LETTER XII.
In the Arsenal of Brussels was another curiosity, which I overlooked in my last——a model of a cannon, constructed so as to throw seven balls at once. It is some consolation to philanthropy to reflect, that of all the abominable engines and instruments which the inventive faculties of Man have discovered to increase the cruelty and carnage of war, not one has been of late times adopted. This model lies here, therefore, only as a memorial of the diabolical genius of the inventor.
The Opera-house of Brussels, accounted the noblest and largest in Europe, is built after the Italian manner, with rows of lodges or closets, in most of which are chimneys. One of those, which belonged to a Prince, whose title I now forget, was hung with looking-glasses, in which, while he sat by the fire, took refreshments, or reclined on his couch, he could see the whole representation, without being exposed to the view of either the actors or the audience.
The markets of Brussels are very remarkable. The Dukes of St. Pierre paid no less than forty thousand florins, or upwards of three thousand pounds sterling, for four pictures of them, painted by Rubens and Synder——Lewis the Fourteenth of France offered an immense sum of money for them; but they found their way at last into the collection of the British Earl of Orford. The value of them is said, by connoisseurs, to be beyond computation.
Brussels is extremely well supplied with water; for, besides the river, it has twenty public fountains, adorned with statues, at the corners of the most public streets; and the lower part of the city is cut into canals, which communicate with the great one, extending from Brussels to the Scheldt, fifteen miles: by means of this canal, which was finished in 1561, and cost the city eight hundred thousand florins, a person may sail from Brussels to the North Sea; and barques do actually go twice a day to Antwerp, and back again.
This city is full of Churches, of which the most remarkable is that of Saint Michael and Saint Gudula, commonly called the Cathedral. It is a superb, old Gothic structure, and, from its celebrated situation, a most beautiful ornament to the city. It is not only grand in its external appearance, but finely adorned within. The pillars which support the roof are lofty and elegant: and against each is a statue of ten feet in height. There are no less than sixteen Chapels in it; and each Chapel is enriched with abundance of splendid ornaments, altar finery, candlesticks, crucifixes, &c. and with some excellent pictures too: a picture of Jesus Christ presenting the keys of Paradise to Saint Peter, which is reckoned among the chef-d’œuvres of Rubens, hangs in one of those Chapels. There are some monuments, also, of very great merit, in the choir of this Church. But that which I think by far the greatest and most admirable curiosity (I mean of human workmanship) in the Church, is a pulpit——one of the richest and most exquisitely wrought pieces I have ever seen: at the bottom are seen Adam and Eve as large as life, represented as at the moment when the Angel drove them out of Paradise: in both of their faces are deeply and expressively marked the traits of a mind agonised with anguish and remorse: behind Eve is a figure of Death, which follows them; and on the top of the pulpit are seen the figures of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary crushing the head of the Serpent. The strong expressions in the faces of all those figures, and the exquisite turn of the workmanship, is the more remarkable, as it is all cut out of oak wood.
Of supernatural curiosities, one of the Chapels in this Cathedral contains some, that, for miracle, yield to none in the long catalogue of Monkish devices. Three hosts or wafers are daily worshipped by the People; which hosts or wafers, the Priests firmly assert, and the People as firmly believe, were, so long ago as the year 1369, stabbed by a Jew, and bled profusely. They are exposed on every festival, in a chalice richly set with diamonds; and on the first Sunday after every thirteenth of July, there is a yearly procession in memory of this stabbing and bleeding, when the hosts are carried in great state round the city, embellished with all manner of precious stones, and attended by all the Clergy, secular and regular, the Magistrates, the Courts of Justice, and even by the Governor of the Province: the Chapel where they are kept is of marble, and the altar of solid silver.
Great God! what an opprobrium to the human understanding, that, at the time when the mind of Man is sufficiently enlightened to avoid the weakness of shameful credulity, a whole People should stoop to such extravagant imposition! what a shame to justice and honesty, that those who are trusted to guard the rights of a People, and who certainly are too well informed to yield their belief to such trash, should yet join in, and give the weight of their authority to so gross, so wicked a deception on a Community! The Magistrates, the Courts of Justice, and the Governor——they walk, too, in company with the bald-pated impostors—Good God! can more be said? volumes of comment could not elucidate or render it more conspicuously absurd than the bare recital of the fact itself.
It is impossible for me to recount to you the number of Nunneries, of various Orders, in which unfortunate women were cloistered up, some from bigotry, and others by force, in this city. There were, however, two of them English——one of Dominican Ladies, founded by Cardinal Howard, in the reign of Charles the Second, of which a Lady of the Noble House of Norfolk was always Abbess: the other is of Benedictine Nuns; the Beguinage of the latter is like a little town, surrounded with a wall and ditch, and divided into pretty little streets, where every Beguine has her apartment; the number of them amounts in general to seven or eight hundred, sometimes more.
If population be the true strength of a Nation, this part of Popery is very impolitic. The succession of women in this one Convent since the reign of Charles the Second, must amount to many thousands. Had those been married, and, on an average, had only two children each, with the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, down to the present day, in all the ramifications of descent, there is not a doubt but their number would equal that of the whole people of some extensive Provinces. What, then, must be the loss to the population of the earth, arising from the celibacy of so many millions of males and females as have been consigned to sterility in the Catholic Countries, ever since that extraordinary doctrine came first into fashion? It is out of the reach of calculation: not but, now and then, they may have children——indeed they certainly have; but those are generally disposed of in a way not to bring shame on the frail Sisterhood, or their Confessors.
In wading through such a torrent of offensive ideas as the innumerable absurdities and deceptions of Popish Countries continually raise in the mind, it is a pleasing circumstance to be relieved by the contemplation of some really useful, humane institution; and such a one presents itself now to my recollection: At Brussels, and, I am told, at all great towns of the Netherlands, there is a public office for lending money at a very moderate interest upon pledges: it is called the Mount of Piety; and was established nearly 108 years ago by the Archduke Albert, and Isabella, his wife. By this institution, the Poor are saved from the fleecings and frauds of Pawnbrokers: and, to render it still more perfect in accommodation, there are private passages for entrance; so that those who would with to conceal their necessities, are exempted from the mortification of being seen publicly going in, or coming out.
You have read, I presume, that in the days of Heathenism, the Deities of that curious Mythology were supposed to rejoice in the number Three. The Popish Code has fixed upon Seven as the lucky number. Thus they have seven sacraments, seven deadly sins, &c. &c. Brussels has improved upon that; and, taking the hint from their blessed Liturgy, has seven grand streets; seven parish-churches; seven Patrician families, out of which the Magistrates are or were elected; seven large squares; seven midwives, licensed and sworn by the Senate; and seven gates, leading to seven places of recreation and exercise, one to a place proper for fowling, a second to a place for fishing, a third to one for hunting, a fourth to pleasant fields, a fifth to pastime grounds, a sixth to springs and vineyards, and a seventh to gardens. Besides all which sevens, they boast of having once had the great good fortune of entertaining, at one time, seven Crowned Heads, with seven, thousand horse belonging to their retinue. If there were any spell in the number Seven, the People of Brussels surely must have been secure from all mischief; but the Sans-culottes have broken the charm, dispersed the necromancers, and lowered poor number Seven to its mere arithmetical value.
The Inns, or eating-houses, in this city, were equal to any in the world: a stranger might dine there better and cheaper than in any place, perhaps, on earth. The wines, also, were excellent and cheap; and coach-hire beyond expectation reasonable——And here I recollect to remark to you, that, all the way from Ostend to Brussels, one is obliged to sit, dine, &c. in bed-chambers; a circumstance which is extremely discordant to the feelings of those who have been used to British Inns, although the bed-chambers are, to say the truth, large and commodious. At the very walls of Brussels begins the famous wood of Sogne, from which the inhabitants were allowed to cut wood for fuel: as fast as the trees were cut down, fresh ones were planted in their stead; by which means the wood was preserved, and it afforded a continual supply to the Poor.
Brussels is so very remarkable a place, that I have taken more than my usual scope of description of it. Just as I had finished it, I read a paragraph in the public papers, stating that it is likely to be annexed to the territories of the French Republic.