I can almost think I read in the parallel, which I fear will soon be drawn between the rise and fall of the British and Roman empire, something like this;—­“Rome had her CICERO; Britain her CAMDEN:  Cicero, who had preserved Rome from the conspiracy of Catiline, was banished:  CAMDEN, who would have preserved Britain from a bloody civil war, removed.”  The historian will add, probably, that “those who brought desolation upon their land, did not mean that there should be no commonwealth, but that right or wrong, they should continue to controul it:  they did not mean to burn the capitol to ashes, but to bear absolute sway in the capitol:—­The result was, however, that though they did not mean to overthrow the state, yet they risqued all, rather than be overthrown themselves; and they rather promoted the massacre of their fellow-citizens, than a reconciliation and union of parties,”—­THUS FELL ROME—­Take heed, BRITAIN!

LETTER XXXV.

ARLES.

I left Nismes reluctantly, having formed there an agreeable and friendly intimacy with Mr. D’Oliere, a young gentleman of Switzerland; and an edifying, and entertaining acquaintance, with Mons. Seguier.  I left too, the best and most sumptuous lodgings I had seen in my whole tour; but a desire to see Arles, Aix, and Marseilles, &c. got the better of all.  But I set out too soon after the snow and rains, and I found part of the road so bad, that I wonder how my horse dragged us through so much clay and dirt.  When I gave you some account of the antiquities of Nismes, I did not expect to find Arles a town fraught with ten times more matter and amusement for an antiquarian; but I found it not only a fine town now, but that it abounds with an infinite number of monuments which evince its having once been an almost second Rome.  There still remains enough of the Amphitheatre to convince the beholder what a noble edifice it was, and to wonder why so little, of so large and solid a building, remains.  The town is built on the banks of the Rhone, over which, on a bridge of barges, we entered it; but it is evident, that in former days, the sea came quite up to it, and that it was a haven for ships of burden; but the sea has retired some leagues from it, many ages since; beside an hundred strong marks at this day of its having been a sea-port formerly, the following inscription found a century or two ago, in the church of St. Gabriel, will clearly confirm it: 

M. FRONTONI EVPOR
IIIIIIVIR AVG.  COL.  JVLIA. 
AVG.  AQVIS SEXTIIS NAVICVLAR. 
MAR.  AREL.  CVRAT EJVSD.  CORP. 
PATRONA NAVTAR DRVENTICORVM. 
ET VTRICVLARIORVM. 
CORP.  ERNAGINENSIUM. 
JULIA NICE VXOR. 
CONJVGI KARISSIMO.