volumes. A bridge of boats here crosses the Rhine. Population, 21,000. Heidelberg, on the Neckar, is famous for an enormous tun containing 600 hogsheads. Here is a fine stone bridge across the river. Population, 10,000. Freiberg has a large Catholic university and a fine Gothic minster. Population, 10,108. Baden has a pleasant neighbourhood, and is much visited for the baths already mentioned. Population, 3180. Constance, on the lake of that name, is surrounded by a rich wine district. Population, 5000.

HESSIAN STATES.

THE HESSIAN STATES comprise the Electorate of Hesse Cassel, the Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt, and the Landgraviate of Hesse Homburg. They are situated on both sides of the River Mayne, in several separate portions. These States have nominally a limited government, but in fact arbitrary, and are much less improved than some other parts of Germany. In Hesse Cassel, only the oldest sons of clergymen, and the sons of noblemen, counsellors, and public officers, are allowed to receive a liberal education. More attention has been paid of late to the instruction of the people, and seminaries have been established here, as in most parts of Germany, for the education of teachers. Agriculture and manufactures are principally in a low state.

HESSE CASSEL. This State is bounded north-west by Prussia, north-east by Hanover, east by Prussia. Saxe Weimar and Bavaria, south by Bavaria and Hesse Darmstadt, and west by Hesse Darmstadt. It contains 4352 square miles, and 649,800 inhabitants, most of whom are Protestants. It is mountainous, and intersected by fertile valleys: many parts of the mountains are covered with woods. The rivers are the Weser, Mayne, and Lahn. Gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, alum, vitriol, sulphur, coal, marble, and alabaster, are found here, as also salt springs and mineral waters.

The agricultural productions are corn, fruit, wine, flax, and hemp. There are few manufactures except linen. The military force is 18,000 men; of whom 2000 are in regular pay, the rest are only called out during part of the year. Hesse no longer carries on that extensive traffic of mercenary troops which formerly brought in large sums of money, and rendered the Elector, perhaps, the richest individual in Europe.

Cassel, the capital, stands on the Fulda. It has several splendid public places and elegant buildings with a library of 70,000 volumes. Population, 26,000. Smalkalden is famous for a league concluded here in 1531. Population, 4474. Manburg has a university and a library of 56,000 volumes. Population, 7000. Hanau is a regular and handsome town near the Mayne, Population, 11,997. Fulda has a population of 8000.

HESSE DARMSTADT. This Grand Duchy consists of two distinct territories lying north and south of the Mayne. The northern part is bounded north, east, and south by Hesse Cassel, south-west by Frankfort and Hesse Homburg, and west by Nassau and the Prussian provinces. The southern part is bounded north by Frankfort and Hesse Cassel, east by Bavaria, south by Baden, and west by the Prussian provinces. There are also some small districts inclosed in the counties of Waldeck and Nassau. The whole superficial extent is 4112 square miles, and the population 720,000. The country is mountainous, and is watered by the Rhine, Mayne, Nahe, Neckar, and other streams. The rearing of cattle is the chief branch of husbandry: the agricultural products are similar to those of the south of Germany. The army amounts to 8421 men. The prevailing religion is Lutheran.

Darmstadt, the capital, is well built in the more modern part, and has a gymnasium with a library of 90,000 volumes. The town is fortified with very extensive works. In the neighbourhood of the town is a magnetic rock. Population, 20,000.

Mentz or Mayence, on the Rhine, a little below its junction with the Mayne, is pleasantly situated, but indifferently built: it has a bridge of boats over the

Rhine, a library of 90,000 volumes, a fine museum of Roman antiquities, and a large cathedral. The fortifications are of great strength and extent, and are held by the diet as one of the bulwarks of the empire. Population, 26,800. Worms exhibits only the ruins of its former state, and is almost choked with rubbish, the fruit of successive desolating wars. It has still the remains of some fine edifices, and a good fruit and corn market. Offenbach, a thriving little town,

is the only place in the duchy where manufactures flourish.

HESSE HOMBURG. This Landgraviate consists of several small districts. It contains 138 square miles and 33,000 inhabitants. Homburg, the chief town, has a population of 2964. The inhabitants are mostly Protestant.

SAXON STATES.

THE SAXON STATES comprise the Grand Duchy of Saxe Weimar, and the Duchies of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe Altenburg, and Saxe-Meiningen-Hilburghausen. The government of these States is more free than that of the Hessian States, and education is more attended to. Agriculture and mining, which form the chief employments of the people, are conducted with much skill; and manufactures are somewhat advanced. The Prince of Saxe Weimar is distinguished as a patron of learning, and is the most liberal and popular of all the German princes, and was the first of them to give his subjects a representative constitution; and every degree of freedom is allowed to the press that the great monarchs will permit.

The Grand Duchy of SAXE WEIMAR is bounded north and east by Prussia, Altenberg, and Reuss, south by the Schwartzburg, Prussian, Cothen, Meiningen, and Bavarian dominions, and west by Hesse Cassel. It contains 1420 square miles and 232,704 inhabitants. The chief rivers are the Saale and Werra. The chief production is wood from the forests. Grain, fruit, and flax, are cultivated. The government is a constitutional monarchy. The army consists of 2164 men. The prevailing religion is Lutheran. The constitution was established in 1816.

Weimar, the capital, stands in a fertile valley watered by the Ilm. The city has a high literary reputation, and has been particularly distinguished as the residence of Goethe, Schiller, and other eminent writers. Weimar has a public library of 120,000 volumes, a drawing academy, and a theatre, considered one of the best in Germany. Population, 10,000.

Jena, on the Saale, stands in a pleasant spot surrounded by hills; it is a walled and well-built town, with large suburbs, and contains a ducal palace, and a university which is the chief support of the place. Population, 5200. Eisenach has considerable manufactures. Population, 8258.

SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA has been lately formed by the union of these two branches, on the extinction of that of Gotha: most of the surface of which is level, with a moderately fertile soil. The city, containing about 12,000 inhabitants, is the channel of a considerable trade connected with the fair of Leipzig. It is somewhat a learned city; containing a library of 60,000 volumes, with valuable manuscripts. Saxe-Coburg is a mountainous territory. It contains good pasturage, and some valuable mines. This territory has been raised to distinction by the good fortune of one of its younger members, now king of the Belgians.

SAXE-MEININGEN-HILDBURGHAUSEN, on the Werra, is a little tract, enriched by mines of salt at Salzungen, and by some of coal, iron, and cobalt. Its principal towns are Meiningen and Hildburghausen, with about 5000 inhabitants each.

The little duchy of SAXE-ALTENBURG consists of two detached portions, separated from each other by the territories of Saxe-Weimar and the Reuss princes. The capital, Altenburg, is a considerable town with about 12,000 inhabitants.

MECKLENBURG is a territory of the most northerly part of Germany, north-east of Hanover. It consists to a great extent of lake and forest; and the cultivation

is comparatively rude; yet a variety of gentle hills gives it a picturesque aspect. It is divided into the two grand duchies of Schwerin and Strelitz; the former is much the more extensive; and Schwerin, the capital, is a pretty considerable town, with a handsome palace, situated on a lake, and containing a good gallery of pictures. Rostock is a larger town, with 20,000 inhabitants, situated on the Baltic, and exporting grain to the value of from 150,000l. to 200,000l. Wismar, on the Baltic, has a good harbour and considerable trade. Population, 10,000.

MECKLENBURG STRELITZ is a small State, not containing quite 85,000 people, and its capital being little more than a large village, which has given two queens to Britain.

The Duchy of BRUNSWICK is rather a productive territory, situated partly on the declivities of the Hartz, partly on the plain of Saxony. The city of Brunswick is larger than in proportion to the State, containing a population of about 30,000. It is a considerable seat of the inland trade of Germany, its fairs ranking next to those of Frankfort and Leipzig. The government was nearly absolute till very lately, when the people, by a violent change of dynasty, effected for themselves a representative constitution. Population, 250,100.

The Grand Duchy of OLDENBURG is distinguished by the high rank of its princes, connected by family alliances with all the great powers of the north, particularly Russia. The duke has possessions in different parts of the north of Germany; but the main part of them is situated on the Weser, to the west of Hanover; a flat, marshy district, but abounding in rich pastures, and somewhat resembling Holland. The capital, Oldenburg, has 8000 inhabitants. Population, 251.500; area, 2752 square miles; government absolute.

NASSAU is a duchy which, by the union of the territories held by several branches of the same family, has attained to some tolerable magnitude. Situated in the southern part of Franconia, forming a hilly country on the banks of the Rhine and the Mayne, it produces those valuable wines, old Hock and Bleschert, which distinguish this part of Germany: it does not contain, however, any towns of importance. Wisbaden, the capital, much visited on account of its 15 warm springs, has a population of 8000. At Niederselters, two million bottles are annually filled with the celebrated Seltzer water. Langenschwalbach and Schlangenbad are equally noted for their mineral springs; and Hochheim, Rudesheim, Johannisberg, and Asmannshausen, for their fine wine. Population, 355,815; area, 2164 square miles.

The Duchies of ANHALT, on the Elbe, between Saxony and Brandenburg, have a population of 136,000, divided between the three branches of Dessau, Bernburg, and Cothen. The family is ancient, and has produced some men of eminence.

THE GERMAN PRINCIPALITIES are 10 small States, most of which are contiguous to, or enclosed by the dominions of Prussia. They are Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwartzburg-Sondershausen, Reuss-Greitz, Reuss-Schleitz, Lippe-Detmold, Lippe-Schauenburg, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Waldeck, and Lichtenstein.

SCHWARTZBURG belongs to a very ancient house, and is divided into the two branches of Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt, and Schwartzburg-Sondershausen, containing between them 111,767 subjects, of which the first has 60,000, and the other 51,767. The territories are detached from each other, and about 35 miles apart, Rudolstadt being very nearly surrounded by the Saxon States, and Sondershausen entirely enclosed by the province of Prussian Saxony. The territory of REUSS is divided between Reuss-Greitz, and Reuss-Schleitz, the elder and younger lines: the former has 25,000 subjects, and the latter, which is subdivided into the several branches of Reuss-Schleitz, Reuss-Lobenstein-Ebersdorf, and Reuss-Koestritz, has 58,500. This family dates its origin from the year 950. Their principal town is Gera, called in Germany Little Leipzig, on account of its trade, which is considerable. LIPPE-DETMOLD and LIPPE-SCHAUENBURG are situated to the south of Hanover; the one hilly and wooded, the other flat and fertile.

A former prince of Lippe-Schauenburg made a distinguished figure in the service of Portugal. Their subjects amount to 103,000. There are two princes of HoHENZOLLERN, Sigmaringen and Hechingen, having between them 54,500 people. They are situated between Baden and Wirtemberg. WALDECK-PYRMONT, composed of two hilly counties between Hesse and Hanover, derives almost its sole importance from the mineral baths of Pyrmont, which are among the most celebrated in Europe. Population, 56,000; area, 459 square miles.

LICHTENSTEIN borders on Switzerland and the Tyrol. It contains 51 square miles, and 5550 inhabitants. Vadutz is the capital. The government is constitutional, and the inhabitants are Catholics. The Lilliputian lordship of KNIPHAUSEN was recognised as an independent State, by an act of the diet, in 1826. It is situated within the territories of the Duke of Oldenburg. Population, 2860; area, 17 square miles.

The four free cities of Germany, Hamburg, Lubeck, Bremen, and Frankfort, form still an interesting feature, necessary to close the picture of this great country. They are the sole remnant of the Hanse Towns and imperial cities; illustrious confederacies, which, during the middle ages, acted a most conspicuous part in the improvement of the European system. The members of the congress of Vienna, though little friendly to any thing republican, considered these so fully established, and so venerable by antiquity, that they sanctioned them as a part of the Germanic body.

HAMBURG is the most important commercial city of Germany. It forms the commercial emporium of Saxony, Bohemia, and other fertile and industrious regions watered by the Elbe and its tributaries. The commerce of this city was almost annihilated during the wars of the French Revolution, and by the operation of the continental system of Napoleon. Since that time she has greatly revived; though her previous losses, and the depression generally affecting the commercial interests of Europe, have prevented her from regaining all her former importance. In 1835, 2204 vessels entered the port of Hamburg. The leading articles of importation, in 1830, were coffee, tobacco, rum, pepper, cotton, and tea. The total exportation from Britain to the Hanse towns, most of which goes to Hamburg, is from 7,500,000l. to 9,000,000l.; from the United States, $800,000. The manufactures of Hamburg are various, though none very considerable, except the refinery of sugar, which has also declined from the importance which it possessed at the beginning of this century.

Hamburg is not a well-built town; the streets being in general narrow and irregular, the houses constructed of brick or wood. The churches of St. Michael's and St. Peter's have elegant spires, and the new exchange is handsome; but there is no edifice distinguished for its splendour. The executive in Hamburg consists of a self-elected senate of twenty-eight members, who, however, are checked by popular councils chosen by all who have 2401, of property within the city. The population of the city is 122,815; that of the whole territory, 154,000.

LUBECK, as a Hanse town, rose to distinction as early as Hamburg, and possessed even a pre-eminence; the maritime law by which the concerns of that great confederacy were regulated having derived its name from this city. Its situation, however, within the Baltic, and not commanding the navigation of any great river, rendered it impossible for it to compete with the high prosperity to which Hamburg has, in modern times, attained. Its commerce is impeded by the small depth of water in the Trave, upon which it is situated, and which obliges vessels drawing more than ten feet to stop at Travemunde. What remains of its commerce consists in the export of the grain abundantly produced in the surrounding countries; for whose use it imports wine, colonial produce, and manufactured articles. Lubeck, for an old town, is well built of stone. It has 22,000 inhabitants. Population of the State, 47,000.

BREMEN, at the mouth of the Weser, is enriched by the commerce of that important river, down which are brought the productions of interior Germany. The city is situated on both sides of the river, and has 40,000 inhabitants. The

old town consists of narrow streets, bordered by high gloomy houses, built in the fashion of the middle ages: but there is a new town, in a much more elegant style. The government, which once approached to an oligarchy, is now almost purely democratic. In 1829, there entered Bremen 881 vessels. The chief imports were coffee, sugar, cotton, tobacco, wine, and grain. Square miles, 72. Population, 49,000.

FRANKFORT on the Mayne, the seat of the Germanic Diet, stands on both sides of the Mayne, and is one of the most important trading towns in Germany. It has two annual fairs, in March and September, which draw hither above 1500 merchants from every country of Europe. The chief articles of traffic are cottons, woollens, and books. The city was once strongly fortified, but the defences have been converted into public walks. The buildings are indifferent. The whole territory of Frankfort comprises 113 square miles, and 55,000 inhabitants, most of whom belong to the city. The government is republican, and the inhabitants mostly Protestants.

SWITZERLAND.

SWITZERLAND is a mountainous territory in the centre of Europe, occupying the north and west of the great range of the Alps which divides France and Germany from Italy. It is remarkable for the grandeur of its natural features and scenery, and for the freedom of its political institutions. This territory forms a confederacy composed of 22 cantons, each of which is an independent republic; but, for mutual security, they are united together, and governed by a general diet, and are known as the Helvetic Confederacy or Helvetic Republic. Switzerland is bounded north by the grand duchy of Baden and the kingdom of Wirtemberg; east by the Austrian province of Tyrol; south by the Sardinian and the Lombardo Venetian states, and west by France. Its length from east to west is 200 miles; its breadth from north to south, 130; and its superficial extent has been estimated by some at 15,000 square miles. Two distinct ranges of mountains traverse this region.

The chain of the Jura stretches from south-west to north-east. The Alps form a more extensive chain, and run nearly parallel to the Jura, with numerous branches known among geographers by the names of the Pennine, Lepontine, and Rhætian Alps. These mountains cover a great part of the country, and exhibit inaccessible peaks covered with snow; eternal and boundless wastes of ice; valleys surrounded by immense precipices; in contrast with wooded and undulating slopes, vine-clad fields, and bright patches of vegetation.

Mont Blanc, the highest summit in Europe, overlooks the vale of Chamouni in Savoy; a district not comprised within the political limits of Switzerland, but which pertains to it in a geographical character. This mountain is 15,814 feet in height: it is capped with eternal snow, and the approach to the top is so full of difficulty and hazard that it has never been ascended except in four or five in

stances.

The Rhine has its three sources in the Rhætian Alps, and, passing through the Lake of Constance, flows to the westward until it reaches Basle. The Rhone is formed by different streams from Mounts Grimsel and Farca, and flows into the Lake of Geneva. The Tesino issues from Mount Gries, and traverses Lake Maggiore in Italy. The Inn rises in the Grisons, runs north-east, and subsequently joins the Danube.

The Lake of Geneva, called also Leman, is 40 miles long. It is 1230 feet above the level of the sea, and its greatest depth is about 1000 feet. The waters of this lake are beautifully transparent, and the surrounding scenery has long been celebrated for its magnificence. The Lake of Constance is about 45 miles in length, and 15 in breadth. The Lake Lugano is at an elevation of 880 French feet above the sea. The Lake of Lucerne is above 20 miles in length, and from 8 to 10 in breadth: its greatest depth is about 600 feet, and its navigation dan