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, even of 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 a 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 artificers, 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. The 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."

"The 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 Leige 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 er 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-laChapelle 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 offensiye smell; but they are often powerful in effect, and give relief in a great variety of maladies; and they are rendered still more palitable 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.

LETTER XVII.

BIDDING adieu to the famous city of Aix-laChapelle, 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 duchy 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 duchy, 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 centuries, into the profession of particular modes of faith. Combating opinion by force is so absurd, that I am sure those who 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 religieus 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 any particular name, complexion, stature, or color of the hair. Put, for experiment, all the men in the kingdom of above five feet ten inches high, 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 stigmatizes us with unmerited marks of inferiority.

The states of this duchy, 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 it 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 animos. Those who rack their brains, or rather their heads, for brains they can have none, with such finical impertinent enquiries, 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 Barber and Curate in Don Quixotte, of all its