Nature seems to have formed, in Cæsar, a compendious union of all human talents, as if to demonstrate how unavailing they were when opposed to strict rigid honesty and virtue in the character of Brutus.
To go from Bonne to Frankfort, there are two ways——one over the mountains of Wetterania, the other up the river Rhine. I made no hesitation to adopt the latter, and was rewarded for my choice with the view of as fine a country, inhabited by as fine a race of People, as I had ever seen. Valleys filled with herds, plains enamelled with corn-fields, and the hills covered with vineyards, regaled the eye, and conveyed to the mind all the felicitating ideas of plenty, natural opulence, and true prosperity. My anxiety, however, to get forward, and disengage myself from a species of solitude in a country where, though travelling is cheap, accommodations of most kinds in the public houses are bad, induced me to push on, without taking the time necessary for making accurate observations on the country as I passed; so that, gliding, as it were, imperceptibly, through a number of towns, of which I recollect nothing distinctly but the names of Coblentz and Mentz, I arrived at the great, free and imperial city of Frankfort on the Maine.
Here I shall stop, for a short time, my relation, in order to give you time for just reflection and examination of what I have already written: and as, in the latter part of it, I have skimmed very lightly over the country, I desire that you will supply the deficiency of my information by close research in books; inform yourself of the great outlines of the Germanic Constitution; look back to its origin, its progress, and its establishment; thence proceed to the distinct parts, or inferior States, of which it is composed; ponder them all well; and from those draw your own inferences, and let me hear what they are with freedom: should they be wrong, I will endeavour to set them right; but should they be right, they will afford me the most lively satisfaction; for they will serve to correct one of the greatest errors under which youth labours——an overweening, sanguine imagination, that things in this life are, or at least can be modelled into perfection; whereas experience, and a just observation of the history of Mankind, will shew, that on this ball things will never be as they ought, but must remain as they are——imperfect.
LETTER XIX.
The country about Frankfort is delightful, rich and fruitful, and watered by the beautiful river Maine, which divides the city into two parts, that on the North being called Frankfort, and that on the South, Saxenhausen, from the Saxons, who are supposed to have been the founders of it. The city itself is large, populous and rich, and distinguished for being the place where the Emperor and King of the Romans is elected——though, by the appointment of Charlemagne, Cologne has a superior claim to that honour. The Magistrates, and great part of the inhabitants, are Lutherans or Calvinists; notwithstanding which, most of the Churches are in the hands of the Roman Catholics——a laudable instance of the true tolerant spirit of a wise and virtuous institution, and a heavy reflection upon, as well as a noble example to the Popish Powers of Europe.
The territory belonging to Frankfort is of very considerable extent; and the trade carried on through it, by means of the rivers Rhine and Mayne, of very great importance, not only to the country itself, but to other commercial nations, and particularly to Great Britain, whose manufactures are sent to Frankfort, and thence circulated through the Continent, in amazing quantities.
The fairs of Frankfort are talked of all over Europe——of such importance are they in the world of commerce. They are held, one at Easter, and another in September, and continue for three weeks, during which time the resort of people there from all quarters is astonishing. Every thing is done by the Government to render them as attractive to Merchants as possible; and the taxes or duties are extremely low——a bale of the value of ten or twenty thousand crowns paying duty only about ten or eleven pence of our money. All commodities from all parts of the world are sold there, and circulated through the Empire; but, particularly, books are sold in prodigious quantities. After the fairs are over, the shops of the foreign Merchants are shut up, and their names written over their doors.
To give an idea of the great importance these fairs are to commerce, I need only mention, that in the present war, the impediments thrown by the French in the way of the transit of goods up the Rhine, and the shutting up that fair, gave a most alarming paralysis to the manufacturing establishments of England, and a shock to public credit in consequence, that would, but for the timely interference of Parliament, have, in all probability, been fatal to the national credit.