our second domestic service. How I pity these | cumstance, that the Duke of Marlborough, a hun Catholics, brought up to worship, not the God dred years before, had fixed on the same plains and Father of all, but the Virgin Mary and the for giving battle to the French army, and was only Saints!-Farewell. withheld from engaging by the timidity of the Dutch Deputies. Namur, Monday morning.-We are now going off for Liege; we hope to be at Spa on Wednes- We reached Namur at nine, after a journey on day; at Aix la Chapelle, Thursday; Cologne on pavé of forty-four miles. It is a strongly fortified the Rhine (where the pavé ends,) Saturday. At place, celebrated for the long sieges which it susBrussels, we engaged with a Swiss voiturier, who tained at the close of the last century but one; had come here with four horses from Rome, to and, like all frontier towns, has been the perpetual conduct us to Berne. We left Brussels at nine scene of bloodshed and misery. Forty thousand on Saturday, and at eleven were on the field of soldiers were quartered here in 1815 under GrouWaterloo. The small village church contains chy. It stands on the confluence of the Sambre twenty-two monuments of English officers who and the Meuse or Maese; behind it a fine mounfell on that memorable spot, with suitable inscrip- tain rises adorned with hanging wood, and crowntions-a most affecting sight. In an adjoining ed with tremendous fortifications. It forms the plot is the burial ground of four hundred of our back ground of the picture. The walk by the brave soldiers. His Majesty the King of Eng-river side is exquisite. land was most minute in his inquiries, when he was here two years back. He even visited the garden where Lord Anglesey's leg was interred. The field of Waterloo itself is covered with corn; but the hedge leading to Ohain, the farm of Haie Sainte, Huguemont, Planchenoir, &c. remain. The spot where the last attack was made on the English by the Imperial Guard, is marked by a pillar, and also that where General Gordon fell. The Wellington tree was brought to England two years ago, and is at the British Museum. Jean Baptiste de Coster, Bonaparte's guide, was ours. We took great pains in distinguishing him from a multitude of impostors who deceive the unwary, by claiming his name. He is an elderly man, full of enthusiasm in his description of the battle. We spent an hour with him on this fearful scene of England's glory. He led us to the very spot where the hottest part of the battle took place. It is impossible to give you any idea of the horrors which he described. The mind shudders at the thoughts of the sufferings of our brave men, and of the wide-spread desolations of that terrific day. Even now the corn displays a rank luxuriance on the ensanguined field. The bones of the dead are dug up by the rude hand of the laborer.* The marks of the balls may still be traced on many of the trees, and relics of the spoils are offered you at every turn. What a de liverance for Europe was wrought on those plains! What praises do we owe to God for the security, happiness, and power which were all achieved or confirmed to Britain by that mighty conquest. Really, when one reflects on the character of Bonaparte, on his prodigious successes, on his confessed skill as a general, on his prodigality of human life, on the efforts which he then made, and on the possible consequences of his gaining the field, one's heart swells with gratitude and thanksgiving to the God of battles, who fortified the breast of our noble commander during the fearful struggle, and crowned him with the most important victory which the annals of history, ancient or modern, can boast. It is a curious cir * Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis Huy, Twelve o'clock, Monday, June 30.-We have been four hours and a half coming to this beautiful town. The road has been by the side of the Meuse, seventeen miles. The hanging woods, the rocks, the villages, the windings of the river, the ruined castles, and a road of fine smooth earth, not pavé, formed one of the most striking and beautiful drives I have ever taken. cliffs and woods, in some places, were sublime.— The rain of yesterday had laid the dust, and bright The The pe ened the verdure on the face of nature. Liege, Tuesday, July 1.-We arrived here last night, the road continuing equally beautiful; but the heat of the day, especially in the morning, was very great, and we find ourselves a good deal fatigued. To-day is the post, and therefore I close this letter. I found no letters from England at Brussels, but hope to receive some at Cologne. We are all well. I am, &c. D. W. P. S. We have underrated the distance we have travelled; the leagues are two miles and three quarters English; so that we have now gone about two hundred and seventy-five miles beautiful white horses to each carriage. Liege from Calais. We have two coachmen, and two contains nothing very remarkable. It stands in a picturesque spot on the side of a hill; a small river banked with stone walls, runs through it; and the gardens coming down to the river, are lightful walk all around. In coming here we saw a promenade, with trees, affords a dethe sides of the mountains, for the first time, covered with vineyards. We had occasion to call on a clockmaker in the Great Square. He seemed an acute, sensible man. A deeply fixed discontent was apparent, notwithstanding his attempts to conceal it. The recollection of Bonaparte was vivid in his mind. So we find it every where almost. beautiful; ་ 1 LETTER III. Spa, July 1.-Coblentz, July 10, 1823. sulphur. Their flavor very little differs from that of common water, except that they have a taste of iron. The water from the Pouhon spring is the strongest, and is exported to almost every Road to Spa-Verviers-Aix la Chapelle-Charle- part of the world. The place has fallen off since magne-Relics-King of England-Juliers-St. the last war, and is now apparently going to decay. Austin-Sunday at Bergheim-Cologne-St. Ur- The German bathing-towns are superseding it. sula-Tomb of Magi-Bonn-University of Ca- We shall stay here over to-morrow probably. tholics and Protestants-The Rhine-Drachensfels-Remagen-Andernach-Coblentz-Tim ber-float-Spy. SPA, Tuesday, July 1, 1823. MY DEAR SISTER-We have safely arrived at this beautiful spot-a romantic watering place, well known by fame to you and every one else, for its mineral springs. The road from Liege is mountainous, and in many places highly picturesque; and as we approached Spa, we travelled along a deep hollow with lofty cliffs on each side of us covered with hanging woods. Below the road ran a small but rapid river, winding along the valley, which having been swollen by the recent rains, was inimitably beautiful. On our road, we stopped an hour at a small inn, in the chamber of which I found a sort of chapel, dressed up with a crucifix, and many superstitious ornaments: underneath, however, was a copy of verses so pious, that I transcribed them, and send them for your benefit. I think them admirable: possibly they may be an extract from Corneille's Translation of Thomas à Kempis. La Sainte Volonté de Dieu; la Folie de la Croix; Heureux qui prend le temps comme Dieu le lui donne; Des biens, des maux présens, sait faire son profit; Et qui pour l'avenir au Seigneur s'abandonne, Disant, content de tout, Dieu le veut, il suffit. Spa, Wednesday, July 2.-We have had a beautiful day. This village is surrounded with the finest rides and walks imaginable. The waters were known to the Romans, and are mentioned by Pliny. They were in repute throughout Europe, as early as the fourteenth century. They spring from the adjacent hills, which are said to be formed of calcareous earth, mixed with sicious substances. They are all a strong chalybeate; and some of them are impregnated with Little did I think I should ever spend a birthday at Spa; but so it is. I am forty-five to-day. With how many mercies surrounded; with how much to lament in myself! Time how swift! This world how vain, how unsatisfying! May the salutary springs of this place lead me to recollect and to thirst more ardently for that fountain of "living waters, which springeth up unto everlasting life!" Aix La Chapelle, Saturday, July 5.—We left Spa on Thursday after dinner, and came by a delightful road to Verviers, a town, eleven miles distant, remarkable for a small river, the waters of which are used in dying clothes. The town is situated in a valley; a promenade made half way up on one side of a hill commands the place, and affords an exquisite prospect. The town is before you, overtopped by the green hills behind it ; between the town and the foot of the hill are the gardens of the houses in the main street, running down to the river, over which bridges are thrown, that add much to the whole effect. The number of inhabitants is about ten thousand. We saw a on the outside of one of the church doors, uttering multitude of persons in the evening kneeling down miserable cries before the image of a saint. We are now come to German servants, and find our French of little use to us. On Friday morning, at seven o'clock, we came to Aix, twenty-five miles; here we enter the dominions of the king of Prussia. This city is associated with every thing grand in modern Europe. The peace of 1748 was signed here; and at the Hotel de Ville is an immense picture of all the ambassadors who were present on that occasion: unfortunately they are not portraits. A tower of this building was erected by the Romans. The baths of hot sulphureous water, of the heat of one hundred and forty-three degrees of Fahrenheit, gave the town the name of Aix, a corruption from aquæ, waters. The cathedral was built by Charlemagne in 804, and yet preserves his throne of white marble, in which thirty-six emperors of Germany have been crowned. Over his tomb is a plain stone with this simple inscription, Carolo Magno. The pulpit is not remarkable for its architecture; but around the sounding-board are these words, "But we preach Christ." Alas! the fact is, they now preach the Virgin Mary; before whose image we saw, what may be seen every day, a person kneeling with uplifted hands in prayer. The relics of this church are enchased in immense shrines of silver gilt, set with precious stones. A priest gravely showed us a nail and several pieces of the wood of the cross; the sponge, in which the vinegar was offered to our Saviour; a part of the girdle of our Lord; a link of the chain with which St. Peter was martyred; an arm and some of the hair of John the Baptist; a tooth of St. Thomas; some bones of Simeon, &c. It was with the utmost difficulty I could keep my countenance. I asked the priest if all these things were matters of faith. He replied, "No, but they rest on the most undoubted historical evidence". which, for my part, I always thought was the proper ground of faith as to a matter of fact. These relics are publicly exhibited for fifteen days once in seven years. About 40,000 persons daily crowd to see them during that time. In 1545 more than 100,000 came every day for this purpose. How gross are the impositions of this corrupt church! May the blessed Spirit of Grace hasten the time when truth shall once more triumph over its Papal, as it did over its Pagan fees! Aix is surrounded with beautiful boulevards; and the adjoining hill of Louisbourg commands a fine view of the city. The allied monarchs were here for three months, four years back; and our own beloved king the year before last. His affability and generosity won every heart. English newspapers are, I am told, prohibited throughout most of the Prussian states-we could find none. Every creature is brim-full of discontent; and much beyond the occasion, I should think. Bergheim, Saturday evening, July 5.-We have finished our journey for the week. We left Aix this morning for Juliers, eighteen miles. Here we were shown an ancient portrait of the greatest of the Christian fathers, St. Austin, with this inscription, "Saint Aurelius Augustinus, the pillar and teacher of the church, the abyss of wisdom, the terror of heretics, the restorer of the apostolical life." If the doctrine of Austin had but been preserved uncorrupted in the church, there would have been no need of a Reformation, eleven centuries after his death, to revive the evangelical truth which he taught. After dinner, (which now costs us twenty-pence a head,) we set off for this village, where are six hundred and fifty souls, and scarcely a Protestant. It is a sweet, calm place; the hotel clean, people attentive, beds comfortable. Our host was a fine young man, one of Bonaparte's soldiers, and not at all disguising his hatred of the Prussian government. In the house opposite, the royal family of France received the news of the detention of Louis XVI., at Varennes, in 1792. Farewell, for to-night. are discontented. They conceive themselves degraded by being taken from France, a leading power in Europe, and made an appendage on Prussia. Their trade and wealth have sensibly diminished. The 3 2 Bonn on the Rhine, Tuesday, July 9.-We left Bergheim yesterday at seven, and came to Co-1 logne by ten, fourteen miles-for we never go more than about four miles an hour. We spent seven hours in visiting this most ancient and curious city, Cologne. The Rhine here first burst upon us; a noble, broad, rich flood, rushing from the Lake of Constance, and flowing on with a gradually retarded stream, to Holland, more than seven hundred miles-I should rather say, rushing from the Grisons through the lakes of Constance. Cologne was a city built by the Romans, of whom many memorials remain. A large room in the old Jesuits' College is filled with Roman sarcophagi, altars, bas-reliefs, and inscriptions found in the town and neighborhood. venerable Professor Walraf, after fifty-five years spent in the collection of antiquities and specimens of the fine arts, still lives to enjoy his reputation. On the fiftieth anniversary of his professorship-which is soon approaching-a fête is to be given him by all the authorities of the town. The churches, convents, &c. are numerous : amounting, it is said, to one hundred and eightyfive in number. The Cathedral is a stupendous unfinished edifice, which was two hundred and fifty years in building. Here we were shown— can you imagine it?-the tomb of the three wise men who visited our Lord. Actually so! The front of the tomb in which their pretended sculls are placed, is of gold, enriched with oriental topaz. Their names, Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar, are fixed beneath in letters of rubies, their bodies are enshrined in massy silver gilt, adorned with precious stones. Yet three centuries back this city was all but Protestant. The Archbishop, Herman Count de Wied, had actually espoused the Reformation. But the Popish party prevailed; the pious archbishop was deprived of his sec, and the dawning light was smothered or extinguished. What guilt is incurred by those who trifle away the "time of their visitation !"* We visited the church where Rubens was baptized, and that where St. Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins were interred. The town is strongly fortified, has fifty thousand souls, and one thousand three hundred Protestants; amongst whom, I am told, there are many most excellent and spiritually-minded persons. The city is an Monday morning, July 8.-Yesterday we had our English service twice, as usual. My college friend, whom I shall often have occasion to speak of, preached to us most excellently. A Protestant sermon is doubly delightful now we are annoyed and disgusted with Popish doctrines and corruptions on all hands. The church here is filled with superstitions; a procession of two hundred persons came eighteen miles, yesterday, to sing hymns in I can refer now with great pleasure to the intehonor of the Virgin. Still the attention of the resting details on this subject in the Rev. J. Scott's people at church was very great; their prayer-able continuation of Milner's Church History, 1826. books are in Latin and German. Under an image of our Lord, we found these words, "Thou who passest by, honour always the image of Christ; but adore not the image, but him whom it represents." It is thus precisely that a heathen priest would have excused his idolatry. We inquire all we can as to the state of the people. The children in the Prussian states are forced to go to school; all read and write; the men are husbandmen, and get six or seven francs a week, and their food; the women three francs. The people "The hugest fraud of this kind (as to relics) that ever was practised, was when the contents of a whole cemetery were brought forth as the bones of eleven thousand British virgins, all bound from Cornwall, to be married in Armorica, carried by tempests up the Rhine to the city of Cologne, and there martyred by an army of Huns under Attila. Even this legend obtained credit; all parts of Christendom were eager to acquire a portion of the relics, and at this day a church may be seen at Cologne, literally lined with the bones."---SOUTHEY's Book of the Church, vol. i, p. 293. 1 nexed to Prussia. We noticed a most magnifi- | remembrance of the passage of the Rhine by the cent organ in one of the churches-the gallery German troops near this place in 1814. As soon composed entirely of marble, with statues of the as the guide reached the summit, he exclaimed, apostles and patriarchs in the front of it-the "Glory to God in the highest"-Gloria Deo in whole supported by marble pillars, and filling up excelsis-a pleasing remnant of ancient piety. an entire corner of the church. It is splendid As I walked down the hill, I asked our guide if beyond conception. he had a Bible. He told me he had, and that he read it constantly.-I asked him a few questions about the Old and New Testament history; when I discovered that his Bible was a pamphlet of 18 or 19 pages, drawn up by the priests. He had no idea that there was any book such as we mean by the Bible-so sad is the ignorance of these poor people. The corn harvest is begun. The vintage is not till the middle of October. Every thing here depends on the vine: the landlords let portions of land to tenants for half the crop of grapes of each year; the punishment for eating any grapes is five francs the first offence, and four days' imprisonment the second. The wine is thirteen pence the bottle. During the brief time of the vintage, the people employed eat as many grapes as they like. Remagen on the Rhine, Tuesday evening.-We have had a most charming day. At Bonn, I enquired after a Lutheran clergyman with whom I had made some acquaintance in England, a most pious and sensible man. The person whom I addressed, immediately said he knew him, and that he had just sent around his letter to announce his approaching marriage--for I found that it is the custom of all respectable persons here to write circular notes to their friends, to inform them of the day of their intended marriage-in England we rather conceal such an intention. I soon met with my friend, and he conducted us over the University of Bonn, founded, in 1819, by the king of Prussia-five hundred and twenty students, half Protestant and half Catholic-eighteen professors-library, fifty-five thousand volumes.The college, a former palace of the Elector of Cologne, of immense extent. There is said to be a considerable revival of piety among Catholics and Protestants here. The estimate of real Christianity rises, its vital truths are better appreciated, and circumstantials less vehemently insisted on. There is an excellent Bible Society; and in consequence the nature of spiritual religion, as well as its obligation, is understood. The leading Catholics are sensible men, and their churches here are almost entirely free from altars and images. Still Popery in itself is the same; and as soon as a Catholic priest preaches the Gospel purely, he is, somehow or other, removed or banished by his superiors: though he cannot be further persecuted, as the king is a Protestant. I hear that one priest in Alsace has been the means of converting forty families in his parish. The kings of Prussia and the Netherlands are Protestants. This is a great point, and is working considerable good, and would work more, if Protestant princes understood better the great principles of the reformed faith, and felt more deeply the obligation of acting upon them. At the period of the Reformation, religion actuated the counsels of kings, and entered into the policy of alliances; and ininisters of state took into account their responsibility to God for the cause of the pure faith of Christ committed to their care. Coblentz, July 10, Wednesday.We have just arrived at this town, which, from its immense fortifications seems to be the key of Germany. We left Remagen at nine this morning, and dined at Andernach, near which place it is thought that Julius Cæsar crossed the Rhine. The dinners here annoy us; nothing is simple and plain; hashes, stews, oils, dirt. Andernach is a curious townvery old-full of remains of Roman antiquity-a gate built by Augustus. But it is the road along the Rhine which is most interesting; for ten or twelve miles the diversified scenes, and beauty of the views, exceeded all the conceptions which I had previously formed: vineyards, rocks, mountains, every thing that can enchant the eye, and fill it with gratitude to the Author of every blessing. Here we intend sleeping. We are four hundred and forty miles from Calais, and all well, and surrounded with the goodness and mercy of God! We have now smooth roads, without pavé, and the weather is charming. Coblentz is beautifully situated on the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle. A bridge of boats crosses the Rhine. The view on each side is exquisite. The river flows with a strong current, and is, I should think, about one thousand feet wide at this part. We here saw some of those timber floats, for which the Rhine is so celebrated. When the various smaller floats are united, they form an immense raft, about 1000 feet long, and 90 broad, which is managed and piloted in its course by 400 men, and when sold in Holland produces about 10,000l. sterling. The vast pieces of timber are firmly joined to each other, and temporary wooden houses are built on them for the accommodation of the men. We hope to be at Franckfort on Saturday, and at Basle sometime about Tuesday I am yours, D. W. Our drive from Bonn to this place, Remagen, by the banks of the Rhine, was exquisite; words can give you no idea of it. A fine river, five or six hundred feet broad, with continual windings, opening into bays; on each side villages, with beautiful spires; vineyards, crags, corn-fields, interspersed the scenery now rising with magnifi-week, July 22. cence, now sinking into softer beauty; distant mountains bounding the prospect; nothing can be conceived more splendid and lovely. We alighted P. S. After dinner, as we were sitting in a café at Mehlem, and crossed the Rhine at Koenigs- here in Coblentz reading the journals, a gentlewinter, to ascend the lofty mountains of Dra- manly-looking man, seeing us to be strangers, adchensfels, one thousand eight hundred feet above dressed us. He began by asking me some comthe level of the river, and commanding an asto-mon questions; but soon turned the conversation nishing view. A monument is here erected in to politics, and inveighed warmly against the ders. existing Prussian government, and the want of tude to the Almighty Giver of all good, as since freedom amongst the continental nations. He I have been passing through this scene of wonwent on to extol the liberty and riches of England. His manner surprised me; and having heard that spies were often employed to induce strangers to disclose their sentiments, I was very reserved. Upon this he plainly asked me what I thought about the Holy Alliance, and the invasion of Spain by the French. I replied, that I was a minister of religion that my information was far too slight to enable me to give a correct opinion; that as a stranger I took no part in the politics of the countries through which I travelled; but cultivat-night we hired a boat, and ascended the river to ed a spirit of good-will towards all nations. He was evidently chagrined, and rudely turned away from me. I thus escaped, as I imagine, the surveillance of the police, or perhaps a summary order to leave the country. Sir Henry Wotton recommended our great poet, Milton, when about to travel on the continent in 1638, "to keep his thoughts close and his countenance open"-advice not inappropriate after a lapse of nearly two centuries. LETTER IV. The spot where we now are, (St. Goar) for example, is enclosed on all hands by the most variegated mountain scenery. The ruins of Reichenfels are above the town; at our feet is the Rhine: on the opposite shore is Goarhausen, crowned with a Roman fortification. The sun is shedding its glories on all sides, whilst the broken rocks and valleys receive or reject his rays, and create the most grateful alternations of light and shade. Last witness the setting sun and observe the two shores in unbroken luxuriance. Every reach forms in fact a superb lake: we passed from one to another, comparing the different beauties which each presented to us with a lavish hand. The scene was majestic indeed; and the last rays of the orb of day tinging the mountain tops, and throwing a glow over the waters, completed, so to speak, the picture. But I must, absolutely, tear myself from this topic to tell you, that at Coblentz we ascended the heights of Ehrenbreitstein, an impregnable fortress, commanding a prospect beyond measure extensive. The point of greatest beauty was the St. Goar, July 11.-Carlsruh, July 19, 1823. junction of the Rhine and the Moselle. The MoScenery of Rhine-Ehrenbreitstein-French Monu- selle, with its deep red stream, meets the yellow ment of Campaign in Russia-Discontent-Hirt-waters of the Rhine; and the combat between the zenach-Jew-Bingen - Vineyard-Weisbaden two is most surprising. They do not mix. At -Violation of Sabbath - Mentz-Franckfort - the mouth of the Moselle, the division of the two English Newspapers-Conversion of Priest-Gö- waters is so strongly marked, that you would the--Revival of Religion - Darmstadt-Leander think a dam had been interposed; but the Rhine Van Ess-Oppenheim-Storks'-nests-Heidel- forms, with its larger current, an overpowering berg-Martin Luther-Professor-Castle-Man- barrier against its weaker neighbor, whose waters heim-Flying Bridge-Schwetzingen-Carlsruh -Floods. ST. GOAR, on the west bank of the Rhine, 460 miles from Calais, Friday, June 11, 1823. We are now, my dear sister, in the very heart of the most beautiful part of the Rhine. From Bonn to Mentz, ninety-seven miles, the route is by the side of this majestic flood. Magnificence and beauty are united in the highest imaginable degree. The loftiest rocks, craggy, crowned with ancient and dilapidated towers, rise before you, so as sometimes to darken the scene, and are then joined and softened by a perpetual garden. The profusion of vegetation all around, especially the luxuriant vines, carried up every chink and crevice where the sun can reach; the beauty and freshness now shed over them, together with their fragrant smell as they are flowering, compose a scene quite inconceivable to those who have not witnessed it. Hundreds of small villages also, with spires towering above them, and perhaps an old fortification and gates, or a ruined château, are scattered on the banks on each side, whilst the ever-flowing Rhine, deep and rich, expands itself into a lake, or presses on between abrupt rocks, or embraces, every now and then, an island filled with fruittrees and vines;—conceive of all this, and you will allow me, without blame, to be a little enthusiastic. The noble road which the French have raised by the margin of the stream, and without pavé, increases the pleasure of this part of our journey. I think I never felt such warm emotions of grati creep along the shore till they are gradually lost in their course. We visited only one church at majesty of the divine works in CREATION, gave us Coblentz, St. Castor-for the beauties and simple no great taste for the superstitions of a church which has been employed so many hundred years in deforming the greatest of all the works of God, REDEMPTION. A noble fountain, however, attracted our attention; it was built by the French in 1812, and bears this inscription: "1812, Memorable pour la Campagne contre les Russes."-Beneath this, the Russians, in 1814, added these words: "Sous le prefecture de Jules Doazan, vu et approuvé par nous, Commandant Russe de la ville de Coblentz, 1st January, 1814." A mixture of great good and great evil seems to have followed the rule of France for twenty-three years over the Pays Bas, and the countries on the Rhine. The convents are abolished; the Protestants have churches; the cities and roads are improved and beautified; education is promoted; knowledge and truth have entrance; Popery has received a deadly blow; commerce, art, industry, property, are revived and quickened. But, what a painful catalogue of miseries, injustice, ruin, infidelity, vice, must be drawn up on the contrary side! On the whole, it must be admitted, that the population is still favorable to the French, and would wish to return to them as masters. The memory of Bonaparte is too much cherished, loved, adored every where. May God, the Sovereign Ruler and Saviour of mankind, educe good from the confusion and tu |