I remained two whole hours on this height to contemplate the beauties of the expanse below.  The banks of the river, which meanders much in these parts, and the numerous maisons de campagne with the public promenades and allees lined with trees, exhilarate the scene of the environs, for the city itself is dull enough.  Several pretty villas are situated also on the heights, and were I to dwell here I should choose one of them and seldom descend into the valley and city below,

  Where narrow cares and strife and envy dwell.

Liege, however sombre in its appearance, is a place of much opulence and commerce.  A Belgian garrison does duty here.  At the inn, after dinner, I fell into conversation with a Belgian priest, and as I was dressed in black he fancied I was one of the cloth, and he asked me if I were a Belgian, for that I spoke French with a Belgian accent; “Apparemment Monsieur est ecclesiastique?—­Monsieur, je suis ne Anglais et protestant.”  He then began to talk about and declaim against the French Revolution, for that is the doctrine now constantly dinned into the ears of all those who take orders; and he concluded by saying that things would never go on well in Europe until they restored to God the things they had taken from Him.  I told him that I differed from him very much, for that the sale of the Church domains and of the lands and funds belonging to the suppressed ecclesiastical establishments had contributed much to the improvement of agriculture and to the comfort of the peasantry, whose situation was thereby much ameliorated; and that they were now in a state of affluence compared with what they were before the French Revolution.  I added:  “Enfin, Monsieur, Dieu n’a pas besoin des choses terrestres.”  On my saying this he did not chuse to continue the conversation, but calling for a bottle of wine drank it all himself with the zest of a Tartuffe.  I believe that he was surprised to find that an Englishman should not coincide with his sentiments, for I observe all the adherents of the ancient regime of feudality and superstition have an idea that we are anxious for the re-establishment of all those abuses as they themselves are, and it must be confessed that the conduct of our Government has been such as to authorize them fully in forming such conjectures, and that we shall be their staunch auxiliaries in endeavouring to arrest and retrograde the progress of the human mind.  In fact, I soon perceived that my friend was not overloaded with wit and that he was one of those priests so well described by Metastasio: 

          Il di cui sapere
  Sta nel nostro ignorar....

MAASTRICHT, 27th June.