a sovereign state of the Germanic Confederation, consisting of, 1. The city of Hamburg, and a small adjacent territory between Holstein and Hanover; 2. Of several islands in the river Elbe; 3. Of several scattered portions of land in Holstein and Lauenberg; and 4. Of the bailiwick of Ritzebüttel and the island of Neuwerk, on the coast of the North Sea, between the Elbe and the Weser, altogether, about 150 square English miles, with a population of 211,000 inhabitants.

The city of Hamburg is situated on the north bank of a branch of the river Elbe, in N. Lat. 53° 34', E. Long. 9° 47'. Hamburg, about 50 miles from the North Sea, and nearly an equal distance from the Gulf of Lübeck, in the East Sea. A few miles above the town the Elbe divides into two main branches, called the North Elbe and the South Elbe, and these, again subdividing, form a number of fertile islands, occupying a breadth of about five miles in front of the town. Between these islands and the city the North Elbe has a breadth of from 1000 to 1200 feet, and the windings of its banks and sub-branches form several havens that constitute the harbour; but there are no docks. The city, however, is intersected by the river Alster, and a number of canals, that carry the merchandise from the ships to the very warehouses of the merchants. The River Alster, from Holstein, forms two lakes, or large basins, on the north-east side of the town, one outside, and the other within the walls. The latter called the Binnen Alster, is an ornamental piece of water, which, in German eyes, gives Hamburg an appearance of beauty few cities in Europe can boast of.

The city consists of five distinct portions, two of which, called the Altstadt and the Neustadt, are within the walls, divided from each other by the Alster; a third, called the Hamburger-Berg, or the suburb of St Paul—the most pleasantly situated part of the town—extends northward along the river to the Danish frontier, where it is divided from Altona by a ditch eight feet wide; the fourth portion, called the suburb of St George, lies in the north-east quarter; and the fifth, a new suburb, called the Hammerbrook, has been laid out on a marshy track in the east or south-east quarter.

The city proper was formerly surrounded by strong fortifications, consisting of numerous bastions, curtains, and outworks; but, since the peace of 1814, these have been all demolished, and the ground they occupied has been laid out in walks and gardens. Their outline, however, is still marked by a wet ditch, 120 feet wide, with 10 to 12 feet of water. Besides these walks there are, within the town, two promenades, the one called the Jungfernstieg (young ladies' walk), along the south side, and the other, called the New Jungfernstieg, along the west side, of the Binnen Alster basin.

Until the fire in 1842 the Altstadt of Hamburg consisted of narrow, crooked, and dirty streets, lined with large, lofty, and gloomy houses, inhabited even by the better classes, while the lower classes were densely crowded into courts, closes, and cellars. At that time, however, about a third part of the city was destroyed, and advantage has been taken of the calamity to introduce various improvements in the new buildings, to widen the streets, to establish water-works, form sewers, and fill up ditches. The public buildings are not worth notice as objects of architectural or artistic interest. The council-house and the bank, both destroyed at the time of the fire, have been rebuilt in better style, and the church of St Nicholas, also destroyed, is now being restored, from a design in the Gothic style by an English architect. The finest building is the church of St Michael, erected between 1762 and 1786, which has a tower of 460 feet in height, affording an extensive view over the adjoining country, and along the Elbe, almost as far as the sea. The exchange, likewise, is a fine building in the Adolphe Platz. The charitable institutions are numerous, and some of them on a magnificent scale. The orphan-house provides for the maintenance and education of 600 children, and the apprenticing of them to useful trades. The great hospital in the suburb of St George is capable of containing about 5000 sick, and the yearly cost of supporting it is about L17,900. The schools are well conducted; there is a gymnasium or high school, and a Johanneum, an establishment of the same kind, a sort of college, both scientific and practical. There are French and German theatres, and every means is taken to satisfy the prevailing taste for music and dancing.

The manufacturing industry of Hamburg is very considerable. The principal branches consist of sugar-refining, spinning-mills, hat-making, linen, silk, and velvet weaving, calico-printing, snuff and tobacco manufacture, whalebone-cutting, and gold and silver smithery; but it is as the commercial entrepôt and shipping port of Northern Germany that Hamburg is most distinguished. From its position on the tideway of a river navigable for more than 500 miles from the sea, it enjoys a prodigious internal trade. Communicating by water with a great part of Prussia, and with the whole of Saxony and Bohemia, it supplies these countries with all the colonial and other foreign productions that they require, and exports in return their raw and manufactured produce. With the East Sea it is connected by canals; and now, it is connected also with Kiel, Wismar, and Rostock, by railways through Holstein and Mecklenburg, and by other railways with Berlin, Magdeburg, Brunswick, and Hanover, and other parts of Germany. The value of the merchandise imported from all parts of the world, in 1853, amounted to L32,828,590; and in 1854, to L39,247,322. The value of the exports for the same two years was respectively L31,186,268, and L36,463,665. Hamburg is consequently a great centre of money transactions, which are managed by a large number of private bankers. The trade is conducted entirely by silver, deposited by its owners in the Bank of Hamburg; and transferred by means of checks. This bank possesses no capital, and therefore neither discounts bills nor makes advances on any sort of securities. It is purely a place of deposit; and its expenses are paid by a charge on the transfers. The amount of bullion in its vaults is reckoned at about L3,000,000. The number of seagoing vessels that arrived and cleared out in 1854, with their tonnage and crews, are stated in the following table:

| From and To | No. of Ships | Burden in tons | Crews | No. of Ships | Burden in tons | Crews | |-------------|--------------|----------------|-------|--------------|----------------|-------| | Europe | 4427 | 742,155 | 34,878| 4326 | 702,723 | 33,660| | Americas | 416 | 139,083 | 5,037 | 473 | 162,862 | 5,466 | | Asia | 39 | 13,290 | 627 | 17 | 6,528 | 254 | | Africa | 13 | 3,276 | 142 | 13 | 3,822 | 152 | | Australia | 1 | 300 | 10 | 50 | 25,079 | 759 | | Totals | 4890 | 904,104 | 40,694| 4879 | 891,014 | 40,291|

The number of ships belonging to Hamburg at the end of 1854 was 456, with a burden of 159,867 tons.

Hamburg has now regular communication by steam-ships with London, Hull, Grimsby, Newcastle, Leith, West Hartlepool, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Gothenburg, and Bergen.

The government of Hamburg was formerly very aristocratic; but the great commotion of 1818 produced a change of the constitution. The government is now vested in a senate of fifteen members, of whom seven must be well acquainted with law and finance, and six with commerce. There is also a council of burgesses, consisting of 192 members, who appoint a civic committee of twenty members, to assist the senate on urgent and important business. The senate names from its own body, for its president, a first and a second burgomaster, who serve for a year, and who, if re-elected, cannot remain in office more than two years consecutively. The manner of election to these councils is very complicated, and far removed from popular suffrage and control. The public revenues are derived from various sources, and the budget for 1855 stood thus:

| Receipts | Expenditure | |---------------------------|------------------------------| | From State property ...L29,015 | Ordinary ..................L420,161 | | ... Indirect taxes .......262,659 | Extraordinary .............15,800 | | ... Direct taxes ..........60,116 | | | ... Sundry receipts ......50,124 | | | ... Special receipts .....3,867 | | | Total ....................L405,780 | Excess of expenditure .......30,181 |

Total ....................L405,780 The amount of the public debt was L4,828,477. The military force is very small; and the Hamburg contingent to the Federal army is only 1947 men.

The city and suburbs contained, in 1853, 161,390 inhabitants, of whom the greater part were Lutherans, not more than a tenth part being Catholics, Calvinists, Jews, Mennonites, and of other sects. They are divided into three classes. The first consists of the Handelstand or Träfflekers, subdivided into Kaufleute, or mercantile people, and Kramer, or retail dealers. The second class consists of the learned, such as ministers of religion, schoolmasters, lawyers, and medical practitioners. The third class consists of artisans and day labourers, the paid officers of the state, soldiers, servants, strangers, and Jews. Any one may be a merchant who chooses, but the Kramers form a corporation or guild. The officers of the state are not allowed to carry on trade; but those who are invested with honorary offices may continue their business. Of the lawyers it is not required that they should have gone through a regular course of study; but all who become members of the courts or the senate must be doctors of law. Strangers cannot possess any real property, or follow any civil profession; and the Jews, though there are nearly 10,000 of them resident in the city, cannot properly become citizens.

Early in the ninth century a castle was erected by Charlemagne on the spot where Hamburg now stands, and the place soon became of importance. In the reign of Otto IV. (1215) it was constituted a free city of the empire, and, in the year 1241, a commercial treaty between Hamburg and Lubeck formed the foundation of the powerful Hanseatic League. Shipping and trade formed always the principal objects of attention with the citizens, and they soon made their city one of the principal trading towns in the north. In 1536 the Hamburgers joined the league of Schmalkald, and the Reformed religion became fully established. Their independence was often threatened by the kings of Denmark, till, in 1768, all differences were settled, and, for a considerable sum of money, their imperial privileges fully acknowledged. During the period of French intrusion, Hamburg suffered most severely. Its trade was ruined by the English blockade, and the citizens were impoverished by forced loans to their foreign rulers. In 1810 Hamburg was annexed to the French Empire; and in 1813-14 it was in possession of a French army, under Marshal Davoust, who withstood a siege from the Allies till 31st May 1814, when it was freed from its oppressors. In 1815 it was acknowledged as one of the free cities and sovereign states of the German Confederation. Since that time its trade has increased enormously, and its population has more than doubled.

The principal place of note in the territory of Hamburg is Cuxhaven, a town of about 1000 inhabitants on the sea-coast, outside of the mouth of the Elbe. It is noted for its lighthouse, and harbour. South-east of the city is a low alluvial tract, called the Viertlinder, consisting, as the name implies, of four distinct portions, divided by rivers. They are said to rival the Egyptian Delta in fertility, and are inhabited by people of very primitive manners and habits, who marry only among themselves, and regard strangers with jealousy. They are said, however, to be very wealthy, finding in the city a ready market for all their produce.