190. Produce, Manufactures, and Commerce.-Germany abounds in minerals, mines, and mineral springs. Forest trees are numerous and valuable, and esculent vegetables are successfully cultivated; so also are hops. The best wines, known in England by the name of hock, are produced on the banks of the Rhine. The forests abound with wild animals, and wild birds are very numerous; but the domesticated animals are not remarkable. The three seas which wash the coast abound with fish; but the kinds most used are those caught in the rivers and lakes. Agriculture is depressed: manufactures are numerous, and (on a moderate scale) thriving. Linens, from the coarse fabrics of Westphalia to the finest shirtings and table linens of Silesia and Saxony, are the most valuable article. Woollens of all kinds are made; the cotton and silk manufactures are less important. The porcelain manufactures of Berlin and Dresden are admirable. Paper of inferior quality is largely made. Beer and ardent spirits are extensively produced. The press of Germany is unrivalled, as regards the number of its books. Its commerce is active and extensive. The great commercial league, supported and propagated by Prussia, is expected by many persons to consolidate, more or less, the numerous states into which Germany is broken up, and to promote the internal commercial interests of the country generally. Among the inland trading towns we may name Frankfort, Leipzig, Augsburg, Nurnberg, Brunswick, Hanover, Cassel, Munich, Karlsruhe, Darmstadt, and Weimar. The principal maritime towns are Hamburg, Lubeck, Bremen, and Embden. The fair of Leipzig is unparalleled in the sale of books. The trade of Hamburgh is immense. Various railways have been projected, and some opened. The Saxons especially are endeavouring to become a commercial people.

191. Government and Institutions.-The states which compose the Germanic Confederation present every variety of form of government. The four free cities are republics; most of the grand-duchies and duchies are constitutional monarchies. The Confederation is represented by the Federative Diet, which is presided over by the plenipotentiary of Austria, and holds its sittings at Frankfort on the Meyn. Germany abounds in schools of all descriptions. There are nineteen universities: five Catholic, at Prague, Vienna, Wurtzburg, Munich, and Frey

berg; eleven Protestant, at Heidelberg, Leipzig, Rostock, Marburg, Jena, Giessen, Kiel, Halle, Gottingen, Erlangen, and Berlin; three mixed, at Tubingen, Breslaw, and Bonn.

192. Confederated States.-The following table exhibits the names of the confederated states, and of their respective capitals:

12.

13.

14.

15.

Hessé.

Holstein.

Luxemburg.

Mecklenburg Schwerin.

Mecklenburg Strelitz.
Saxe-Weimar.

Oldenburg.

Gluckstadt.

Luxemburg.

Schwerin.
New Strelitz.
Weimar.

Oldenburg.

Kniphausen. Brunswick. Wiesbaden.

Gotha.

Meiningen.
Altenburg.
Dessau,
Bernburg.
Koethen.

Sondershausen.
Rudolstadt.
Lichtenstein.
Hechingen.
Sigmaringen.

Corbach.

Greitz.

Schleitz.
Buckeburg.

Detmold.
Homburg.
Hamburg.
Lubeck.
Frankfort.

Bremen.

193. Chief Towns.-The chief towns of the kingdom of Bavaria are Munich, one of the finest cities of Germany; Nurnberg, an interesting specimen of the middle ages; Augsburg, where Melancthon drew up a Protestant Confession of Faith in 1530; Ratisbon; Wurtzburg; Bamberg; Anspach; Furth; Passau; and Spires, one of the most ancient cities of Germany, where a celebrated imperial diet was held in 1529, when a minority entered a protest against certain decrees; whence those who assert the right of private judgment against the authority of the Catholic Church have gradually acquired the name of Protestants. The chief towns of the kingdom of Hanover are Hanover, Hildesheim, Gottingen, Luneburg, Osnabruck, and Embden. The chief towns of the kingdom of Wurtemberg are Stuttgard, Reutlingen, Tubingen, and Ulm. The chief towns of the kingdom of Saxony are Dresden, situate on the Elbe; Leipzig, Freyberg, Plauen, and Bautzen. The chief towns of the grand-duchy of Baden are Karlsruhe, Baden-Baden, Freyburg, aud Mannheim.

SECTION VIII.

AUSTRIAN EMPIRE.

- This great

194. Situation and Boundaries. empire is situated almost in the centre of Europe, between 42° and 51° N. lat., and 9° and 27° E. long. Its greatest length is about 860 English miles; its greatest breadth about 490. Area, nearly 260,000 square miles. Population, 36,950,400. It is bounded on the north by Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria; west, by the Sardinian states, Switzerland, and Bavaria; south, by Turkey, the Adriatic Sea, and the independent states of Italy; east, by

Russia and Moldavia. It is formed by the union of different countries, inhabited by people differing in race, language, religion, form of internal government, institutions, manners, and customs, who have no natural connexion with each other, and are held together by the single tie of a common sovereign and a central government. The chief classes of people are the Sclavonians, Germans, Magyars, and Italians.

195. Topographical Divisions.—The German geographers divide all the countries which compose this empire, into the German, Polish, Hungarian, and Italian countries. We shall describe the last under the head of Italy. In the following paragraphs we shall describe the other three; incorporating our usual heads in single paragraphs.

The German Countries of the Austrian Empire.

196. The Archduchy of Austria is divided by the river Ens into Upper and Lower Austria. Fruit-trees are abundant in Upper Austria, and the sides of the mountains are covered with forests. The valleys of the Danube and the Ens are rich in agricultural produce: the mountainous districts yield iron, coal, rock-salt, and other minerals. Lower Austria is also the seat of extensive manufactures. It contains Vienna, the capital, and is the nucleus of the empire. Tyrol, situate to the east of Switzerland and south of Bavaria, is traversed in every direction by lofty mountains: its long valleys are warm and fertile, yielding corn and vines; but its agriculture is rude, its mines are little wrought, and its coarse manufactures are literally performed by the hand.

H

Upper Styria is very mountainous; covered with forests, and affording pasturage. Lower Styria, receding from the Alps, is more level, and produces wheat, barley, oats, rye, and, in the warmer portions, maize. Styria contains extensive mines of iron,

coal, and salt. Carinthia also abounds in minerals; the sides of the mountains are covered with forests, and the pastures are extensive. Like Tyrol, which it. adjoins, it is a succession of high mountains, separated by narrow valleys. Carniola adjoins Carinthia. Mountainous in the north, where its chief minerals are iron, lead, and quicksilver,-it has fertile plains in the south, whose warmer sun favours the cultivation of the vine and maize. The Illyrian Coast consists chiefly of the mountainous peninsula of Istria. Its products are similar to the foregoing: around Trieste the fig, mulberry, and olive thrive; and in the valleys the people devote themselves to the rearing of silkworms.

197. The kingdom of Bohemia comprises Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. The climate of Bohemia is comparatively severe; the soil is good, but agriculture is backward. The pastures and forests are extensive: but the natural wealth of Bohemia consists chiefly in its minerals, which are abundant and valuable,-silver, cobalt, tin, lead, iron, precious stones, kaolin, and many others. The manufactures, which are chiefly those of woollens, linen, and leather, are prosperous and increasing. Moravia and Silesia, lying to the south-east of Bohemia, are mountainous, but include fertile valleys, which are densely peopled. The country inclining towards the south is drained into the Danube by the Morava.