SAXONY

SAXONY. branches near Bautzen, and then passes into Prussia. These rivers fall into the Elbe on its right bank. On the left bank it receives the Moldau, which has two sources in Bohemia, and in Saxony unites with the Zwischau, and runs parallel to the Elbe till it joins that stream at Dessau. The White Elster rises in Voightland, with many curvatures reaches the suburbs of the city of Leipzig, and, receiving there the small river Pleisse, falls into the Saale, and is ultimately lost in the Elbe above Magdeburg. The only river that does not run to the Elbe is the Neisse, which rises in the eastern corner of the kingdom, and, passing into Silesia, is at length emptied into the Oder. There are no lakes in Saxony, nor any canals, except such as are used in the mining districts for conveying the ore to the mills.

As compared with most parts of Germany, the agriculture of Saxony is much advanced. Wherever the soil is capable of cultivation, it is worked with diligence; and the more hilly and poorer soils have a good herbage, and yield pasture to numerous flocks and herds. The sides of the mountains towards the Elbe, from Pirna to Meissen, are covered with vines which yield both red and white wine; the former from the vicinity of Pilnitz and Loschwitz, and the latter from that of Hoflassnitz, are the most valued; but the great portion of the Saxon wines is of a very indifferent quality. The best of them are produced from the vineyards belonging to the king; and though they are sold at the highest prices, it is very doubtful if the expenses of cultivation, and the rent which might be obtained for the land, do not exceed what is produced by the sale of the wines.

The whole of Saxony is highly productive of fruit, and the care and skill exercised in its cultivation is amply rewarded. Great destruction to the fruit-trees took place during the tremendous military conflicts of which the country was the theatre; but still the orchards and gardens are very extensive, and new trees, planted since the wasting warfare of 1813, are beginning to yield their products. The calamities which proved injurious to the fruit-trees have lessened the number of cattle of every description; in the year 1817, in many districts of the circle of Meissen, not a single head of cattle was to be found. The bee-hives were destroyed by the same events; but the traces of these calamities have now disappeared, and the remembrance of them is scarcely adverted to by the rising generation. The sheep were preserved by being driven to the mountains, and since the war have vastly multiplied; and the fineness of the wool, for the sake of which they are chiefly kept, has been most wonderfully increased, and excels the finest wools of Spain.

The arable land is chiefly cultivated on a three-course system, consisting of a fallow, winter sown grain, and spring sown grain. In some cases there is a fallow crop of flax, hemp, or potatoes. The winter corn that succeeds is generally rye, and sometimes, though less extensively, wheat; the summer corn which follows is chiefly oats, and sometimes barley. The greater part of the arable land is in common fields, held under a feudal tenure, over which the lord of the manor has the right of depasturing his flocks between the harvest and the next seed time. The farming occupations are generally very small, and the increase of grain throughout the whole kingdom is said not to average more than five to one. The culture of potatoes has been very much extended of late years, and forms almost exclusively the food of the labouring classes in the mountainous districts. Tobacco, hemp, flax, wood, hops, and chicory, are grown in some parts of the kingdom, but neither of them to the extent which the consumption of the country requires. The woods of the kingdom, since the separation of its best portions, are insufficient to furnish the inhabitants with the necessary fuel; and though abundance of coal is found near Dresden, it is of so sulphureous a nature as to be deemed unwholesome, and is used only by those

who are unable to pay the high price for wood which its scarcity has created. Saxony.

Saxony abounds in minerals, and though the veins in general are far from being of great thickness, the ore is tolerably rich; which, added to superior skill and economy in working the mines and separating the metals, makes them very beneficial to the crown, to whom the greater portion of them belong. The mineralogical school of Freyberg has had a wonderful influence, not only in Saxony, but in all parts of the world, in increasing the knowledge and in improving the practice of the operative labourers in the mining art. The annual produce of the silver-mines is about 400,000 ounces; and besides this, they yield copper, lead, tin, iron, sulphur, quicksilver, bismuth, arsenic, and coal. Gold is found in very small quantities.

In no part of the Continent has manufacturing industry been carried to so great an extent, or occupied so large a proportion of the population, as in Saxony. Before the separation from it of the most productive agricultural provinces, it was calculated that two fifths of the inhabitants were employed in manufactures; but since that unfortunate event, it is estimated that three fifths are occupied in commerce and manufactures, and only two fifths in agriculture. It is by the extent of its manufactures alone that the country can be furnished with the means of paying for those articles of the first necessity, of which a sufficiency is not now produced within it. The provinces which supplied corn, fuel, and salt, have been ceded to Prussia, and those articles must be paid for by the sales of the minerals and manufactures. During the continuance of Napoleon's continental system, the Saxon manufacturers enjoyed a most extensive trade, and the encouragement thus obtained gave an impulse which directed the efforts and the capital of the country towards their perfection; but the division of labour was not carried to such an extent, nor was the application of machinery so generally adopted, as to enable them to withstand the competition with British goods, which peace introduced into many of those markets that they had before almost exclusively supplied. It would include almost the whole catalogue of European manufactures to enumerate the respective kinds of goods made in Saxony. Woollens, linens, cottons, and silks for clothing; iron, brass, and copper wares; paper, leather, earthenware, hats, musical instruments, and turnery ware; various chemical and dyeing preparations; clocks, watches, swords, guns, and pistols, are all comprehended in the list of Saxon manufactures.

The commerce of a country whose inhabitants are chiefly occupied in manufactures, and produce an insufficiency of food for their own consumption, must necessarily be extensive. The trade of Saxony chiefly centres in the city of Leipzig, whence, at the time of the two annual fairs, the greater part of the manufactures are disposed of, and contracts are made for such foreign commodities as the supply of the country demands. As the fairs of Frankfurt-on-the-Maine precede, and those of Frankfurt-on-the-Oder follow, the fairs of Leipzig, some portion of the trade is carried on by those channels. The roads leading to Leipzig are generally good, and trains of waggons loaded with goods are at all times to be seen proceeding to and from that place; many of which come from Flanders, Holland, Hamburg, and Brunswick, on one side, and from Russia, Poland, and even Turkey, on the other. At the fairs of Leipzig the new books printed in most parts of Germany are brought for publication. There the publishers meet and exchange the works of one part of the country, where the German language is spoken, with those of another. So extensive is this trade, that it is said the commissions on it to the brokers and merchants of Leipzig amount to more than 40,000 rix-thalers a year. The whole sales at the fairs in that city are estimated, including the exports and imports, at about 20,000,000 rix-thalers, or more than £3,000,000 sterling. Saxony disposes, in this

way, of sheep's wool, fine woollen goods, linen and thread lace, yarn and worsted, ironmongery, cutlery, and braziery, and also books. It receives in return corn, wine, salt, wood, and colonial wares. Although the river Elbe is navigable from the ocean to the interior of Saxony, it is only used for the conveyance of the heaviest goods, and for them but partially. It is found that the tolls on that river, with the risk of damage and of robbery, make it more advantageous to convey commodities by land than by water.

The government is a monarchy hereditary in the Saxon Albertine line, and in failure of that, in the Ernestine or Saxe-Weimar branch of the family. The monarchy may be called limited; but the limitations are of such a nature that the liberties of the people have been more secured by the mildness of the reigning family than by any restrictions that the states have or could exercise. The king enjoys the whole executive power, confirms pardons, bestows commissions, nominates the supreme judges, and enjoys the power of making peace and war, and of concluding all treaties. In making new laws, and in imposing new taxes, the states have the right to be consulted. According to the ancient constitution, which is still adhered to, the states are constituted of various elements; and, in fact, are an amalgamation of various corporations, each of which thinks only of its own peculiar interests, and contrives to cast the weight of all public burdens from the cities and the nobles, who are represented, to the country people, who have no voices. The assembly consists, first, of members chosen by the provincial representatives of the nobility; secondly, of the representatives of the prelates, who, before the Reformation, had seats, but who have since been chosen by the higher class of nobles in right of their possessing certain estates of which the prelates were deprived; and, thirdly, the university of Leipzig. These states represent only the circles of Meissen, Leipzig, Erzgebirge, and Voightland; for that of Lausatia has its own peculiar assembly of states, which differs but little from those of the other four, except that the members from the land possessors must have at least sixteen quarterings in their coats of arms. When the king pleases, these states are convoked; but as it has not been found necessary to impose new taxes, or to make alterations in the laws, they have seldom been assembled, and their session has usually been very short. The administration is conducted by a cabinet council, under which, through the medium of the privy council, orders are communicated to the departments of finance, war, domains, police, and foreign affairs.

The financial affairs of the kingdom and the credit of the government have rapidly improved. According to the budget of 1837, the income, a great part of which is derived from the estates of the crown, amounted to 5,194,873 rix-thalers, valued at about three shillings each. The expenditure amounted to the same sum, but in that was included 145,424 thalers appropriated to a reserve fund to meet unforeseen contingencies, 321,545 thalers to pay the interest of the debt, and 171,806 thalers which forms a sinking fund to extinguish the debt, which, at the rate now proceeding, a few years will accomplish, as at the close of the war it was near £4,000,000 sterling, and is, according to the budget, reduced to £1,177,740 sterling.

The armed force is no more than the contingent required from the kingdom by the German Confederation. It is composed of the following arms:—

Although the royal family profess the Catholic religion,

and are zealous in discharging its injunctions, the established faith is the Lutheran, and, until the year 1811, no person of any other sect was eligible to seats in the several corporations in the provincial or general assembly of the states. At that period all sects were placed on the same footing. The whole number of Catholics is about 28,000, some of whom are attached to the royal household; but most of them are found among the inhabitants of the province of Lausatia. The number of Protestants dissenting from the established church, including Moravians and Calvinists, is not supposed to exceed two thousand. The Lutheran church is governed by four consistories or assemblies of divines, differing in the number of superintendents, but comprising together twenty-five of that order. The Catholics in Lausatia are governed by the abbot of Bautzen, on whom the pope generally bestows the title of bishop in partibus infidelium.

Education is well conducted in the university of Leipzig, and in the endowed classical schools of Meissen, Wurzen, and Grimma, as well as in several gymnasia. The popular education is not so well managed as in the other Protestant German states; but some steps have been taken, and others are in contemplation, which may soon make the Saxon system as effective as that of Prussia. The fine arts have been cultivated with considerable success, and both statuary and painting receive valuable assistance from the fine productions which are contained in the collections of Dresden.