jet, they would confider it as a cheap purchafe,

But the fpreading flame is not confined to Holland! The Author has traced its progrefs through the provincial, petty towns of Auftria, where a flender paffage of the Rhine feparates the inhabitants from their utterly ruined neighbours, friends, and countrymen on the other fide; he has feen and heard the look and tone of determined Revolution: and, if he has at one moment obferved one man retreating with fear, he has, in the next, noticed more than one remaining fixed to his houfchold, in hope. of the deftroyer. In numberlefs places, believe me, a protecting army is an object of filent, yet obvious, hate, and one which menaces captivity is welcome. Along the banks of the Maife, as of the Rhine, even though their waves may be almoft faid, from the alchemy of commerce, to flow with gold, the very worshippers of that precious mifchief would gladly tinge its billows with blood! In Weftphalia, in Pruffia, he has followed, in every direction, the like power. You cannot get into a publichoufe, boat, or carriage, but the water and the

The purchafe has been made; we fhall fee how long they continue pleafed with their bargain.

land

land re-echoes with the ill-diffembled voice of loyalty, or the avowed and bolder tones of faction,

In fhort, the fever is more univerfal than any other that has yet raged in the world. It feizes on all ages, fexes, and countries; and though millions have already died of it, the fury rather increafes than abates. I have feen many men in their grand climacteric, to whom an eafy chair and a warm peaceful hearth, one would think, might comprife all the liberty fighed for, I have feen fuch receive with exultation every account of a fortress destroyed, a village burned, or a city defolated, even though adjoining their own. Like the malignant Zanga, but unfupported by Zanga's motives of revenge, they

"Love the rocking of the battlements ;

"It fuits the gloomy habit of their fouls."

In a word, in a circuit of many hundred leagues, I have feen a spirit of revolt to the ruling power, whether emperor, ftadtholder, or king, that rifes amongst the ruins, and ftirs up infurrection amidst the very afhes of thrones and dominions. Adieu!

LETTER LVIIL

TO THE SAME.

You told me, I remember, in one of your late favours, that I had mingled in my fheaves many a bloody wreath, Alas, it is but the blufhing fignal of thofe events which are doomed to outrage the feelings of every gentle heart. In the character of an hiftorical obferver I fhall, ere long, be called upon to afflict the reader, and my friend, yet more: the most terrifying truths are to be told; truths, over which I have wept and fhuddered; but, over which, I nevertheless hope, fhould the perufer of these pages fhed a tear, and fhudder alfo, he will find a balm fufficient to the wound. Amidst the pangs of general philanthropy, every Briton-born reader, at least, will feel at his heart the beatitude of his particular happiness, in being a member of that ifland, which, although, by comparative extent, it measures but as a fpeck in the map of the world, is the natal refidence of the fortunate, and the almost fole fanctuary of the unhappy proportions of the globe,

But,

But, however, my countrymen, and my friends, are to be felicitated on this circumftance, I forrow to diftrefs them by delineating the fad reverse, and, therefore, will, as long as poffible,

"Spare the telling, fince it be a pain."

The hurry and agitation of publick affairs have led me to fome anticipations; the croud ing incidents of the moment; the now gathering, now difperfing ftorms of war, have made me break in upon my referves prematurely; and that to the neglect of many a more pacifick and fmiling fcene. To thefe I fhall return with a fatisfaction that, I flatter myself, you will fhare, as it will, for a while, fufpend every more turbulent fubject, and empower me to conduct you gradually along, till you almost forget we are approaching fcenes of devaftation. By fuch means, too, I fhall rather break the blow upon your feelings than take them by furprize: nay, more, as our paths to the feats of war lie through fome of the most charming parts of Weftphalian Pruffia, I fhall even ftrew those paths with flowers.

I am now again addreffing you from Nimeguen, the laft confiderable town of the Dutch territory,

territory, where, after having employed the reft of this letter, in a few Gleanings properly belonging to Holland, and the Provinces, we will journey onward,

"Sedate to think, and watching each event;" and, with our accustomed privileges,

Try what the open, what the covert yields."

You have in recollection, I trust, my remarks on the Dutch theatre, when the ghost of Hamlet ftalked upon the ftage of Holland, during the Hague fair. On a re-vifitation of that celebrated town fome days ago, I found that a troop of German actors had been permitted to take poffeffion of the playhouse, fituated in the Cafuàry-ftreet, which the French comedians (convicted of Jacobinism, as I informed you), had evacuated. The first piece, at the reprefentation of which I attended, was called, I think, The Robber; in which, amongst feveral very fine-wrought, and as fine acted, fcenes, was one turning upon an event fo prepofterous, that I muft relate it to you. The hero of the performance is a young man, who, in the firft inftance, robs his own father, and, eloping from his paternal houfe, carries his plunder to a defperate banditti, who have their haunts in a deep foreft, and with fuch affociates he fhares the plunder and the crimes. Notwithftanding