GERMANY

GERMANY, a very extensive empire of Europe, but which, in different ages of the world, hath had very different limits. Its name, according to the most probable conjecture, is derived from the Celtic words Ghar man, signifying a warlike man, to which their other name, Allman, or Alman, likewise alludes.

The ancient history of the Germans is altogether wrapped up in obscurity; nor do we, for many ages, know any thing more of them, than what may be learned from the history of their wars with the Romans. The first time we find them mentioned by the Roman historians, is about the year 211 B. C. at which time Marcellus subdued Insurbia and Liguria, and defeated the Gefatae, a German nation, situated on the banks of the Rhine. From this time history is silent with regard to any of these northern nations, till the eruption of the Cimbri and Teutones, who inhabited the most northerly parts of Germany. The event of their enterprise is related under the articles AMBRONES, CIMBRI, and TEUTONES. We must not, however, imagine, because these people happened to invade Italy at the same time, that therefore their countries were contiguous to one another. The Cimbri and Teutones only, dwelt beyond the Rhine; while the Ambrones inhabited the country between Switzerland and Provence. It is indeed very difficult to fix the limits of the country called Germany by the Romans. The southern Germans were intermixed with the Gauls, and the northern ones with the Scythians; and thus the ancient history of the Germans includes that of the Dacians, Huns, Goths, &c. till the destruction of the western Roman empire by them. Ancient Germany, therefore, we may reckon to have included the northern part of France, the Netherlands, Holland, Germany so called at present, Denmark, Prussia, Poland, Hungary, part of Turkey in Europe, and Muscovy.

The Romans divided Germany into two regions; Belgic or Lower Germany, which lay to the southward of the Rhine; and Germany Proper, or High Germany. The first lay between the rivers Seine and the Rhine; and in this we find a number of different nations, the most remarkable of which were the following.

1. The Ubii, whose territory lay between the Rhine and the Mosæ or Maese, and whose capital was the city of Cologne. 2. Next to them were the Tungri, supposed to be the same whom Cæsar calls Eburones and Condrusi; and whose metropolis, then called Attuatica, has since been named Tongres. 3. Higher up from them, and on the other side of the Moselle, were the Treviri, whose capital was Augusta Trevirorum, now Triers. 4. Next to them were the Tribocci, Nemetes, and Vangiones. The former dwelt in Alsace, and had Argentoratum, now Straßburg, for their capital: the others inhabited the cities of Worms, Spire, and Mentz. 5. The Mediomatrici were situated along the Moselle, about the city of Metz in Lorraine; and above them were situated another German nation, named Raurici, Rauraci, or Rauriaci, and who inhabited that part of Helvetia, or Switzerland, about Basil. To the westward and southward of these were the Nervii, Sueffones, Silvaneætes, Leuci, Rhemi, Lingones, &c. who inhabited Belgic Gaul.

Between the heads of the Rhine and Danube were seated the ancient kingdom of Vindelicia, whose capital was called Augusta Vindelicorum, now Augsburg. Below it on the banks of the Danube were the kingdoms of Noricum and Pannonia. The first of these was divided into Noricum Ripense and Mediterraneum. It contained a great part of the provinces of Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol, Bavaria, and some others of less note. The latter contained the kingdom of Hungary, divided into Upper and Lower; and extending from Illyricum to the Danube, and the mountains Cætii in the neighbourhood of Vindebona, now Vienna.

Upper or High Germany lay beyond the Rhine and the Danube. Between the Rhine and the Elbe were the following nations. 1. The Chauci, Upper and Lower; who were divided from each other by the river Vifurgæ, now the Wefer. Their country contained what is now called Bremen, Lunenburg, Friesland, and Groningen. The upper Chauci had the Chrusci, and the lower the Chamavi on the south-east, and the German Ocean on the north-west. 2. The Frisii, upper and lower, were divided from the lower Chauci by the river Amisia, now the Ems; and from one another by an arm of the Rhine. Their country still retains the name of Friesland, and is divided into east and west; but the latter is now dismembered from Germany, and become one of the Seven United Provinces. 3. Beyond the Isela, now the Isel, which bounded the country of the Frisii, were situated the Bructeri, who inhabited that tract now called Brockenland; and the Marli, about the river Luppe. On the other side of that river were the Usipii or Usipites; but these were famed for often changing their territories, and therefore found in other places. 4. Next to these were the Juones, or inhabitants of Juliers, between the Maese and the Rhine. 5. The Catti, another ancient and warlike nation, inhabited Hesse and Thuringia, from the Hartzian mountains to the Rhine and Wefer; among whom were comprehended the Mattiaci, whose capital is by some thought to be Marburg, by others Baden. 6. Next to these were the Seducii, bordering upon Suabia; Narisei, or the ancient inhabitants of Northgow, whose capital was Nuremberg; and the Marcomanni, whose country an-

ciently reached from the Rhine to the head of the Danube, and to the Neckar. The Marcomanni afterwards went and settled in Bohemia and Moravia, under their general or king Maroboduus; and some of them in Gaul, whence they drove the Boii, who had seated themselves there. 7. On the other side of the Danube, and between the Rhine and it, were the Hermunduri, who possessed the country now called Misnia in Upper Saxony; though some make their territories to have extended much farther, and to have reached quite to, or even beyond, the kingdom of Bohemia, once the seat of the Boii, whence its name. 8. Beyond them, on the north of the Danube, was another seat of the Marcomanni along the river Albis, or Elbe. 9. Next to Bohemia were situated the Quadi, whose territories extended from the Danube to Moravia, and the northern part of Austria. These are comprehended under the ancient name of Suevi; part of whom at length forced their way into Spain, and settled a kingdom there. 10. Eastward of the Quadi were situated the Bastarnæ, and parted from them by the Granna, now Gran; a river that falls into the Danube, and by the Carpathian mountains, from them called Alpes Bastarnice. The country of the Bastarnæ indeed made part of the European Sarmatia, and so was without the limits of Germany properly so called; but we find these people so often in league with the German nations, and joining them for the destruction of the Romans, that we cannot but account them as one people.

Between those nations already taken notice of, seated along the other side of the Danube and the Hercynian forest, were several others whose exact situation is uncertain, viz. the Martingi, Burii, Borades, Lygii, or Logiones, and some others, who are placed by our geographers along the forest above-mentioned, between the Danube and the Vistula.

On this side the Hercynian forest, were the famed Rhætii, now Grisons, seated among the Alps. Their country, which was also called Western Illyricum, was divided into Rhætia Prima or Propria, and Secunda; and was then of much larger extent, spreading itself towards Suabia, Bavaria, and Austria.

On the other side of the Hercynian forest, were, 1. The Suevi, who spread themselves from the Vistula to the river Elbe. 2. The Longobardi, so called, according to some, on account of their wearing long beards; but, according to others, on account of their consisting of two nations, viz. the Bardi and Lingones. These dwelt along the river Elbe, and bordered southward on the Chauci above-mentioned. 3. The Burgundi, of whose original seat we are uncertain. 4. The Semnonæ; who, about the time of Tiberius, were seated on the river Elbe. 5. The Angles, Saxons, and Goths; were probably the descendants of the Cimbri; and inhabited the countries of Denmark, along the Baltic sea, and the peninsula of Scandinavia, containing Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and Finmark. 6. The Vandals were a Gothic nation, who, proceeding from Scandinavia, settled in the countries now called Mecklenburgh and Brandenburgh. 7. Of the same race were the Dacians, who settled themselves in the neighbourhood of Palus Mæotis, and extended their territories along the banks of the Danube.

Germany. These were the names of the German nations who performed the most remarkable exploits in their wars with the Romans. Besides these, however, we find mention made of the Scordisci, a Thracian nation, who afterwards settled on the banks of the Danube. About the year 113 B. C. they ravaged Macedonia, and cut off a whole Roman army sent against them; the general, M. Porcius Cato, grandson to Cato the censor, being the only person who had the good fortune to make his escape. After this, they ravaged all Thessaly; and advanced to the coasts of the Adriatic, into which, because it stopped their farther progress, they discharged a shower of darts. By another Roman general, however, they were driven back into their own country with great slaughter; and, soon after, Metellus so weakened them by repeated defeats, that they were incapable, for some time, of making any more attempts on the Roman provinces. At last, in the consulship of M. Livius Drusus and L. Calpurnius Piso, the former prevailed on them to pass the Danube, which thenceforth became the boundary between the Romans and them. Notwithstanding this, in the time of the Jugurthine war, the Scordisci repassed the Danube on the ice, every winter, and being joined by the Triballi a people of Lower Mæsia, and the Daci of Upper Mæsia, penetrated as far as Macedonia, committing every where dreadful ravages. So early did these northern nations begin to be formidable to the Romans, even when they were most renowned for warlike exploits.

⁴ Wars of the Scordisci with the Romans.
⁵ Expedition of Julius Cæsar into Germany.
Till the time of Julius Cæsar, however, we hear nothing more concerning the Germans. About 58 years B. C. he undertook his expedition into Gaul; during which, his assistance was implored by the Ædui, against Ariovistus, a German prince who oppressed them. Cæsar, pleased with this opportunity of increasing his power, invited Ariovistus to an interview; but this being declined, he next sent deputies desiring him to restore the hostages he had taken from the Ædui, and to bring no more troops over the Rhine into Gaul. To this a haughty answer was returned; and a battle soon after ensued, in which Ariovistus was entirely defeated, and with great difficulty made his escape.

In 55 B. C. Cæsar having subdued the Suevones, Bellovaci, Ambiani, Nervii, and other nations of Belgic Gaul, hastened to oppose the Usipetes and Tencteri. These nations having been driven out of their own country by the Suevi, had crossed the Rhine with a design to settle in Gaul. As soon as he appeared, the Germans sent him a deputation, offering to join him provided he would assign them lands. Cæsar replied, that there was no room in Gaul for them; but he would desire the Ubii to give them leave to settle among them. Upon this, they desired time to treat with the Ubii; but in the mean time fell upon some Roman squadrons: which so provoked Cæsar, that he immediately marched against them, and, coming unexpectedly upon them, defeated them with great slaughter. They fled in the utmost confusion; but the Romans pursued them to the conflux of the Rhine and the Mæse, where the slaughter was renewed with such fury, that almost 400,000 of the Germans perished. After this, Cæsar being resolved to spread the terror of the Roman name through Germany,

built a bridge over the Rhine, and entered that country. In this expedition, however, which was his last in Germany, he performed no remarkable exploit. A little before his death, indeed, he had projected the conquest of that as well as of a great many other countries; but his assassination prevented the execution of his designs. Nor is there any thing recorded of the Germans till about 17 B. C. when the Tencteri made an irruption into Gaul, and defeated M. Lollius, proconsul of that province. At last, however, they were repulsed, and forced to retire with great loss beyond the Rhine.

Soon after this the Rhæti invaded Italy, where they committed the greatest devastations, putting all the males they met to the sword, without distinction of sex or age: nay, we are told, that when they happened to take women with child, they consulted their augurs to know whether the child was a male or female; and if they pronounced it a male, the mother was immediately massacred. Against these barbarians was sent Drusus, the second son of Livia, a youth of extraordinary valour and great accomplishments. He found means to bring them to a battle; in which the Romans proved victorious, and cut in pieces great numbers of their enemies, with very little loss on their own side. Those who escaped the general slaughter, being joined by the Vindelici, took their route towards Gaul, with a design to invade that province. But Augustus, upon the first notice of their march, dispatched against them Tiberius with several chosen legions. He was no less successful than Drusus had been; for, having transported his troops over the lake Brigantium, now Constance, he fell unexpectedly on the enemy, gave them a total overthrow, took most of their strong-holds, and obliged the whole nation to submit to such terms as he chose to impose upon them. Thus were the Vindelici, the Rhæti, and the Norici, three of the most barbarous nations in Germany, subdued. Tiberius, to keep the conquered countries in awe, planted two colonies in Vindelicia, and opened from thence a road into Rhætia and Noricum. One of the cities which he built for the defence of his colonies, he called, from his father Drusus, Drusomagus; the other by the name of Augusta Vindelicorum; which cities are now known by the names of Mimminghen and Augsburg. He next encountered the Pannonians, who had been subdued by Agrippa, but revolted on hearing the news of that great commander's death, which happened 11 years B. C. Tiberius, however, with the assistance of their neighbours the Scordisci, soon forced them to submit. They delivered up their arms, gave hostages, and put the Romans in possession of all their towns and strong-holds. Tiberius spared their lives; but laid waste their fields, plundered their cities, and sent the best part of their youth into other countries.

In the mean time, Drusus having prevented the Gauls from revolting, which they were ready to do, prepared to oppose the Germans who dwelt beyond the Rhine. They had collected the most numerous and formidable army that had ever been seen in those parts; with which they were advancing towards the Rhine, in order to invade Gaul. Drusus defeated them as they attempted to cross that river; and, pursuing the advantage he had gained, entered the country of the

Germany. Ulpetes, now Relinebusen, and from thence advanced against the Sicambri, in the neighbourhood of the Lippe and Issel. Them he overthrew in a great battle, laid waste their country, burnt most of their cities, and, following the course of the Rhine, approached the German ocean, reducing the Frissi and the Chauci between the Ems and the Elbe. In these marches the troops suffered extremely for want of provisions; and Drusus himself was often in great danger of being drowned, as the Romans who attended him were at that time quite unacquainted with the flux and reflux of the ocean.

The Roman forces went into east Friesland for their winter-quarters; and next year (10 B. C.) Drusus marched against the Tencteri, whom he easily subdued. Afterwards, passing the Lupias, now the Lippe, he reduced the Catti and Cherusci, extending his conquests to the banks of the Vifurgis or Weler: which he would have passed, had he not been in want of provisions, the enemy having laid waste the country to a considerable distance. As he was retiring, the Germans unexpectedly fell upon him in a narrow passage; and having surrounded the Roman army, cut a great many of them in pieces. But Drusus having animated his men by his example, after a bloody conflict, which lasted the whole day, the Germans were defeated with such slaughter, that the ground was strewn for several miles with dead bodies. Drusus found in their camp a great quantity of iron-chains which they had brought for the Romans; and so great was their confidence, that they had agreed beforehand about the division of the booty. The Tencteri were to have the horse, the Cherusci and Sicambri the baggage, and the Ulpetes and Catti the captives. After this victory, Drusus built two forts to keep the conquered countries in awe; the one at the confluence of the Lippe and the Alme, the other in the country of the Catti on the Rhine. On this occasion also he made a famous canal, long after called in honour of him Fossa Drusiana, to convey the waters of the Rhine into the Sala or Sale. It extended eight miles; and was very convenient for conveying the Roman troops by water to the countries of the Frissi and Chauci, which was the design of the undertaking.

The following year, (9 B. C.), Augustus, bent on subduing the whole of Germany, advanced to the banks of the Rhine, attended by his two sons-in-law Tiberius and Drusus. The former he sent against the Daci, who lived on the south side of the Danube; and the latter to complete the conquests he had so successfully begun in the western parts of Germany. The former easily overcame the Daci, and transplanted 40,000 of them into Gaul. The latter, having passed the Rhine, subdued all the nations from that river to the Elbe; but having attempted in vain to cross this last, he set out for Rome: an end, however, was put to his conquests and his life by a violent fever, with which he was seized on his return.

After the death of Drusus, Tiberius again over-ran all those countries in which Drusus had spent the preceding summer; and struck some of the northern nations with such terror, that they sent deputies to sue for peace. This, however, they could not obtain upon any terms; the emperor declaring that he would not conclude a peace with one, unless they all desired

it. But the Catti, or according to some the Sicambri, could not by any means be prevailed upon to submit; so that the war was still carried on, though in a languid manner, for about 18 years. During this period, some of the German nations had quitted their forests, and begun to live in a civilized manner under the protection of the Romans; but one Quintilius Varus being sent to command the Roman forces in that country, so provoked the inhabitants by his extortions, that not only those who still held out refused to submit, but even the nations that had submitted were seized with an eager desire of throwing off the yoke. Among them was a young nobleman of extraordinary parts and valour, named Arminius. He was the son of Sigimer, one of the most powerful lords among the Catti, had served with great reputation in the Roman armies, and been honoured by Augustus with the privileges of a Roman citizen and the title of knight. But the love of his country prevailing over his gratitude, he resolved to improve the general discontent which reigned among his countrymen, to deliver them from the bondage of a foreign dominion. With this view he engaged, underhand, the leading men of all the nations between the Rhine and the Elbe, in a conspiracy against the Romans. In order to put Varus off his guard, he at the same time advised him to shew himself to the inhabitants of the more distant provinces, administer justice among them, and accustom them, by his example, to live after the Roman manner, which he said would more effectually subdue them than the Roman sword. As Varus was a man of a peaceable temper, and averse from military toils, he readily consented to this insidious proposal; and, leaving the neighbourhood of the Rhine, marched into the country of the Cherusci. Having there spent some time in hearing causes and deciding civil controversies, Arminius persuaded him to weaken his army, by sending out detachments to clear the country of robbers. When this was done, some distant nations of Germany rose up in arms by Arminius's directions; while those through which Varus was to pass in marching against them, pretended to be in a state of profound tranquillity, and ready to join the Romans against their enemies.

On the first news of the revolt, Varus marched against the enemy with three legions and six cohorts; but being attacked by the Germans as he passed through a wood, his army was almost totally cut off, while he and himself and most of his officers fell by their own hands. Such a terrible overthrow, though it raised a general consternation in Rome, did not, however, dishearten Augustus, or cause him to abandon his enterprise. About two years after, (A. D. 12), Tiberius and Germanicus were appointed to command in Germany. The death of Augustus, however, which happened soon after, prevented Tiberius from going on his expedition; and Germanicus was for some time hindered from proceeding in his, by a revolt of the legions, first in Pannonia, and then in Germany. About the year 15, Germanicus having brought over the soldiers to their duty, laid a bridge across the Rhine, over which he marched 12,000 legionaries, 26 cohorts of the allies, and eight ala (squadrons of 300 each) of horse. With these he first traversed the Cesarian forest, (part of the Herceyan, and thought to lie part-

Germany. ly in the duchy of Cleves, and partly in Westphalia), and some other woods. On his march he was informed that the Matfi were celebrating a festival with great mirth and jollity. Upon this he advanced with such expedition, that he surprised them in the midst of their debauch; and giving his army full liberty to make what havoc they pleased, a terrible massacre ensued, and the country was destroyed with fire and sword for 50 miles round, without the loss of a single man on the part of the Romans.—This general massacre roused the Brueteri, the Tubantes, and the Usipetes; who, besetting the passes through which the Roman army was to return, fell upon their rear, and put them into some disorder; but the Romans soon recovered themselves, and defeated the Germans with considerable loss.

The following year, (A. D. 16), Germanicus taking advantage of some intestine broils which happened among the Catti, entered their country, where he put great numbers to the sword. Most of their youth, however, escaped by swimming over the Adrana, now the Eder, and attempted to prevent the Romans from laying a bridge over that river: but being disappointed in this, some of them submitted to Germanicus, while the greater part, abandoning their villages, took refuge in the woods; so that the Romans, without opposition, set fire to all their villages, towns, &c. and having laid their capital in ashes, began their march back to the Rhine.

Germanicus had scarce reached his camp, when he received a message from Segestes, a German prince, in the interest of the Romans, acquainting him that he was besieged in his camp by Arminius. On this advice, he instantly marched against the besiegers; entirely defeated them; and took a great number of prisoners, among whom was Thufeldis, the wife of Arminius, and daughter of Segestes, whom the former had carried off, and married against her father's will. Arminius then, more enraged than ever, for the loss of his wife, whom he tenderly loved, stirred up all the neighbouring nations against the Romans. Germanicus, however, without being dismayed by such a formidable confederacy, prepared himself to oppose the enemy with vigour: but, that he might not be obliged to engage such numerous forces at once, he detached his Lieutenant Cæcina, at the head of 40 cohorts, into the territories of the Brueteri; while his cavalry, under the command of Pedo, entered the country of the Frisii. As for Germanicus himself, he embarked the remainder of his army, consisting of four legions, on a neighbouring lake; and transported them by rivers and canals to the place appointed on the river Ems, where the three bodies met. In their march they found the said remains of the legions conducted by Varus, which they buried with all the ceremony their circumstances could admit. After this they advanced against Arminius, who retired and posted himself advantageously close to a wood. The Roman general followed him; and coming up with him, ordered his cavalry to advance and attack the enemy. Arminius, at their first approach, pretended to fly; but suddenly wheeled about, and giving the signal to a body of troops, whom he had concealed in the wood, to rush out, obliged the cavalry to give ground. The cohorts then advanced to their relief; but they too were

put into disorder, and would have been pushed into a morass, had not Germanicus himself advanced with the rest of the cavalry to their relief. Arminius did not think it prudent to engage these fresh troops, but retired in good order; upon which Germanicus also retired towards the Ems. Here he embarked with four legions, ordered Cæcina to reconduct the other four by land, and sent the cavalry to the sea-side, with orders to march along the shore to the Rhine. Though Cæcina was to return by roads well known, yet Germanicus advised him to pass, with all possible speed, a causeway, called the long bridges, which led across vast marshes, surrounded on all sides with woods and hills that gently rose from the plain.

Arminius, however, having got notice of Cæcina's march, arrived at the long bridges before Cæcina, and filled the woods with his men, who, on the approach of the Romans, rushed out, and attacked them with great fury. The legions, not able to manage their arms in the deep waters and slippery ground, were obliged to yield; and would in all probability have been entirely defeated, had not night put an end to the combat. The Germans, encouraged by their successes, instead of refreshing themselves with sleep, spent the whole night in diverting the courses of the springs which rose in the neighbouring mountains; so that, before day, the camp which the Romans had begun was laid under water, and their works were overturned. Cæcina was for some time at a loss what to do; but at last resolved to attack the enemy by day-break, and, having driven them to their woods, to keep them there in a manner besieged, till the baggage and wounded men should pass the causeway, and get out of the enemy's reach. But when his army was drawn up, the legions posted on the wings, seized with a sudden panic, deserted their stations, and occupied a field beyond the marshes. Cæcina thought it advisable to follow them; but the baggage stuck in the mire, as he attempted to cross the marshes, which greatly embarrassed the soldiers. Arminius perceiving this, laid hold of the opportunity to begin the attack; and crying out, "This is a second Varus, the same fate attends him and his legions," fell on the Romans with inexpressible fury. As he had ordered his men to aim chiefly at the horses, great numbers of them were killed; and the ground becoming slippery with their blood and the slime of the marsh, the rest either fell or threw their riders, and, galloping through the ranks, put them in disorder. Cæcina distinguished himself in a very eminent manner; but his horse being killed, he would have been taken prisoner, had not the first legion rescued him. The greediness of the enemy, however, saved the Romans from utter destruction; for just as the legions were quite spent, and on the point of yielding, the barbarians on a sudden abandoned them in order to seize their baggage. During this respite, the Romans struggled out of the marsh, and having gained the dry fields, formed a camp with all possible speed, and fortified it in the best manner they could.

The Germans having lost the opportunity of destroying the Romans, contrary to the advice of Arminius, attacked their camp next morning, but were repulsed with great slaughter; after which they gave Cæcina no more molestation till he reached the banks of the Rhine. Germanicus, in the mean time, having

Germany. conveyed the legions he had with him down the river Ems into the ocean, in order to return by sea to the river Rhine, and finding that his vessels were overloaded, delivered the second and fourteenth legions to Publius Vitellius, desiring him to conduct them by land. But this march proved fatal to great numbers of them; who were either buried in the quicksands, or swallowed up by the overflowing of the tide, to which they were as yet utter strangers. Those who escaped, lost their arms, utensils, and provisions; and passed a melancholy night upon an eminence, which they had gained by wading up to the chin. The next morning the land returned with the tide of ebb; when Vitellius, by a hasty march, reached the river Usingis, by some thought to be the Hoerenster, on which the city of Groningen stands. There Germanicus, who had reached that river with his fleet, took the legions again on board, and conveyed them to the mouth of the Rhine, whence they all returned to Cologne, at a time when it was reported they were totally lost.

This expedition, however, cost the Romans very dear, and procured very few advantages. Great numbers of men had perished; and by far the greatest part of those who had escaped so many dangers returned without arms, utensils, horses, &c. half naked, lamed, and unfit for service. The next year, however, Germanicus, bent on the entire reduction of Germany, made vast preparations for another expedition. Having considered the various accidents that had befallen him during the war, he found that the Germans were chiefly indebted for their safety to their woods and marshes, their short summers and long winters; and that his troops suffered more from their long and tedious marches than from the enemy. For this reason he resolved to enter the country by sea, hoping by that means to begin the campaign earlier, and surprise the enemy. Having, therefore, built with great dispatch, during the winter, 1000 vessels of different sorts, he ordered them early in the spring (A. D. 16) to fall down the Rhine, and appointed the island of the Batavians for the general rendezvous of his forces. When the fleet was failing, he detached Silius one of his lieutenants, with orders to make a sudden irruption into the country of the Catti; and, in the mean time, he himself, upon receiving intelligence that a Roman fort on the Luppia was besieged, hastened with six legions to its relief. Silius was prevented, by sudden rains, from doing more than taking some small booty, with the wife and daughter of Arpen king of the Catti; neither did those who besieged the fort wait the arrival of Germanicus. In the mean time, the fleet arriving at the island of the Batavians, the provisions and warlike engines were put on board and sent forward; ships were assigned to the legions and allies; and the whole army being embarked, the fleet entered the canal formerly cut by Drusus, and from his name called Fossa Drusiana. Hence he sailed prosperously to the mouth of the Ems; where, having landed his troops, he marched directly to the Weser, where he found Arminius encamped on the opposite bank, and determined to dispute his passage. The next day Arminius drew out his troops in order of battle: but Germanicus, not thinking it advisable to attack them, ordered the horse to ford over under the command of his lieutenants Stertinus and Emilius;

Germany. who, to divide the enemy's forces, crossed the river in two different places. At the same time Cariovalda, the leader of the Batavian auxiliaries, crossed the river where it was most rapid: but, being drawn into an ambuscade, he was killed, together with most of the Batavian nobility; and the rest would have been totally cut off, had not Stertinus and Emilius hastened to their assistance. Germanicus in the mean time passed the river without molestation. A battle soon after ensued; in which the Germans were defeated with so great a slaughter that the ground was covered with arms and dead bodies for more than ten miles round; and among the spoils taken on this occasion, were found, as formerly, the chains with which the Germans had hoped to bind their captives.

In memory of this signal victory Germanicus raised a mount, upon which he placed as trophies the arms of the enemy, and inscribed underneath the names of the conquered nations. This so provoked the Germans, though already vanquished and determined to abandon their country, that they attacked the Roman army unexpectedly on its march, and put them into some disorder. Being repulsed, they encamped between a river and a large forest surrounded by a marsh except on one side, where it was inclosed by a broad rampart formerly raised by the Angrivarii as a barrier between them and the Cherusci. Here another battle ensued; in which the Germans behaved with great bravery, but in the end were defeated with great slaughter.

After this second defeat, the Angrivarii submitted, and were taken under the protection of the Romans, and Germanicus put an end to the campaign. Some of the legions he sent to their winter-quarters by land, while he himself embarked with the rest on the river Ems, in order to return by sea. The ocean proved at first very calm, and the wind favourable: but all of a sudden a storm arising, the fleet, consisting of 1000 vessels, was dispersed: some of them were swallowed up by the waves; others were dashed in pieces against the rocks, or driven upon remote and unwholesome islands, where the men either perished by famine, or lived upon the flesh of the dead horses with which the shores soon appeared strewn; for, in order to lighten their vessels, and disengage them from the shoals, they had been obliged to throw overboard their horses and beasts of burden, nay, even their arms and baggage. Most of the men, however, were saved, and even great part of the fleet recovered. Some of them were driven upon the coast of Britain; but the petty kings who reigned there, generously sent them back.

On the news of this misfortune, the Catti, taking new courage, ran to arms; but Caius Silius being detached against them with 30,000 foot and 3000 horse, kept them in awe. Germanicus himself, at the head of a numerous body, made a sudden irruption into the territories of the Marli, where he recovered one of Varus's eagles, and having laid waste the country, he returned to the frontiers of Germany, and put his troops into winter-quarters; whence he was soon recalled by Tiberius, and never suffered to return into Germany again.

After the departure of Germanicus, the more northern nations of Germany were no more molested by the Romans. Arminius carried on a long and successful war with Maroboduus king of the Marcomanni;

Germany. manni, whom he at last expelled, and forced to apply to the Romans for assistance; but, excepting Germanicus, it seems they had at this time no other general capable of opposing Arminius, so that Maroboduus was never restored. After the final departure of the Romans, however, Arminius having attempted to enslave his country, fell by the treachery of his own kindred. The Germans held his memory in great veneration; and Tacitus informs us, that in his time they still celebrated him in their songs.

Nothing remarkable occurs in the history of Germany from this time till the reign of the emperor Claudius. A war indeed is said to have been carried on by Lucius Domitius, father to the emperor Nero. But of his exploits we know nothing more than that he penetrated beyond the river Elbe, and led his army farther into the country than any of the Romans had ever done. In the reign of Claudius, however, the German territories were invaded by Cn. Domitius Corbulo, one of the greatest generals of his age. But when he was on the point of forcing them to submit to the Roman yoke, he was recalled by Claudius, who was jealous of the reputation he had acquired.

In the reign of Vespasian, a terrible revolt happened among the Batavians and those German nations who had submitted to the Romans, a particular account of which is given under the article ROME. The revolters were with difficulty subdued; but, in the reign of Domitian, the Dacians invaded the empire, and proved a more terrible enemy than any of the other German nations had been. After several defeats, the emperor was at last obliged to consent to pay an annual tribute to Decebalus king of the Dacians; which continued to the time of Trajan. But this warlike prince refused to pay tribute; alleging, when it was demanded of him, that "he had never been conquered by Decebalus." Upon this the Dacians passed the Danube, and began to commit hostilities in the Roman territories. Trajan, glad of this opportunity to humble an enemy whom he began to fear, drew together a mighty army, and marched with the utmost expedition to the banks of the Danube. As Decebalus was not apprised of his arrival, the emperor passed the river without opposition, and entering Dacia, laid waste the country with fire and sword. At last he was met by Decebalus with a numerous army. A bloody engagement ensued, in which the Dacians were defeated; tho' the victory cost the Romans dear: the wounded were so numerous, that they wanted linen to bind up their wounds; and to supply the defect, the emperor generously devoted his own wardrobe. After the victory, he pursued Decebalus from place to place, and at last obliged him to consent to a peace on the following terms. 1. That he should surrender the territories which he had unjustly taken from the neighbouring nations. 2. That he should deliver up his arms, his warlike engines, with the artificers who made them, and all the Roman deserters. 3. That, for the future, he should entertain no deserters, nor take into his service the natives of any country subject to Rome. 4. That he should dismantle all his fortresses, castles, and strong-holds; and lastly, that he should have the same friends and foes with the people of Rome.

With these hard terms Decebalus was obliged to

comply, though fore against his will; and being introduced to Trajan, threw himself on the ground before him, acknowledging himself his vassal: after which the latter, having commanded him to send deputies to the senate for the ratification of the peace, returned to Rome.

This peace was of no long duration. Four years after, (A.D. 105), Decebalus, unable to live in servitude as he called it, began, contrary to the late treaty, to raise men, provide arms, entertain deserters, fortify his castles, and invite the neighbouring nations to join him against the Romans as a common enemy. The Seythians hearkened to his solicitations; but the Jazyges, a neighbouring nation, refusing to bear arms against Rome, Decebalus invaded their country. Hereupon Trajan marched against him; but the Dacian, finding himself unable to withstand him by open force, had recourse to treachery, and attempted to get the emperor murdered. His design, however, proved abortive, and Trajan pursued his march into Dacia. That his troops might the more readily pass and repass the Danube, he built a bridge over that river; which by the ancients is styled the most magnificent and wonderful of all his works*. To guard the bridge, he ordered two castles to be built; one on this side the Danube, and the other on the opposite side; and all this was accomplished in the space of one summer. Trajan, however, as the season was now far advanced, did not think it advisable to enter Dacia this year, but contented himself with making the necessary preparations.

In the year 106, early in the spring, Trajan set out for Dacia; and having passed the Danube on the bridge he had built, reduced the whole country, and Trajan would have taken Decebalus himself had he not put an end to his own life, in order to avoid falling into the hands of his enemies. After his death the kingdom of Dacia was reduced to a Roman province; and several castles were built in it, and garrisons placed in them, to keep the country in awe.

After the death of Trajan, the Roman empire began to decline, and the northern nations to be daily more and more formidable. The province of Dacia indeed was held by the Romans till the reign of Galienus; but Adrian, who succeeded Trajan, caused the arches of the bridge over the Danube to be broken down, left the barbarians should make themselves masters of it, and invade the Roman territories. In the time of Marcus Aurelius, the Marcomanni and Quadi invaded the empire, and gave the emperor a terrible overthrow. He continued the war, however, with better success afterwards, and invaded their country in his turn. It was during the course of this war that the Roman army is said to have been saved from destruction by that miraculous event related under the article CHRISTIANS, in Vol. III. p. 1935. par. ult.

In the end, the Marcomanni and Quadi were, by repeated defeats, brought to the verge of destruction; inasmuch that their country would probably have been reduced to a Roman province, had not Marcus Aurelius been diverted from pursuing his conquests by the revolt of one of his generals. After the death of Marcus Aurelius, the Germanic nations became every day more and more formidable to the Romans. Far from being able to invade and attempt the conquest of these

Germany. these northern countries, the Romans had the greatest difficulty to repress the incursions of their inhabitants. But for a particular account of their various invasions of the Roman empire, and its total destruction by them at last, see the article ROME.

¹⁹ Roman empire destroyed by the Heruli. The immediate destroyers of the Roman empire were the Heruli; who, under their leader Odoacer, de-throned Augustulus the last Roman emperor, and proclaimed Odoacer king of Italy. The Heruli were soon expelled by the Ostrogoths; and these in their turn were subdued by Justinian, who re-annexed Italy to the eastern empire. But the Popes found means to obtain the temporal as well as spiritual jurisdiction over a considerable part of the country, while the Lombards subdued the rest. These last proved very troublesome to the Popes, and at length besieged Adrian I. in his capital. In this distress he applied to Charles the Great, king of France; who conquered both Italy and Germany, and was crowned emperor of the west in 800. See FRANCE, n^o 24, &c.

²⁰ History of Germany since the time of Charlemagne. The posterity of Charlemagne inherited the empire of Germany until the year 880; at which time the different princes assumed their original independence, rejected the Carolinian line, and placed Arnulph king of Bohemia on the throne. Since this time, Germany has ever been considered as an elective monarchy. Princes of different families, according to the prevalence of their interest and arms, have mounted the throne. Of these the most considerable, until the Austrian line acquired the imperial power, were the houses of Saxony, Franconia, and Swabia. The reigns of these emperors contain nothing more remarkable than the contests between them and the popes; for an account of which, see the article ITALY. From hence, in the beginning of the 13th century, arose the factions of the Guelphs and Gibelines, of which the former was attached to the popes, and the latter to the emperor; and both, by their virulence and inveteracy, tended to disquiet the empire for several ages. The emperors too were often at war with the Infidels; and sometimes, as happens in all elective kingdoms, with one another, about the succession.

But what more deserves our attention is the progress of government in Germany, which was in some measure opposite to that of the other kingdoms of Europe. When the empire, raised by Charlemagne, fell asunder, all the different independent princes assumed the right of election; and those now distinguished by the name of electors had no peculiar or legal influence in appointing a successor to the imperial throne; they were only the officers of the king's household, his secretary, his steward, chaplain, marshal, or master of his horse, &c. By degrees, however, as they lived near the king's person, and had, like all other princes, independent territories belonging to them, they increased their influence and authority; and in the reign of Otho III. 984, acquired the sole right of electing the emperor. Thus, while in the other kingdoms of Europe, the dignity of the great lords, who were all originally allodial or independent barons, was diminished by the power of the king, as in France, and by the influence of the people, as in Great Britain; in Germany, on the other hand, the power of the electors was raised upon the ruins of the emperor's supremacy, and of the people's jurisdiction. In 1440, Fre-

deric III. duke of Austria, was elected emperor, and the imperial dignity continued in the male line of that family for 300 years. His successor Maximilian married the heiress of Charles duke of Burgundy; whereby Burgundy, and the 17 provinces of the Netherlands, were annexed to the house of Austria. Charles V. grandson of Maximilian, and heir to the kingdom of Spain, was elected emperor in the year 1519. Under him Mexico and Peru were conquered by the Spaniards; and in his reign happened the REFORMATION in several parts of Germany, which, however, was not confirmed by public authority till the year 1648, by the treaty of Westphalia, and in the reign of Ferdinand III. The reign of Charles V. was continually disturbed by his wars with the German princes and the French king Francis I. Though successful in the beginning of his reign, his good fortune, towards the conclusion of it, began to forsake him; which, with other reasons, occasioned his abdication of the crown. * See Charles V.

His brother Ferdinand I. who in 1558 succeeded to the throne, proved a moderate prince with regard to religion. He had the address to get his son Maximilian declared king of the Romans in his own lifetime, and died in 1564. By his last will he ordered, that if either his own male issue, or that of his brother Charles, should fail, his Austrian estates should revert to his second daughter Anne, wife to the elector of Bavaria, and her issue. We mention this destination, as it gave rise to the late opposition made by the house of Bavaria to the pragmatic sanction, in favour of the empress queen of Hungary, on the death of her father Charles VI. The reign of Maximilian II. was disturbed with internal commotions, and an invasion from the Turks; but he died in peace, in 1576. He was succeeded by his son Rodolph; who was involved in wars with the Hungarians, and in differences with his brother Matthias, to whom he ceded Hungary and Austria in his lifetime. He was succeeded in the empire by Matthias; under whom the reformers, who went under the names of Lutherans and Calvinists, were so much divided among themselves, as to threaten the empire with a civil war. The ambition of Matthias at last tended to reconcile them; but the Bohemians revolted, and threw the imperial commissaries out of a window at Prague. This gave rise to a ruinous war, which lasted 30 years. Matthias thought to have exterminated both parties; but they formed a confederacy, called the Evangelic League, which was counterbalanced by a Catholic league.

Matthias dying in 1618, was succeeded by his cousin Ferdinand II.; but the Bohemians offered their crown to Frederic the elector Palatine, the most powerful Protestant prince in Germany, and son-in-law to his Britannic majesty James I. That prince was incautious enough to accept of the crown: but he lost it, by being entirely defeated by the duke of Bavaria and the imperial generals at the battle of Prague; and he was even deprived of his electorate, the best part of which was given to the duke of Bavaria. The Protestant princes of Germany, however, had among them at this time many able commanders, who were at the head of armies, and continued the war with wonderful obstinacy: among them were the margrave of Baden Durlach, Christian duke of Brunswick, and count Mansfield; the last was one of the best generals of the age.

Germany. age. Christiern IV. king of Denmark declared for them; and Richieu, the French minister, was not fond of seeing the house of Austria aggrandized. The emperor, on the other hand, had excellent generals; and Christiern, having put himself at the head of the evangelic league, was defeated by Tilly, an imperialist of great reputation in war. Ferdinand made so moderate a use of his advantages obtained over the Protestants, that they formed a fresh confederacy at Leipzig, of which the celebrated Gustavus Adolphus king of Sweden was the head. An account of his glorious victories is given under the article SWEDEN. At last he was killed at the battle of Lutzen, in 1632. But the Protestant cause did not die with him. He had brought up a set of heroes, such as the duke of Saxe Weimar, Torstenson, Banier, and others, who shook the Austrian power; till, under the mediation of Sweden, a general peace was concluded among all the belligerent powers, at Munster, in the year 1648; which forms the basis of the present political system of Europe.

Ferdinand II. was succeeded by his son Ferdinand III. This prince died in 1657; and was succeeded the emperor Leopold, a fever, unamiable, and not very fortunate prince. He had two great powers to contend with, France on the one side, and the Turks on the other; and was a loser in his war with both. France took from him Alsace, and many other frontier places of the empire; and the Turks would have taken Vienna, had not the siege been raised by John Sobieski king of Poland. Prince Eugene of Savoy was a young adventurer in arms about the year 1697; and being one of the imperial generals, gave the Turks the first checks they received in Hungary. The empire, however, could not have withstood the power of France; who pursued her conquests with such rapidity, that the other parts of Europe were alarmed, and a great confederacy, consisting of the Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch under William Prince of Orange, and the northern powers, was formed to check the progress of the French, and render abortive the ambitious plan contrived by Lewis XIV. for founding an universal monarchy. At last, however, a peace was concluded at Ryswick, in 1697; and two years after, the Turks consented to a peace, which was signed at Carlowitz in 1699. The Hungarians, secretly encouraged by the French, and exasperated by the unfeeling tyranny of Leopold, were still in arms, under the protection of the Porte, when that prince died in 1705.

He was succeeded by his son Joseph, who put the electors of Cologne and Bavaria to the ban of the empire; but being ill served by prince Lewis of Baden, general of the empire, the French partly recovered their affairs, notwithstanding their repeated defeats. The duke of Marlborough had not all the success he expected or deserved. Joseph himself was suspected of a design to subvert the Germanic liberties; and it was plain by his conduct, that he expected England should take the labouring oar in the war, which was to be entirely carried on for his benefit. The English were disgusted at his slowness and selfishness; but he died in 1711, before he had reduced the Hungarians; and leaving no male issue, he was succeeded in the empire by his brother Charles VI. whom the allies

were endeavouring to place on the throne of Spain, in opposition to Philip, duke of Anjou, grandson to Lewis XIV. Germany.

When the peace of Utrecht took place in 1713, Charles at first made a shew as if he would continue the war; but found himself unable, now that he was forsaken by the English. He therefore was obliged to conclude a peace with France at Baden in 1714, that he might attend the progress of the Turks in Hungary; where they received a total defeat from prince Eugene, at the battle of Peterwaradin. They received another of equal importance from the same general in 1717, before Belgrade, which fell into the hands of the imperialists; and next year the peace of Passarowitz, between them and the Turks, was concluded. Charles employed every minute of his leisure in making arrangements for increasing and preserving his hereditary dominions in Italy and the Mediterranean. Happily for him, the crown of Britain devolved to the house of Hanover; an event which gave him a very decisive weight in Europe, by the connections between George I. and II. and the empire. Charles was sensible of this; and carried matters with so high a hand, that, about the years 1724 and 1725, a breach ensued between him and George I. and so unsteady was the system of affairs all over Europe at that time, that the capital powers often changed their old alliances, and concluded new ones contradictory to their interest. Without entering into particulars, it is sufficient to observe, that the safety of Hanover, and its aggrandizement, was the main object of the British court; as that of the emperor was the establishment of the pragmatic sanction, in favour of his daughter, the present empress-queen, he having no male issue. Mutual concessions upon those great points restored a good understanding between George II. and the emperor Charles; and the elector of Saxony, flattered with the view of gaining the throne of Poland, relinquished the great claims he had upon the Austrian succession.

The emperor, after this, had very bad success in a war he entered into with the Turks, which he had undertaken chiefly to indemnify himself for the great sacrifices he had made in Italy to the princes of the house of Bourbon. Prince Eugene was then dead, and he had no general to supply his place. The system of France, however, under cardinal Fleury, happened at that time to be pacific; and she obtained for him, from the Turks, a better peace than he had reason to expect. Charles, to keep the German and other powers easy, had, before his death, given his eldest daughter, the present empress-queen, in marriage to the duke of Lorraine, a prince who could bring no accession of power to the Austrian family.

Charles died in 1740; and was no sooner in the grave, than all he had so long laboured for must have been overthrown, had it not been for the firmness of George II. The young king of Prussia entered and conquered Silesia, which he said had been wrongfully dismembered from his family. The king of Spain and the elector of Bavaria set up claims directly incompatible with the pragmatic sanction, and in this they were joined by France; though all those powers had solemnly guaranteed it. The imperial throne, after a considerable vacancy, was filled up by the elector of Bavaria, who took the title of Charles VII. in January

Germany. 1742. The French poured their armies into Bohemia, where they took Prague; and the queen of Hungary, to take off the weight of Prussia, was forced to cede to that prince the most valuable part of the duchy of Silesia by a formal treaty.

Her youth, her beauty, and sufferings, and the noble fortitude with which she bore them, touched the hearts of the Hungarians, into whose arms she threw herself and her little son; and though they had been always remarkable for their disaffection to the house of Austria, they declared unanimously in her favour. Her generals drove the French out of Bohemia; and George II. at the head of an English and Hanoverian army, gained the battle of Dettingen, in 1743. Charles VII. was at this time miserable on the imperial throne, and would have given the queen of Hungary almost her own terms; but she haughtily and impolitically rejected all accommodation, though advised to it by his Britannic majesty, her best and indeed only friend. This obstinacy gave a colour for the king of Prussia to invade Bohemia, under pretence of supporting the imperial dignity: but though he took Prague, and subdued the greatest part of the kingdom, he was not supported by the French; upon which he abandoned all his conquests, and retired into Silesia. This event confirmed the obstinacy of the queen of Hungary; who came to an accommodation with the emperor, that she might recover Silesia. Soon after, his imperial majesty, in the beginning of the year 1745, died; and the duke of Lorraine, then grand duke of Tuscany, consort to the queen of Hungary, after surmounting some difficulties, was chosen emperor.

The bad success of the allies against the French and Bavarians in the Low Countries, and the loss of the battle of Fontenoy, retarded the operations of the empress-queen against his Prussian majesty. The latter beat the emperor's brother, prince Charles of Lorraine, who had before driven the Prussians out of Bohemia; and the conduct of the empress-queen was such, that his Britannic majesty thought proper to guarantee to him the possession of Silesia, as ceded by treaty. Soon after, his Prussian majesty pretended that he had discovered a secret convention which had been entered into between the empress-queen, the empress of Russia, and the king of Poland as elector of Saxony, to strip him of his dominions, and to divide them among themselves. Upon this his Prussian majesty, very suddenly, drove the king of Poland out of Saxony, defeated his troops, and took possession of Dresden; which he held till a treaty was made under the mediation of his Britannic majesty, by which the king of Prussia acknowledged the duke of Lorraine, great duke of Tuscany, for emperor. The war, however, continued in the Low Countries, not only to the disadvantage, but to the discredit, of the Austrians and Dutch, till it was finished by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in April 1748. By that treaty Silesia was once more guaranteed to the king of Prussia. It was not long before that monarch's jealousies were renewed and verified; and the empress of Russia's views falling in with those of the empress-queen and the king of Poland, who were unnaturally supported by France in their new schemes, a fresh war was kindled in the empire. The king of Prussia declared

against the admission of the Russians into Germany, and his Britannic majesty against that of the French. Upon those two principles all former differences between these monarchs were forgotten, and the British parliament agreed to pay an annual subsidy of 670,000l. to his Prussian majesty during the continuance of the war.

The flames of war now broke out in Germany with greater fury and more destructive violence than ever. The armies of his Prussian majesty, like an irresistible torrent, burst in Saxony; totally defeated the imperial general Brown at the battle of Lowositz; forced the Saxons to lay down their arms, though almost impregnably fortified at Pirna; and the elector of Saxony fled to his regal dominions in Poland. After this, his Prussian majesty was put to the ban of the empire; and the French poured, by one quarter, their armies, as the Russians did by another, into the empire. The conduct of his Prussian majesty on this occasion is the most amazing that is to be met with in history; for a particular account of which, see the article PRUSSIA.

At last, however, the taking of Colberg by the Russians, and of Schweidnitz by the Austrians, was on the point of completing his ruin, when his most formidable enemy, the empress of Russia, died, January 5. 1762; George II. his only ally, had died on the 25th of October, 1760.

The deaths of those illustrious personages were followed by great consequences. The British ministry of George III. fought to finish the war with honour, and the new emperor of Russia recalled his armies. His Prussian majesty was, notwithstanding, so very much reduced by his losses, that the empress-queen, probably, would have completed his destruction, had it not been for the wise backwardness of other German princes, not to annihilate the house of Brandenburg. At first the empress-queen rejected all terms proposed to her, and ordered 30,000 men to be added to her armies. The visible backwardness of her generals to execute her orders, and new successes obtained by his Prussian majesty, at last prevailed on her to agree to an armistice, which was soon followed by the treaty of Hubertsburg, which secured to his Prussian majesty the possession of Silesia. Upon the death of the emperor, her husband, in 1765, her son Joseph, who had been crowned king of the Romans in 1764, succeeded him in the empire.

At present, Germany is bounded on the north by the Baltic Sea, Denmark, and the German Ocean; on the east by Prussia, Hungary, and Poland; and on the west by the Low Countries, Lorraine, and Franche Comte; so that it now comprehends the Palatinates of Cologne, Triers, and Liege, which formerly belonged to the Gauls; and is dismembered of Friesland, Groningen, and Overijssel, which are now incorporated with the Low Countries.

Since the time of Charles the Great, this country situation, has been divided into High and Low Germany. The extent, &c. first comprehends the Palatinate of the Rhine, Franconia, Suabia, Bavaria, Bohemia, Moravia, Austria, Carinthia, Carniola, Styria, the Swiss, and the Grisons. The provinces of Low Germany are, the Low Country of the Rhine, Triers, Cologne, Mentz, Westphalia, Hesse, Brunswick, Misnia, Lusatia, High Saxony upon the Elbe, Low Saxony upon the Elbe, Mecklenburg, Lu-

Germany. Lunenburg, Brandenburg, and Pomerania. For a particular description of all these, see the articles as they occur in the order of the alphabet.

²² Constitution of the empire.

The empire, as we have already observed, is elective; and the laws require no other qualifications in a candidate, but that he be justus, bonus, et utilis, without any limitation in regard to religion, nation, state, or age. But as the Popish electors are more in number than the Protestant, a Roman-catholic prince is always chosen. The election is at Franckfort on the Maine, within three months after the former emperor's death. The electors appear either in person or by their envoys; and if an elector absent himself, the election, notwithstanding, is valid. Before the day of election, all foreigners are ordered to depart the town. Whoever has more than half the voices of the college for him, is elected; and an elector may even give his vote for himself. When the election is over, the person elected, or his plenipotentiary, must immediately subscribe and swear to the capitulation of election: but if the person elected is not present in person, he must swear to it himself before he is crowned, and before he can take upon him the government; which, till then, belongs to the vicars of the empire. His coronation, for which he appoints a day himself, is always performed in the place where he was elected; though both election and coronation ought to be in the city of Aix-la-Chapelle. He then takes a general oath of a ruler, and, among other things, promises all due veneration to the Pope and church. The emperors used formerly to be crowned by the Popes, till the reign of Charles V. but from that time the papal coronation has been dispensed with. However, immediately upon his entering upon the government, he testifies his veneration for the Pope by an embassy. The title of the emperor runs thus: "N. by the grace of God, elected Roman emperor (imperator), at all times augmenter of the empire (semper Augustus), in or of Germany king." Then follow the titles of the hereditary imperial dominions. The states of the empire give the emperor the title of "Most illustrious, most powerful, and most invincible Roman emperor;" the last of which is omitted by the electors. The emperor is looked upon by all other crowned heads and states in Europe as the first European potentate, and as such precedence is given him and his ambassadors. He is the supreme head of the German empire; but his power in the administration thereof is very limited. With respect to ecclesiastical matters, his prerogative consists principally in the right of the first petition (jus primarum arum precum); by virtue of which, in all foundations and cloisters of the empire, he may, once during his administration, confer a benediction on any person qualified for it by the statutes; and in that of a panis brief to each foundation or cloister in the empire, by virtue of which, such foundation is obliged to admit into it the person who has obtained the emperor's brief, and there provide him, during life, with meat, drink, cloaths, and other necessaries. With respect to temporal matters, he can create princes, dukes, marquises, counts, barons, knights, &c. raise countries and territories to a higher rank; bestow arms, and grant letters of respite and protection, securing a debtor against his creditor; establish universities, fairs, and markets; empower any

person to adopt another, and to assume a title from his estate; erect any place into a sanctuary; confer majority on minors; legitimate children born out of wedlock; confirm the contracts and stipulations of the empire; remit oaths extorted from them; invest such as possess fiefs of the empire, and decide in feudal matters relative thereto, &c. but he cannot grant to any person privileges detrimental to the rights of the immediate sovereign of that person. He can also grant exclusive privileges for printing particular books, and for new-invented machines, &c. He appoints most of the officers, civil and military, of the empire, except such as are hereditary; as the great chancellor, treasurer, &c. but these are only honorary. In ancient times the emperor had considerable domains and incomes in the empire; but almost all these have been successively mortgaged and alienated, so that at present the certain revenues of the emperor are very inconsiderable: but then, as he has the disposal of most offices, the creation of princes and noblemen, is entitled to all confiscations and forfeitures, and invests the several princes in their estates, besides those that hold fiefs of the empire in Italy, the profit of these articles may amount to a large sum. He has also some offerings from the Jews, and the free gifts of the order of knights of the empire. A successor in the empire is frequently chosen by the electors during the life of the emperor, who is styled king of the Romans. He is elected and crowned in the same manner as the emperor; has the title of majesty; takes precedence of all other kings in Christendom; and succeeds of course at the emperor's death.

The arms of the empire are a black eagle with two heads, hovering with expanded wings in a field of gold; and over the heads of the eagle is seen the imperial crown.

²⁴ Arms of the empire.

²⁵ The diet.

The diet of the empire consists of the emperor, the nine electors, the ecclesiastical and secular princes, and the deputies of imperial cities. The electors are divided into spiritual and temporal. The spiritual electors are, the archbishops of Mentz, Triers, and Cologne; and the secular, those of Bohemia, Palatine, Brandenburg, Saxony, Bavaria, and Hanover. The spiritual electors are such of course as soon as they are chosen to their sees by their respective chapters. In the reign of Henry IV. the right of election is said to have been introduced. Till the peace of Westphalia there were only seven electors, when an eighth was added; and, in 1692, a ninth, in favour of the illustrious house of Brunswick Lunenburg, now in possession of a much higher and infinitely more valuable dignity, viz. the crown of Great Britain. The spiritual are styled by the emperor, highly worthy nephews; the temporal, most illustrious uncles. By the other members of the empire, the spiritual, who were not born princes, are styled, your electoral grace; but such as were, and also the temporal electors, have the appellation of, your electoral serenity. Foreign kings style the temporal electors, and those of the spiritual who were princes born, brothers. The spiritual are also styled, highly and most worthy; and the temporal, most illustrious.

The elector of Mentz is arch-chancellor of the holy Roman empire in Germany, and director of the electoral college. This prince notifies the death of an

The elector of Treves is the arch-chancellor of the holy Roman empire in Gaul and the kingdom of Arles; but this at present is only a bare title. At an election of the king of the Romans, he has the first voice; and, before the election, takes the oath of the elector of Mentz.

The elector of Cologne is arch-chancellor of the holy Roman empire in Italy. At an election of a king of the Romans, he has the second voice; and he crowns the emperor, when the coronation is at Aix-la-Chapelle, and in the archbishopric of Cologne.

The king and elector of Bohemia is arch-cupbearer of the holy Roman empire, precedes all the temporal electors whatsoever, and has the third voice in the electoral college.

The elector of Bavaria is arch-fewer of the holy Roman empire. At the coronation he carries the monde before the emperor, ranks next to Bohemia, places four silver dishes, weighing twelve marks, on the imperial table, and serves up the first course.

The elector of Saxony is arch-marshall of the holy Roman empire. He also, when there is no emperor, is one of the vicars of the empire. At the diets, and on other solemn occasions, he carries the sword of state before the emperor; and, at the coronation, he rides into a heap of oats, and fills a silver measure with that grain. During the holding of the diets, he has jurisdiction over all electoral and other officers of the states of the empire, as also in criminal matters. When the fee of Mentz is vacant, he holds the directory of the diet, and the right of protection over the imperial city of Mulhausen, and all trumpeters throughout the Roman empire.

The elector of Brandenburg is arch-chamberlain of the holy Roman empire; carries the sceptre before the emperor, which he bears also in his coat of arms; presents the emperor with water in a silver basin in order to wash himself; may proceed with respect to his fiefs, principalities, and lands, as with allodial estates; and, at his own pleasure, impose new tolls, and erect mills on all rivers.

The elector Palatine was formerly arch-fewer, but since the treaty of Westphalia arch-treasurer. This house has the right of protection over all the braziers of a large district, and throughout all Germany is protector of the order of St. John; can raise nobles and gentlemen to the degree of counts; and has the right of venery, by virtue of which, all illegitimate persons, and others of foreign countries, who within a year and a day have no succeeding lord, may be made bondsmen in such places as are subject to his jurisdiction; so that they must bind themselves to the duties of the

electorate, and to the payment of a certain tribute and Germany. mortuaries.

When the elector of Bavaria was put under the ban of the empire in 1706, the Palatine recovered the office of arch-fewer, and the elector of Brunswick-Lunenburg obtained the office of arch-treasurer, by which he still files himself, till another suitable arch-office be conferred on him. He enjoys the alternate succession in the bishopric of Osnaburgh, together with some other rights and privileges.

Without the privity of these electors, the emperor can do nothing with regard to leagues and wars of the empire, alienations and mortgages of lands belonging to it, &c. At their investiture they pay no fees, and a new-elected emperor must immediately confirm their privileges and dignities. The diets are held by the emperor, with the consent of the electors; and, at their desire, each elector enjoys a right of appointing two chamber-court assessors, and their electorates have an unlimited privilege de non appellando. They may meet together, and hold what are called electoral diets. A subject may be guilty of treason against them; and their whole electorates descend to their first-born. By the imperial capitulation, their envoys are to take place of princes in person.

Next to the electors are the princes of the empire, who are also partly spiritual, and partly temporal. The spiritual are archbishops, bishops, abbots, provosts, abbesses, the masters of the Teutonic order, and of St. John; but of these, some have each a voice, and others vote by colleges. The temporal princes are dukes, marquises, counts, viscounts, and barons; of which, as among the spiritual, the higher have single voices, but the lower vote by colleges.

Not only all those princes who have seat and voice in the diet, but many others, are vested with sovereign power in their respective territories, or at least are under very few restraints. They are, indeed, more free and absolute than some crowned heads; but still they are subject to the general laws of the empire, and sworn not to engage in any wars or alliances to the prejudice of the emperor and empire. But here it is to be observed, that many have titles of nobility though they are no sovereigns, nor have any seat in the diets: some, however, have a seat, that do not hold immediately of the emperor; or, which is the same, are immediately subject to some other prince, and only mediately to the emperor. The Franks, in imitation of the Romans, reduced all Germany into provinces, over which they placed governors with different titles. They were generally of noble families; and, if there was no material objection against it, their sons were appointed to succeed them: from whence these governors came at length to insist on a right of succeeding their ancestors, and refused to pay homage to the German emperors, every one taking upon him to exercise regal power in his province; from whence have sprung up so many petty sovereigns in the empire. These officers were either herzogen or dukes, to whom were committed the government of the larger districts; graffen, or earls, who had the care of smaller parts; pfalz-graven, palgravees, or counts-palatine, who administered justice when in the verge of the court; landgraves, who were set over provinces; margraves, or marquises, who were charged with

Germany. with the care of the marches or borders; and burggraves, who were governors of the royal castles and forts. The third college of the diet is that of the free or imperial cities, i. e. such as are governed by magistrates of their own, and stand immediately under the emperor and empire. Some of these are wholly Catholic, others entirely Lutheran, and others again mixed. Within their territory they exercise supreme power; and are divided into two benches, the Rhenish and Suabian. As the princes of the empire took advantage of the necessities or indulgence of the German emperors, to erect the governments they held in capacity of viceroys or governors, into independent principalities and states, so did the cities now called free and imperial. The emperors, frequently wanting supplies of money to carry on wars, or for other occasions, borrowed large sums of the wealthy trading towns, and paid them again in munificent grants and privileges, making them free states, and independent of the governors of the provinces where they stood: accordingly, these cities, like the princes, exercise all kinds of sovereign power that are consistent with the general laws of the empire; they make laws, constitute courts of justice, coin money, raise forces, and enter into alliances and confederacies; only acknowledging the emperor for their supreme lord, and contributing their share towards the common defence of the empire.

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Powers of the diet. The diet meets at Ratishon on the emperor's summons, and any of the princes may send their deputies thither in their stead. The diet makes laws, raises taxes, determines differences between the several princes and states, and can relieve subjects from the oppressions of their sovereign: and there are two supreme councils, called the aulic council, and the chamber of Witzlar, to which any of the princes and states, or their subjects, may appeal, when they apprehend themselves aggrieved. The empire was anciently divided into ten circles; which division was confirmed by the emperor Charles V. who settled the portion which every circle, and every prince and member of each circle, should contribute towards the ordinary and extraordinary taxes of the empire. This was entered in a register, called a matriculation-book, which is kept by the elector of Mentz. The taxes are either ordinary or extraordinary. The former is what is styled the chamber-terms, or the money which each state of the empire is to contribute annually for maintaining the chamber-judicatory of the emperor and empire. The latter are called Roman months, which are a certain rate of money or troops settled by the states of the empire, and granted sometimes to the emperor; as for instance, for the support of the emperor, or of the army of the empire, or the forts thereof, or for the war against the Turks, the expences of an embassy of the empire, &c. By the matricula settled by Charles V. twelve florins were to be paid monthly in lieu of every horseman, and four for every foot soldier. Afterwards it was enacted, that sixty florins should be advanced in lieu of every trooper wanting, and twelve for every footman; and these payments obtained the name of Roman months, because the forces or money abovementioned were at first applied towards the forming a body of horse and foot for six months, to conduct the emperor in

his journey to Rome to receive the papal coronation.

Besides the diet, there are yearly meetings of the states of one, two, or three of the circles that lie nearest to one another, called from thence corresponding circles; of which there are three classes: first, the Upper Rhine, Lower Rhine, and Westphalia; secondly, the Upper and Lower Saxony; and, thirdly, Franconia, Suabia, and Austria. That of Upper Saxony assembles usually at Leipzig; that of Franconia at Nuremberg; and that of Suabia at Ulm. They treat of the regulation of their coin, the public peace, their treasure, magazines, fortifications, and commerce, rectifying the matricula, putting the decrees of the empire in execution, and appointing judges of the imperial chamber of Witzlar or Spire, and of the aulic council at Vienna; and have power of enacting laws which are not inconsistent with the constitution of the empire. In every circle there are one or two directors, who summon the states of the circle, and have the command of the militia when embodied, regulating their march, quarters, &c. and putting the decrees of the empire in execution, when any prince or member refuses to comply with their resolutions. It is to be observed here, that the Protestant estates of the empire, in the diets, are called the evangelic body, and have a director, viz. the elector of Saxony. Besides the higher nobility, or high adel of the empire, consisting of princes, counts, &c. there is the lower adel, or rank of knighthood, which is very numerous in Germany.

With regard to the character of the ancient Germans, they are described to us by the Greek and Roman writers, as resembling the Galls, and differing from other nations by the largeness of their stature, ruddy complexion, blue eyes, and yellow bushy hair, haughty and threatening looks, strong constitutions, and being proof against hunger, cold, and all kinds of hardship.

Their native disposition displayed itself chiefly in their martial genius, and in their singular fidelity. The former of these they did indeed carry to such an excess, as came little short of downright ferocity: but, as to the latter, they not only valued themselves highly upon it, but were greatly esteemed by other nations for it; insomuch that Augustus, and several of his successors, committed the guard of their persons to them, and almost all other nations either courted their friendship and alliance, or hired them as auxiliaries: though it must be owned, at the same time, that their extreme love of liberty, and their hatred of tyranny and oppression, have often hurried them to treachery and murder, especially when they have thought themselves ill used by those who hired them; for, in all such cases, they were easily stirred up, and extremely vindictive. In other cases, Tacitus tells us, they were noble, magnanimous, and beneficent, without ambition to aggrandize their dominions, or invading those from whom they received no injury; rather choosing to employ their strength and valour defensively, than offensively; to preserve their own, than to ravage their neighbours.

Their friendship and intercourse was rather a compound of honest bluntness and hospitality, than of wit, humour, or gallantry. All strangers were sure

Germany. to meet with a kind reception from them, to the utmost of their ability: even those who were not in a capacity to entertain them, made it a piece of duty to introduce them to those who could; and nothing was looked upon as more scandalous and detestable, than to refuse them either the one or the other. They do not seem, indeed, to have had a taste for grand and elegant entertainments; they affected in every thing, in their houses, furniture, diet, &c. rather plainness and simplicity, than sumptuousness and luxury. If they learned the Romans and Gauls the use of money, it was rather because they found it more convenient than their ancient way of bartering one commodity for another; and then they preferred those ancient coins which had been stamped during the times of the Roman liberty, especially such as were either milled or cut in the rims, because they could not be so easily cheated in them, as in some others, which were frequently nothing but copper, or iron, plated over with silver. This last metal they likewise preferred before gold, not because it made a greater shew, but because it was more convenient for buying and selling: And as they became, in time, more feared by, or more useful to, the Romans; so they learned how to draw enough of it from them to supply their whole country, besides what flowed to them from other nations.

As they despised superfluities in other cases, so they did also in the connubial way: every man was contented with one wife, except some few of their nobles, who allowed themselves a plurality, more for shew than pleasure; and both were so faithful to each other, and chaste, true, and disinterested, in their conjugal affections, that Tacitus prefers their manners, in this respect, to those of the Romans. The men fought not dowries from their wives, but bestowed them upon them. Their youth, in those cold climes, did not begin so soon to feel the warmth of love, as they do in hotter ones: it was a common rule with them, not to marry young; and those were most esteemed who continued longest in celibacy, because they looked upon it as an effectual means to make them grow tall and strong; and to marry, or be concerned with a woman, before they were full twenty-years old, was accounted shameful wantonness. The women shared with their husbands not only the care of their family, and the education of their children, but even the hardships of war. They attended them in the field, cooked their victuals for them, dressed their wounds, stirred them up to fight manfully against their enemies, and sometimes have by their courage and bravery recovered a victory when it was upon the point of being snatched from them. In a word, they looked upon such constant attendance on them, not as a servitude, like the Roman dames, but as a duty and an honour. But what appears to have been still an harder fate upon the ancient German dames was, that their great Odinus excluded all those from his valhalla, or paradise, who did not, by some violent death, follow their deceased husbands thither. Yet notwithstanding their having been anciently in such high repute for their wisdom, and supposed spirit of prophecy, and their continuing such faithful and tender helpmates to their husbands, they sunk, in time, so low in their esteem, that, according to the

old Saxon law, he that hurt or killed a woman, was Germany. to pay but half the fine that he should have done if he had hurt or killed a man.

There is scarcely any one thing in which the Germans, though so nearly allied in most of their other customs to the Gauls, were yet more opposite to them than in their funerals. Those of the latter were performed with great pomp and profusion; those of the former were done with the same plainness and simplicity which they observed in all other things: the only grandeur they affected in them was, to burn the bodies of their great men with some peculiar kinds of wood; but then the funeral pile was neither adorned with the cloaths and other fine furniture of the deceased, nor perfumed with fragrant herbs and gums: each man's armour, that is, his sword, shield, and spear, were flung into it, and sometimes his riding-horse. The Danes, indeed, flung into the funeral-pile of a prince, gold, silver, and other precious things, which the chief mourners, who walked, in a gloomy guise, round the fire, exhorted the bystanders to fling liberally into it in honour of the deceased. They afterwards deposited their ashes in urns, like the Gauls, Romans, and other nations; as it plainly appears, from the vast numbers which have been dug up all over the country, as well as from the sundry dissertations which have been written upon them by several learned moderns of that nation. One thing we may observe, in general, that, whatever sacrifices they offered for their dead, whatever presents they made to them at their funerals, and whatever other superstitious rites they might perform at them, all was done in consequence of those excellent notions which their ancient religion had taught them, the immortality of the soul, and the bliss or misery of a future life.

It is impossible, indeed, as they did not commit any thing to writing till very lately, and as none of the ancient writers have given us any account of it, to guess how soon the belief of their great Odin, and his paradise, was received among them. It may, for aught we know, have been older than the times of Tacitus, and he have known nothing of it, by reason of their scrupulous care in concealing their religion from strangers: but as they conveyed their doctrines to posterity by songs and poems, and most of the northern poets tell us that they have drawn their intelligence from those very poems which were still preserved among them; we may rightly enough suppose, that whatever doctrines are contained in them, were formerly professed by the generality of the nation, especially since we find their ancient practice so exactly conformable to it. Thus, since the surest road to this paradise was, to excel in martial deeds, and to die intrepidly in the field of battle; and since none were excluded from it but base cowards, and betrayers of their country; it is natural to think, that the signal and excessive bravery of the Germans flowed from this ancient belief of theirs: and, if their females were so brave and faithful, as not only to share with their husbands all the dangers and fatigues of war, but, at length, to follow them, by a voluntary death, into the other world; it can hardly be attributed to any thing else but a strong persuasion of their being admitted to live with them in that place of bliss. This belief, therefore, whether received originally from the old Celts,

Germany. or afterwards taught them by the fierce deified Odin, seems, from their general practice, to have been universally received by all the Germans, though they might differ one from another in their notions of that future life.

The notion of a future happiness obtained by martial exploits, especially by dying sword in hand, made them bewail the fate of those who lived to an old age, as dishonourable here, and hopeless hereafter: upon which account, they had a barbarous way of sending them into the other world, willing or not willing. And this custom lasted several ages after their receiving Christianity, especially among the Prussians and Venidi; the former of whom, it seems, dispatched, by a quick death, not only their children, the sick, servants, &c. but even their parents, and sometimes themselves: and among the latter we have instances of this horrid parricide being practised even in the beginning of the 14th century. All that need be added is, that, if those persons, thus supposed to have lived long enough, either desired to be put to death, or, at least, seemed cheerfully to submit to what they knew they could not avoid, their exit was commonly preceded with a fast, and their funeral with a feast; but if they endeavoured to shun it, as it sometimes happened, both ceremonies were performed with the deepest mourning. In the former, they rejoiced at their deliverance, and being admitted into bliss; in the latter, they bewailed their cowardly excluding themselves from it. Much the same thing was done towards those wives, who betrayed a backwardness to follow their dead husbands.

We must likewise observe, that, in these funerals, as well as in all their other feasts, they were famed for drinking to excess; and one may say of them, above all the other descendants of the ancient Celtes, that their hospitality, banquets, &c. consisted much more in the quantity of strong liquors, than in the elegance of eating. Beer and strong mead, which were their natural drink, were looked upon as the chief promoters of health, strength, fertility, and bravery; upon which account, they made no scruple to indulge themselves to the utmost in them, not only in their feasts, and especially before an engagement, but even in their common meals.

The modern Germans in their persons are tall, fair, and strong built. The ladies have generally fine complexions; and some of them, especially in Saxony, have all the delicacy of features and shape that are so bewitching in a certain island of Europe.

Both men and women affect rich dresses, which in fashion are the same as in France and England; but the better sort of men are excessively fond of gold and silver lace, especially if they are in the army. The ladies at the principal courts differ not much in their dress from the French and English, only they are not so excessively fond of paint as the former. At some courts they appear in rich furs; and all of them are loaded with jewels, if they can obtain them. The female part of the burghers families, in many German towns, dress in a very different manner, and some of them inconceivably fantastic, as may be seen in many prints published in books of travels: but in this respect they are gradually reforming, and many of them make quite a different appearance in their dress from

what they did thirty or forty years ago. As to the peasantry and labourers, they dress as in other parts of Europe, according to their employments, convenience, and opulence. In Westphalia, and most other parts of Germany, they sleep between two featherbeds, or rather the upper one of down, with sheets stitched to them, which by use becomes a very comfortable practice. The most unhappy part of the Germans are the tenants of little needy princes, who squeeze them to keep up their own grandeur; but, in general, the circumstances of the common people are far preferable to those of the French.

The Germans are naturally a frank, honest, hospitable people, free from artifice and disguise. The higher orders are ridiculously proud of titles, ancestry, and shew. The Germans, in general, are thought to want animation, as their persons promise more vigour and activity than they commonly exert, even in the field of battle. But when commanded by able generals, especially the Italians, such as Montecuculi and prince Eugene, they have done great things, both against the Turks and the French. The imperial arms have seldom made any remarkable figure against either of those two nations, or against the Swedes or Spaniards, when commanded by German generals. This possibly might be owing to the arbitrary obliuinity of the court of Vienna; for in the two last wars the Austrians exhibited prodigies of military valour and genius.

Industry, application, and perseverance, are the great characteristics of the German nation, especially the mechanical part of it. Their works of art would be incredible were they not visible, especially in watch and clock making, jewellery, turnery, sculpture, drawing, painting, and certain kinds of architecture. The Germans have been charged with intemperance in eating and drinking; and perhaps not unjustly, owing to the vast plenty of their country in wine and provisions of every kind. But those practices seem now to be wearing out. At the greatest tables, though the guests drink pretty freely at dinner, yet the repast is commonly finished by coffee, after three or four public toasts have been drunk. But no people have more feasting at marriages, funerals, and birth-days.

The German nobility are generally men of so much honour, that a sharper in other countries, especially in England, meets with more credit if he pretends to be a German, than of any other nation.

The merchants and tradesmen are very civil and obliging. All the sons of noblemen inherit their fathers titles, which greatly perplexes the heralds and genealogists of that country. This perhaps is one of the reasons why the German husbands are not quite so complaisant as they ought otherwise to be to their ladies, who are not entitled to any pre-eminence at the table; nor indeed do they seem to affect it, being far from either ambition or loquacity, though they are said to be somewhat too fond of gaming. From what has been premised, it may easily be conceived, that many of the German nobility, having no other hereditary estate than a high-sounding title, easily enter into their armies, and those of other sovereigns. Their fondness for title is attended with many other inconveniences. Their princes think that the cultivation of their lands, tho' it may treble their revenues,

Germinatio Germen, is below their attention; and that, as they are a species of beings superior to labourers of every kind, they would demean themselves in being concerned in the improvement of their grounds.

The domestic diversions of the Germans are the same as in England; billiards, cards, dice, fencing, dancing, and the like. In summer, people of fashion repair to places of public resort, and drink the waters. As to their field-diversions, besides their favourite one of hunting, they have bull and bear-beating, and the like. The inhabitants of Vienna live luxuriously, a great part of their time being spent in feasting and carousing; and in winter, when the several branches of the Danube are frozen over, and the ground covered with snow, the ladies take their recreations in sledges of different shapes, such as griffins, tygers, swans, scollop-shells, &c. Here the lady sits, dressed in velvet lined with rich furs, and adorned with laces and jewels, having on her head a velvet cap; and the sledge is drawn by one horse, stag, or other creatures let off with plumes of feathers, ribbons, and bells. As this diversion is taken chiefly in the night-time, servants ride before the sledge with torches, and a gentleman sitting on the sledge behind guides the horse.