ling-a sum for which four Persons might have feasted in France, upon all the delicacies in season.

After dinner we walked to the Cathedral in which is some fine painted glass, and a few ancient Tombs. Upon one of them we were shewn the tattered armour of Edward the Black Prince, who was here interred; from which, our Conductor informed us, when the Soldiers went off upon the expedition to the Coast of Brittany, many of them took away a shred, as a pledge of conquest.

Elegant Chariots, trim Post-Chaises, and light Stage-Coaches now frequently enlivened the road; and we stopped, for the night, at a neat Inn at Rochester,

where

where it was cold enough to demand a fire, though we had needed none since we left Rome, and it was now the beginning of June.

Next morning we set out, in a drizzling rain, to lose ourselves once more in the labyrinth of London.

LETTER XXX.

General Sketches of the South of Europe.

London, August, 1802.

HA

VING now made the lesser Tour

of Europe, I sit down to sketch a general view of the different Nations so strikingly contrasted to each other, in a space not greater than that of the United States, and only separated by a current of water, or a ridge of moun tains, sometimes by imperceptible lines of demarcation: yet the neighbouring Inhabitants of frontier Provinces, often inimical, and always suspicious, are fenced against each other by the walls and ramparts of fortified towns, in which

the

the mass of the People remains on both sides wilfully ignorant of the arts, the language, and the religion of their Neighbours.

Travellers for business or amusement cannot visit neighbouring States without passports, even in time of peace; nor can they carry with them a change. of apparel, without being searched at every frontier, as Defrauders of the Revenue, a system that has been every where so much overstrained, to support Official profusion, as to create innumerable Smugglers.

The coin of one State will not pass in another, without a discount. No Alien is any where allowed to hold lands, or exercise a trade, among his inimical Neighbours.

Neighbours. The Princes of Germany and the Potentates of Europe condescend alike to foment National jealousy, into personal hatred, as the surest means of opposing rivalry, and preventing in

novation.

The beneficial operations of Commerce are universally shackled by privileges and exclusions, instead of being left, like the rain of Heaven, to find their own level. Nothing is uncontrolled-oppressive regulations curb every exertion, and the Subjects of European Governments have been wittily said to be governed to death.

But, under the Feudal System, which prevailed in Europe till the Twelfth Century, the rights of Mankind—na