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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY, 103
courtiers feem to be buried in thought how to pay their debts. But before I indulge
myfelf in conjectures on what is to come, I will lay before you the prefent {tate of the
country as the Emprefs left it.
The Houfe of Hapfburg Loraine, now ranks as one of the greateft powers in Eurcpe ;
the only rivals of its greatnefs are Ruflia, France, and Great Britain; but at the begin.
ning of this century, and till the time it belonged to the late Emprefs, it was one of the
middling powers of Europe, and it required all the ftrength of England, and all the
money of Holland, to fupport it, whenever it attempted to take any great part in bufi-
nefs. Even at the time when the {un did not fet in its dominions, it was not as formi-
dable as itis now; at length the lofs of fo many kingdoms and provinces taught it, that
the ftrength of a {tate does not fo much confift in the quantity of its internal power, as
in the ufes it is able to make of it. A great man, who ferved it at a time when it was
ftillin poffeflion of Alfatia, Naples, Sicily, and feveral other countries, compared it toa
pyramid, which ftands upon its point, and totters-by the weaknels of its principal part.
The pyramid is now fomething lighter, but it ftands, as nature intended it fhould, on its
own proper foundation, firm and unfhaken.
If all the Auftrian dominions lay together, they would contain a larger extent of
country than France. Hungary, with Tranfylvania, Croatia, Sclavonia, Temefwar, and
part of Dalmatia, contains 4760 fquare miles; Bohemia goo, Moravia, with part of Si-
lefia, 430; the circle of Auftria, Styria, and the Dukedom, with Carynthia, the Ukraine,
the country belonging to Aultria in Suabia, the Earldom of Falkenftein, the newly ac-
qired part of Bavaria, and part of Frioul, 2200; the Netherlands, 509; the poffeflions
of Lombardy, 200; the kingdoms of Galicia and Lodomeria, together with Buckovina,
which has been taken from the Turks, 14003 in all 10,360 fquare miles; whereas,
France hardly contains 10,000. You will fay, the difference is not very great—it is
not; but when the expected junétions of Tufcany, and the Modenefe are made, it will
be worth attending to. As to natural bleflings, they have been beftowed ftill more
plentifully here than in France; for there are no luxuries to be met with in the latter
which fome countries belonging to the Emperor do, or may not produce, wine, oil, and
filk not excepted; and as to matters of prime neceflity, fuch as corn and cattle, they
would be able to furnith half France with them, after providing their own people. The
feveral ores too, which are found in the hills round Hungary, in the Tyrol, Carinthia,
Carniola, and Styria, are of as much profit to the country, as thofe of Portuguefe and
Spanifh America to their poffeffors; fo that if there was only fuch a fea coaft as ours,
and the country was improved to what it might be, no doubt it would be a fourth richer
than France; but our fortunate fituation, the waters we command on all fides, and the
navigable rivers, which carry out our exports from the moft remote parts of the coun-
try, give an advantage which is not to be difputed.
Hungary is, without doubt, the richeft part of the Auftrian dominions ;—it not only
pofleffes every thing that is produced in the other countries, but feeds them with its over-
flow, and excels them as much in the quality, as in the quantity of what it produces;
but here we haye great occafion to obferve the truth of that axiom, that the more na-
ture does for man, the lefs he commonly does for himfelf.. The inhabitant of the Swifs
mountains extracts his fuftenance from his nakednefs, and has changed wildernefies into
cultivated and inhabited lands; the Hollander has turned the muddy fands of the Rhine
and Maefe, what the fea is conftantly difputing with him, into a garden, while the ex-
cellent groundsin Hungary ftill lie wafte. I believe, that at Vienna, they think that the
plenty Hungary is able to export, is owing to its own population; but it is not fo; for
were it three times as much peopled as it is, it would export in much greater plenty ftill,
if
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