RIESBECK’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 103

courtiers feem to be buried in thought how to pay their debts. But before I indulgetnyfelf in conjeflures on what is to come, I will lay before you the prefent ftate of thecountry as the Emprefs left it.

The Houfe of Haplburg Loraine, now ranks as one of the greateft powers in Europe 4the only rivals of its greatnefs are Ruffia, France, and Great Britain ; but at the begin-ning of this century, and till the time it belonged to the late Emprefs, it was one of themiddling powers of Europe , and it required all the ftrength of England, and all themoney of Holland , to fupport it, whenever it attempted to take any great part in bufi-nefs. Even at the time when the fun did not fet in its dominions, it was not as formi-dable as it is now; at length the lofs of fo many kingdoms and provinces taught it, thatthe ftrength of a ftate does not fo much confift in the quantity of its internal power, asin the ufes it is able to make of it. A great man, who ferved it at a time when it wasftill in poffeffion of Alfatia, Naples, Sicily , and feveral other countries, compared it to apyramid, which ftands upon its point, and totters by the weaknefs of its principal part.The pyramid is now fomething lighter, but it ftands, as nature intended it Ihould, on itsown proper foundation, firm and unlhaken.

If all the Auftrian dominions lay together, they would contain a larger extent ofcountry than France. Hungary, with Tranfylvania, Croatia, Sclavonia , Temefwar, andpart of Dalmatia, contains 4760 fquare miles; Bohemia 900, Moravia , with part of Si-lefia, 430; the circle of Auftria, Styria, and the Dukedom, with Carynthia, the Ukraine ,the country belonging to Auftria in Suabia , the Earldom of Falkenftein, the newly ac-qired part of Bavaria, and part of Frioul, 2200 ; the Netherlands , 500 ; the poffeffionsof Lombardy , 200 ; the kingdoms of Galicia and Lodomeria, together with Buckovina,which has been taken from the Turks, 14004 in all 10,360 fquare miles; whereas,France hardly contains 10,000. You will fay, the difference is not very great—it isnot; but when the expe&ed junctions of Tufcany, and the Modenefe are made, it willbe worth attending to. As to natural bleffings, they have been bellowed ftill moreplentifully here than in France ; for there are no luxuries to be met with in the latterwhich fome countries belonging to the Emperor do, or may not produce, wine, oil, andfilk not excepted; and as to matters of prime neceffity, fuch as corn and cattle, theywould be able to furnilh half France with them, after providing their own people. Thefeveral ores too, which are found in the hills round Hungary, in the Tyrol, Carinthia ,Carniola, and Styria , are of as much profit to the country, as thofe of Portuguefe andSpanifh America to their poffeffors; fo that if there was only fuch a fea coaft as ours,and the country was improved to what it might be, no doubt it would be a fourth richerthan France ; but our fortunate fituation, the waters we command on all Tides , and thenavigable rivers, which carry out our exports from the rnoft remote parts of the coun-try, give an advantage which is not to be difputed.

Hungary is, without doubt, the richeft part of the Auftrian dominions;—it not onlypoffeffes every thing that is produced in the other countries, but feeds them with its over-flow, and excels them as much in the quality, as in the quantity of what it produces;but here we have great occafion to obferve the truth of that axiom, that the more na-ture does for man, the lefs he commonly does for himfelf. The inhabitant of the Swifsmountains extrafts his ffiftenance front his nakednefs, and has changed wilderneffes intocultivated and inhabited lands; the Hollander has turned the muddy fands of the Rhine and Maefe, what the fea is conftantiy dilputing with him, into a garden, while the ex-cellent grounds in Hungary ftill lie wafte. I believe, that at Vienna, they think that theplenty Hungary is able to export, is owing to 'its own population; but it is not fo ; forwere it three times as much peopled as it is, it would export in much greater plenty ftill,

if