RIESBECK's TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 277

frefhments, after the Dutch manner. I have had many a jolly party in fuch veffels,where we have danced down the night. The {hips of this place, and thofe from Mentz,which take goods in here for the Upper Rhine, are much ftnaller than the Dutch ones.Many of thefe, however, are large enough to load one hundred and twenty toms, or asmuch as a common two-malt (hip. All thefe {hips are built of oak, and according tothe principles of fhips which go to fea, only with this difference, that their length isgreater in proportion to their depth or breadth.

Nothing dil'plays the conditution of the German empire in a better light, than thenavigation of the Rhine . Every prince, lb far as his domain on the banks reaches,confiders the {hips that go by as the veffels of foreigners, and loads them, without dil-tinftion, with almoft intolerable taxes. They do not in the lead confider, whether thecommodities which pafs by are the produce of Germany or other countries, and whe-ther the empire will gain or lofe by them. On the contrary, borne of the articles ex-ported from Germany , fuch as wine, wood, See. have greater taxes laid upon them, inproportion to their intrinfic value, than any foreign ware. Flourilhing as the banks ofthe Rhine now are, they would be dill much richer if they belonged only to one mailer,and were governed according to the principles of a found policy; as things now are,the exports of the country are vifibly cramped by the numerous cudom-houfe duties,fo as to make it almod incredible how navigation can be fo great as it is.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as Germany was approaching near to theanarchy in which it in fact dill continues, the princes of the Rhine , particularly the ec-clefiadical ones, either by force or flattery, compelled the Emperor to give them ft>many cufloms as to make every city a cudom-houfe : originally ail the cudoms belongedto the Emperors ; but their want of men, money, and other l'ervices compelled them topart with mod of them to purchafe friends. Whild the anarchy laded, every one tookby force what was not given him by free will; and at the peace, they found means topreferve themfelves in the poffeffion of what they had dole. The Emperor Albert hadthe idea of endeavouring to recover them, but he was not diffidently powerful for theundertaking.

In the fmall didrlcl between Mentz and Coblentz, which, with the windings of theriver, hardly make twenty-feven miles, you don’t pay lefs than nine tolls. Between.Holland and Coblentz there are at lead fixteen. Every one of thefe feldom produceslefs than 25,000, and commonly 30,000 guilders a-year. In this edimate I do notcomprehend a number of articles which pay toll in fpecie, and make a part of the payof the toll-gatherers. An old Engiiffi writer has qualified thefe tolls of the German princes, which evidently contribute to the ruin of their country, with the name of aaincomprehenfible fury. It is, indeed, a very different method of proceeding from thatof a government, which, inftead of putting clogs on the exports of the commodities ofthe country, gives premiums for them. It likewife often happens, that the temporaryrevenge of the neighbouring princes, occafioned thefe unpatriotic tributes to be carriedmuch higher than the fettled edimate. When the Elector Palatine made it difficult forthe city of Mentz to export the corn of his country, the Archbifliop endeavoured to re-venge himfelf by raifing the toll of the grape of the Palatinate , the tobacco, and theother produ&ions. On the other hand the Eledtor Palatine had reprifals made by histoll on the Lower Rhine,, and revenged himfelf on the Mentz wines which were carried, /to Holland . Every fpecies of chicanery, which hodile powers can ufe towards eachother, was made ufe of on this occadon. The town of Treves poffeffes the daple privi-lege on the Mofelle; there have been indances of this daple being moved from oneplace to another, in the fame principality, in order to hurt the ftaples of Mentz and Co-

11 logne*.