The accounts we receive of their gluttony, are often as ill-founded as thofe of their infidelity. The real character of the majority of monks and inferior ecclefiaftics, both in France and Italy, is that of a simple, fuperftitious, well-meaning race of men, who for the moft part live in a very abftemious and mortified manner, notwithstanding what we have heard of their gluttony, their luxury, and voluptuousness. Such accufations are frequently thrown out by those who are ill entitled to make them. I remember being in company with an acquaintance of yours, who is diftinguished for the delicacy of his table and the length of his repafts, from which he feldom retires without a bottle of Burgundy for his own share, not to mention two or three glaffes of Champaign between the courses. We had dined a few miles from the town in which we then lived, and were returning in his chariot; it was winter, and he was wrapped in fur to the nose. As we drove along, we met two friars walking through

the

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the fnow; little threads of icicles hung from their beards; their legs and the upper part of their feet were bare, but their foles were defended from the fnow by wooden fandals. "There goes a couple of dainty "rogues," cried your friend as we drew near them;" only think of the folly of "permitting fuch lazy, luxurious rafcals to "live in a State, and eat up the portion of . "the poor. I will engage that those two "fcoundrels, as lean and mortified as they

look, will devour more victuals in a day, than would maintain two induftrious families." He continued railing against the luxury of thofe two friars, and afterwards expatiated upon the epicurism of the clergy in general; who, he said, were all alike in every country, and of every religion. When we arrived in town, he told me he had ordered a little nice fupper to be got ready at his house by the time of our return, and had lately got fome excellent wine, inviting me at the fame time to go home with him; for, continued he, as we have

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have driven three miles in fuch weather, we ftand in great need of fome refreshment.

That in all Roman Catholic countries, and particularly in Italy, the clergy are too numerous, have too much power, too great a proportion of the lands, and that fome of them live in great pomp and luxury, is undeniable. That the common people would be in a better fituation, if manufactures and the spirit of industry could be introduced among them, is equally true; but even as things are, I cannot help thinking that the ftate of the Italian peafantry is preferable, in many refpects, to that of the peasants of many other countries in Europe. They are not beaten by their ecclesiastical lords, as thofe of Germany are by their mafters, on every real or imaginary offence. They have not their children torn from them, to be facrificed to the pomp, avarice, or ambition of fome military defpot; nor are they themselves preffed into the fervice as foldiers for life.

In England and in France the people take an intereft in all national difputes, and confider the cause of their country or their Prince as their own; they enter into the fervice voluntarily, and fight with ardour for the glory of the country or King they love. Thofe ideas enable them to fubmit to a thousand hardships without repining, and they feel the sensations of happiness in the midst of toil, want, and danger. But in Germany, where the paffions are annihilated, and a man is modelled into a machine before he is thought a good foldier, where his blood is fold by the Prince to the highest bidder, where he has no quarrel with the enemy he murders, and no allegiance to the Monarch for whom he fights, the being liable to be forced into fuch a fervice, is one of the moft dreadful of all calamities. Yet a regiment of fuch compelled foldiers, dreffed in gaudy uniform, and powdered for a review, with mufic founding and colours flying, makes a far more

brilliant

brilliant appearance than a cluster of peafants with their wives and children upon a holiday. But if we could examine the breafts of the individuals, we should find in thofe of the former nothing but the terror of punishment, hatred of their officers, diftruft of each other, and life itself fupported only by the hope of defertion; while the bofoms of the latter are filled with all the affections of humanity, undisturbed by fear or remorse.