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Bulls, which could dissolve private obligation, and dispense with public allegiance; until the Princes of Christendom were taught, by the Harbingers of Reformation, to dispute the supremacy, and to doubt the infallibility, of the supposed Vicar of Christ.

The everlasting High-Priest of the Christian Dispensation, far from appointing a lordly Successor, to rule over his Flock, expressly abolished the Levitical Priesthood, that he might teach his People himself; and commanded his immediate Followers, "Be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master; even Christ, -and all ye are Brethren."

Yon gloomy Turret betrays the Dominican Cloister, in which the Tribunal of

the

the Inquisition long strove, in vain, to stifle the vigorous birth of Heaven-born Truth.

In the Plain upon our right, two centuries before Augustus, encamped the veteran Hannibal, after he had thrice defeated the Roman Consuls, and Dictators; in a toilsome march from the Straits of Gibraltar, through Spain, France, and Italy; across the Alps, and the Appenines.

Yet while, at one Gate, lay the victorious Carthaginian, the imperturbable Senate sent off Recruits, by another, to the Army in Spain.

But

But below me (behind the Palace, or the Castle) is a modern Postern, through which General Berthier, having encamped his forces on the Monte Mario, penetrated the Papal Citadel, and ascended, without striking a blow, the Capitol of the Cæsars.

SUCH was, and such is, Rome-alike in the tropes of Cicero, and the figures of Gibbon, the Citadel of Nations, and the Metropolis of the Globe-the Eternal City, that survived the Empire of the World, to establish a new dominion

over the Nations of the Earth.

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LETTER XVII.

Sketches of Life and Manners.

HE Italian Populace is everywhere

THE

idle, rude, and noisy.-In Rome itself, the meanest of the People make way for Nobody, and as they stand chattering upon the narrow footways (where there happens to be any) will oblige the genteelest Passengers to turn into the street-nay, retort upon them, with insolence, if requested to give way, even to a Lady.

Yet, in polite address, the French and English second person plural, and the German third, are in Italy sublimely refined

refined into the feminine gender, and Sir John Brute is struck dumb, on his arrival at Rome, to hear himself ceremoniously announced as sua Excellenza."

A common Tradesman is designated, in writing, with "Illustrissime, Signor, Signor;" and the usual form of subscription to a letter of business is, "Your Slave ;" that of most humble Ser vant not being quite abject enough for Italian self-abasement.

The Nobility are Princes-their houses are Palaces-their Sons are Cæsars, and Scipios-nay their Cooks are "Ministra della Cucina," and their Scullions are "della Famiglia" of such or such a Grandee.

In

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