capable of containing nations; and temples, which would almost tempt the gods to reside in them, but that, as our Druids tell us, the gods cannot be confined within walls. Then the streets are so crowded with troops of soldiers, processions of priests, magistrates with their attendants, and nobility with their trains, that the whole world seems assembled in one spot.

"I went into the Forum the other day, and I was giddy with watching the different groups. Here a crowd was listening to an orator pleading a cause; there parties were collected round some favourite senator. Couriers were hurrying along in all directions; and foreign ambassadors, from the remotest corners of the earth, were gazing at each other's different costumes (B). Everything seemed to proclaim Rome the mistress of the world. What struck me, however, as most remarkable, was, that the Romans must always have considered, that the gods had designed that they should one day give laws to all other nations; for all their public works are very much larger than there was occasion for, when they were built. Even their common sewers, made when Rome had no more inhabitants than there are in your territories, have not required to be en

larged since, although Rome now contains seventy times as many people as it did then.*

"You will be surprised at my mentioning the sewers, but they seem to me the most wonderful of all the wonders I have seen, for they are carried through the hills, and under the city, and are so large that ships might sail beneath the archway. Seven streams unite in these channels with such force, that my guide, who was a young patrician of the name of Lucan, a nephew of Seneca, assured me, that huge stones and beams of timber are carried along by them, like leaves or straws down a running brook. I was told, too, that the same king who constructed these-I forget his namet-also built the Circus, which will hold nearly 300,000 people. It has been enlarged, it is true, since he built it, but it would then hold more than half that number, which was a

*The first census of the inhabitants of Rome was taken by Servius Tullus, the successor of Tarquinius Priscus, the builder of the sewers, and also of the Circus. The number of the inhabitants was then 80,000, Liv. 1. 44. In the census taken A.U.C. 801. (A.D. 48.) about 14 years before the era referred to in our tale, the number was 5,984,072. Tac. Ann. xi. 25. For the varying numbers of the population of Rome, when each census was taken, see Brotier's Notes to Tacitus, Ann. xi.

+ Tarquinius Priscus.

very great many more than his kingdom could supply to fill it(C).

"Now I am speaking of the works of this great King-I wish I could think of his namewho raised these magnificent structures, I must tell you of a visit which I paid to the Capitol, as the principal temple to Jupiter is called, and which was also begun by him, though it has since been rebuilt. The very thresholds of this magnificent edifice are of brass; the roof is gilded, and shields of solid gold and silver cover the walls. As I was looking around me, holding my breath with astonishment at the splendour of this place, and looking now at the silver vases, and now at the golden chariot, and other precious things which are ranged along the floor,* Lucan told me, that the ancestor of the Romans, King Evander, lived on this very spot, in a low roofed cottage, and that, where a splendid building called Pompey's palace now stands, formerly stood the sheds, in which were penned the few cattle which formed his only wealth! As we left the sculptured portico, supported by beau

* See Adam's Antiquities, and also Brotier's Note to Tacitus, Hist. lib. 111. c. 72, and the authorities there referred to for an account of the magnificence of the Capitol.

tiful Athenian pillars, and were descending the hundred steps leading to the Forum, Lucan, who is a poet, recited some verses of another poet's, in which this circumstance is related (D); and I could not help asking myself, as he was repeating them, 'what is there to prevent my own dear country, Britain, becoming a great nation at some future day? Your white house is better than King Evander's-you are as good a man as he and your people as brave as his.

"Seneca tells me, that when Rome was so small as to be almost unknown, another nation had subdued the world; and that when that nation was in its infancy, a former one had conquered the earth. Empires seem to me like oaks; they rise and flourish, wax old and decay. The king of the forest looks glorious today, but perhaps some acorn, which has sprung up unobserved, will hereafter throw out its mighty limbs, and hide the place where now its sovereign stands. Rome is the oak, and the king of the forest now; but what, my father, if Britain were the acorn? These thoughts struck me, as I walked through the crowded Forum. I dare say Lucan would have been very much amused, had he known what occupied my mind.

"I am very glad that I am in Seneca's house, for he takes almost as much pains to teach me, as my dear old Morgan took. He is a great writer, and I am now reading his works. He has also recommended me to learn Greek, which I have begun, for Greek is as much talked here as Latin. The greater number of his slaves are Greeks; and so much the worse: for Lorma says that she thinks if her mother were to know the Greeks, she would no longer bear such ill-will to the Romans, for that the Romans are a hundred times better than the Greeks.

"I wish, my dear father, you could see the inside of Seneca's palace: you would then think your daughter a queen indeed. For my part, I begin to be wearied with so much magnificence. Were it not that I am improving myself, and hope one day to teach my countrymen something, I should be impatient to leave Rome, with all her grandeur, to see my own loved Britain again and yet I am treated with great kindness; and Paulina, Seneca's wife, is like a mother to me. Lucan reminds me very much of Pudens, who, I dare say, has forgotten me, now he is surrounded by his Roman friends, and perhaps holds some high office in Britain.