RIESBECK’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.

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more activity and clevernefs would have made a bleffing to the country, is become thecurfe of it. In a word, police, government, and executive jutlice are fubjeCl under aweak adminiftration to the fame abufes as government, nor is it the religion itfelf, butthe abufes of it, which make it ever prejudicial to the Hate.

The upper part of Weftphalia, which lies at a greater diftance from the Rhine , is notfo well cultivated, and by nature much lefs productive, than the country I am nowfpeaking of: it is occupied by many heaths, and moraftes, which for the mod part pro-duce only turf, and in the better places dyers wood. Some parts of the country, fuchas part of the dutchy of Minden, and marquifate of Tecklenburg, are remarkably wellpeopled, but this is compenfated by the finking depopulation of fome others ; manyparts for inftance, of the bifhopricks of Munller, Ofnaburg, and Paderborn , the mar-quifate of Beithlein, and fome domains in the electorate of Hanover . With all this,this part of Weftphalia is the proper country of hemp and flax, which are fome of thericheft products of this country. The greatefl part of the hemp and flax, which is ma-nufactured in the parts of Weftphalia about the Rhine, Holland , the Auftrian Nether-lands, and the French Netherlands , comes from this part of the country. Befides this,there is a great part exported raw to England, Spain, Portugal, and America . Thoughthefe productions are found in great plenty in the other parts of Germany , particularlyin the electorate of Hanover, the circle of Lower Saxony , Heflfe, Waldeck, and Fulde,

I queftion much, whether all the flax and hemp of the other parts of Germany , takentogether, are equivalent to the quantity found here. According to the eftimate of anintelligent friend of mine who lives at Munfter, the annual exports of raw and fpunflax and hemp, out of the Angle circle of Weftphalia, amount to 5,000,000 of Khenilhguilders. I do not take into this account, the numerous manufactories of thefe materials,which are confumed in the parts of the circle of Weftphalia, about the Rhine . All theflax and hemp, raw and worked, exported out of all Weftphalia, taken together, muftat leaft be eftimated at 7,000,000 of guilders, or 700,000 pounds.—Thefineft flax andhemp grows in the territory of Bielefed and Kerooft. It almoft refembles filk.

When you go out of Weftphalia, and enter the territory of Holland , it appears to youas going out of a pig-fty into a fine garden. The country round Nimeguen efpeciallyis a ftriking contraft to what you fee in Weftphalia. I fhall fay nothing to you of themagnificence, fymmetry, and cleanlinefs of the Dutch cities, nor of the numerous andexpenfive canals, the fides of which are for the moft part planted with fine rows oftrees, nor of the numerous gardens. There are defcriptions of all thefe things in abun-dance. This magnificence, however, and regularity is tirefome in the end. I at leaftcannot ftand the tedious uniformity of this country and its inhabitants. All the cities,villages, roads, and canals, are fo fimilar, that they appear copies of the felf-fame indi-vidual piClure. The country indeed is only made to take a walk through j and, with-out bufinefs, no man of tafte will flay in it long. With refpeCt to real value alfo, it isonly a frogged out beggar parading about in a rich gown which he has ftolen. ThePalatinate, which is not more than one-fifth of Holland , is of infinitely more naturalvalue.

The inhabitants, likewife, taken in general, are only well dreflfed beggars ; theirriches do not belong to them, for they enjoy them not ; they are only the guardians oftheir money. When you are invited to dinner by a man of middling rank, the magni-ficence of the difhes, the cleanlinefs of the room you dine in, and the expenfivenefs of thefurniture, make you expeft a princely meal; but when diflies are fet on, you find nomore, nor lefs, than you would have at the table of a good Weftphalia peafant. All themerchants pafs the whole week in their counting-houfes, where they gorge themfelves