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RIESBECK’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 289
There is no province in the hereditary dominions of the Houfe of Auftria, the flates
of which have preferved a degree of refpeét equal to that which thofe of the Nether-
lands ftill poffefs; I imagine that it is the ae in which the burgefles live that
has 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 want
of large cities too mult have very much lightened the trouble of the imperial court,
when it found itfelf compelled to undermine the privileges of the ftates of Hungary.
Even in Lombardy, the power of the nobilityproved a weak dam againft the power of
the 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 of
the ftate. he diftance of the imperial refidence, and the example of Holland, which
the court of Vienna has perpetually before its eyes,- will no doubt have contributed
fomething towards keeping up the old conftitution of this country.
Singular are the events which take place in this earth of ours. The revolution which
made Holland a free commonwealth, broke out in-the Auftrian Netherlands. Whilft
every thing here was already in motion, the Dutch thought not in the lea(t of making
themfelves free. Nor would they ever have been fo by their own exertions, as even in
the earlieft times of the republic they announced the flothfulnefs’which ftill renders them
remarkable. It was only fuch a fingular genius as the Prince of Orange, who could
have 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 Auttria from
an undertaking to which they had firft laid their hands, and now they are made ufe of
to opprefs Holland. What a contradiction !
LETTER LXXII.
Oftend.
TO-MORROW, brother, I fhall fail for England ; but before I go, permit me to
take one general review of the whole.
Germany, taking in Silefia, is at leaft one fifth larger than France. It contains about
twelve thoufand fquare miles. ‘The foil is different, in different parts. A great part of
it however is productive to a degree which, France and Italy only excepted, is not to be
found in any other country in our part of the world. The immenfe maffes of rock in
the fouthern parts of the circles of Auftria and Bavaria, and the fands of the north, which
almoft comprehend the whole circles of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Pomerania, the
Laufitz, and the north of Weftphalia, are not, it is true, capable of fuch cultivation as
the upper parts of Germany ; but this would be a great advantage if once the interelts
of the whole were common. ‘The mountains of the South contain almoft every kind
of metal in prodigious quantities, and in the greateft perfection, and the fandy places of
the North, together with the beft wood for building fhips, furnifh hemp, flax, and wool,
in great abundance.
Bohemia, Moravia, Silefia, the archduchy of Auftria, Bavaria, Suabia, the countries
about the Rhine, the Auftrian Netherlands, and thofe parts of the circle of Upper
Saxony, which are not in the pofleffion of the King of Prufiia, produce corn, cattle,
wine, and all the firft neceflaries of life, infuch plenty as not only tobe fufficient for the
fupply of all Germany, but even for great exportations.—In a word, Germany is the
only country in Europe, which is independent of all the world, for a {upply of all the
neceflaries and conveniences which a large and flourifhing ftate requires, or which a
great power ftands in need of for its defence. France is deficient in wood, cattle, (par-
VOL. Vie PP ticu-
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