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174 RIESBECK’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
pimp, and in fhort do all that is done elfewhere by Savoyards and old women. ‘They are
alfo in the cuftom of begging of itrangers, not abfolutely charity, but fomething to drink ;
with which, however, they commonly purchafe fomething to eat, as the Sprey has
water enough to quench their thirft. ‘They are not fo furly as the Imperial troops,
and you meet with feveral fenfible men amongft them.
As far as I can hitherto fee of the people of this place, they are better provided, as
to the upper region or head, than the inhabitants of Vienna, but cannot vie with
them in the middle regions, the belly, and the pockets. ‘The vacuum in thofe, par-
ticularly the purfe, may eafily be difcovered by an attentive obferver, and it flrikes a
ftranger forcibly. They have indeed fo little refpect for the eyes and ears of the pub-
lic, that officers and counfellors will drive a bargin for guilders with Jews in a public
coffee-houfe ; a thing I faw with my own eyes the day after I arrived here. ‘The mer-
chants, manufacturers, and that part of the nobility which have places, deal fo myf-
terioufly in all matters of money, that you find it very difficult to diftinguifh them
from thofe who havenot any. On the other hand, you obferve here fuch an informa-
tion with regard to the {tate of the country, fuch a freedom in difcourfing on the meas
fures of government, fuch a national pride, fuch a participation in every public occur-
rence; and in the military and civil officers, fuch an adtivity for the ftate, and (not-
withftanding their {mall falaries) fuch a jealoufy of doing their duty, that in all thefe
refpects you would think yourfelf in London. This is an evident fign that the fpirt
of a people does not depend upon the form, but on the adminiftration of a government ;
and that patrioti{m is not the exclufive privilege of republics. They talk ‘here about
-the King’s regulations, as well as about his omiffions and commiffions, with a degree of
freedom, that you would only expect to find in an Englifhman.
Though I have been here but a fhort time, I think I can take upon me to contra-
di& an opinion which has pretty generally gone abroad, upon the authority of fome
gentlemen who have travelled poft through the country, about the my/terioufne/s of
this government. It is faid that there is a cloud round the King’s operations, and
that all is fupported by his power; for my own part, I have not feen a more open or
more popular government than this is, that of Englanditfelf not excepted. ‘The whole
plan of adminiftration appears to me fo plain, and at’all times fo open to every man’s
infpection, that I cannot conceive how fo falfe an eftimate can have been made. Some
Englifhmen, who think that the effence of liberty confifts in babbling, and giving
vent in parliament to every fpecies of ill-humour, and who, from their imprudence
and felf-fufficiency, are the worft obfervers that travel, have moft probably fpread
this opinion. It is not, however, neceffary to be long in the country to difcover that
the King is no fonder of clandeftine meafures than he is of his power. The depart-
‘ment of foreign affairs, and poflibly fome things which relate to the difcipline of the
army, are the only things which are kept in fome obfcurity ; and furely no man will
expect that the King will fuffer his correfpondence with his minifters, and the fecret of
his treaties, to be printed and fold in the fhops: but I will talk to you more at length
about this another time.
LETTER XLVIII.
erlin.
FORGIVE me, brother, for having made you wait fome time for a letter, but I
have made feveral excurfions through the country, and will now fit down to give you
an account of my peregrinations.
I was
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