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225 . RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
,
yields every year about four hundred thoufand Rhenifh guilders *. It is from.al! thefe
countries, but particularly from Friefland, that they procure the {trong fine coach-horfes
who trot fo proudly over the pavement of many Italian cities, and are fometimes, though
feldomer, met with in France. The court of Peterfburgh buys up feveral of thele
horfes to mount its heavy cavalry, who look very formidable on this terrible cattle.
The Dutch cuiraffiers are fupplied from Holftein, and in truth the horfes of that country
are preferable to thofe of Friefland and Oldenburg for this fervice, as with the fame
ftreneth they connect more alacrity and life.
Hanover, confider it in what light you will, is a very fine city. The number of its
inhabitants is about twenty thoufand. ‘There are very good focieties here, to which the
officers contribute not a little. |The nobility is as polifhed and refined in its manners
as that of any other German city. ‘The country, which hereabouts begins to be more
elevated, is not quite fo ugly as the deeper country round the Wefer. Prince Frede-
rick, the King’s fecond fon, refides here at prefent, and makes a particular circle of the
inhabitants very happy. He is bifhop of Ofmaburg, which principality produces him,
yearly, a revenue of one hundred and eighty thoufand Rhenifh florins. Having come
to this very early in life, and his indulgent father having given up to him, when he
comes of age, all the province of the bifhopric, without any deduction whatever, he
will have an income of three millions of florins, or three hundred thoufand pounds.
They wifh and hope here, that in procefs of time he will be declared governor of his
father’s pofleffions in this country, and refide conftantly.. His great income will make
this a confiderable advantage to the city in point of intereft, and his wonderful educa-
tion gives the whole country hopes of a wife and gentle adminiftration.
Though fome parts of the electorate of Hanover are very fertile, yet, upon the
whole, it is the moft miferable part of all Germany. It is about feven hundred Ger-
man miles in circumference, but hardly contains feven hundred thoufand inhabitants ;
nay, fome think this is going too far, for though they have numbered one hundred thou-
fand houfes, our commiffaries in the laft war, who numbered the people, could not make
more of them than five hundred thoufand fouls in all the Hanoverian dominions. But put
them at feven hundred thoufand, fill you will find no other country of the like extent in
all Germany, which does not contain more than one thoufand fouls for every fquare mile.
‘The difference betwixt Hanover and Suabia, Saxony, Auftria, Bohemia, and the other
parts of Germany, is {till more confiderable; for each of thefe ftates has two thoufand five
hundred fouls for every {quare mile, and fome of them much more. The caufe of the flen-
der population is almoft entirely owing to nature. ‘The country abounds in fand-heaths,
which it is almoft impoffible to cultivate. Almoft the whole country between Hamburgh
and this place isa’deep fand. ‘The difference in point of riches is {till more confiderable.
The whole revenues of Hanover amount only to four hundred and eighty thoufand
guilders ; of which the mines in the Harts alone contribute one hundred thoufand.
The country belonging to the Ele€tor of Saxony, which is very little larger, brings in
nearly as much again. .
The government of this country is gentle. The great offices of ftate are held by
active and enlightened patriots. Nothing is known here of extorting money from the
poor. Little of the money of this country goes to London ; but almoft the whole is
fpent in the improvement of the country. The army, which confumes the greateft part
of it, is large, and confilts of twenty thoufand men. They are the belt fed of all the
German troops, but are not near fo well difciplined as either the Pruflian or Auftrian
* Forty thoufand pound, 5
‘armics,
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