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276 : RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
neét it with all Germany, and various other circumftances; the greateft wonder of all
the wonders of this wonderful city is, how it can poffibly have contrived to fall fo low:
at prefent it does not contain more than twenty-five thoufand fouls. ‘Their manufactures
arelow. Save a fingle one of tobacco, a few infignificant laces, and the pins which are
made by the wives and daughters of the poor people, all fpirit of induftry is effectually
fupprefled by monkery, and the diffolution of manners infeparable from it. _Thofe who
pafs for merchants are only brokers and commiflioners for thofe of Francfort, Nuren-
burg, Augfburgh, Strafburgh, Switzerland, and other countries. Excepting a few
{mall bankers, there are hardly above ten or twelve houfes, that have any thing like a
folid commerce; the object of thefe are drugs, from the fale of which a great deal of
money is annually brought into Germany: wine, wrought and unwrought iron from
the mines of Naflau, which are the moft famous for the produétion of this metal, after
thofe of Styria and Carinthia; wood fromthe Upper Rhine, the Maine, and the Necker,
and a few other lefs important articles. The greater part, too, of thefe very few mer-
chants is made up of French and Italians, who far furpafs the natives in underftanding,
induftry, and frugality, and make up their fortunes on this never-failing capital. The
moft folid commerce of all is inthe hands of fome dozens of proteftants, who can nei-
ther obtain the privileges of citizens, nor yet the liberty to ferve God in their own way;
they go to church at Muhlheim, a pretty town in the Palatinate, at fix miles diftance.
Befides the manufa¢tures they are engaged in here, they have concerns in feveral others
in the Pruffian territory, and in the Palatinate.
When a ftranger objects to the people of Cologne, their intolerance towards the moft
ufeful part of the inhabitants of.their city ; when he compares the ftupidity, barbarity,
debauchery, and poverty of the citizens of the place, with the knowledge, induftry, fru-
gality, and riches of the foreigners, they are not at all affected with the juftice of thefe
remarks, but turn them to their own advantage in the following manner: ‘* Thefe he-
retics,”” fay they, “are loft fouls; their hearts are wrapt up in worldly poffeffions, which.
God vouchfafes them in order to render their damnation the greater. God has evidently
reprobated the rich in his holy writ, and their riches are the faggots which in another
world will be piled up’ to burn them!’’ With opinions like thefe, which the monks hold
forth from every pulpit, it is not to be wondered at, if the third part of the inhabitants
of the city are beggars.
The numerous fhips which are always to be found in the ports of this city, exhibit
the moft difgraceful inftance of the manners of the people. There is hardly a river in
Europe which is navigated fo high from its fource as the Rhine is in this place; the
quay, which is above a mile long, is almoft always filled with fhips; but the goods on
board, which, according to the laws of the itaple, fhould be loaded only on fhips be-
longing to Cologne or Mentz, almoft all belong to foreign merchants; of thefe the
Dutch fhips are moft confiderable; they are diftinguifhed by the kind of magnificence
and cleanlinefs peculiar to this people: they are at leaft one-third longer than our com-
mon merchant fhips of two matts, and carry from one hundred and fifty to one hundred
and eighty tons; they are drawn by horfes, and can alfo occafionally ufe their fails at
the fame time; nor, in proportion to their freight, do they want above half the number
~ of horfes which are ufed in the navigation of the Danube from the Ulm to Vienna.
‘The proprietors of thefe (for a river) immenfe veflels commonly live on board, even
when they are at Amfterdam or Rotterdam; to which laft city, unfavourable as their
veffels are for a fea navigation, on account of their length, {mall height and breadth,
they often fail through the Texel when the wind is favourable. As long as they lie in
this port, they treat their friends with all kinds of foreign wines, and a variety of re-
frefhments,,
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