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the future, live in the confidence that he has a provident and anxious father in hisprince : yes, may the contefl: who fball do mod to make his native country happy, befrom this day forth the only contefl; that ever arifes between us.”
The duke is now quite a philofopher ; he founds fchools, farms, cultivates arts andfciences, and eftablifhes manufactures: in Ihort, he endeavours in every way poffible tomake up for what has been wrong.
Many caufes had contributed to miflead this prince in the earlier parts of life, andto give his mind, naturally a lively and impetuous one, a falfe direction. Amongft theforemoft, we may reckon the fafhion of the times, the bad examples fet him by the courtsof Manheim and Drefden, the tafte for falfe magnificence, which he had acquired inItaly , and the corruption of thofe who furrounded him ; many of whom, I am alhamedto fay it, were French. Thefe were the caufes of that diffipation of which Europe hasheard fo much. The confequences were fuch as might naturally have been forefeen ;debt, oppreflive taxes, refiftance on the part of the Hates of the country, and finally, acommiffion of inquiry iffued by the imperial court. The debts, upon examination, werefound to amount to i,aoo,oool. The evil counfellors, you may think, were removed ;but this would have done little, but for the change which about this time took place inmoil of the leffer courts of the empire, the princes of which, from being oppreflive andexpenfive tyrants, fuddenly contracted a tafte for political ceconomy and philofophicalpurfuits. Into thefe the duke ran with as much ardour as he had formerly done into ju-venile diffipation.
I fbould now give you an account of the feveral new eftabliftunents for education,and particularly of the military academy ; but I believe that you are already acquaintedwith them, and as to myfelf, I muft confefs ingenuoufly, that they do not pleafe me. Ifuppofe that as things are now circumftanced, it is neceffary to pour a great deal ofknowledge into boys, before the mind is fit to receive it; ftill I own that I cannot bearto fee the intention of nature fo perverted. My children, if I am blefled with any, lhallgrow up to thefe years like young Coflacks.—But I ffiall take another opportunityto give you my fentiments on education—at prefent fomething more concerning Wir-temberg.
The greateft part of the dukedom confifts in an extenfive valley, which is bounded onthe eaft by a chain of hills called the Alps ; on the weft by the Black Foreft : on thenorth by a part of the mountain of Oden-Wald, and an arm of the Black Foreft ; andon the fouth by the joint arms of the Alps , and the Black Foreft # . On the whole itinclines to the northward, and is watered in the middle by the Necker. Several fmallerarms run off from the furrounding chains of hills towards the centre, crofs each otherin various directions, and form little vallies, which are watered by an infinity of rivers.The land is rendered exceedingly fruitful by thefe leffer hills, which ffielter the valliesfrom the cold winds, and colleft the heat of the fun between them. The fouthern fidesof thefe mountains and hills are planted with vines very high up, and above there is ex-cellent dyers’ wood, and brulh-wood ; and at the bottom is a grey coloured light mould,which yields all kinds of corn, but particularly barley, in aftoniffiing plenty. Upon thewhole, this country very much refembles the middle part of Lorraine ; but the foil ismuch better, and there are not fo many ftones in it. Excepting fait, which it is obligedto have recourfe to Bavaria for, it abounds in all the neceffaries of life. What corn is notconfumed in the country is fent to Switzerland , and the wine goes as far as England.
* The Black Foreft; is the largeft wood of Germany , being fixty days journey in length, and nine inbreadth.
The