of the best description, was let to a dairyman at 368. per year. The owner told him he valued them at 75s. per head, and thought the average weight of the butter from each, the calf being taken from the mother when ten days old, was about 120 lbs. each year. The variation in the price of cows is much greater than in that of sheep, according to their race, to the soil on which they are pastured, and to the distance from large towns requiring supplies of milk and butter. The price of hay varies, according to the situation and quality, from 14s. to 20s. the ton. Tares.-The general burdens of the state in Prussia are the subject of complaints among all classes; and although they may appear to us to amount to a very small sum, rated by the number of persons, they must be considered heavy in a country so destitute of little other capital than that of land, now vastly depreciated in value. The whole taxes in Prussia amount to about 10s. per head; but the effective value of money, in exchange for commodities, may be considered to be double what it is with us.

The land is divided into six classes, the rent of the lowest of which is estimated to be about 7d. per acre, and that of the highest about 4s. an acre. On this amount the grund steuer or land tax is twenty-five per cent., and averages in the three maritime provinces somewhat less than 3d. per acre. The gross amount collected in the three provinces annually, according to Hassel, is about £265,000 sterling. The local taxes do not fall wholly on the land. That for the disabied soldiers, and the families of such as fell in the conflicts, is in part borne by the cities and towns, though the chief weight falls on the land. The same, in some measure, is the case respecting the tax for roads, bridges, schools, and the poor. These are various in different districts, so that it is impossible to form any general estimate of their amount. In some parts of the country they appear to be equal to the grund steuer; in others higher; and in others they do not amount to one-tenth. Among the cultivators there is much complaint of the heavy tax on the distilleries.

The military service is extremely onerous throughout Prussia, as every young man is compelled to serve three years, from the age of twenty to twenty-four, as a soldier. This, though not precisely a tax, and not peculiar to the agricultural class, is a burden which perhaps presses as much on the productive industry of the country as the heavier taxes that are collected in other countries. To this must be added the quartering of the troops, who are billeted on private houses; and, however well discipline may be maintained amongst them, must be a great annoyance, and in most cases an expense, which, though apparently trifling in amount, becomes weighty to those whose means of supporting it are small. In a country where four-fifths of the inhabitants subsist wholly by producing food, and depend for the conveniencies besides bare food on the price which they can obtain for their surplus, the low rate at which that surplus can be disposed of must be felt and observed in every rank of society.

The scale of living in the country we are con

sidering corresponds with the low prices of the objects in which their labor is employed. The working class of the inhabitants, amounting in the maritime provinces to upwards of 1,000,000, including both those who work for daily wages and those who cultivate their own little portions of land, cannot be compared to any class of persons in England. This large description of the inhabitants live in dwellings provided with few conveniencies, on the lowest and coarsest food; potatoes, or rye, or buck wheat, are their chief, and frequently their only food; linen, with flax of their own growth, and wool, spun by their own hands, both coarse and both worn as long as they will hold together, furnish their dress; whilst an earthen pot that will bear fire forms one of the most valuable articles of their furniture. As fuel is abundant they are warmed more by close stoves than by the shelter of their wooden or mud houses covered by shingles, which admit the piercing cold of the severe weather through abundant crevices. If they have bees and a plot of chicory, their produce serves as a substitute for sugar and coffee; but too often these must be sent to market to raise the scanty pittance which the tax-gatherer demands. Though the price of whiskey is low, yet the farm produce is still lower; and neither that, nor the bad beer which is commonly brewed, can be afforded by the peasantry as a usual drink. In common seasons this description of people suffer much in the winter; but in times of scarcity, such as followed the disastrous harvest of 1816, their distress and their consequent mortality is increased.

Since the acquisition of the Rhenish provinces, wine is one of the most important of the Prussian products. They yield various kinds of a good quality; and the average quantity is estimated at 100,000 hogsheads.

The Prussian horses differ little from those of the adjacent districts, but are generally considered as inferior to the Polish: for the Prussian cavalry are chiefly supplied from that country. The domestic cattle are likewise the same as in the other parts of Northern Germany. Silesia, Saxony, and the provinces near the Rhine, are the best adapted for supporting a superior breed of sheep; and the increase of Merinos has greatly augmented both the quantity and quality of the wool yielded by these districts. M. Krug has lately given the following estimate of the live stock in the entire Prussian States; viz.

Saxony; but the expense of conveyance prevents the use of the latter for fuel. Amber is found in several parts of Prussia Proper. The whole annual value of mineral produce in the states is about £2,000,000.

Timber can be exported only from the vicinity of rivers or canals. Hops, in like manner, are confined to particular districts. Westphalia has long been noted for its hams; Pomerania for its poultry. Game is abundant in many parts. The fisheries are confined to the shores of the Baltic, the lakes, and the mouths of the great rivers. The general use of coffee, and the notion that the import of large quantities of it from abroad was a disadvantage, induced certain individuals, so far back as the year 1780, to attempt to find a substitute for it. Several plants were tried; among which the root of succory was most successful, and is now cultivated to a great extent to mix with coffee.

Weaving is the general employment of the lower orders in Silesia and Westphalia, long noted for their linens, also in no small degree, in Pomerania. Woollens are inade, more or less, in almost every town or large village: in some parts of Silesia, and of the province of the Lower Rhine, they are manufactured in great quantities. Cotton manufactures are of recent introduction, and are found chiefly near the Rhine, at Berlin, at Erfurt, at Elberfeld, and in particular quarters of Silesia. These and hardware are the only fabrics carried on in collective establishments; the Prussian linens and woollens being both made by individuals in their cottages. Next in importance is the leather manufacture, then earthenware, glass, paper, tobacco, starch, potash, and vitriol. Brewing is also a pursuit of considerable importance.

Possessing on the Baltic the ports of Dantzic, Konigsberg, Memel, and Stralsund, the commerce of Prussia has kept fully pace with her interior cultivation; and the maintenance of neutrality during so many years of war between Britain and France (from 1795 to 1806) was highly favorable to it. Subsequently, however, it suffered greatly, particularly in 1810, 1811, 1812, ard has recovered but slowly. The last century was in Prussia the era of monopolies: one company had the exclusive right of manufacturing and selling tobacco; another were the sole importers of salt; while a third had a contract to supply Potsdam with firewood. Another abuse, remedied only since 1818, was the tax levied on the introduction of merchandise from one province of the kingdom to another. A third, and one not within the control of the government, is the heavy transit duty levied by the Dutch and Hanoverian governments on foreign goods imported by the Rhine, on the Ems and the Weser. The result is, that the commerce of Prussia, though conducted under many advantages, both maritime and inland, is in an early stage. The value of goods annually exported differs under different circumstances, but the great article of linen is steady in amount. The whole may probably be averaged between £7,000,000 and £8,000,000 sterling, or about a seventh of the exports of England. They consist, in addition to linen, of woollens and hard

ware, corn, wool, timber, pitch, tar, potash, lintseed, tobacco, wax; horses, horned cattle, hogs, salt meat, and, from a few maritime towns, the produce of the fisheries. Distilled spirits are also, like corn, an article of export from the eastern part of the kingdom. The imports comprise coffee, cotton, sugar, tea, and other produce of the colonies; the wines, silk, fruit, and baysalt of the south of Europe, printed cotton, and the finer hardware, tin, furs, and dye-stuffs. The chief trade takes place with Great Britain, whither Prussia sends her corn, and takes in return manufactures and colonial goods.

The religion of the royal family, and of the majority of the population of Prussia, is the Calvinist; but Christians of all denominations are admitted, on an equal footing, to public employments The year 1817, the 300th anniversary of the reformation, was remarkable for the union of the Calvinists and Lutherans of the Prussian dominions, and of some other parts of Germany, into one religious community, under the name of Evangelical Christians. The relative number of the different creeds is thus stated, Calvinists and Lutherans Catholics

Jews
Baptists
Moravian brethren
Unitarians, Pietists, and members of
the Greek church

6,600,000

3,600,000

75,000

14,000

7,000

4,000

The elementary schools in Brandenburg, Saxony, and part of Prussia Proper, are numerous, and well conducted. Silesia has also much improved in the means of education since the middle of last century; but in other parts of the kingdom, particularly where the majority are Catholics, the government has as yet been unable to introduce much reform. The universities are those of Berlin, Halle, Breslau, Konigsberg; and here, and at Dantzic, Magdeburg, and a number of other towns, are academies (under the name of gymnasia, colleges, or high schools), in which are taught the classics and mathematics, the modern languages, drawing, &c. There are also, in the large towns, schools of surgery and midwifery distinct from the universities; but for the study of medicine, in a comprehensive sense, Vienna is the great resort of all Germany. Frederick II. established an academy of sciences at Berlin, and associations of a similar nature, but on a smaller scale, are established in most of the great towns.

Frederick II. also introduced the liberty of the press to that degree which led to the production of a number of books disfigured by declamation and extravagance. Others were, however, of a different character, and full of useful information. The result was the formation of that spirit of freedom which has for some time back caused great disquietude to the executive, and produced, in 1819, the restrictive enactments of the congress of Carlsbad. It is said that some of the best writers in the Prussian dominions have been Jews.

Several of the kings of Prussia have been economists. The father of Frederick II., with a revenue of only £1,200,000, found means to leave at

ments. From this period nothing important occurred till 1594, when, John Sigismund of Brane denburg, having married Anne the only daughter of Albert duke of Prussia, that duchy was joined to the electorate, with which it has continued united ever since; and gave pretensions to the countries of Juliers, Berg, Cleves, Marck, Ravensburg, and Ravenstein, to the succession of which Anne was heiress.

Sigismund died in 1619, and was succeeded by his son George William; during whose government the electorate suffered the most miserable calamities. At this time a war commenced between the Protestants and Catholics, which lasted thirty years. The former, although leagued together, were on the point of being utterly destroyed by the Imperialists under Tilly and Wallenstein, when Gustavus Adolphus turned the scale in their favor, and threatened the Catholic party with utter destruction. But by his death, at the battle of Lutzen, the fortune of war was once more changed. At last, however, peace was concluded; and, in 1640, the elector died, and was succeeded by his son Frederick William. This young prince, though only twenty years of age at his succession, applied himself to repair the losses and devastations occasioned by the dreadful wars which had preceded. He received the investiture of Prussia personally from the king of Poland, on condition of paying 100,000 florins annually, and not making truce or peace with the enemies of that crown. His envoy likewise received the investiture of the electorate from Ferdinand III. The elector now concluded a truce for twenty years with the Swedes, who evacuated the greatest part of his estates, concluded a treaty with the Hessians, who delivered up a part of the duchy of Cleves; and obtained of the Hollanders the evacuation of other cities. In the mean time the powers of Europe began to be weary of a war which had continued for so long a time with such unrelenting fury. The conferences were opened at Osnaburg and Munster, in 1645. France demanded that Pomerania should be ceded to Sweden, as an indemnification for the expenses which the war had cost Gustavus Adolphus; but, though the empire and the elector refused to give up Pomerania, it was at last agreed to give up to the Swedes Hither Pomerania, with the isles of Rugen and Wollin, and some other cities; in return for which, the bishoprics of Halberstadt, Minden, and Camin, were secularised in favor of the elector, and ceded to him, with the lordships of Hochenstein and Richenstein, and the reversion of the archbishopric of Magdeburg. Thus was the treaty of Westphalia concluded in 1648, which so long served as a basis for all the possessions and rights of the German princes. The elector then concluded a new treaty with the Swedes, for the regulation of limits, and for the acquittal of some debts; and next year the electorate, Pomerania, and the duchy of Cleves, were evacuated by the Swedes. Notwithstanding these treaties, however, the Swedes soon after invaded Pomerania, but were entirely defeated by the elector near Fehrbellin; with the loss of 3000 killed, and many prisoners. He pursued his victory, gained many advantages over the

So

Swedes, and took the cities of Stralsund and Gripswald. On this the Swedes, to oblige the elector to evacuate Pomerania, which he had almost totally subdued, invaded Prussia, from Li vonia, with 16,000 men; burnt the suburbs of Memel, and took Tilse and Insterburg. The elector, to oppose the invaders, left Berlin on the 10th of January, 1679, at the head of 9000 men. The Swedes retired at his approach, and were very much harassed by his troops. successful indeed was Frederick on this occasion, that the Swedes lost almost one-half of their army. At last, having crossed the bay of Frischehaff and Courland on the ice, he arrived on the 19th of January, with his infantry, within three miles of Tilse, the head quarters of the Swedes. The same day his general, Trefenfeldt, defeated two Swedish regiments near Splitter; and the Swedes abandoned Tilse. They were pursued into Courland by general Gortz, and defeated with such slaughter that scarce 3000 of them returned to Livonia. Yet, notwithstanding these victories, the elector, pressed by the victorious generals of France, Turenne and Conde, was obliged to make peace with the Swedes. The conditions were, that the treaty of Westphalia should serve for a basis; that the elector should have the property of the customs in all the ports of Further Pomerania, with the cities of Camin, Gortz, Griessenburg, and Wildenbruck; while he gave up to the Swedes all that he had conquered from them. Frederick William passed his last years in peace. His great qualities had rendered him respected by all Europe, and had even reached Tartary, whence he received an embassy courting his friendship. From 1684 to 1686 he received into his dominions 20,000 Protestants who fled out of France, after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, and who introduced new arts and manufactures, that were of the utmost benefit to the country. By this, however, he disobliged Louis XIV., for which reason he concluded an alliance with the emperor; and, having furnished him with 8000 troops against the Turks in Hungary, the empe ror ceded to him the circle of Schwibus in Silesia. In 1688 the elector Frederick William died, and was succeeded by his son Frederick III.

This elector was remarkably fond of show and ceremony; and the great object of his ambition seemed to be the regal dignity. To obtain this, he joined with the emperor in the alliance against France in which he was engaged by our William III. He also yielded up the circle of Schwibus, which had been given to his predecessor; and, in 1700, obtained from the emperor that dignity which he had so earnestly desired. The chief terms on which it was obtained were, that he should never separate from the empire those provinces of his dominions which depended on it; that he should not, in the emperor's presence, demand any other marks of honor than those which he had hitherto enjoyed; and that he should maintain 6000 men in Italy at his own expense, in case the emperor should be obliged to make war on account of the house of Bourbon's claim to the crown of Spain. Frederick I. continued all his life in strict alliance with the emperor.