RIESBECIC’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.

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behold the wide boundaries of its pofieflions inceffantly contracting, notvvithflanding thevarious favourable circumftances that have concurred to elevate it, if it would have lis-tened to the dictates of found policy. When the elector palatine was chofen King ofBohemia , who would have thought that his own coufin, the Duke of Bavaria, wouldhave been the perfon to diftrel's him molt, and to increafe the already dangerous powerof Auftria, at the expence of his own family ? Had it not been for this, Bohemia wouldhave been now under the fame government as Bavaria and the Palatinate , and the pre-fent elector,'a great king. At the peace of Weftphalia, the members of the proteftantleague indemnified thetnfelves for the heavy expences of the Swedilh war, by putting ,themfelves in pofleffion of the neighbouring church principalities; but Bavaria , whichhad fought to the laft drop of blood for the Pope and the Houle of Auftria, thoughtitfelf abundantly paid with the Electorate and the Upper Palatinate , (which it could onlyobtain by the failure of another branch of its own family,) and let flip the beft opportu-nity of pofleffing itfelf of the bilhoprick of Saltzburg, with which it has fo much wrang-ling at prefent, the bilhoprick of Friefingen, which lies in its very bofora, and many otheradjacent bilhopricks ; fo conftantly has it ftrove again!! its own proper interefts, fromthe knpreffion of falfe religious tenets *. 1

Thefe wars, which we may fay it has waged againft itfelf; that on account of theSpanilh fuccefiion; and laftly, that of the Emperor Charles VII . have given great woundsto this Houfe, wounds which, however, it might have cured, had not religious preju«dices and caprice rendered it blind, and infenfible to its own internal fituation. Butnow they rankle, and prefent an obferver with the difgufting fpeclacle of a deeply con-fumptivebody politic.

It was thought that the laft eleflior had paid the greateft: part of the national debts;but on the acceffion of the prefent prince, thefe expectations were found very erroneous.Some indeed of the oldeft incumbrances have been paid ofF; but on the other hand,feveral new loans have been made. This elector was, indeed, quite unequal to themanagement of his own finances, which he left entirely to the difpofal of his fer-vants, contenting himfelf if his expenfive hunting matches could be defrayed ; and the„ prefent court feerns to be as little inclined to limit the enormous expence of the opera-houfe, for the fake of paying its debts, which may now amount to near twenty-five mil-lions of florins, or 250,000k

As I ftrolled through the country, I fhuddered at the fight of the ravages which warhad made. There is no town of any importance in all Bavaria , except the capital. Youwould never imagine what pitiful little holes, Landfberg, Wafferbing, Landfhut, andmany other places, which make a great figure on the map, are. To all appearanceneither Ingoldftadt, nor Straubingen, nor any of the greater towns, except Munich, *contain above four thoufand fouls. Nor are there more than forty of thefe towns ;whereas Saxony, which is no larger than Bavaria , contains above two hundred andtwenty, if the accounts in print are to be depended upon. But indeed the want of po-pulation in thefe parts is very remarkable, as well as the remains of thole vices whicharmies generally leave behind them. Excepting the brewer, baker, and innkeeper, youmay feek in vain for a rich tradefman. There is not a veftige of induftry either in townor country, but every body feems to confider idlenefs and beggary as the happieft ftateof man.

As what Bavaria loft at the peace of Tefchner, was nearly made up by the junctionof the principalities of Neuburg and Sulzbach; we may reckon with the Palatinate , if

* Surely not falfe religious opinions, if thefe countries were only to be obtained by fraud and violence.

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