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266 RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY,
in which adventurers of all forts are fo fure to make their fortunes as they are heres
Provided they take care to put part of the booty into the Eleétoral cheft, they are fure
to live unmolefted. The /otto of Genoa, which, though decorated with a fmooth and
fplendid name, is in fact no more than a Pharaoh table, at which the {tate endeavours to
cheat its fubjeéts, thrives in no German foil fo well asin this. It harmonized too well.
with the reft of the fyftem of finance, not to be readily and eagerly adopted. I have: .
{een lottery-office propofals publifhed with the Elector’s privilege, and decorated with)
his arms, in which it is faid, that a lottery is the /horte/?, fafe/2, and mot becoming way
for a man to make his fortune. Now, every body knows, that what advantage there
is in a game of this kind is only for the rich, and that he who buys his thirty-twos and
fixty-fourths is fure to be undone. What mult we think then of a court, which ufesi
every trick and_paltry artifice to entice its fubje€ts to play a game, by which they are:
fure to lofe, and it muft gain at lealt 100 percent? Itis true, indeed, that there is fuch;
a lottery in every court in Germany ; but at none are fuch mean tricks as thefe made.
ufe of to induce the fubjects to play.
Thefe oppreffions, however, great as they feem, are ftill nothing in comparifon of
what the proteftants have to fuffer from the court. According to repeated treaties, the-
eftablifhed religion of the country fhould be the reformed; but notwithftanding this,.
the Catholics have found means to grow powerful enough, not only to be at the head:
of every thing themfelves, but to perfecute the Proteftants in the moft infamous man-
ner. For this purpofe they have received villains of every kind into their villages, to
increafe the number of Catholics; they have difpoffeffed the Proteftants of all places andi
pofts whatever; they have treated them wih every kind of indignity; nay, even in the
courts of jultice, the moft fcandalous and infamous partialities have taken place. And:
yet, fo are human affairs condu&ed, amid{t this outrageous tyranny, and whilft the
emigrations to America have been fuch, that the Englifh know no other name for a
German than that of Palatine, this court has met with authors, both in:and out of the
country, to extol the wifdom of its councils: nay, would you think it! although half
the fubjects of the country are driven out of it, and the reft fo ovprefled that they hardly
know how to live in it, there is a college for teaching the feveral branches of political:
ceconomy fubfifting at Lauern, and projectors innumerable are fent to Frankenthal to,
eftablifh manufactures !
That, notwith{tanding the repeated and multifarious vexations they are expofed to,.
the farmers of this country are ftill enabled to hold up their heads, is, no doubt, owing
to the frequent emigrations. Thefe keep the price of land low, and enable the half
who remain (for above half are driven out) to fubfift with a tolerable degree of com-
fort.
Notwithftanding all the reputation which the manufactures of the Palatinate have.
gained, there is more fhew than fubftance about them. All thofe of Frankenthal put:
together are not equal to fingle ones which might be named in Auttria, in Switzerland,
at Berlin, and in feveral other countries. Excepting only the china manufactory, there
. is not a fingle one which employs a hundred men, or has a capital of 100,000 guilders.
But here they calla place where three men and afew boys are making wafers, a wafer
manufactory. In this fenfe, every taylor and fhoemaker’s fhop may pa{s for a manu-
factory. And yet they do not know how to prepare the produce of the country for.
the internal confumption of it. The tobacco which grows in the Palatinate is carried
into Holland to be made, and brought back again for confumption. Another proof of
the wifdom of this government is, the difficulties it places in the way of the exports of
its own fubjects. ‘The city of Mentz, I have told you, fubfifts entirely by bread made
12 in
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