RIESBECk’@ TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY . 2eg

There is no province in the hereditary dominions of the Houfe of Audria, the hatesof which have preferved a degree of refpect equal to that which thofe. of the Nether-lands hill poifefs; I imagine that it is the affluence in which the burgeffes live thathas made them preferve fentiments of liberty, which you look for in vain in Hungary ;then their interefts have rendered nobility entirely dependant on the court; the wantof large cities too mud have very much lightened the trouble of the imperial court,when it found itfelf compelled to undermine the privileges of the flutes of Hungary .Even in Lombardy , the power of the nobility proved a weak dam againft the power ofthe court. But this power the common burghers are at all times interefted in leffening,as they have more to give and lefs to expeCt from the court than the other members oftheftate. The diftance of the imperial rehdence, and the example of Holland , whichthe court of Vienna has perpetually before its eyes, will no doubt have contributedfometning towards keeping up the old conftitution of this country.

Singular are the events which take place in this earth of ours. The revolution whichmade Holland a free commonwealth, broke out in the Auflrian Netherlands. WhiKlevery thing here was already in motion, the Dutch thought not in the lead of makingthemfelves free. Nor would they ever have been fo by their own exertions, as even inthe earlieft times of the republic they announced the flothfulnefswhich dill renders themremarkable. It was only fuch a Angular genius as the Prince of Orange, who couldhave fecured them the freedom which they feemed to have no defire of for themfelves.But fee how matters have ended; religion took the prefent provinces of Auftria froman undertaking to which they had fird laid their hands, and now they are made ufe ofto opprefs Holland . What a contradiction !

LETTER LXXII.

OjlencL

TO-MORROW, brother, I {hall fail for England ; but before T go, permit me totake one general review of the whole.

Germany, taking in Silefia, is at lead one fifth larger than France . It contains abouttwelve thoufand fquare miles. The foil is different, in different parts. A great part of! t however is productive to a degree which, France and Italy only excepted, is not to befound in any other country in our part of the world. The immenfe maffes of rock inthe fouthern parts of the circles of Audria and Bavaria , and the fands of the north, whichalmoft comprehend the whole circles of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Pomerania , theLaufitz, and the north of Wedphalia, are not, it is true, capable of fuch cultivation asthe upper parts of Germany ; but this would be a great advantage if once the intereds°f the whole were common. The mountains of the South contain almod every kind°f metal in prodigious quantities, and in the greated perfection, and the fandy places ofthe North, together with the bed wood for building {hips, furnifh hemp, flax, and wool,In great abundance.

Bohemia, Moravia, Silefia, the archduchy of Audria, Bavaria, Suabia , the countriesa bout the Rhine , the Audrian Netherlands, and thofe parts of the circle of UpperSaxony, which are not in the poffeflion of the King of Pruffia, produce corn, cattle,^ine, and all the fird neceffaries of life, in fuch plenty as not only to be fufficient for thefupply of all Germany, but even for great exportations.—In a word, Germany is the°‘dy country in Europe , which is independent of all the world, for a fupply of all then eceffaries and conveniences which a large and flouriflhing date requires, or which agreat power hands in need of for its defence. France is deficient in wood, cattle, (par,

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