 Punifhments - - I32 Debtors . - - ib, Prifons - - I^ Florence and Vienna - - ib, Mr. Cruickfliank - - ib* Liege Pharmacopoeia, Phyfici- ans, &c. - - 13^ Trade and Manufadlures of Liege 13S Englifli Commiffary - ib, Charlevillc and St. Etienne ib. Nail Trade, Watch-making, &c. 137 Geneva, INDEX. Page •-ineva, Lord Stanhope, Gold ^ Alloy - - - - 1^7 Hat Trade - - 138 Pit Coal - - - ib. foreign Trade - - I40 Landed Property, Rents, Leafcs, Soils, Agriculture - ib. The Money Trade - - 141 Regiftcred Counties - ib. Mont de Pietc^Fire Infurances 14a Dumourier - - - 143 Sir John Mandevilfe's lifcrJption ib. Englifti at Liege - 145 Scenery upon the Meufe 147 NewRoad to Aix-la-ChapclIe 149 Popular Spirit at Aix - I50 Gambling » - - Ijz IhfcriptioTi on the Czar Peter ib. Spa Water o - 153 Bnglifh Scenery - - 154 Bmigrants - - 156 Lake of Geneva - - 158 Remarkable Viciflitudew « 159 Trade at Aix - - - i6a Regulation at Divine Service ib. St. Barnard - - - 164 Ihrcriptior-^Charlcmagne ib. Aldenhoven - - 16^ The River Rocr - - 166 Juliers - - - 167 Treaty of Munfter - - ib. Bavaiia and Pruflia - • ib. The Sacranient - - 168' Scenery - - 169 Cologne - - 17 * The People - - ib. Their Reprefentatives - lye The Clergy - - I73 The Ariftocracy - - il». The Archbiftiop - 174 The ElecSlor - - - ib. R«uffeau and Hume - ib. A D a P«ge Magiftrates, Senate, Town- Wards, &c. - _ 1.75 Penal LavvsjDebtors, Appeals, &C. 1^5 Police; Sufpendcd Animation 177 Fire Infurances, Bankers, tec. ib. Encouragers of America - ib. Proteftants . - 178! Tr:de and Manilfuftures - ib. Capt. Cooke - - - 173 The Rhine, Speed, Freight, &c. it- Price of Provifions, Taxes, &c. i8o Soldiery - « j8i Reubens ... ib, Vifcount B - - 183 Univer. of Cologne, Profef»ors, Leiflures, Text Books, See. 184 &c. Hofpitals, Foundlings, &c. 189 Infcription - - xgo Students, Fees, &c. " - xi)i Doftorates - - ib. Early Printing, Caxton, &c. 19a Pafchal and Rochefoucault - ib. Adam Schali, Vondell, and Ma- ria Schurman - - Iggf Infcriptions • « 104 Mylius, Strahan, and Allen 194 Courfe of Exchange, Money, Coins, &c. - - ib. Scenery on the Rhine 197 The Firft Vines— Parinfliill ib. Italian Virreyards » igS /Agriculture - - ib. Soil, Price of I>and,Taxes, Leafes 199 The People _ - - ^oo Bonne - - 20* Verfiilles and Manheim ib. The Praife of the Prince 203 The College — Anatomy, Bo- tany, Library - - ib. Theatre • - - ib. Profeflors in the UniverGt j ■ 304 Mr. Kcdffeil - - ib Mr INDEX. Page Mr. W. and Lord — — 404 Human Calculus - 206 Profcriptions againft Cologne 407 Jews . - 2o8 Pedigrees - - ib. Clergy - - - ib. The Eledor — his amufements and purfuits • - 209- Mineral Water - - 21 a Mr. Repton, Lord Bacon and Browne - - 215 The Palace, Piiftures, Natural Hiflory, Library, Baflcerville and Boydell - - 214 The States and Taxes 215 Diftiibution of Landed Property 216 Officers of Ordnance 218 Clubs - - ib. St. Martin — Helen, Julian, Drufus - - - 219 River Scenes - 220 M. de Calonne • - 222 Infcription - - 323 A Parfonage-^ln Germany and England - - 224 ZinzendorfF and Warburtsn ib. Hammerftcin Rocks — Seven Mountains — Dutch Dykes 225 Andernach, Drufus, Caefar, &c. ib. Neuwred - - t2f A becoming Prince - ib. Coblentz - - 231 The French Princes there ib. Their Court there - a^?, The Eledor's Court 233 Embaffadors and Councils 234 Mr. Fox, Mr, Sheridan, and Mr. Burke - 235 Condorcet and Monteftjuieu 236 The Mofelle - - 238 The Simois and the Tyber ib. Wine • • » 239 Pagtf Reforms by the Chief Maglftrate 240^ Augfbourg - - 244 Territo y and Revenues of the Eleftorateof Tieves ib* RealReprefentativesof the People ib. Ectl-'fuftical Jurifdidlion of I'reves w • - 243 The Military - 244k Pofition for Englifli Tradefmen ib. Taxes - . - 245' Life at Coblentz - - ib. The Palace - - ib.. Lawrence, Biechey, Raffaille, and Leonardo - 246 Fontenelle and Euripides 247 Road to Frankfort - 248 Ehriiibreiftein - ib. Woods and Farming - 249 Francfort and Tradefmen 250 Code of Carolina - 25I Treaty of Weftphalia - ib.. Exemplary Chapels - 25^ Mich. Angelo, Bramana, Pal- ladio, and Wyatt - ib. Pantheon, &c. - 253; The Fairs — Regulations on Bills of Exchange - - 255 Taxes, Elections, &c. - ib. Laws, Debtors, Criminals 256 The Guillotine, Bochius, Caracci ib.. Arts and Amufements - 257 Mr. Maty - - ib. No Annoyance of Soldiery ib. Cuftine - - ib. Scaliger - - 258 Oid Printing - - ib. The River Maine to Mayence 25^ Surrender of Mcntz - ib. Prufiian Hofpital - 260 Neckar, Lord C. the Marino, and Voltaire - - 261 The Scenery upon the Maine ib. Modern 1 N D E X. Papfc Modern Piety and Glory 261 Hockheim, Weifenaa, La Fa- vorite, Caffel - 263 Mayence after the Siege 264 Capt. Cooke and Sir R. Curtis 265 The Archited: Manzin ib. The Palace - _ - 266 Havoc of Human Nature ib. A Jubilee t« the Fifli - 267 Sufferings, price of Provifions in the Siege - - - ib. Stores taken - « _ 268 Debts of the French - 269 Bill Money and Paper Currency 270 iCing of Pruflia's Money, and new Money of the French Re- public - - - - 271 New Works at Caffel - 27,3 Printing at Mentz - 275 Lawrence Cofter - * ib. Guttenberg and Faft - 277 Peter S chaffer - - ib. Firft Idea of Types^ — Harvey and Newton - - 278 The Pfalter — Vienna, Paris, Lord Spencer, &c. - 279 Dute of Marlborough and Back- ingham-'houfe - - 280 Mr. Cracherodc's Library 281 Fuft and Schsjffer's Works ib. Firft German Bible - 28a Bodoni and Bulmer - 283 Valeriu- Maximus and Cicero ib. Firft Clr.ffics in Italy and at Paris 284 State of Printing in England— Caxton, Pinfon, and De Worde ib. Eiafmus, the Greek Phyficians, Linacre - - 385 Prefs firft grosn'd under a Li- cence - - 2'86 Star Chamber and Inquifition 287 JLibraries at Cambridge zSg Pag6 Dr. Farmer, Mr. Willet, Dr. Aflcew, Lord Sp-.-nccr 2^3 Royal and Antiquarian Socict'ci Britifh Mufcum, Sloane, &c. ib. Linnxus and Dr. Smith ib, Oxford, the Bodlxian — Fuft, Scha:ff>;r, &c. &c. - ijj, Mentz— Life, Local and Popu- lar Charadtcriftics - aal Expence of Governments zqm German Clergy - - ihu F.nglifh Noblemen - - ib. German Titles and Sinecure Places - - - - 29J Conftitutional Reforms 2«jj Taxes - - - 296 William III. - ib. liOtteries - - 297 Elciftive Chitf Magiftrate - ib. Undue Influences and Bad Alli- ances - - 29S Qualifications and Examinations 303 Popularity, Charles II. Henry V. 30a Charles I. Louis XVI. Nero 30s Revohirionary Spirit - 305 Laws and Punifhments - 30^5. PrifoDs &c. - ibj River Scenery from Mayence to Coblcntz 3-07 Mineralogy - 30S Monte Boica, Viterbo, Bala and PuzzuoH - ^oy Tarras and Puzzuolana - 310 Ro'van' Antiquities and Dutch Dykes - - ib. Echo, Ripley, Wren, Sir R. Walpolc, Milan, The Rhine 311 Angelica Kauffnian - 3r» Mr. W. of Eirminghim - jr.t Germans abnliftiing Tythes 317 La Favorite - 318! Condition of German! - 320 Scenciy t N D E X. Scenery and Soil Oppenbeim Bridge of Boats Wines Page ib. Burgundy, Clos dc Vougcot ib. Worms • - 3*4 Luther - - ib. Falfe Alarm, Bible Forbid 326 Leo X. Charles V. Erafmus, Melancthon - - ib. Jutiiftinus and Cardan - 3*7 Crimina's .Traitors and Blaf- phemers, Hampden, Sydney Galileo, St. Paul - ib. French at Worms - 328 George II. Detti»igen, Handel ib. Manheim - - 329 i)ifchargr. Form L9-Series 4939 rosi'iw D 917. E79J A A 000 284 363 9 I ■^^VS if' ^^4 !^^^ ^^^<* '■H, ^'^^■ ?'?' ^i^ ^--^sr