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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANYe 145
Drefden has a proud appearance, and offers on all fides a magnificent object ; it is
beyond all comparifon the fineft city which I have yet feen in Germany. ‘The houles
are built in a much better tafte than thofe of Vienna, and the eye is quite dazzled with
the long and magnificent appearance of the bridge over the Elbe. This river, which at
fome diftance from the city is confined within very narrow bounds, widens by degrees
as you approach, and is here a powerful ftream, which befpeaks all the magnificence of
the town and ftate. The hills oppofite to the Law/ni/s have a moft magnificent appear-
ance and the mountains on both fides the river, partly naked and partly planted with
vineyards, form an uncommonly beautiful perfpective.
The manners and way of living of thefe people is as oppofite to what I have hitherto
ieen in Germany, as the beauty of thefe ftreets, and the tafte difplayed in the buildings,
is different from Suabia, Bavaria, Auftria, and Bohemia. Finer fhapes, more animated
countenances, eafier and lefs con{trained motions, general courtefy, univerfal cleanlinefs,
are the features which immediately offer themfelves to obfervation, and mutt {trike every
one who comes into this country by the fame route which I purfued.
It was in an unfortunate moment that the fortifications about this town were firft built,
but it is more unfortunate ftill, that inftead of pulling them entirely down, thofe who are
concerned are at this inftant employed in repairing them. Commanded as this city is,
from every fide, and with no reafonable expectations, in its prefent fituation, of ever
being able to preferve a neutrality on the breaking out of any war betwixt the King of
Pruffia and the Auftrians, it is more than any other in danger of being plundered and
iaid wafte. Indeed one would have imagined that the devaftations of the years 1758
and 1760, were ftill frefh enough in every man’s memory to have been a warning to
the regency.
The town does not feem to be peopled in proportion to the quantity of ground it
ftands on. The number of inhabitants is generally eftimated at fifty thoufand, which
many think too high. The fact is, that it has loft a third of its inhabitants fince the
breaking out of the laft Silefian war, and the death of King Auguftus.
The ftrangers who knew this city before this ra, cannot fay enough of the difference
there now is, a difference not fo much arifing from the misfortunes of war, as from the
ceconomy of the court, which has followed clofe on the diffipation of other times. In
the late Elector’s time, this court was perhaps the moft brilliant in Europe. The court
band of mufic, the opera, and the dancers alone, were fuppofed to coft the Eleétor an-
nually 300,000 Saxon guilders, or upwards of 780,000 French livres. His table, his
ftables, and his hunters, were all in the fame ftyle of expence. Strangers ufed to flow
hither from all countries, to be partakers in this magnificence, and Drefden was the ren-
dezvous of the north for tafte and refined living. ‘The numerous followers of the court,
and the great number of ftrangers, occafioned a very extenfive circulation of money,
and made all the arts alive. In the midft of this profufion debts were contracted, but
they gave the Elector little concern, as is evident from the following anecdote. One
night at the opera, having a fire-work, which was part of the decoration of a temple,
and ufed to colt feveral hundred thalers, he called for his chamberlain, and defired to
know the reafon of the omiffion; the chamberlain told him, that the heathen gods and
goddeffes muft for this night be contented witha fire of twenty or thirty guilders, as
there was no money left in the treafury to pay for any thing more {plendid. The
Elector was compelled to acquiefce for the moment, as it was too late for him to do
otherwife, but he gave ftriét orders, that in the next reprefentation, and in every fuc-
ceeding one, the whole fum of thalers fhould be burnt out. A court which is mounted
on this on is feldom poffeffed ofa firm and found government.
VOL. VI. U : The
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