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Volume the sixth.
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RIESBECk’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.

276

necl it with all Germany , and various other circumftances; the greateft wonder of allthe wonders of this wonderful city is, how it can poffibly have contrived to fall fo low:at prefent it does not contain more than twenty-five thoufand fouls. Their manufacturesare low. Save a fingle one of tobacco, a few infignificant laces, and the pins which aremade by the wives and daughters of the poor people, all fpirit of induftry is effedtuallyfuppreffedby monkery, and the diffolution of manners infeparable from it. Thofe whopafs for merchants are only brokers and commiflioners for thofe of Francfort, Nuren-burg, Augfburgh, Strafburgh, Switzerland , and other countries. Excepting a fewfmall bankers, there are hardly above ten or twelve houfes, that have any thing like afolid commerce; the objeft of thefe are drugs, from the fale of which a great deal ofmoney is annually brought into Germany : wine, wrought and unwrought iron fromthe mines of Nafiau, which are the moft famous for the production of this metal, afterthofe of Styria and Carinthia; wood from the Upper Rhine, the Maine , and theNecker,and a few other lefs important articles. The greater part, too, of thefe very few mer-chants is made up of French and Italians , who far furpafs the natives in underftanding,induftry, and frugality, and make up their fortunes on this never-failing capital. Themoft folid commerce of all is in the hands of fome dozens of proteftants, who can nei-ther obtain the privileges of citizens, nor yet the liberty to ferve God in their own way;they go to church at Muhlheim, a pretty town in the Palatinate , at fix miles diftance.Befides the manufactures they are engaged in here, they have concerns in feveral othersin the Pruffian territory, and in the Palatinate .

When a ftranger objects to the people of Cologne , their intolerance towards the moftufeful part of the inhabitants of their city; when he compares the ftupidity, barbarity,debauchery, and poverty of the citizens of the place, with the knowledge, induftry, fru-gality, and riches of the foreigners, they are not at all affedted with the juftice of theferemarks, but turn them to their own advantage in the following manner: “ Thefe he-retics,” fay they, “ are loft fouls; their hearts are wrapt up in worldly poffeffions, whichGod vouchfafes them in order to render their damnation the greater. God has evidentlyreprobated the rich in his holy writ, and their riches are the faggots which in anotherworld will be piled up to burn them!” With opinions like thefe, which the monks holdforth from every pulpit, it is not to be wondered at, if the third part of the inhabitantsof the city are beggars.

The numerous ftiips which are always to be found in the ports of this city, exhibitthe moft difgraceful inftance of the manners of the people. There is hardly a river inEurope which is navigated fo high from its fource as the Rhine is in this place; thequay, which is above a mile long, is almoft always filled with Ihips; but the goods onboard, which, according to the laws of the ftaple, fhould be loaded only on Ihips be-longing to Cologne or Mentz, almoft all belong to foreign merchants ; of thefe theDutch Ihips are moft confiderable; they are diftinguifhed by the kind of magnificenceand cleanlinefs peculiar to this people.- they are at leaft one-third longer than our com-mon merchant Ihips of two malts, and carry from one hundred and fifty to one hundredand eighty tons; they are drawn by horfes, and can alfo occafionally ufe their fails atthe fame time; nor, in proportion to their freight, do they want above half the numberof horfes which are ufed in the navigation of the Danube from the Ulm to Vienna .The proprietors of thefe (for a river) immenfe veffels commonly live on board, evenwhen they are at Amfterdam or Rotterdam ; to which laft city, unfavourable as theirveffels are for a fea navigation, on account of their length, fmall height and breadth,they often fail through the Texel when the wind is favourable. As long as they lie inthis port, they treat their friends with all kinds of foreign wines, and a variety of re-

frelhments,