CHAP. The foil, except in figs and olives, is fufficiently fruitful; LXVI. the air is falubrious; the bodies of the natives are robuft and healthy; and these cold regions are feldom visited with the calamities of peftilence, or earthquakes. After the Scythians or Tartars, the Germans are the most numerous of nations; they are brave and patient, and were they united under a fingle head, their force would be irresistible. By the gift of the pope, they have acquired the privilege of chufing the Roman emperor (24): nor is any people more devoutly attached to the faith and obedience of the Latin patriarch. The greateft part of the country is divided among the princes and prelates; but Strasburgh, Cologne, Hamburgh, and more than two hundred free cities, are governed by fage and equal laws, according to the will, and for the advantage, of the whole community. The ufe of duels, or fingle combats on foot, prevails among them in peace and war; their induftry excels in all the mechanic arts, and the Germans may boast of the invention of gun-powder and cannon, which is now diffused over the greatest part of the world. II. The kingdom of of France; FRANCE is fpread above fitteen or twenty days journey from Germany to Spain, and from the Alps to the British Ocean; containing many flourishing cities, among thefe Paris, the feat of the king, which furpaffes the rest in riches and luxury. Many princes and lords alternately wait in his palace, and acknowledge him as their fovereign; the most powerful are the dukes of Bretagne and Burgundy, of whom the latter poffeffes the wealthy province of Flanders, whofe harbours are frequented by the fhips and merchants of our own and the more remote feas. French are an ancient and opulent people: and their language and manners, though fomewhat different, are not diffimilar from thofe of the Italians. Vain of the Imperial dignity of Charlemagne, of their victories over the Saracens, and of the exploits of their heroes, Oliver and Row

The

land

(24) A citizen of new Rome, while new Rome furvived, would have fcorned to dignify the German Png with the titles of Βασιλευς, ΟΙ Αύτοκε βατωρ Ρωμαίων : but all pride was extind in the bofom of Chalcondyles; and he defcribes the Byzantine prince, and his fubjects, by the proper, though humble names of Έλληνες, and Βασιλευς Ελλήνων.

LXVI.

land (25); they efteem themselves the first of the western CHA P. nations: but this foolish arrogance has been recently humbled by the unfortunate events of their wars against the English, the inhabitants of the British Ifland. III. BRI- of England. TAIN, in the ocean, and oppofite to the fhores of Flanders, may be confidered either as one, or as three islands; but the whole is united by a common intereft, by the fame manners, and by a fimilar government. The measure of its circumference is five thousand ftadia: the land is overspread with towns and villages; though deftitute of wine, and not abounding in fruit-trees, it is fertile in wheat and barley; in honey and wool; and much cloth is manufactured by the inhabitants. In populoufnefs and power, in riches and luxury, London (26), the metropolis of the ifle, may claim a pre-eminence over all the cities of the Weft. It is fituate on the Thames, a broad and rapid river, which at the distance of thirty miles falls into the Gallic Sea; and the daily flow and ebb of the tide, affords a safe entrance and departure to the veffels of commerce. The king is the head of a powerful and turbulent aristocracy; his principal vaffals hold their eftates by a free and unalterable tenure; and the laws define the limits of his authority and their obedience. The kingdom has been often afflicted by foreign conqueft and domeftic fedition; but the natives are bold and hardy, renowned in arms and victorious in war. The form of their fhields or targets is derived from the Italians, that of their fwords from the Greeks; the ufe of the long bow is the peculiar and decifive advantage of the English. Their language bears no affinity to the idioms of the continent; in the habits of domestic life, they are not eafily distinguished from their neighbours of France: but the moft fingular circumstance of their manners is their difregard of conjugal honour and of

(25) Most of the old romances were translated in the 14th century into French profe, and foon became the favourite amusement of the knights and ladies in the court of Charles VI. If a Greek believed in the exploits of Rowland and Oliver, he may furely be excufed, fince the monks of St. Denys, the national hiftorians, have inferted the fables of archbishop Turpin in their Chronicles of France.

(26) Λενδίνη ....δε τε πολις δυνάμει τε προέχεσα των εν τη νήσῳ ταύτη πασων πολεων, ολβω τε και τη αλλη ευδαιμονια εδεμιας των προς εσπέραν λoμεvn. Even fince the time of Fitzstephen (the 12th century), London appears to have maintained this pre-eminence of wealth and magnitude; and her gradual increase has, at least, kept pace with the general improve

ment,

CHAP. of female chastity. In their mutual visits, as the first act LXVI. of hofpitality, the gueft is welcomed in the embraces of

Indifference of Manuel

towards the

Latins,
A. D.

their wives and daughters: among friends they are lent and borrowed without fhame; nor are the islanders offended at this ftrange commerce, and its inevitable confequences (27). Informed as we are of the customs of old England, and affured of the virtue of our mothers, we may fmile at the credulity, or refent the injuftice, of the Greek, who must have confounded a modeft falute (28) with a criminal embrace. But his credulity and injuftice may teach an important leffon; to diftruft the accounts of foreign and remote nations, and to fufpend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man (29).

After his return and the victory of Timour, Manuel reigned many years in profperity and peace. As long as the fons of Bajazet folicited his friendship and spared his dominions, he was fatisfied with the national religion; and his leifure was employed in compofing twenty theological 1402-1417. dialogues for its defence. The appearance of the Byzantine ambaffadors at the council of Constance (30) announces the restoration of the Turkish power, as well as of the Latin church; the conqueft of the fultans, Mahomet and Amurath, reconciled the emperor to the Vatican; and the fiege of Conftantinople almoft tempted him to acquiefce in the double proceffion of the Holy Ghoft. When Martin the fifth afcended without a rival the chair of St. Peter, a friendly intercourfe of letters and embaffies was revived between the East and Weft. Ambition on one fide, and 1417-1425 diftrefs on the other, dictated the fame decent language

His negociations,

A. D.

of

(27) If the double sense of the verb Kva (ofculor, and in utero gero) be equivocal, the context and pious horror of Chalcondyles can leave no doubt of his meaning and miftake (p. 49.).

(28) Erafmus (Epift. Faufto Andrelino) has a pretty paffage on the Englith fashion of killing ftrangers on their arrival and departure, from whence, however, he draws no fcandalous inferences.

(29) Perhaps we may apply this remark to the community of wives among the old Britons, as it is fuppofed by Cæfar and Dion (Dion Caffius, 1. lxii. tom. ii. p. 1007.), with Reimar's judicious annotation. The Arrey of Otaheite, fo certain at firft, is become less visible and fcandalous, in proportion as we have ftudied the manners of that gentle and amorous people. (30) See Lenfant, Hift. du Concile de Conftance, tom. ii. p. 576.; and for the ecclefiaftical hiftory of the times, the Annals of Spondanus, the Bibliothèque of Dupin, tom. xii. and xxift and xxiid volumes of the Hif tory, or rather the Continuation, of Fleury.

LXVI.

of charity and peace: the artful Greek expreffed a defire C H A P. of marrying his fix fons to Italian princeffes; and the Roman, not lefs artful, dispatched the daughter of the marquis of Montferrat, with a company of noble virgins, to foften by their charms the obftinacy of the fchifmatics. Yet under this mafk of zeal, a difcerning eye will perceive that all was hollow and infincere in the court and church of Conftantinople. According to the viciffitudes of danger and repofe, the emperor advanced or retreated; alternately inftructed and difavowed his minifters; and efcaped from an importunate preflure by urging the duty of enquiry, the obligation of collecting the fenfe of his patriarchs and bifhops, and the impoffibility of convening them at a time when the Turkish arms were at the gates of his capital. From a review of the public tranfactions it will appear, that the Greeks infifted on three fucceffive meafures, a fuccour, a council, and a final re-union, while the Latins eluded the fecond, and only promifed the firft, as a confequential and voluntary reward of the third. But we have an opportunity of unfolding the moft fecret intentions of His private Manuel, as he explained them in a private converfation motives. without artifice or difguife. In his declining age, the emperor had affociated John Palæologus, the fecond of the' name, and the eldest of his fons, on whom he devolved the greatest part of the authority and weight of government. One day, in the prefence only of the hiftorian Phranża (31), his favourite chamberlain, he opened to his colleague and fucceffor the true principle of his negociations with the pope (32). "Our laft refource," faid Manuel, "against the Turks is their fear of our union with the Latins, of the warlike "nations of the Weft, who may arm for our relief and "for

(31) From his early youth, George Phranza, or Phranzes, was employed in the fervice of the ftate and palace; and Hanckius (de Script. Byzant. P. i. c. 40.) has collected his life from his own writings. He was no more than four-and-twenty years of age at the death of Manuel, who recommended him in the strongest terms to his fucceffor: Imprimis vero hunc Phranzen tibi commendo, qui miniftravit mihi fideliter et diligenter (Phranzes, l. ii. c. 1.). Yet the emperor John was cold, and he preferred the fervice of the defpots of Peloponnefus.

(32) See Phranzes, l. ii. c. 13. While fo many manufcripts of the Greek original are extant in the libraries of Rome, the Efcurial, &c. it iss a matter of fhame and reproach, that we should be reduced to the Latin verfion, or abstract, of James Pontanus (ad calcem Theophylact Simocattæ; Ingolstadt, 1604), fo deficient in accuracy and elegance (Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. vi. p. 615–620.).

LXVI.

CHA P. «for their deftruction. As often as you are threatened "by the miscreants, prefent this danger before their eyes. "Propose a council; confult on the means; but ever delay ❝and avoid the convocation of an affembly, which cannot "tend either to our spiritual or temporal emolument. The "Latins are proud; the Greeks are obftinate; neither "party will recede or retract; and the attempt of a per"fect union will confirm the fchifm, alienate the churches,, "and leave us without hope or defence, at the mercy of "the Barbarians." Impatient of this falutary leffon, the royal youth arofe from his feat, and departed in filence; and the wife monarch (continues Phranza), cafting his eyes on me, thus resumed his difcourfe: "My fon deems himself a great and heroic prince; but, alas! our miferable age does not afford fcope for heroism or greatnefs. His daring spirit might have fuited the happier times of our anceftors; but the prefent ftate requires not an emperor, but a cautious fteward of the laft relics of our fortunes. "Well do I remember the lofty expectations which he "built on our alliance with Mustapha; and much do I "fear, that his rafh courage will urge the ruin of our

house, and that even religion may precipitate our down"fal." Yet the experience and authority of Manuel preHis death. ferved the peace and eluded the council; till, in the feventyeighth year of his age, and in the habit of a monk, he terminated his career, dividing his precious moveables among his children and the poor, his phyficians and his favourite fervants. Of his fix fons (33), Andronicus the second was invested with the principality of Theffalonica, and died of a leprofy foon after the fale of that city to the Venetians and its final conqueft by the Turks. Some fortunate incidents had restored Peloponnefus, or the Morea, to the empire; and in his more profperous days, Manuel had fortified the narrow isthmus of fix miles (34) with a stone wall and one hundred and fifty-three towers. The wall was overthrown by the first blast of the Ottomans: the fertile

(33) See Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 243-248.

(34) The exact meafure of the Hexamilion, from fea to fea, was 3800 orgygiæ, or toifes, of fix Greek feet (Phranzes, 1. i. c. 38.), which would produce a Greek mile, ftill fmaller than that of 660 French toifes, which is affigned by d'Anville as ftill in ufe in Turkey. Five miles are commonly reckoned for the breadth of the Ifthmus. See the Travels of Spon, Wheeler, and Chandler.