The confusion, natural on such occasions, produced anarchy:  At that moment, the military stept into the government, and the people became slaves.

Upon the ruins of this brave race, the Bishop of Rome founded an ecclesiastical jurisdiction.  His power increasing with his votaries, he found means to link all christendom to the triple crown, and acquired an unaccountable ascendency over the human mind:  The princes of Europe were harnessed, like so many coach horses.  The pontiff directed the bridle.  He sometimes used the whip, and sometimes the curse.  The thunder of his throne rattled through the world with astonishing effect, ’till that most useful discovery, the art of printing, in the fifteenth century, dissolved the charm, and set the oppressed cattle at liberty; who began to kick their driver.  Henry the Eighth of England, was the first unruly animal in the papal team, and the sagacious Cranmer assisted in breaking the shackles.

We have, in our day, seen an order of priesthood in the church of Rome, annihilated by the consent of the European princes, which the Pope beheld in silence.

“There is an ultimate point of exaltation, and reduction, beyond which human affairs cannot proceed.”  Rome, seems to have experienced both, for she is at this day one of the most contemptible states in the scale of empire.

This will of course lead the traveller’s thoughts towards Britain, where he will find her sons by nature inclined to a love of arms, of liberty, and of commerce.  These are the strong outlines of national character, the interior parts of which are finished with the softer touches of humanity, of science, and of luxury.  He will also find, that there is a natural boundary to every country, beyond which it is dangerous to add dominion.  That the boundary of Britain is the sea:  That her external strength is her navy, which protects her frontiers, and her commerce:  That her internal is unanimity:  That when her strength is united within herself, she is invincible, and the balance of Europe will be fixed in her hand, which she ought never to let go.

But if she accumulates territory, though she may profit at first, she weakens her power by dividing it; for the more she fends abroad, the less will remain at home; and, instead of giving law to the tyrant, she may be obliged to receive law from him.

That, by a multiplicity of additions, her little isles will be lost in the great map of dominion.

That, if she attempts to draw that vast and growing empire, America, she may herself be drawn to destruction; for, by every law of attraction, the greater draws the less—­The mouse was never meant to direct the ox.  That the military and the ecclesiastical powers are necessary in their places, that is, subordinate to the civil.

But my companion will remember that Birmingham is our historical mark, therefore we must retreat to that happy abode of the smiling arts.  If he has no taste for antiquity, I have detained him too long upon this hungry, though delightful spot.  If he has, he will leave the enchanted ground with reluctance; will often turn his head to repeat the view, ’till the prospect is totally lost.