It is equally free from enthusiasm and superstition; its outward form is decent and respectful, without affected ostentation; and what shews its excellence above all others is, that every other church allows it to be the best, except itself:  and it is an established rule, that he has an undoubted right to the first rank of merit, to whom every man allows the second.

As to our government, it would be impertinent to praise it; all mankind allow it to be the master-piece of human wisdom.

It has the advantage of every other form, with as little of their inconveniences as the imperfection attendant on all human inventions will admit:  it has the monarchic quickness of execution and stability, the aristocratic diffusive strength and wisdom of counsel, the democratic freedom and equal distribution of property.

When I mention equal distribution of property, I would not be understood to mean such an equality as never existed, nor can exist but in idea; but that general, that comparative equality, which leaves to every man the absolute and safe possession of the fruits of his labors; which softens offensive distinctions, and curbs pride, by leaving every order of men in some degree dependent on the other; and admits of those gentle and almost imperceptible gradations, which the poet so well calls,

  “Th’ according music of a well-mix’d state.”

The prince is here a centre of union; an advantage, the want of which makes a democracy, which is so beautiful in theory, the very worst of all possible governments, except absolute monarchy, in practice.

I am called upon, my Lord, to go to the citadel, to see the going away of the ice; an object so new to me, that I cannot resist the curiosity I have to see it, though my going thither is attended with infinite difficulty.

Bell insists on accompanying me:  I am afraid for her, but she will not be refused.

At our return, I will have the honor of writing again to your Lordship, by the gentleman who carries this to New York.

  I have the honor to be, my Lord,
      Your Lordship’s, &c. 
          Wm. Fermor.

LETTER 131.

To the Earl of ——.

Silleri, April 20, Evening.

We are returned, my Lord, from having seen an object as beautiful and magnificent in itself, as pleasing from the idea it gives of renewing once more our intercourse with Europe.

Before I saw the breaking up of the vast body of ice, which forms what is here called the bridge, from Quebec to Point Levi, I imagined there could be nothing in it worth attention; that the ice would pass away, or dissolve gradually, day after day, as the influence of the sun, and warmth of the air and earth increased; and that we should see the river open, without having observed by what degrees it became so.