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14 RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
knight of La Manca, when taken out of his quixotifm, fhewed himfelf both a gentleman
anda philofopher. In this country likewife, religion is not fo much the principal as the
acceffary caufe; and it is owing to local circumftances, that the German catholic is not
fo indultrious as the French or Genoefe.
The chief of thefe is certainly the mode of education. You would be aftonifhed to
fee the difference of education in the German proteftant, and the German catholic towns,
as well as between the French and German catholic. All I need to fay on the fubje&
is, that the Jefuits, to whom we owe fo much on this head, and whom all our patriots
fo much wifh for back again, are in Germany the protectors of every thing barbarous
and favage. ‘They ftrive as ardently to fupprefs every emanation of genius here, as
thofe of their order endeavoured to kindle it amongft us.
But another obftacle to induftry in this country, is the ftupid, ridiculous pride of the
nobles. Whilft the Swifs merchant and manufacturer bears a part in the government
of his country, the Canon of Conftance looks with contempt on the citizen who is in+
debted for his riches, not to! a doubtful genealogy, but to his underftanding and induf-
try. This makes a deep impreflion on the citizen; who, inftead of increafing his capital
by his induftry, purchafes a title, endeavours to put on the noble, and then with a pride
dtill more contemptible, infults his fellows.
In the next place the frugal way of living of the Swifs very much contributes to the
increafe of their manufactures. ‘The daily repaft of an inhabitant of the middle {tation
of life in Conftance, would make a fumptuous feaft for one of St. Gallen. ‘True it is,
that as every ill has its attendant good, their conviviality may be the caufe why the Sua-
bians are evidently fo much better tempered than the Swifs. Add to all this, that Con-
ftance is in a manner neglected, on account of its diftance from the Court of Vienna.
The Swifs, it is faid, made overtures to eftablifh manufactures there, but they failed. I
am ignorant whether the failure was owing to the intolerance of the court, to the jea-
loufy of the fenate of Conftance, which is conftantly folicitous to preferve fomething
of its former importance as a free imperial town, or to the above mentioned pride of the
nobles.
The bifhop refides at Moerfburg, a fmall town on the oppofite border of the lake.
He has an income of about feventy thoufand florins, or 7oool. per annum. He has very
confiderable pofleflions in Switzerland. The other places worth notice on the German
fide, are Uberlingen and Lindau. :
The Swifs fide of this fmall lake is more pleafant to view than the German. The
beautiful mixture of the neighbouring hills planted with vines, the ftraggling appearance
of the farm-houfes with orchards round them, the fmall and varied patches of all the
different kinds of agriculture, make it more agreeable to the eye than the Suabian vil-
lages, the houfes of which ftand together as in towns, and are often encompafled by a
great corn field or a wide meadow. Upon the whole, I believe that both fides of the
lake are equally well inhabited. The Swits foil is more ftony and heavy than the Ger-
man, and though the Thurgau is one of the beft parts of Switzerland, it is indebted to
Suabia fora part of the prime neceflary of life, to wit, corn, which it repays in wine and
fruits.
They little think in Holland, how much they owe to the lake of Conftance. As
matters even now are, they can hardly guard avain{ft the fand, which being wafhed down
from the Alps by the Aar, and other rivers into the Rhine, threatens to {top up the
mouth of the latter, and already leaves room to apprehend fome violent revolution, by
‘the great fand banks it has raifed. But if the great refervoir we {peak of did not inter-
cept by far the largeft quantity of fand, which the rapid ftream of the Rhine er
rom
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