visited the Corso, Festino, or any place of public amusement during the remainder of my stay at Rome. The chief of the police, with a significant glance, hinted to me, on leaving the Bureau, that I must henceforth consider myself as a marked man. I felt nowise inclined to visit their guard-room a second time, nor knew I at that period any better expedient for avoiding the danger, than altogether avoiding the temptation.

But the best intentions are sometimes frustrated by a series of untoward accidents. It was difficult to find a more peaceably inclined person, or a more direct and devout admirer of the powers that be, particularly in traveling, than myself.-Passive obedience, the contumelious term for that comfortable spirit of resignation to the guardians whom God in his mercy hath placed over his flock, and which is the best safeguard of the throne, as it no doubt is the best keeper of the people, had been always a grand distinctive of our family; and though my father could never rise higher than some sub-secondary

place in the revenue, yet placing his trust in Providence, the clear-sightedness of his Majesty, and the wisdom of his Majesty's Ministers, he continued faithful to the end, and was noted for his unconquerable love of every one above him, beginning with the postmaster, and so going up to the rector. He had begun life with these principles, which were handed down to him in an oaken snuff-box, said to be manufactured from the Royal Oak; and he has often declared in my presence to a ring of villagers, who came to hear him sing and talk of the Battle of Dettingen and Titus Oates's plot, on Sunday evenings, that had he never been promised the reversion for the family, these were the principles in which he intended to live and prosper, and by God's grace, and as he hoped to be happy here and hereafter, intended also to die. Every fifth of November, or King's Birthday, was a day of real joy at his house; and no one who could perceive the cheerful smoke and enticing smells which issued from his kitchen upon such days, could be any

longer at a loss how we had escaped from the contaminations of anarchy and assignats during the entire of the French Revolution, though raging at no greater distance from our thresholds than two or three hundred miles.

In these feelings, therefore, of bounden duty to my superiors, and the most satisfactory conviction of the happiness of loyalty and loyal men, I had been nursed and brought up. I know not whether I stand as a good illustration of my faith, though the fault may be more in the professor than the profession; but this at least is certain, that, believing as I did, nothing could be more painful to my feelings than to be treated, and. by "authority," as I had been; and I should altogether have felt inconsolable had I not reflected, that there may be some difference between authority and authority:-and that no one is, strictly speaking, obliged to obey (unless he be an Idolater) either Antichrist or the Pope. ́

In the state of low spirits which oppressed me at Rome, I was obliged to entrust

my passport for signature to my Valet-deplace. He went round, as he assured me, to the usual Ambassadors, and returned me my passport the same evening. I paid him largely, and slept well, having, as I imagined, done my duty. At an early hour next morning, we started from the Piazza del Popolo, which was not far from the Piazza della Scrofa, where I resided. I slept a portion of the morning, and though hungry, (we travelled by Vetturino,) passed the day satisfactorily. That night we reached Ronciglione, and the next day Bolsena. I had singularly enjoyed the effect of a magnificent southern sunset on the fine expanse of the lake; and though no poet, could not avoid working into three or four stanzas my own peculiar feelings on the subject. They cost me some time, and a great deal of scanning; but I succeeded at last, and should have inserted them here, had they not been torn and eaten up, as I suspect, by my cat.*

* My uncle was a poet, and a very fastidious one too. The stanzas in question, of which I possess a

The impression, however, remains still: I scarcely ever remember a more delightful excursion, which was not a little heightened by the talkativeness and other attractive qualities of a young niece of the curate of SanLorenzo, who was called suddenly, as she told me, to Florence, to receive the blessings, of her dying aunt; and who did all she could to amuse and convert me (an excellent mode by the by) during my journey.

But my joy was destined soon to terminate, and my smiles were about to expire in tears. On our arrival on the Tuscan frontier, at Acqua-pendente, our passports, as usual, were required. I had given in mine to our Vetturino in due form, and sate down

copy, (long missing, as appears from the text) are almost illegible from frequent erasures. "The poet," he often used to observe, "who composes 'stans pede in uno,' will produce nothing but halting measure; and better to have one child who may live long enough to grow up into a man, than thirty who die children, and ten times the number of abortions."