language might at present be difficult, if not impossible. The difficulty is not so great as may be imagined.* Let any one of the greater Courts declare its intention of communicating with foreign ministers only in its own language, or in Latin or Italian, and a revolution in this respect will be brought about without delay or opposition. That this change is desirable, and that it would bring with it many political, literary, and even moral advantages can scarcely be disputed; and that it may take place at some future period is by no means improbable †.

Italian was, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, what French has been in the eighteenth, with this difference, that the former language owed to its own intrinsic merits that extension which the latter acquired by the preponderance of French power. When that power declines, and it is too gigantic and too oppressive to last, the language will decline with it, and again return to its natural limits; but what language will succeed it, it is not easy to conjecture. Italian has its intrinsic excellence and its superior literature to recommend it; but English,

*This revolution might have been effected in Vienna in the year 1794, that is, shortly after the commencement of the revolutionary war, if the court had supported the Anti-Gallican spirit of the gentry and people, who pretty generally came to a resolution to dismiss all French teachers, and forbid their families to use that language upon any occasion: a similar disposition was manifested in the year 1806 in Petersburg, in a much higher quarter, as the Emperor is said to have publicly declared, that he never expected to be addressed in any language but English and Russian, but in neither case was this patriotic resolution supported; the burghers of Vienna resumed their French grammars, and the Emperor Alexander submitted to French influence.

+ How much the rejection of their language annoys and mortifies the French Cabinet appears from the angry expressions of Bonaparte, complaining that, in

with similar though inferior claims, is supported by fashion, a very powerful ally, by influence commensurate with the known world, and by renown that spreads from pole to pole. It is already the language of commerce as French is that of diplomacy; and while the one is confined to courts and Capitals, the other spreads over continents and islands, and is the dialect of the busy and the active in every quarter of the globe. With such a weight on its side it is possible, even probable, that the scale will preponderate in favour of English; a preponderance which may flatter our vanity, but cannot promote our interest, as it will increase an influence already exorbitant, and expose us more and more to the jealousies and the suspicions of Europe.

After all, it is very difficult to determine, whether, any human efforts can influence the fate of languages, or abridge or prolong their destined duration. We move along in a vast funeral procession, which conveys individuals, kingdoms, and empires, with their passions, their monuments, their languages, to the tomb. The Greeks and Romans precede us in the paths of oblivion; a faint murmur of their languages reaches our ears, to subside ere long in utter silence. Shall our less perfect dialects be more fortunate, and can typographic art impart to them an immortality that fate refused to the beauty of Greece and to the majesty of Rome? I know not; but I can scarce expect such a distinction. One consolation however offers itself amid this general wreck of man, of his works, and of his inventions; it is, that new political associations

the late negotiations (of 1806), the English Ministry wished to lengthen and perplex the discussions, by the introduction of Latin forms, &c.

arise from the dissolution of kingdoms and empires, and call forth with increased vigour and interest the energies and the virtues of the human heart; that new combinations of sound spring from the decay of fading languages, affording fresh expressions to the understanding, and opening other fields to the imagination; and that thus all the shifting scenery and the ceaseless vicissitudes of the external world tend only to develop the powers of the mind, and finally to promote the gradual perfection of the intellectual system.*

RELIGION.

VII. The traveller who wishes to form a just idea of the religion of Italy, or indeed of any other European territory,

* My reader, if partial to French, must excuse me, if in opposition to his taste and to the opinion of all the French academies, and their numerous dependents and flatterers, I have given that language the appellation of barbarous. If we take this epithet in the Roman, that is, in its proper sense, we may surely apply it with strict propriety to a language which, in its construction and pronunciation, has deviated more than any other from the excellencies and the harmony of the parent tongue. To prove these two points we need but open any French book, particularly if a translation, and one page only will be sufficient to show, as I have already observed, its opposition to the freer and manlier arrangement of Latin; and as for the second, he who has heard the natives of different countries read Latin, will acknowledge, that the French tends more directly and more effectually than any European pronunciation to untune the sweetness and to debase the acknowledged majesty of the Roman dialect. Nor is this opinion either new or peculiar; if it were, it might be attributed to that dislike to French utterance inherent in the natives of this country, but it is common to Germans, Portuguese, Spaniards, and Italians; and as these latter may be considered the best judges because they have the most delicate ear, I shall quote the Abbate Denina, who, in one of his academical discourses, expressly asserts, that of all European languages French is in construction and in accent the most contrary to the phraseology and the harmony of Latin,

would do well to consider, that in all Christian countries the same Gospel is professed, and of course the same principal articles of belief are admitted, the same moral duties are prescribed, and enforced by the same sanction of eternal rewards and punishments; or in other words, that Faith, Hope, and Charity, form the spirit and essence of Christianity, in whatever manner it may be taught, or wheresoever established. When we inquire therefore, concerning the religion of a country, we mean to ask whether these Christian virtues influence its inhabitants more or less than they do those of other Christian countries, and according as this influence is perceptible in public and in private life, we form a favourable or an unfavourable opinion. The exterior of religion, that is the forms and the ceremonies of worship, with the administration and police of ecclesiastical government, the Protestant traveller will, if he be consistent, abandon to the taste, the feelings, and the judgment of the public; certain that no form or ritual contrary to these grand agents in human affairs, by whatever authority it may be supported, will long prevail in any country. If we examine the religion of Italy upon these principles, we shall find much to praise, and something perhaps to admire.

But I wish, not only to apply the term barbarous to the language, but to extend it still farther, to many of its authors, who surpassed the barbarians in barbarism, and formed a project which would have shocked the Goths and Vandals themselves. This anti-classical project was no other than the total suppression of the ancient languages, by excluding them from the regular course of youthful studies, and substituting in their place lectures on French literature, mathematics, chemistry, &c. The disposition of the present government in France is expressed, and its motives are pointed out with satyrical delicacy, in the dedication of a work just published, entitled, Herculanensia, by Sir William Drummond and R. Walpole, Esq.

In attendance on public worship, the Italians are universally regular, and though such constant attendance may not be considered as a certain evidence of sincere faith, yet every reader of reflection will admit, that it is incompatible with either infidelity or indifference. These latter vices are indeed

very rare in this country, and entirely confined to a few individuals of the higher class, and to some officers in the army, who resigning their religion with their patriotism, have meanly condescended to adopt the fashions and the opinions of revolutionary France. Interest, the only motive that can induce men to act in opposition to their conviction and feelings, reaches only a few ostensible characters, and excepting under certain persecuting governments, cannot extend to the multitude.

Nor is the devotion of the Italian confined to public service. The churches are almost always open; persons of regular life and of independent circumstances generally visit some or other of them every day; and individuals of all conditions may be seen at all hours, on their knees, humbly offering up their prayers at the throne of mercy. Such instances of unaffected devotion often melt the heart of the pious traveller, and have, not unfrequently, extorted an approving exclamation from observers in other respects blinded by early prejudice, or inflamed by polemic animosity. If the reader be inclined to condemn such practices as superstitious or as favourable to idleness, let him open the Gospel first, and examine well both its words and its spirit; then let him consider how many minutes are trifled away by the busiest and most active in the course of the day; and finally let him remember how many cares corrode the human heart, which He only, who wove its tissue, can remove or mitigate. The number of persons who receive the sacra