Great as is the extent of ground on which this city stands, it is

nevertheless very well built, and extremely populous. It is ornamented

with no fewer than seven squares, all of them remarkably fine,

particularly the great square or market-place, which is reckoned to be

perhaps the finest in Europe. Around it are the halls of the different

trades, the fronts of which are adorned, in a superb manner, with

emblematical sculpture, with gilding, and a variety of Latin

inscriptions. One quarter of this square is entirely occupied by the

town-houses, a noble pile of building, in which there were apartments

where the States of Brabant met, finely adorned with tapestry in gilt

frames, and some admirable original paintings. At the time I was there,

the whole city was in motion, preparing for the Inauguration of the

EMPEROR, who was then impatiently expected, and whose approach made such

a bustle, and promised such a spectacle, as made me regret the necessity

I lay under of proceeding on my journey. The town-house was put into the

highest order, and subsequently fell a sacrifice to the great and

important event for which it was prepared.

The steeple of this building is of a most stupendous height——three

hundred and sixty-four feet; and on the top of it is erected a statue of

Saint MICHAEL killing the Dragon, of the enormous height of seventeen

feet: this Colossal statue is so constructed as to serve for a

weather-cock; and being made of copper, well gilt, is at once

conspicuous, magnificent, and ornamental.

The public buildings of Brussels, particularly the Palaces and Courts of

the several Princes, Counts, and other persons of distinction, (and, you

may be sure, the Churches and Cloisters too), are spacious, expensive,

and magnificent. Behind the Imperial Palace, which stood in the highest

part of the city, but was burnt down many years ago, is a park, well

stocked with deer, and planted with trees, like St. James’s-park at

London, for the inhabitants to walk in. At the farther end of it is a

fine pleasure-house, built by the Emperor CHARLES the Fifth, after his

abdication.

The Palace is a magnificent structure: the rooms of it are finished in a

style far superior to those of any Palace in England, and enriched with

many fine paintings: that of the Family of HECTOR, in the Council

Chamber, lays claim to the first rank of eminence. Of the other

buildings (the grandeur of which entitle them to the names of Palaces),

those of the Prince de la Tour and Taxis, and the British Earl of

Aylesbury, are distinguished by great beauty and magnificence. Indeed,

in all the Palaces, there are collections of original paintings, by the

most eminent masters, both Italian and Flemish.

The Royal Library of Brussels claims particular attention, for the

magnitude and liberality of its establishment, containing a grand

collection of the most excellent books in all languages, and being open

all the year on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, to public access.

The Arsenal of Brussels is extremely well worth going to see, on account

of the very curious antique arms it contains——of which it is, at this

distance of time, impossible for me to give you any account worth

attention. The armour of the Emperor CHARLES the Fifth, together with

the furniture of his horse, and state sword, are shewn: I could see

nothing either novel or interesting in them——a strong mark; I presume,

of my want of taste; but I confess my organs are not so refined as to

feel any extraordinary emotions at the sight of a heap of inert matter,

merely because it once enveloped the carcase of a Tyrant: neither were

they so very coarse or dull as not to undergo very pointed sensations at

the sight of the armour of MONTEZUMA, the injured Emperor of Mexico, the

victim of avarice and rapine, under their usual mask, religion. Why

MONTEZUMA’s armour should make a part of the trophies of a Popish State,

and be triumphantly exhibited, is hard to account for in human folly:

why that should be exhibited which is a stain of the deepest-damned

black, in their black code of faith, is astonishing, unless we allow the

truth of the old saying, “Quos DEUS vult perdere, prius dementat;” and

that, after having violated every principle of virtue, morality, and

human feeling——after having surpassed in cruelty all that we know of the

worst monsters of the earth, or of the deep, the fell hyena, or the

ravening shark——after having successfully emulated the worst efforts of

the most malignant spirits that are said to hold counsel for the ruin of

Mankind in Hell——they were desirous to transmit the spoils of their

ravages to posterity, to tell them what glorious things have been

achieved in days of yore, for the love of CHRIST——to demonstrate what

benefits are to be derived from a religion which has, for so many

hundred years, given sanction to every enormity that strikes the soul of

Man with horror, and thereby to make converts to their principles.

Monsters! fools! Away with your idle cants, ye hypocrites, who would

brand the cruelties of the present days, the massacres of the Jacobins,

with the crime of infidelity, and attribute those much lamented

defections from humanity to a falling off from the Christian Faith. Look

to Mexico!——see a monster, a High Priest of your religion, collecting,

by fair promises and sweet persuasion, a people round him; and, when a

plain was filled, commanding his bloodhounds, armed with sword and

crucifix, to fall upon and murder them——because one poor creature, who

knew not what a book meant, had accidentally dropped a bible from his

hands!——see him not sparing age or sex, but butchering all, for the love

of CHRIST!——When have the deluded and enfrenzied mob of France

perpetrated, in the full torrent of popular frenzy, such atrocities as

this cruel Priest committed in cold blood? when have they hunted down

their fellow-creatures, massacred children, and given their yet panting

members to their dogs for food, as pious Christians, headed by a pious

Priest, have done in Mexico? Never! never!—— Learn wisdom, then, ye

hypocrites! and if you cannot convince your enemies by reason, or

conquer them by force, and if their predatory and wicked progress is not

to be stopped, do not sanctify their enormities, or palliate their

crimes, in the eye of reason, by a comparison with those of a deeper

dye: remember, that “not to be the worst stands in some rank of praise,”

and that the Jacobin cruelties of Paris, horrible though they were, were

pity and tender mercy, compared with the Christian butchery in Mexico,

in Europe, in Asia, in every place where Popery ever set its bloody

hoof.

You are not, from what I say, to infer that I entertain any illiberal

animosity to Popery, as many men, and more women, do, merely because its

articles of Faith differ from those in which I was bred; I trust my

heart and understanding are above such very degrading prejudices: but I

abhor every thing that militates against human happiness——every thing

that crushes the operations of intellect——every thing that stops the

current of opinion, and prevents its course from enlarging and

meliorating our condition: I abhor the impertinent and hypocritical

intrusion of all Churchmen upon national or domestic concerns; the more,

when that intrusion is mischievous; and more still, when it assumes the

mask of piety——for that is at once a fraud upon Man and an abuse of GOD.

All those causes of abhorrence attach, more or less, to all sects of the

Christian Religion, the Quakers only excepted——but to Popery rather more

than to any of the others; for it is observed, that while the very first

principles of Christianity, as originally laid down in theory, are peace

and good-will towards men, warfare, persecution and bloodshed, have

practically marked its footsteps wherever it has trod, and its very

essence been perverted by its own Ministers, who, entrusted with the key

of the Temple, steal the vestments from the altar, to cover the

deformed, crooked back of vice. But the rays of dawning reason now break

with fuller light upon Mankind; and it hastens to meridian resplendence,

before which those phantoms raised by pious jugglers will vanish, and,

“like the baseless fabric of a vision, leave not a wreck behind.”

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LETTER XII.

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In the Arsenal of Brussels was another curiosity, which I

overlooked in my last——a model of a cannon, constructed so as to throw

seven balls at once. It is some consolation to philanthropy to reflect,

that of all the abominable engines and instruments which the inventive

faculties of Man have discovered to increase the cruelty and carnage of

war, not one has been of late times adopted. This model lies here,

therefore, only as a memorial of the diabolical genius of the inventor.

The Opera-house of Brussels, accounted the noblest and largest in

Europe, is built after the Italian manner, with rows of lodges or

closets, in most of which are chimneys. One of those, which belonged to

a Prince, whose title I now forget, was hung with looking-glasses, in

which, while he sat by the fire, took refreshments, or reclined on his

couch, he could see the whole representation, without being exposed to

the view of either the actors or the audience.

The markets of Brussels are very remarkable. The Dukes of St. Pierre

paid no less than forty thousand florins, or upwards of three thousand

pounds sterling, for four pictures of them, painted by RUBENS and

SYNDER——LEWIS the Fourteenth of France offered an immense sum of money

for them; but they found their way at last into the collection of the

British Earl of Orford. The value of them is said, by connoisseurs, to

be beyond computation.

Brussels is extremely well supplied with water; for, besides the river,

it has twenty public fountains, adorned with statues, at the corners of

the most public streets; and the lower part of the city is cut into

canals, which communicate with the great one, extending from Brussels to

the Scheldt, fifteen miles: by means of this canal, which was finished

in 1561, and cost the city eight hundred thousand florins, a person may

sail from Brussels to the North Sea; and barques do actually go twice a

day to Antwerp, and back again.

This city is full of Churches, of which the most remarkable is that of

Saint MICHAEL and Saint GUDULA, commonly called the Cathedral. It is a

superb, old Gothic structure, and, from its celebrated situation, a most

beautiful ornament to the city. It is not only grand in its external

appearance, but finely adorned within. The pillars which support the

roof are lofty and elegant: and against each is a statue of ten feet in

height. There are no less than sixteen Chapels in it; and each Chapel is

enriched with abundance of splendid ornaments, altar finery,

candlesticks, crucifixes, &c. and with some excellent pictures too: a

picture of JESUS CHRIST presenting the keys of Paradise to Saint PETER,

which is reckoned among the chef-d’œuvres of RUBENS, hangs in one of

those Chapels. There are some monuments, also, of very great merit, in

the choir of this Church. But that which I think by far the greatest and

most admirable curiosity (I mean of human workmanship) in the Church, is

a pulpit——one of the richest and most exquisitely wrought pieces I have

ever seen: at the bottom are seen ADAM and EVE as large as life,

represented as at the moment when the Angel drove them out of Paradise:

in both of their faces are deeply and expressively marked the traits of

a mind agonised with anguish and remorse: behind EVE is a figure of

Death, which follows them; and on the top of the pulpit are seen the

figures of JESUS CHRIST and the Virgin MARY crushing the head of the

Serpent. The strong expressions in the faces of all those figures, and

the exquisite turn of the workmanship, is the more remarkable, as it is

all cut out of oak wood.

Of supernatural curiosities, one of the Chapels in this Cathedral

contains some, that, for miracle, yield to none in the long catalogue of

Monkish devices. Three hosts or wafers are daily worshipped by the

People; which hosts or wafers, the Priests firmly assert, and the People

as firmly believe, were, so long ago as the year 1369, stabbed by a Jew,

and bled profusely. They are exposed on every festival, in a chalice

richly set with diamonds; and on the first Sunday after every thirteenth

of July, there is a yearly procession in memory of this stabbing and

bleeding, when the hosts are carried in great state round the city,

embellished with all manner of precious stones, and attended by all the

Clergy, secular and regular, the Magistrates, the Courts of Justice, and

even by the Governor of the Province: the Chapel where they are kept is

of marble, and the altar of solid silver.

Great GOD! what an opprobrium to the human understanding, that, at the

time when the mind of Man is sufficiently enlightened to avoid the

weakness of shameful credulity, a whole People should stoop to such

extravagant imposition! what a shame to justice and honesty, that those

who are trusted to guard the rights of a People, and who certainly are

too well informed to yield their belief to such trash, should yet join

in, and give the weight of their authority to so gross, so wicked a

deception on a Community! The Magistrates, the Courts of Justice, and

the Governor——they walk, too, in company with the bald-pated

impostors—Good GOD! can more be said? volumes of comment could not

elucidate or render it more conspicuously absurd than the bare recital

of the fact itself.

It is impossible for me to recount to you the number of Nunneries, of

various Orders, in which unfortunate women were cloistered up, some from

bigotry, and others by force, in this city. There were, however, two of

them English——one of Dominican Ladies, founded by Cardinal HOWARD, in

the reign of CHARLES the Second, of which a Lady of the Noble House of

Norfolk was always Abbess: the other is of Benedictine Nuns; the

Beguinage of the latter is like a little town, surrounded with a wall

and ditch, and divided into pretty little streets, where every Beguine

has her apartment; the number of them amounts in general to seven or

eight hundred, sometimes more.

If population be the true strength of a Nation, this part of Popery is

very impolitic. The succession of women in this one Convent since the

reign of CHARLES the Second, must amount to many thousands. Had those

been married, and, on an average, had only two children each, with the

children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, down to the present

day, in all the ramifications of descent, there is not a doubt but their

number would equal that of the whole people of some extensive Provinces.

What, then, must be the loss to the population of the earth, arising

from the celibacy of so many millions of males and females as have been

consigned to sterility in the Catholic Countries, ever since that

extraordinary doctrine came first into fashion? It is out of the reach

of calculation: not but, now and then, they may have children——indeed

they certainly have; but those are generally disposed of in a way not to

bring shame on the frail Sisterhood, or their Confessors.

In wading through such a torrent of offensive ideas as the innumerable

absurdities and deceptions of Popish Countries continually raise in the

mind, it is a pleasing circumstance to be relieved by the contemplation

of some really useful, humane institution; and such a one presents

itself now to my recollection: At Brussels, and, I am told, at all great

towns of the Netherlands, there is a public office for lending money at

a very moderate interest upon pledges: it is called the Mount of Piety;

and was established nearly 108 years ago by the Archduke ALBERT, and

ISABELLA, his wife. By this institution, the Poor are saved from the

fleecings and frauds of Pawnbrokers: and, to render it still more

perfect in accommodation, there are private passages for entrance; so

that those who would with to conceal their necessities, are exempted

from the mortification of being seen publicly going in, or coming out.

You have read, I presume, that in the days of Heathenism, the Deities of

that curious Mythology were supposed to rejoice in the number Three. The

Popish Code has fixed upon Seven as the lucky number. Thus they have

seven sacraments, seven deadly sins, &c. &c. Brussels has improved upon

that; and, taking the hint from their blessed Liturgy, has seven grand

streets; seven parish-churches; seven Patrician families, out of which

the Magistrates are or were elected; seven large squares; seven

midwives, licensed and sworn by the Senate; and seven gates, leading to

seven places of recreation and exercise, one to a place proper for

fowling, a second to a place for fishing, a third to one for hunting, a

fourth to pleasant fields, a fifth to pastime grounds, a sixth to

springs and vineyards, and a seventh to gardens. Besides all which

sevens, they boast of having once had the great good fortune of

entertaining, at one time, seven Crowned Heads, with seven, thousand

horse belonging to their retinue. If there were any spell in the number

Seven, the People of Brussels surely must have been secure from all

mischief; but the _Sans-culottes_ have broken the charm, dispersed the

necromancers, and lowered poor number Seven to its mere arithmetical

value.

The Inns, or eating-houses, in this city, were equal to any in the

world: a stranger might dine there better and cheaper than in any place,

perhaps, on earth. The wines, also, were excellent and cheap; and

coach-hire beyond expectation reasonable——And here I recollect to remark

to you, that, all the way from Ostend to Brussels, one is obliged to

sit, dine, &c. in bed-chambers; a circumstance which is extremely

discordant to the feelings of those who have been used to British Inns,

although the bed-chambers are, to say the truth, large and commodious.

At the very walls of Brussels begins the famous wood of Sogne, from

which the inhabitants were allowed to cut wood for fuel: as fast as the

trees were cut down, fresh ones were planted in their stead; by which

means the wood was preserved, and it afforded a continual supply to the

Poor.

Brussels is so very remarkable a place, that I have taken more than my

usual scope of description of it. Just as I had finished it, I read a

paragraph in the public papers, stating that it is likely to be annexed

to the territories of the French Republic.

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LETTER XIII.

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Hitherto, as I have proceeded on my travels, I have been purposely

very particular in my descriptions of the towns through which I passed

on my way to India, in order to give your mind a disposition to inquiry,

and point out to you an overflowing source of improvement and delight.

Having so far shewn you how amply you will be rewarded, even in

amusement, by the trouble of searching into books, for the accurate

topographical descriptions of towns, cities, building, &c. &c. I think I

may spare myself that labour for the future, and confine myself to those

points that more immediately apply to the enlargement of the mind——I

mean, the government, laws, manners and character of the People of each

Country; and only use the former as subservient to the latter purpose,

at least until I come to those places where, the ground being but little

trodden by British feet, more precise description may become necessary.

But, before I leave the Netherlands, I must make a few remarks upon the

Country and People, which it would be unpardonable in me to omit, after

having been already so minutely particular in things of inferior merit

to the scope of my plan.

Although personal appearance be, in the eye of Moral Philosophy, a very

inferior consideration, and mind the proper study of Man; yet, in

describing a People, I cannot think it altogether unnecessary to include

their personal appearance, as it will be found that there exists a

greater analogy between the person and the mind of Man than is generally

perceived. Thus the lively hilarity, the restless activity, the levity

and fantastic character of the French, are strongly pourtrayed in the

national person. In like manner, the lusty, fat, clumsy and misshapen

person of the People of the Netherlands, is strongly illustrative of the

temper and habit of their mind, intellects and spirits: industrious and

heavy; dull of understanding, but not defective in judgment; flow in

work——but, persevering in effort, and unerring in the process, they are

generally successful in the end: in war, cold and backward at offensive

operations, but inflexible and terrible in resistance; like the boar of

the forest, they seek not the combat with any, but will not go out of

their way to decline it with the most powerful: their appetites and

desires cooler than other Nations, but less subject to change or

caprice: never violently in love, but rationally attached to their

wives; and both men and women faithful to their conjugal vow, as well

from natural temperament, as from a principle of virtue.

Thus constituted by Nature, the effects of their industry are wonderful

in every thing; but chiefly in their canals and sluices, which serve not

only for the support of their commerce, and the facility of intercourse,

but for their defence against enemies: this was in other times; but,

alas! the former of these uses, commerce, has so entirely absorbed all

their intellect, and possessed their very souls, that they seem almost

entirely negligent of the latter; and from being, of all People, the

most wise and vigilant in determining and ascertaining their rights, the

most zealous asserters and defenders of their independence, the most

ardent friends to Liberty, and the most determined enemies to Slavery,

they are become a sort of strange, inconsistent, hotch-potch

politicians, whom ingenuity itself would find a difficulty in

describing. They retain so much of their ancient and noble vigilance as

serves to make them suspicious——so much of their independence as

disposes them to change——so much of their jealousy as stimulates them to

resistance——but not one particle of their former wisdom, to instruct

them where they should attach themselves, where resist, or where resolve

to act——nor of their courage to carry any resolution they might form

into effect.

In the year 1781, the Emperor JOSEPH the Second came to Brussels, in

order to indulge his paternal feelings as a Monarch with the

contemplation and view of his Subjects, and also to be inaugurated; and

perhaps upon no occasion that has ever occurred in the most volatile

Nation, was there greater joy more universally expressed. For some time

before his arrival, the whole Country was in motion; and, even with

them, domestic industry stopped its usual persevering pace, suspended in

the eager, anxious expectation of his arrival. Every thing in the birth,

education, natural disposition and person of the young Emperor, united

to impress his Subjects with the most exalted opinion of his goodness,

and to inspire all ranks of people with the most fortunate presages of a

wise and beneficent government. Nor did he disappoint them: his conduct,

when among them, is handed over to remembrance, by a variety of acts of

benevolence and condescension, which shewed that the grandeur of the

Monarch had not made him forget the nature of the Man, and that his

heart was better fitted for the mild, domestic enjoyments of a Subject,

than the stern and unbending hardihood fit for a King: for I am

perfectly of opinion with the celebrated JUNIUS, that there are virtues

in a private Man which are vices in a King; and that the Monarch of a

Country, in order to preserve respect, should avoid familiarity, and

keep his person sacred from too general observation. SHAKSPEARE has put

into the mouth of his HENRY the Fourth, a beautiful expression on this

subject, well worth the attention of Kings——

Had I so lavish of my presence been,

So common hackney’d in the eyes of men,

Opinion, that did help me to the Crown,

Had still kept loyal to possession,

And left me in reputeless banishment,

A fellow of no mark, nor likelihood.

By being seldom seen, I could not stir,

But, like a comet, I was wonder’d at:

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

Of the number I have heard, I will mention one anecdote only, and one

remarkable expression of JOSEPH’S, which will serve to shew in its true

light what his disposition was; and when you consider them as the act

and sentiment of a young man nursed in the lap of despotism and pride,

you cannot but consider them as marvellous.

In his journey to the Low Countries, he visited Wurtzaurg; and, in his

perambulating alone and _incog._ stopped at a little public-house, where

the people were busily employed in entertaining themselves: he went in,

and inquired why they were so merry——“Sir,” said one of the country

people, “we are celebrating a marriage.” “May I be permitted to join the

company?” said the disguised Emperor. The host obtained that permission

for him. When he entered the room, the married couple were presented to

him, and he received them with great gaiety, sat down, drank their

health, and, having informed himself of their situation, took leave of

the company: but what was their astonishment, when, on lifting up a

bottle of wine, they found a draft for six hundred florins, signed

JOSEPH, and payable for the use of the married couple!

At Luxembourg, when the People called aloud on Heaven to shower down

blessings on him for his affability, he made use of this remarkable

expression, while his feelings moistened his eyes: “I wish I could make

you as happy in my care, as I am in your affection!”

The affability of Monarchs has often been magnified by the foolish, and

often blamed by the wise: But, if all the instances of condescension

practised by Kings were like that I have recited of JOSEPH; if they

arose from a sound, unquestionable spirit of philanthropy, not from

gaping curiosity, broad folly, or a puerile inquisitive habit; and if,

instead of conceiving those they visit paid for their intrusion with the

honour of having conversed with Majesty, and leaving them churlishly,

they would generously pay them with hard cash, as the good Emperor

JOSEPH did; then, indeed, their affability might defy the exaggeration

of fools, and must certainly command the applause of the wise.

On the 13th of July, the ceremony of Inauguration took place at

Brussels. Nothing could equal the splendour of the place but the general

joy of the People: the crowds were beyond all conception immense, and

every thing was carried on with regularity till evening, when, in

playing off some fire-works, that noble building the town-house took

fire, and was burnt: six unfortunate persons lost their lives, and

twenty were dangerously hurted: those who perished were absolutely

roasted, and their cries were beyond description piercing. To such a

temper as JOSEPH’S, you will readily conclude that this must be a most

afflicting circumstance——it was so; and he left Brussels under the

pressure of very different feelings from those with which he entered it,

and was followed by the prayers and blessing of all the People.

But now we are to view the reverse of the medal. The sound of their

prayers for his welfare, and praises of his goodness, had hardly died

away upon their lips, ere their minds turned to revolt and rebellion. I

will not say that they were not right in one or other, or which of those

two extremes: certainly they could not be right in both; much less can

their subsequent conduct be justified, or accounted for, in any

principle of human nature, but that of the most abject meanness,

dastardly feebleness, and gross folly. They returned to their

allegiance, and besought forgiveness: that forgiveness was granted. How

they have behaved since, I have already informed you, (See Letter IV.);

and I have now to add, that, pillaged by the French, and likely to be

left unprotected, they have again held their necks out, soliciting the

protection and the yoke of Austria, and have actually offered to raise

100,000 men for the Emperor, _if_ he will again drive the French out of

their territories——An excellent word that IF!

How a People, once formed for manly pith and love of Freedom, could bend

so low, is unaccountable. It is a question hard to be determined,

whether an obstinate adherence even to a bad cause, is not more

respectable, than a fickle, alternate dereliction, and adoption of right

and wrong, as it suits the caprice or convenience of the moment? Of two

things so very contemptible, I think the former the least odious and

least unmanly.

At the same time, my observations on the Country led me to conceive,

that under the name of Freedom, they groaned under the yoke of Tyranny;

for, though the Country was, as I have described it, charming, its

fecundity unsurpassed, its face decorated with the best gifts of

Providence——I mean, smiling fields and bleating plains——though _Ceres_

profusely repaid the labours of the husbandman, though every field had

the appearance of a garden, and though, upon inquiry, I found that land

which would bring in England five pounds an acre, rented at eight, nine

and ten shillings of our money at most——yet, in spite of all this, the

farmers were rather poor in general——not even one of them to be found

rich or substantial, like the middle rank of that class of men in

England. They wanted the great stimulus to industry——security of their

property: they were liable to be turned out by their landlords at

pleasure, and to be plundered when it should please some Monarch to make

war.

The first of these, however, you will observe, is not the oppression of

the Emperor: it is the tyranny of that worst of all constituent parts of

a State, an Aristocracy——a vile Aristocracy!——that universal, that

every-day despotism, under which all places groan, more or less——which

is exercised in all the various gradations of life that chequer society,

from the great man who, under the name of Minister, domineers over the

Peer, to the country fox-hunting savage, who puts a poor wretch in jail

to pine for years, (his family, the while, supported by the parish

charity), only for doing that which makes the enjoyment of his own life,

killing a partridge or a hare!——that Aristocratic tyranny which is seen

scowling on the brows of a swaggering fellow in power, adopted by his

secretary with increase, by him handed down to an upstart set of fellows

in office, dependent on his smile, and by them displayed in all the

nauseous, despicable forms which awkwardness and ignorance, lifted above

their station, never fail to assume——the cold reserve, the affected

stare, the listless nod, the feigned deafness, blindness, absence, and

other fashionable perfections, which serve as vents for upstart

arrogance, and indemnify the sycophant for the vile homage and

submission which he has before paid some wretch mean and arrogant as

himself!——I tell you, my dear FREDERICK, it is this Aristocratic

usurpation of power, where power exists not, nor is necessary——this

insulting assumption of superiority, this hidden petty oppression which

rears its head in every manor, nay, almost every town and village in the

Kingdom, that puts the Nations out of tune, mars the harmony of social

arrangement, and renders power in the aggregate obnoxious. Why, our very

women have their saucy, Aristocratic, supercilious front, their haughty

stare, their contemptuous titter; and barter the winning softness of the

sex, the dimples where the loves should dwell, for the haughty toss of

the head, the ill-natured sneer, and the insulting Hector’s frown——And

thus the spirit of Aristocracy, like a poisonous weed, grows and expands

from one to the other with baleful luxuriance, gradually overspreading

the whole face of humanity, stopping the wholesome current of the social

atmosphere, and choaking up the less rank but more useful plants——Thus

it goes round in shameful traffic; and, as the Poet says,

“The wh—re she kicks her cully,

Court-waiters are kick’d at call;

We are all kick’d, yet bully

While int’rest kicks the ball.”

I am persuaded, that if the grievances of the most despotic States were

fairly estimated, and assigned to their real authors, the Princes of

such States would be found responsible for a very small share indeed,

when compared with the Aristocracy: and by Aristocracy, I mean not

merely Lords, but all men who convert the wealth which Providence has

bestowed upon them to the purposes of Tyranny, Exactions, Imposition,

and Oppression——under which four heads we will again find, not only

imprisonment for begging alms, imprisonment for shooting a partridge,

but often seduction, adultery, and persecution for resisting or

resorting to law for punishment of that seduction or adultery. Of all

those things, the proofs, I fear, in all Nations, are abundant: I am

sure they are so in the best governed State in Europe——I mean,

England——-

“Qui capit, ille facit.”

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

it on!

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LETTER XIV.

-------------------------------------------

As the time of my departure from Brussels approached, I found the

bitter sensations with which I left London, in some measure, returning.

My fortunate encounter with General LOCKHART had afforded me a temporary

respite; but now I was once more to face an unknown country alone,

without the chance of again meeting a friend to solace my mind, or

mitigate my woe, on this side of India.

Having seen as much of Brussels as my time and occasions would at all

allow, and, in truth, having rather trespassed on my plan, for the

reasons just mentioned, I determined to push forward as fast as it was

possible, and took post for Liege, where I arrived, after passing

through a beautiful, fertile, well-cultivated country, to the charms of

which the renewed agony of my feelings rendered me almost insensible.

As we have now almost the whole length of Germany before us to travel

through, it will be proper, before I proceed further, to give you a

general idea of the Constitution of this vast Empire——over all which,

while one great Monarch nominally presides, there are spread a number of

petty Potentates, who really rule after as distinct forms of Government

as almost any two Governments, however remote, in Europe.

Considering the nature of Government abstractedly, one would suppose

that it arose from the general will of the society governed, and was

formed for their use and benefit alone: but if we view the different

systems scattered over the civilized part of the earth, we shall find

that they originated from force and fraud; and that, in their first

formation, when bodily prowess, not intellectual power, bore sway——when

he that could carry the strongest armour, and strike the heaviest blows,

was sure to govern——when mere animal strength and ferocity disinherited

reason of her rights, and robbed her of that ascendancy to which the

invention of gunpowder, aided by the art of Printing, has since in some

sort restored her——the basis upon which Governments were raised was, one

man, not the whole society; the point then was, how this or that strong

ruffian could collect most slaves about him, not how this or that

society should choose the best head: if he had strength to carry havoc

through the ranks of their enemies, and then to overawe themselves, he

was sure of dominion over the people, and left it to his son; but if it

so happened that he did not also bequeath to him bodily prowess to

preserve it, the next strong ruffian seized the reins, flung him from

his seat, and kept it till he, or some one of his heirs, was again

served so in his turn by some other usurper. Hence arose the cabals and

intrigues of courts, the spirit of party, and intestine commotion; till

at length the People, for their own security, and to avoid the horrors

of civil war, made choice (from dismal necessity) of some one family to

rule them. As society advanced, and opulence held forth temptation, some

greater ruffian, followed by a horde of needy, famished barbarians, made

incursions on those rulers; and being irresistible, as well from numbers

firmly connected, as from the powerful impulse of necessity, under whose

banners they generally robbed and ravaged, was submitted to on terms,

and became Lord Paramount of a number of petty Sovereigns, who did

homage to him, and fleeced the miserable subjects, to keep him in

humour; and thus, in a series of time, the power of both took root, and

remained immoveable, unless when torn up by some violent tempest that

convulsed the State, and shook it to its foundations.

Reading this account, you will very naturally exclaim, “Good GOD! how

absurd! how irrational!” Yet so it is; and from this source, muddy

though it be, is modern honour, and modern greatness, and modern high

blood, derived: from this foul and turbid fountain have most of the

Governments of the world issued; from those strong men of yore have most

of our modern governors descended: and as it generally happens (so

equally has Providence distributed the gifts of Nature) that the

strength of the intellectual part is in the inverse ratio of the animal,

perhaps that is the reason why Monarchs are formed, in general, of

greater bodily vigour than mental endowments, and better fitted for the

Field than the Cabinet——and for this reason are obliged to take from the

puisne ranks of their Subjects some assistant, so far removed from the

great standard of antique dignity, as to possess understanding enough to

govern.

Upon a retrospective view of the History of Europe, it will be found,

that for a long time after the birth of CHRIST, Germany was divided

among such petty rulers as I have described, who each held his little

State in sovereignty, and was called _Princeps_ in Latin, or, in plain

English, _Prince_. After the downfall of the Western Empire, a Nation

called _Franks_, from that part called _Franconia_, over-run a great

part of Gaul and Germany, and in the fifth century took possession of

that part of Gaul which lay North of the river Loire. In the year 800,

CHARLEMAGNE, the son of PEPIN, their King, formed an immense Empire in

the West, comprehending a great part of Germany, France, Italy, and a

part of Spain. About eighty years afterwards, the petty Princes of

Germany shook off the French Carlovinian race, and elected an Emperor of

their own from the House of Bavaria.

At last HENRY the Fourth, having displeased that grand arbiter the Pope,

was put under the ban, and in consequence deposed by the States; on

which occasion His Holiness had the address to make that great dignity

elective, he having uncontrouled power over the electors; since which it

has continued so, with some modifications, and under certain

regulations, formed by CHARLES the Fourth, at the Diet of Nurunberg. The

election, however, has been always so managed, that it has never

departed from the regular line of succession but when there was an

actual want of heirs.

In a Country over which the Pope had such influence, it might reasonably

be supposed that intolerance is carried to a great length; but it is not

so, as a review of each particular State shews. The established

religion, in general, is Popery. JOSEPH the Second, that good and wise

Monarch, displayed a greater spirit of toleration than any other

Catholic Prince since HENRY the Fourth of France. He was not murdered by

a Friar for it, it is true——those days of pious barbarity are past; but

he was visited on the occasion by His Holiness, who, after a variety of

remonstrances against the relaxation he gave to religious severity in

his own dominions, finding him unmoved by papers, resolved to attack him

in person: but, whether it was that the pontifical amulet lost its charm

when out of the air of Rome, or that His Holiness was not properly

anointed before (like _Hecate_ in _Macbeth_) he took his flight, or that

he forgot some of those relics which were expected to operate on

JOSEPH’S mind, so it was, that the good Emperor continued inflexibly

attached to his former resolve; and, after kissing His Holiness’ toe,

and a thousand other pretty politenesses, sent him back to Rome again

with his finger in his mouth; and a story to relate, that would, at one

time, have set all Europe in a flame, and sent the good Monarch, like

HENRY the Second of England, to lash himself naked over the rotten

remains of some vagabond fraudulent Priest.

In the election of Emperor, the laws of the Empire have laid down no

qualification but that which ought to be the _sine quâ non_ of all

Princes, namely, that he be _justus, bonus, et utilis_——Neither have

they made any limitation in regard to religion, nation, state, or age;

nevertheless, the majority of electors being Papists, a Roman Catholic

Prince is always chosen.

The rank of the Emperor is very great: he is looked upon by all Crowned

Heads as the first European Potentate; and, as such, precedence is

always given him and his ambassadors: he is the supreme Head of the

German Empire; but his power in the administration thereof is very

limited indeed. In ancient times, the Emperor had considerable domains

and incomes; but warfare and prodigality have dissipated the greatest

part of them, and they have been successively alienated or mortgaged, so

that his revenues were very inconsiderable lately, and now, since the

French war, are almost as nothing.

The present Emperor FRANCIS found the Empire, when he was elected,

incumbered with difficulties of the most enormous magnitude——a war on

which the existence of every Monarchy in Europe seemed to depend, an

exhausted treasury, and a disposition to revolt in a part of his

dominions, the Netherlands. At this present time, his situation is,

beyond that of every other Prince, lamentable:——almost all his resources

gone, and an insolent, formidable, triumphant enemy, proceeding and

carrying conquest by rapid strides through his Country. He called upon

his People to support him. The States of the Netherlands, instead of

assisting him to stop the progress of the enemy, invited and opened

their gates to them, put them in their bosom, and were stung. Of the

other States, some refuse their aid, while some have recourse to feeble

expedients; and, to evade the weight, temporise, procrastinate, and

shuffle, till at length will come the French Army, and force them to do

for their enemy ten times more than (if done timely, and with a good

grace) might save the Empire and themselves. The KING of PRUSSIA, one of

those States, on being called upon, says he is busily employed in

securing the plunder of Poland, and cannot come——while the tyger is

glutting in the blood of the harmless flocks, the huntsmen are coming

upon him, to cut him off. As an Englishman, zealous for the welfare of

my Country, I wish the KING of PRUSSIA may not, by his attention to

Poland, sacrifice all Germany to the French. As an honest man, I cannot

help entertaining a wish, that the scandalous and outrageous wrongs done

to Poland, and this treachery to the Allies whom he himself brought into

the present difficulties, may be expiated by any calamity, however

great, that does not extend to the interest or wellbeing of Europe.

It is a maxim in Courts of Equity, that a man coming to demand redress,

should come with clean hands, and, seeking equity, should do equity.

This maxim has unfortunately never yet extended to decisions between

States: power is their right, and force decides——Yet, in a contest like

the present, the very foundation of which is hostility to Kings, and

which is carried on in the twofold way of arms, in the open field and

private negotiation for insurrection; when, for the interest of the

cause they espouse, as well as their own personal safety, Kings should

assume at once their best form to appreciate themselves, and discredit

their enemies in the eyes of Mankind——in such a state of things, I say,

for the KING of PRUSSIA and the EMPRESS of RUSSIA to take the part they

have done with regard to Poland, is so extravagant, that we can only

account for it in the will of the ALMIGHTY predisposing them for some

extraordinary crisis. No one would expect them to depart from their

accustomed crooked path of policy, if safety did not loudly call upon

them to proceed in the direct road. It is monstrous to see beings

endowed with common sense, expending themselves in an unjust struggle

for aggrandizement, while the sword of extinction is suspended by a hair

over their heads.

But to return——In this state is the young Emperor at this moment,

deserted by his People in the Low Countries, unaided by his Continental

Ally, and supported only by Great Britain. What the issue may be, GOD

alone can tell: but every one possessing a heart of feeling, or a single

sentiment of honour or justice, must wish that young Prince a fortunate

delivery from the difficulties which the impolicy and wickedness of

others have led him into, and which the treachery of some of them make

more formidable, if not utterly insuperable.

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LETTER XV.

-------------------------------------------

The various districts or territories into which Germany is

divided, go under a variety of designations, not known among us as

independent titles to power——Principalities, Seigniories, Counties,

Electorates, Margravates, and Bishoprics lay and spiritual. Of the lay

Bishoprics, Osnaburg, the Prince Bishop of which is our DUKE of YORK,

makes one: and Leige, where we are now arrived, is the territory of a

Bishop lay and spiritual, or spiritual and temporal, one of the fairest

kind of that class——for he possesses temporalities, and enjoys them;

whereas their Lordships merely spiritual, enjoy and have the ingratitude

and impudence to renounce them: but no matter for that; the Bishop of

Liege possesses a Bishopric, fruitful in corn, wine, wood and pasture,

with air extremely pleasant and temperate; and while the latter gives

his terrestrial clay health and appetite, the former afford him the

means of preserving the one, and indulging the other, with true

spiritual comfort, and high ecclesiastical voluptuousness. In cases of

repletion, too, the mineral waters of the Bishopric, particularly the

well-known one of Spa, offer their aid; and some of the best beer in the

world, which is brewed in these territories, diversifies his spiritual

Lordship’s cup, and, with its pungent bitter, sends back his palate to

his wine with renovated relish.

It is astonishing how inconsistent with themselves, and how discordant

in their constituent principles, some very wise institutions are. Thus

Episcopacy, and all other branches, posts or ranks, high or low,

commissioned or non-commissioned, of the Church, publicly and

systematically profess poverty, abstinence, and an utter indifference to

temporal concerns, while their livings are enormous, and themselves

overfed. Nay, so cautiously has ecclesiastical law provided for that,

even in our liberal establishments, that a Bishop, at his instalment,

positively declares, in the face of GOD, at the holy altar, that he is

averse to being a Bishop——_nolo Episcopari_. Under such conditions, what

must not the charity, the condescension, the mortifying submission of a

Divine be, to stoop to a Bishopric, and suffer such a heavy load to be

heaped upon his back——against his will! Assuredly, the imposing a

Bishopric upon him must be a great act of violence on his inclinations:

for I cannot think it possible that a Christian Divine would, in the

first place, commit the crime of simony by seeking preferment, and

gaining it by prostitution; much less can I believe that he would be

guilty, at the holy altar, of a solemn act of perjury, by swearing _nolo

Episcopari_, if he was not actually, and _bonâ fidê_, averse to a

Bishopric.

The Bishop of Liege, however, may be fairly acquitted on the score of

his temporal half, for the share of transgressions committed by his

spiritual half. And unquestionably, as a Christian Divine, he must groan

in spiritual humiliation, when he reflects that his title is emblazoned

with the gorgeous vanities of Prince of Liege, Duke of Bouillon, Marquis

of Franchemont, Count of Looz, &c. Such a set of proud worldly titles

are of themselves sufficient (putting the wine and beer, and repletion,

out of the question) to annihilate the spiritual merits of the Bishop,

and expunge the grace of GOD from his name here, if not from himself

hereafter.

Of all kinds of Slavery, that Nation groans beneath the worst, which has

the name, without the essence, of a free Constitution; and Germany

abounds with such. By the Constitution of this Bishopric, the Government

consists of three States: the first is the Chapter of Liege; the second,

the Nobility; and the third, the Deputies of the towns and capital.

These, however, are very seldom called together, except to _raise

taxes_, or on some such _extraordinary_ emergency: but there is a

Committee of the States who meet three times a week, and in time of war

daily; they are always about the Prince Bishop, to make remonstrances,

and demand the redress of grievances——from whence we may reasonably

infer, that the People are well protected, or at least well governed;

the continual intercourse between the Committee and Bishops, no doubt,

tending to promote a very happy influence in favour of the People!

In forming this Constitution, special care has been taken to give the

first State a great preponderance. The Chapter is to consist of sixty

persons, who must either prove their Nobility for four generations, both

by father and mother, or have been Doctors or Licentiates of Divinity

for seven years, or of Law for five years, in some famous University,

before they can be admitted.

How is it that the profession of the Law should bear such potent sway in

almost all Countries——that, even in Liege, a Catholic Country and

Ecclesiastical Government, five years study of the Law should be deemed

an equal qualification to seven of Divinity? In England, and its

dependencies, the ascendancy of the Law is still greater; and even in

America, that profession is the first step to State honours. The truth

is, that the science of the Law, which, however despicable in practice,

is the noblest of human sciences, quickens and invigorates the

understanding more than all the other kinds of learning put together;

while the study of Divinity (I do not mean real Divinity or Morality,

but that whimsical jumble of miracles and incongruities, of fulsome cant

and senseless rhapsody, called so by Churchmen) contracts the

understanding, and bends it into a kind of crooked cunning. Formerly,

the Clergy were the dispensers of the Laws, and they alone studied

it——Happy times! happy People! When the united powers of both Lawyers

and Priests were lodged in the same person, it is no wonder that they

were able to enslave the persons, when they had got possession of the

understanding, of the People——that we at this day see so many stupendous

monuments remaining of their pride and power, and that the bloated load

of Episcopacy still has its votaries and supporters.

The Bishopric of Liege is very populous and extensive, containing many

large Towns, many Baronies and Seigniories, seventeen Abbeys for men,

who must be all gentlemen, and eleven for ladies, exclusive of swarms of

inferior note. In this distribution of the Abbeys, male and female, I do

not think that sufficient regard has been had to equality of numbers: I

really think the Fathers have been ill used. The ladies, though, I dare

say, are well enough contented with the arrangement.

Although, as I have already apprized you, I do not mean to enter into a

minute description of towns, so very easily found in many volumes of

Geography and History, there occasionally occur certain curiosities in

some of those towns, which it would be unpardonable in me to pass over,

as they may not perhaps be found in such books of those sciences as fall

in your way.

Liege, the capital of the Bishopric, is unquestionably a beautiful city,

of immense size: its opulence, its pleasantness, its plenty and

salubrity, may be calculated from the name it has long been expressly

called by way of eminence——_the Paradise of Priests_.——Indeed, it must

needs be a holy and a happy city; for it is chiefly occupied with

Convents, Churches, and other religious foundations.

_The Paradise of Priests!_——Excellent! Why, if the Genius of Sensuality

himself were to torture his invention for centuries, to strike out an

appellation for the grand emporium of luxury, voluptuousness and sensual

enjoyment, he could not have hit on one so singularly appropriate as

_the Paradise of Priests_.

In a grand Cathedral here, are five great silver chests full of

reliques, besides several silver statues of Saints; and a Saint GEORGE

on horseback, of massy gold; and in Saint WILLIAM’S Convent, without the

city, is the tomb of the famous English traveller, Sir JOHN MANDEVILLE,

from whom all lying travellers have been since proverbially called

_Mandevilles_——an appellation which, I promise you, I will hazard the

imputation of dullness rather than incur. I suppose it was for his truly

priestlike powers in the _marvellous_ that he was honoured with a birth

among their Reverences. They have thought it necessary, however, to

entreat, by an inscription in bad French, all persons who see it, to

pray for his soul. In truth, poor Sir JOHN’S marvellous stories were as

harmless as ever were invented, and entertaining to boot. If so much

could be said for their Reverences, they might venture to rest their

future safety on their own innocence and GOD’S mercy: but I fear their

miracles cut deeper, and will be found to go to a much more important

and serious account.

In the Bishopric of Liege, twenty miles from the capital, stands the

famous town of Spa, so renowned for its excellent waters, that it has

become a vulgar name for almost all mineral waters whatsoever. Those are

said to open obstructions, concoct crudities, dry up excessive moisture,

and strengthen the nerves and bowels; and such is their reputation, that

prodigious quantities of them are carried into foreign countries.

Fortunate coincidence, to have such a choice and easy panacea for

intemperance attached to _the Paradise of Priests_!

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LETTER XVI.

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AIX-LA-CHAPELLE——The imperial city of Aix-la-Chapelle, by the

Germans called Achen, lies at the distance of twenty-fix miles, nearly

East, of Liege. As it was a moderate stage, the weather fine, and the

face of the country around beautiful, I found my journey extremely

pleasant, and entered that famous city in as good a disposition to be

pleased with it, as circumstances and reflections so melancholy as mine

(which, in spite of every effort, would intrude themselves) may be

supposed to allow. It is certainly a very fine city, and well deserves

the reputation it has in all parts of the world.

Perhaps no city in Germany has a fairer claim to antiquity than

Aix-la-Chapelle; for it was famous, even in the time of the ancient

Romans, for its waters, and was by them called _Aquisgranum_, or _Urbs

Aquensis_. It was destroyed by the Huns, who, like the French now,

destroyed and trampled under foot every vestige of refinement, wherever

they carried their conquests; and it lay in ruins till it was rebuilt by

CHARLEMAGNE, who made it the seat of his Empire on this side the Alps.

By him it was ordained, that the Kings of the Romans should be crowned

there: and it has been famous, since that time, for Councils and

Treaties, particularly that famous one between France and Spain in 1663,

and another lately between France and Great Britain.

Although there are many Protestants, both Lutherans and Calvinists, in

this city, they are obliged to go to church two miles off, at a place

called Vaels, in the Dutchy of Limburg; so that Popery prevails with

some portion of its intolerance. Here, as in all other places subject to

its power, it has raised the Gothic gloomy pile, accumulated enormous

masses of wealth, and hoarded up treasures, under the gulling pretexts

of religious paraphernalia: a golden casket, set with precious stones of

inestimable value, is hoarded up, not for the actual value of the

moveable, but as the only fit receptacle for a relique it contains——a

curious one, too, of even its kind——a bit of earth!——A bit of earth?

yes! a bit of earth, common earth!——only with this fortunate

circumstance in addition, that a drop of the blood of Saint STEPHEN

fell, or is said to have fallen, upon it, as he was stoned to death!

think of that, master FREDERICK! Why, when those things occur to me, I

feel myself agitated by a whimsical tumult of sensations, serious and

ludicrous, sorrowful and merry, that it is impossible to

describe——something like that state in which the spirits flutter when a

person whimpers between a laugh and cry. But, to carry the matter

farther, when we recollect that some of the wisest and brightest of

Mankind, some of the bravest Warriors, sternest Philosophers, and ablest

Statesmen, that ever existed, have been the dupes of those shallow

artifices, and actually have knelt in devout homage to these bits of

earth, bone, sticks and stone, &c. we must allow that it answers a great

and noble end, by pointing out to us the infirmity of our nature, and

shewing us, to use the words of one of our brightest luminaries, “what

shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!”

We have already had, and are likely yet to have, such a clumsy load of

Cathedrals to attend to, that I should not mention that of

Aix-la-Chapelle (a large, gloomy, dreary, old-fashioned, Gothic pile),

were it not that it carries along with it some matters worthy of notice.

What think you, then, of an Emperor, a Pope, and three hundred and

sixty-five Bishops, in one company? Oh! precious assemblage! But where,

I hear you ask——where, in the name of GOD, collect the Bishops? a Pope

and Emperor are easily had! My dear FREDERICK, three hundred and

sixty-five Bishops might easily be picked up in Christendom, and leave

more behind, too, than would serve any useful purpose to the

world.——Yes, the Emperor CHARLEMAGNE, and three hundred and sixty-five

Bishops, were present at the Consecration of this Cathedral by Pope LEO

the Third. That Emperor lies now in great state under the altar of the

choir: Pope LEO rots in Rome; and for the Bishops, they are gone,

perhaps, as _Hamlet_ says, “to stop a beer barrel.”——

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

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

From such a splendid and opulent attendance at the Consecration, one

would naturally expect that this Cathedral would have been, at the very

outset, enriched with costly and valuable trappings: but no——one image

of that of Liege would purchase the whole. It should be recollected,

however, that they were all, excepting the Emperor, Churchmen——a class,

whose charity, generally speaking, has, like a ring, neither end nor

beginning; or at least ends and begins in itself, where nobody can see

it; or, according to the old proverb, begins at home.

To compensate, however, for those worldly, worthless vanities, gold,

silver and jewels, His Holiness, and their three hundred and sixty-five

Graces, presented the Cathedral with some exquisite pieces of relique,

of more inestimable value, by their account, than the mines of Potosi or

Golconda: the first, an old covering——it would be folly for me to say,

whether gown, petticoat or shift——but they, that is to say, the Priests,

say, and the Faithful believe them, that it was the shift worn by the

Virgin MARY at the birth of CHRIST——how their Holinesses came by it, is

hard to conjecture:——in the next place, a piece of coarse cloth, which,

they also say, and are believed when they say, was girt about CHRIST on

the Cross:——thirdly, a piece of cord, with which they say he was

bound:——fourthly, some of the blood of Saint STEPHEN, now eighteen

hundred years old:——and, fifthly, a picture of the Virgin and Child,

embossed on a jasper, by Saint LUKE. With all due deference to their

Reverences’ knowledge, I should think a dozen statues in gold of the

Apostles would be rather a more valuable gift, and more ornamental, than

these rags and cords, which I dare say did not cost altogether six

pence. We talk here of our blue ribbons, our red ribbons, and our stars,

as great donations; but I think the presents of the Pope and three

hundred and sixty-five Bishops to the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, beat

them out of the field, whether, we consider the magnificence of the

gift, or the generosity of the givers.

But that which, above all things, renders Aix-la-Chapelle worthy of

notice, is the salubrity of its waters, which bring from England, and

all other European Nations, a vast concourse of valetudinarians, who

contribute at once to the gaiety and opulence of the city and adjacent

country. Some of those waters are used for drinking, and others for

bathing, resembling very much, in their quality, the virtues of those of

Bath in Somersetshire, but that some of them are still hotter and

stronger: they are unpleasant to the taste till use reconciles the

palate to them, and most of them have a very offensive smell; but they

are often powerful in effect and give relief in a great variety of

maladies; and they are rendered still more palatable by the commodious

neatness of the baths, the excellence of the accommodations, and the

great plenty of provisions, which are at once good and reasonable in

this city.

I staid so short a time at Aix-la-Chapelle, that I could not, without

the aid of some of the miracles wrought by the Saints of the Romish

Church, or Sir JOHN MANDEVILLE, acquire a sufficient knowledge of the

People, to attempt a description of them, or their manners——but it and

Spa are so well known, that you cannot have much trouble in finding a

description of them already written.

As far as my observations enabled me to judge, there was nothing in the

German character that had the power either to create interest, or excite

great attention.——They are rather to be approved than admired; and,

wanting those prominent features that so whimsically chequer other

Nations with the extremes of bad and good, majestic and ridiculous,

afford little subject to the traveller for the indulgence of sentimental

reflection, or to the philosopher for the exercise of moral speculation.

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LETTER XVII.

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Bidding adieu to the famous city of Aix-la-Chapelle, which, very

untraveller-like, I passed without drinking of its waters, I pushed on,

and soon arrived at the city of Juliers, the capital of a Dutchy of that

name, sixteen miles from Aix. The Country itself is wonderfully

fruitful, teeming with abundance of all sorts of corn, wood, pasture,

woad, coal and cattle; above all, a most excellent breed of horses, of

which great numbers are exported.

As to the city, though a capital, there was nothing in it that I thought

worth attention——that of neatness is its greatest praise. It is not,

like Liege, overloaded with enormous church edifices; but, what is much

better, the People are opulent, the Poor well supplied, and all happy.

In all likelihood, this is owing to the inhabitants being a mixture of

Protestant and Roman Catholic; for, by a treaty between the Elector

Palatine and the Emperor of Brandenburg, respecting the succession of

the territories of the Duke of Cleves, both the Lutherans and Calvinists

of this Dutchy, and of Berg, are to enjoy the public exercise of their

religion, and all other religious rites.

If experience would allow us to wonder at any thing in the management of

the Rulers of Nations, it must surely be matter of astonishment, that in

an article of such consequence as eternity, and which must be directed

by private sentiments alone, such violence should systematically be

offered to opinion, and that Mankind should be dragooned, as they have

been for so many weary centuries, into the profession of particular

modes of faith. Combating opinion by force is so absurd, that I am sure

those who have attempted it, never could flatter themselves with the

slightest hopes of success. It is therefore clear, that it was in

motives very different from real wishes for the eternal welfare of Man’s

soul, that religious persecution originated. Political finesse and State

stratagem are the parents of persecution: and until every Constitution

is clean purged of religious prejudices, it must continue to be clogged

with obstructions, and involved in confusion. If it be objected that

certain religious sects are hostile to certain States, it may be

answered, that they are so because the State is hostile to them. Cease

to persecute, and they will cease to be hostile——_Sublata causa tollitur

effectus._ It is folly, broad folly, to suppose that there are in any

particular religion, seeds of hostility to government, any more than in

any particular name, complexion, stature, or colour of the hair. Put,

for experiment, all the men in the kingdom, of above five feet ten

inches height, under tests and disqualifications, (and it would be full

as rational as any other tests)——and, my life for it, they would become

hostile, and very justly, too; for there is no principle, human or

divine, that enforces our attachment to that Government which refuses us

protection, much less to that which brands us with disqualifications,

and stigmatises us with unmerited marks of inferiority.

The States of this Dutchy, and that of Berg, consist of the Nobility and

the Deputies of the four chief towns of each; and they lay claim to

great privileges in their Diets—but they are subject to the Elector

Palatine, to whom they annually grant a certain sum for the ordinary

charges of the Government, besides another which bears the name of a

free gift.

Some Authors say that this town was founded by JULIUS; others deny it;

the dispute has run high, and is impossible to be determined:

fortunately, however, for Mankind, it does not signify a straw who built

it; nor could the decision of the question answer any one end that I

know, of instruction, profit or entertainment. _Parva leves capiunt

animas._ Those who rack their brains, or rather their heads, for brains

they can have none, with such finical impertinent inquiries, should be

punished with mortification and disappointment, for the misuse of their

time. But what else can they do? You say, Why, yes; they might sit idle,

and refrain from wasting paper with such execrable stuff; and that would

be better. By the bye, if there were two good friends in every library

in Europe, licensed to purge it, like the Barbar and Curate in _Don

Quixotte_, of all its useless and mischievous stuff, many, many shelves

that now groan under heavy weights would stand empty.

Travelling over a very even road, and a country extremely flat, (for

from Aix-la-Chapelle I met with but one hill), I arrived at Cologne, the

capital, not only of the Archbishopric of that name, but of the Circle

of the Lower Rhine. My spirits, which were not in the very best tone,

were not at all raised on entering the city, by the ringing of

Church-bells, of all tones and sizes, in every quarter. Being a

stranger, I thought it had been a rejoicing day; but, on inquiry, found

that it was the constant practice. Never, in my life, had I heard such

an infernal clatter: never before had I seen any thing so gloomy and

melancholy——the streets black——dismal bells tolling——bald-pated Friars,

in myriads, trailing their long black forms through the streets, molding

their faces into every shape that art had enabled them to assume, in

order to excite commiseration, and begging alms with a melancholy song

calculated for the purpose, somewhat like that of our blind beggars in

London, and productive of the same disagreeable effect upon the spirits.

In short, I was not an hour in Cologne, when those circumstances,

conspiring with the insuperable melancholy of my mind, made me wish

myself out of it.

Nevertheless, Cologne is a fine city; and if it be any satisfaction to

you to spin those fine imaginary ligaments that, in the brain of the

book-worm, connect the ancient and modern world, I will inform you, that

it was anciently called _Colonia Agrippina_, because AGRIPPINA, the

mother of NERO, was born there, and honoured it with a Roman Colony,

because it was her birth-place. The mind, forced back to that period;

and contemplating the mischiefs of that monster NERO, cannot help

wishing that Cologne had been burnt the night of her birth, and Miss

AGRIPPINA buried in the ruins, ere she had lived to give birth to that

scourge of the world.

Although the established religion here be the Roman Catholic,

extraordinary as it may appear, they are very jealous of powers and

though the Elector, by his officers, administers justice in all criminal

causes, they will not permit him, in person, to reside above three days

at a time in the city, nor to bring a great train with him when he

visits it; for this reason he commonly resides at Bonne.

Cologne has a very considerable trade, particularly in Rhenish wine; and

its gin is reckoned the best in the world, and bears a higher price than

any other in all the Nations of Europe.

Like all great Roman Catholic cities, it has a profusion of churches,

crosses, miracles, saints, and church trinkets; and I really think it

has more steeples and bells than any two cities in Germany. As Liege was

called the Paradise of Priests, this ought to be called the Golgotha of

Skulls and Skull-caps. In the church of Saint URSULA, they shew, or

pretend at least to shew, the bones of eleven thousand Virgin Martyrs.

The skulls of some of those imaginary Virgins are in silver cases, and

others in skull-caps, of cloth, of gold, and velvet. And in the church

of Saint GERION, are no less than nine hundred heads of Moorish

Cavaliers, of the army of the Emperor CONSTANTINE, (previous to that

Saint’s conversion to Christianity), who they say was beheaded for

refusing to sacrifice to idols: by the bye, the Popish Divines burn,

instead of beheading, for not sacrificing to idols——Every one of those

heads, however, has a cap of scarlet, adorned with pearls. The whole

forms a spectacle, no doubt, equally agreeable and edifying. It struck

me, however, as an extremely ludicrous sight, malgre the solemnity of so

many death’s heads: and when their story was recounted, I could not help

internally chuckling, and saying (rather punningly, to be sure), “Ah!

what _blockheads_ ye must have been, to suffer yourselves to be

separated from your snug warm bodies, rather than drop down and worship

an idol, in which so many good Christian Divines have shewn you an

example!” This, you will conclude, I said to myself: an avowal of my

sentiments in that place might have given my head a title to a scarlet

cap and pearls; and as I had some further use for it, I did not think it

expedient to leave it behind me in the Church of Saint GERION——so, very

prudently, kept my mind to myself.

Coming out of the Church, a multitude of beggars, all in canonicals, or

student’s habits, surrounded, beseeching me for alms——one, pour l’amour

de DIEU; another, pour l’amour de la Sainte Vierge; a third, pour le

salut de notre Redempteur; a fourth, pour l’amour de Saint GERION; and

so on!

When I had gone as far as I wished in donations, another attacked me:

though I told him my charity-bank was exhausted, he persevered, and was

uncommonly solicitous——till at length, having exhausted the whole

catalogue of Saints that are to be found in the Calendar, he raised his

voice from the miserable whine of petition, and exclaimed with great

energy, “Par les neuf cent tetes des Cavaliers Maures qui sont

sanctifies au Ciel, je vous conjure de me faire l’aumone!” This was too

formidable an appeal to be slighted; and so, in homage to the skulls and

red caps, I put my hand in my pocket, and stopped his clamours.

Those miserable modes of peculation are the most pardonable of any

produced by the Church: we have no right to regret a trifle sacrificed

at the shrine of compassion, even when that compassion is mistaken; but

our reason revolts at imposition, when it calls coercion to its aid, and

assumes the name of right.

Without any national predilection, which you know I am above, I think

our Church affairs in Scotland are arranged upon a better system than

any other that I know of: hence their Clergy are in general examples

worthy of imitation, for learning, piety, and moral conduct.

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LETTER XVIII.

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Laboured investigations to establish connections between the

history of the ancient and business of the modern world, and virulent

disputes about trifles of antiquity, such as in what year this place was

built, or that great man was born, when and where JULIUS CÆSAR landed in

England, whether he passed this road or that, what route HANNIBAL took

over the Alps, and such like, are so essentially uninteresting, useless

and unimportant, so unprofitable, and, one would think, so painful too,

that it is wonderful how so many men of great learning have been unwise

enough to employ their lives in the research.

It does not follow, however, that when information that tends to recall

to our minds the great men of antiquity is presented to us, we should

reject it. A man of classical taste and education feels a delight in

those little memorials of what gave him pleasure in his youth. I know a

Gentleman, who, being at Seville, in Spain, travelled to Cordova, for no

other purpose but to see the town where LUCAN and SENECA were born: and

I dare say, that if you were at Cologne, you would be much pleased to

see the Town-house, a great Gothic building, which contains a variety of

ancient inscriptions; the first to commemorate the kindness of JULIUS

CÆSAR to the Ubii, who inhabited this place, and of whom you have found

mention made by him in his Commentaries, and also his building two

wooden bridges over the Rhine: a second commemorates AUGUSTUS sending a

colony here. There is also a cross-bow of whalebone, twelve feet long,

eight broad, and four inches thick, which they who speak of it

conjecture to have belonged to the Emperor MAXIMIN’s. There are also

some Roman inscriptions in the arsenal, the import of which I now

forget.

It is very extraordinary, but certainly a fact, that there are, about

Cologne, families yet existing, who indulge the senseless ambition of

pretending to be descended from the ancient Romans, and who actually

produce their genealogies, carried down from the first time this city

was made a colony of the Roman Empire. Of all kinds of vanity, this is

perhaps the most extravagant: for, if antiquity merely be the object,

all are equally high, since all must have originated from the same

stock; and if it be the pride of belonging to a particular family who

were distinguished for valour or virtue, a claim which often only serves

to prove the degeneracy of the claimant, it could not apply in the case

of a whole People: but this is among the frailties of humanity; and we

are often so dazzled with the splendour of terrestrial glory, that we

endeavour to be allied to it even by the most remote and ridiculous

connections. I heard of a man, whose pride and boast, when drunk, was,

that Dean SWIFT had once thrown his mother’s oysters (she was an

oyster-wench) about the street, and then gave her half a crown as an

atonement for the injury. On the strength of this affinity did he call

the Dean nothing but _Cousin Jonathan_, though the Dean was dead before

he was born!

But of all the stories I have ever heard as illustrative of this strange

ambition, that which the late Lord ANSON has left us is the most

striking. When that great man was travelling in the East, he hired a

vessel to visit the island of Tenedos: his pilot, a modern Greek,

pointing to a bay as they sailed along, exclaimed in great triumph,

“There, ay, there it was that our fleet lay.”——“What fleet?”

interrogated ANSON——“Why, our Grecian fleet, at the siege of Troy,”

returned the pilot.

While those doughty descendants of the ancient Romans indulge the

cheerless idea of their great and illustrious line of ancient ancestry,

the Prince who rules them felicitates himself with the more substantial

dignities and emoluments of his modern offices. As Elector and

Archbishop of Cologne, he has dominion over a large, fruitful and

opulent country: he is the most powerful of the ecclesiastical Electors:

he has many Suffragan Princes, lay and spiritual, under him; and he is

Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire. The revenues of his

Archbishopric amount annually to one hundred and thirty thousand pounds

sterling; and as Elector, he is possessed of several other great

benefices. I presume, because he is a Prince, that he is a man of sense;

and, I will venture to say, that, as such, he would not barter those

good things for the power to demonstrate that LUCRETIA was his aunt,

BRUTUS his grandfather, and the great JULIUS CÆSAR himself his

cousin-german.

CHRIST chose his disciples out of fishermen. The Chapter of Cologne is,

perhaps, on the contrary, the very most Aristocratic body existing,

being composed of forty Canons, who are Princes or Counts of the

Empire——Of those, twenty-five choose the Archbishop, and may advance one

of their own body to that great and wealthy dignity, if they please.

From Cologne I proceeded to the town of Bonne, which is said to take its

name from the pleasantness of its situation. Here the Elector resides,

and has a very fine palace. The country around is extremely fruitful and

pleasant, and is blessed with most of the good things which render the

Rich magnificent and happy, and remind the Poor of their inferiority and

wretchedness——particularly wine, which is here remarkably excellent. It

contains Churches, Priests, Convents, Cloisters, &c.; but I need not

mention them——what place could exist without them?

I should not forget to tell you, that, at this place, JULIUS CÆSAR built

one of his bridges across the Rhine——works which would have handed down

to posterity the name of a common man, for the magnitude of the

structure and ingenuity of the contrivance, but are lost in the crowd of

astonishing talents which distinguished that brightest of mortals. The

greatest Biographer of Antiquity says of him, that he was as great a

General as HANNIBAL, as great an Orator as CICERO; and as great a

Politician as AUGUSTUS; but it might be added, that he was among the

first Poets of his day——that he was of the first mechanical genius, and

the finest gentleman, in Rome.

Nature seems to have formed, in CÆSAR, a compendious union of all human

talents, as if to demonstrate how unavailing they were when opposed to

strict rigid honesty and virtue in the character of BRUTUS.

To go from Bonne to Frankfort, there are two ways——one over the

mountains of Wetterania, the other up the river Rhine. I made no

hesitation to adopt the latter, and was rewarded for my choice with the

view of as fine a country, inhabited by as fine a race of People, as I

had ever seen. Valleys filled with herds, plains enamelled with

corn-fields, and the hills covered with vineyards, regaled the eye, and

conveyed to the mind all the felicitating ideas of plenty, natural

opulence, and true prosperity. My anxiety, however, to get forward, and

disengage myself from a species of solitude in a country where, though

travelling is cheap, accommodations of most kinds in the public houses

are bad, induced me to push on, without taking the time necessary for

making accurate observations on the country as I passed; so that,

gliding, as it were, imperceptibly, through a number of towns, of which

I recollect nothing distinctly but the names of Coblentz and Mentz, I

arrived at the great, free and imperial city of Frankfort on the Maine.

Here I shall stop, for a short time, my relation, in order to give you

time for just reflection and examination of what I have already written:

and as, in the latter part of it, I have skimmed very lightly over the

country, I desire that you will supply the deficiency of my information

by close research in books; inform yourself of the great outlines of the

Germanic Constitution; look back to its origin, its progress, and its

establishment; thence proceed to the distinct parts, or inferior States,

of which it is composed; ponder them all well; and from those draw your

own inferences, and let me hear what they are with freedom: should they

be wrong, I will endeavour to set them right; but should they be right,

they will afford me the most lively satisfaction; for they will serve to

correct one of the greatest errors under which youth labours——an

overweening, sanguine imagination, that things in this life are, or at

least can be modelled into perfection; whereas experience, and a just

observation of the history of Mankind, will shew, that on this ball

things will never be as they ought, but must remain as they

are——imperfect.

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LETTER XIX.

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The country about Frankfort is delightful, rich and fruitful, and

watered by the beautiful river Maine, which divides the city into two

parts, that on the North being called Frankfort, and that on the South,

Saxenhausen, from the Saxons, who are supposed to have been the founders

of it. The city itself is large, populous and rich, and distinguished

for being the place where the Emperor and King of the Romans is

elected——though, by the appointment of CHARLEMAGNE, Cologne has a

superior claim to that honour. The Magistrates, and great part of the

inhabitants, are Lutherans or Calvinists; notwithstanding which, most of

the Churches are in the hands of the Roman Catholics——a laudable

instance of the true tolerant spirit of a wise and virtuous institution,

and a heavy reflection upon, as well as a noble example to the Popish

Powers of Europe.

The territory belonging to Frankfort is of very considerable extent; and

the trade carried on through it, by means of the rivers Rhine and Mayne,

of very great importance, not only to the country itself, but to other

commercial nations, and particularly to Great Britain, whose

manufactures are sent to Frankfort, and thence circulated through the

Continent, in amazing quantities.

The fairs of Frankfort are talked of all over Europe——of such importance

are they in the world of commerce. They are held, one at Easter, and

another in September, and continue for three weeks, during which time

the resort of people there from all quarters is astonishing. Every thing

is done by the Government to render them as attractive to Merchants as

possible; and the taxes or duties are extremely low——a bale of the value

of ten or twenty thousand crowns paying duty only about ten or eleven

pence of our money. All commodities from all parts of the world are sold

there, and circulated through the Empire; but, particularly, books are

sold in prodigious quantities. After the fairs are over, the shops of

the foreign Merchants are shut up, and their names written over their

doors.

To give an idea of the great importance these fairs are to commerce, I

need only mention, that in the present war, the impediments thrown by

the French in the way of the transit of goods up the Rhine, and the

shutting up that fair, gave a most alarming paralysis to the

manufacturing establishments of England, and a shock to public credit in

consequence, that would, but for the timely interference of Parliament,

have, in all probability, been fatal to the national credit.

Frankfort is in many respects a pleasant place: the Merchants are

extremely convivial and sociable, and form clubs, where they meet to

drink tea and coffee, and play at cards. There is a play-house also, a

great number of coffee-houses, and other houses of entertainment in

abundance. The country around is covered with woods and vineyards; and

the circumjacent villages are very pleasant, and well supplied with

houses of entertainment, to which the inhabitants of the city resort in

the Summer season; and the inns in Frankfort are excellent.

A singular custom prevails here, which I think worth mentioning: Taverns

are denoted by pine-trees planted before the doors of them; and the

different prices of the wines in their cellars are marked in ciphers on

the door-posts.

In the town here is presented the original Golden Bull, or Pope’s

Authority, which contains the rules and orders to be observed at the

election of the Emperors. This Golden Bull is never shewn to strangers

but in the presence of two of the Council and the Secretary——It is a

little manuscript in quarto, consisting of forty-two leaves of

parchment, with a gold seal of three inches diameter, of the value of

twenty duckets, hung to it by a cord of yellow silk. It is said to be

written in Latin and Gothic characters, without diphthongs; and kept in

a black box, together with two written translations of it into the

German language.

It is said of Frankfort, that the Roman Catholics possess the churches,

the Lutherans the dignities, and the Calvinists the riches. It is

therefore one of the few places in Christendom where the churches and

the riches do not go into the same hands.

From Frankfort to Augsburgh, I passed through a number of towns, all of

them so very inconsiderable as not to merit any particular description.

The way lies from the Palatinate through the Circle of Suabia. In the

extreme end of the Palatinate, and immediately before entering the

Dutchy of Wirtemberg, the country is covered with fir-trees; and money

is so scarce in it, that a loaf of wheaten bread, weighing eight pounds,

costs but two pence.

The city of Augsburgh is the capital of a Bishopric of that name in the

Circle of Suabia, and is worthy of the attention of the classical

traveller for its antiquity. About twelve years before the birth of

CHRIST, AUGUSTUS CÆSAR subdued all this country, and, on the place where

Augsburgh now stands, formed a colony, gave the town the name of Augusta

Vindelicorum, and put it under the government of DRUSUS, the brother of

TIBERIUS, afterwards Emperor of Rome. The inhabitants of this place were

the Vindelic, a branch of the Illyrians. But, ancient though it be, it

has little more of antiquity to entitle it to notice than the bare name;

for it has been pillaged so often, particularly by that monster ATTILA,

that there are scarcely any remains of its antiquity to be found.

Augsburgh is now, however, a handsome city——the public buildings in

general magnificent, and adorned with fountains, water engines of a

curious construction, and statues.