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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH CERMANY. rol
If you add to this, three and a half per cent. of intereft, it will be a long time before
the debt is paid. :
But notwithitanding this, the ftate treafury is in very good credit, as it is fecure fron
all maneuvres of the court, and diltinguifhed by the molt exact rectitude: when the
country was almoft exhaufted by the diltrefles of the laft war, and its credit much im-
paired, the bills fell confiderably ; this gave rife to the {peculations of fome foreign and
domeftic merchants, who bought up the bills at a low price. Three years, however,
were not elajfed before it became vifible that the country had fufficient refources, and
the paper rofe to its original value. Molt of the fpeculators gained from 50 to 60 per
cent. The wonderful alteration ftruck the merchants of Hamburg, Lubeck, Bremen,
and Holland, and the ftates proceeded to pay the remainder of the debts, which by this.
manceuvre have been already in a great degree difcharged by their fubjects.
The revenue of the country amounts to about 6,200,000 thalers, or about 620,000
pounds. ‘The taxes are all appropriated by the {tates to {pecific purpofess nor can the
Elector make any alteration in the deftination of them without their confent.. He has
his own privy purfe, to the fupply of which particular revenues are alfo appropriated.
The ftates have agreed, that the army fhall be increafed in the fame proportion as the
debts leflen. Each prince of the blood hasa revenue of 50,000 thalers, or about 5o0ool.
which, as the prefent family is exceeding numerous, is a confiderable article. The Im-
perial court confidered it as a great act of condefcenfion, to fuffer a Saxon prince of this
court to marry the Archduchefs Chriftina ; but the Saxons tell you, that, great as the
honour was, it would have been ftill greater if the magnificence of the Imperial court
had enabled the Duke of Saxe Tefchen to do without this allowance.
There are few countries in Germany, which, in proportion to the fize of it, produce
as good a revenue as Saxony. It is true that the taxes are very high, but there are few
other countries who have ftrength enough to bear fuch ; and as the exchequer is in the
hands of true patriots, and effectually fecured again{t any attempts of the court, what is
paid is fure to be employed to the beft advantage of the country.
There is nothing more ftriking in the political world, than the difference betwixt Ba-
varia and Saxony. Both countries are of an equal fize, and enjoy an equal number of
natural advantages. Both have alfo a conftitution, only the Bavarians have of late years
fold, and even paid away their privileges; both are parts of a circle, and yet the firlt
contains eighteen large, and two hundred and fix fmall towns; whereas the latter has
only forty in all, amongft which there is not one, Munich only excepted, that is to be
compared, I do not fay in riches, but in population, with the fmalleft of the eighteen
Saxon towns; and there are at leaft fifty out of the two hundred and fix fmall Saxon
towns, which are richer than the richeft of the Bavarian ones. Saxony has one million
nine hundred thoufand ; Bavaria, one million one hundred and eighty thoufand inhabi-
tants. ‘The firft raifes above eleven million of guilders; the latter not more than fix
millions. Saxony has a much greater debt, but the debt is in the way to be paid, and
the country was able to raife twenty thoufand men to join the Pruffian army in refcuing
Bavaria from the Houfe of Auftria ; whilft Bavaria could only raife fix thoufand men,.
in order to have the appearance of entering a proteftation again{ft the Auftrian preten-
fions, and its debts remain unpaid.
It is not uncommon in Germany to afcribe thefe political differences to the difference
of religion; but why then does not the fame religion produce the fame effects in France,
Tufcany, Genoa, Venice, the Imperial Netherlands, and Auftria, ail which are flourith-
ing countries, notwithftanding that the inhabitants are not Proteftants? Shall we fay,
that the catholicifm of Bavaria is of a better kind for the purpofes of theology, and
of a worfe for thofe of politics ; or that the fault lies chiefly in the government, which has
the
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