a duchy of Germany, containing those of Schwerin and Gutfro, is bounded by Pomerania on the east, by part of the marquisate of Brandenburg and the duchy of Lunenburg on the south, the Baltic on the north, and Holstein and Saxe Lawenburg on the west. Their greatest length is about 135 miles, and greatest breadth upwards of 90. With respect to the soil, much cannot be said in favour of it, as it consists in general, either of sand, or large and desolate heaths intermixed with moors, woods, fens, and lakes. It yields very little wheat, and not a great deal of oats, rye, and barley; but breeds a considerable number of sheep and cattle, has plenty of fish, with stone quarries, salt springs, alum, iron, and some copper. The principal rivers here are the Elde and Stor, which fall into the Elbe as it glides along the borders of this country to the south-west; the Heckenitz, which discharges itself into the Baltic; as do the Peene, the Warno, and the Stope-nitz. This country has only one harbour on the Baltic, namely that of Rostock. In both duchies, exclusive of Rostock, are 45 great and small cities, with three convents, and a great number of manors and farms, belonging either to the duke, the nobility, or convents. The peasants are in a state of villenage; but the nobility enjoy very considerable privileges.

The states are composed of the nobility and towns; and the diets, which are summoned annually, are held alternately at Sternberg and Malchin. The duchy of Schwerin appoints four provincial counsellors, and that of Gutfro as many; who rank according to seniority, with the duke's actual privy counsellors, as their marshals do with the colonels. The lesser committee represents the whole body of the nobility and commons, by whom the members are chosen freely and without control, and no edict relative to the whole country can be published without their consent, or in prejudice of their rights. The inhabitants of this country are mostly Lutherans, under their superintendent. There are also some Calvinists and Roman Catholics. Besides the grammar schools in the towns, there is an university at Rostock. The commodities of the duchy are corn, flax, hemp, hops, wax, honey, cattle, butter, cheese, wool, and wood, a part of which is exported; but hardly any manufactures.

Of the house of Mecklenburg, there are two lines still subsisting, viz. that of Schwerin and that of Strelitz. The latter commenced in Duke Adolphus Frederick II., younger brother of the duke of Schwerin, and grandfather of Adolphus Frederick IV. who entered on the government in 1752, and whose family received a great additional lustre by his Britannic majesty's taking his second father for his consort, and by her own great merit and noble deportment in that high station. Besides the duchy of Strelitz, to this duke belong the principality of Ratzeburg, with the lordship of Stargard, the ancient commanderies of Miro and Neme-ro, and a yearly pension of 9000 dollars out of the Boitzenburg toll. The title assumed by both the dukes is duke of Mecklenburg; prince of Wenden, Schwerin, and Ratzeburg; count of Schwerin and the county of Rostock, and lord of Stargard. By the agreement concluded at Wittlock in 1442, the elector of Brandenburg, on the extinction of the male line of the dukes of Mecklenburg, is entitled to their whole succession. The duke of Schwerin has two votes both in the diet of the empire and that of the circle. The matricular assessment for the duchies of Schwerin and Gutfro is 40 horse and 67 foot, or 748 florins monthly, including what is paid by Sweden for Wismar, and the bailiwicks of Poll and Neul-oster. To the chamber of Wetzlar, these two duchies pay each 243 rix dollars, 43 kruitzers. For the government of Mecklenburg, the administration of justice, and the management of the revenue, there is the privy council of regency, the demesne chamber, the high and provincial court of justice to which appeals lie in most causes, both from the consistory and the inferior civil courts, and which are common to both the dukes. As to the revenues, those of the Schwerin line must be very considerable, those arising from the demesne bailiwicks and regalia alone amounting to 300,000 rix dollars per annum. There is a tax on land that produces no contemptible sum, and that called the prince's tax is fixed at 20,000 rix dollars: besides all these, there are also free gifts. The whole revenues of the Strelitz branch are estimated at 120,000 rix dollars. Each of these princes maintains a body of troops.