RIESBECk’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.

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pounds per annum, and I am forry to add that he is by no means one of the richeft bi-fhops in Germany .

Spires is a fmall free city, which was formerly handfomer than it is now j towardsthe end of the laft century it was entirely deftroyed by the French army ; fince thattime it has long lain in ruins, and is now hardly above half built up again. It was oneof the firft Roman colonies on the banks of the Rhine , and many Roman coins areftill found in the country.

Here, brother, I was in the midft of that theatre from whence, in the laft century,our troops fpread defolation from the Rhine to the Mofelle; where Melac, appearingnot as the leader of a mighty hoft, but the head of a murderous band, laid fixty flou-rilhing towns in allies, and made a defert of one of the fineft countries on earth! WhereTurenne, the greateft general of the greateft monarch in the world, anfwered the ge-nerous eleftor, who, ftruck with the wrongs his country was enduring, would bravelyhave rilked his life for his people, and challenged the incendiary to fingle combat, witha bon-mot, faying, ‘ that fince he had the honour to ferve the king of France , he foughtonly at the head of twenty thoufand men/ How little in my eyes did then appear thegreat Turenne, whofe bon-mot, turned into common-fenfe, amounted to no more thanthis: ‘ Thefe twenty thoufand men give me a right to lay your country in alhes!’

My friend carried me to the cathedral, half of which is ftill in ruins. Here I faw thetombs of the old emperors, whofe fepulchres our foldiers plundered, and whofe bonesthey ftrewed on the ground. ‘This happened/ faid my friend, ‘ in your golden age,under Louis the Fourteenth, when your greateft poets, reafoners, and philofophers flou-rilhed : when you was fuppofed to have arrived at the higheft pitch of polilh of whicha nation is capable; when we Germans were no more in your fight than fo many Che-rokees; and fome of your academicians had the infolence to propofe, as a queftion fitfor difcuffion, “ Whether it was poflible that a German Ihould have any efprit ?”—Brother, I was almoft alhamed to be a Frenchman.

Both at Spires and Bruchfal I found, in the.few houfes where we made our flying vi-fits, more eafe and knowledge of the world than I expected. I remarked that peopleare very fond of ftrangers in this country.

I reckon the few days I fpent at Carlfruhe amongft the happieft of my life. I faw aprince who truly lives only for his people, and feeks his own happinefs in theirs ; onewhofe adlive and enlightened mind pervades the whole country, and by its influencemakes all thofe who have a fliare in the adminiftration patriots like himfelf. Education,police, encouragements to induftry and agriculture; every thing, in fhort, here breathesa fpirit of philofophy and the warm love of mankind. O that I could make many mil-lions as happy as the margrave of Baden makes two hundred thoufand men!

After the elediors, and the houfes of Wirtemberg and Hefife CafTel, the margrave ofBaden is one of the greateft potentates in Germany . The princes of Bareith andDarmftadt are the only ones who can enter into any competition with him ; his revenueis one million two hundred thoufand florins, i. e. one hundred and twenty thoufandpounds per annum. The margrave’s country extends along the right fide of the Rhine from Bafil to near Philipfburg, and from thence through part of Alfatia to the Mofelle.If it all lay together it would be more productive.

They carry on a large trade in cattle, wood, and wine, which laft is extremely goodin the environs of Bafil. The country, likewife, produces a kind of marble, whichfome think equal in goodnefs to the Florentine or Carara ; but this is exaggeration.The mildnefs of the government fecures to the people the quiet enjoyment of the re-wards of their induftry. There are not indeed opportunities of making great fortunes,

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