stein, Mecklenburg, &c., and near the Alps. Gentlemen's country seats are confined to a few districts, of which the favourite ones seem to be-the Rheingau-the environs of Constance - Holstein- Mecklenburg and PomeraniaSilesia, western part-and, of course, the neighbourhood of some of the towns. Among the finest are-] -Muskau, Lusatia; Pommersfelden, Franconia (Count Schönborn); Johannisberg, Nassau; Königswart, Bohemia (Prince Metternich); Heiligenberg, Baden (Prince Fürstenberg); Eisgrub, Moravia (Prince Liechtenstein); Waldleiningen, Osenwald (Prince Leiningen); Heubach, on the Maine (Prince Löwenstein). B. HISTORY.-The German nations were never conquered by the Romans: at the grand migration they, on the contrary, broke down the Roman empire, and prevailed in Italy, Spain, France, and England. The Germanic Empire, founded by Charlemagne, A.D. 800, was dissolved under Francis II., who, in 1806, exchanged the title of Emperor of Germany for that of Emperor of Austria, confining himself to his hereditary dominions -Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, &c. In the olden time the Germanic Empire was a league of barons, counts, and dukes. Seven of the most powerful (nine in later times) bore the titles of Electors, from their privilege to elect the Emperor. The Electors were the Archbishops of Mayence (the Archbishop and Archchancellor of the Empire), Treves, and Cologne; the Palatine of the Rhine, Arch-steward of the Empire; the Margrave of Brandenburg, Arch-chamberlain; the Duke of Saxony, Arch-marshal; and the King of Bohemia, Arch-cupbearer to these were afterwards added Bavaria (1623) and Hanover (1692). At first those nobles held their dominions merely as vassals of the Empire; in course of time they kept them by inheritance. Nearly the same occurred with the title and office of Emperor (although the form of election was observed to the last); and it continued, almost uninterruptedly, in the Habsburg family, longer than in any other, from 1273 to 1806. After the extinction of the line of Charlemagne the Emperors were chosen from the Saxons (in 919, Henry I. and Otho I.); from the Franks or Salians (in 1039, Henry III.); from the Suabians or Hohenstaufen (in 1152, Frederick I. and II.); from the Austrians or Habsburgs (in 1273, Rudolph I., Maximilian I., Charles V., and Joseph II.); of whom, those named are the most distinguished. The long line of 50 Emperors exhibits not one tyrant, nor did any one of them fall by the fury of the people. The Empire was by far the most powerful state in Europe, extending its sway over the Netherlands, over a great part of the eastern provinces of France, over Bohemia, Hungary, and Italy. This mighty state, which had existed paramount in Europe longer than any in ancient or modern times, in spite of the dangerous system of elected instead of hereditary Emperors, received its death-blow from the discord which followed the Reformation. It sickened, undermined through foreign jealousy; till, divided as it had been, it was dissolved under the influence of Napoleon. The more powerful princes, who, at the dissolution of the Empire, had with the titles of dukes and kings become independent sovereigns, afterwards coalesced together to the number of 38, Austria and Prussia at their head, 4 free towns at their tail, under the name of the German Confederation. This took place on the 8th of June 1815; and the princes had, by their ambassadors, a permanent Congress or Diet, at present at Frankfurt-on-the-Maine, in order to concert measures for the welfare or defence of their joint Fatherland. Germany, with the dependencies of Austria and Prussia, presenting the mass of 60 millions of people, in the heart of the Continent, might, if well united, always command the first position in the affairs of Europe. The Constitution of Germany of 1815 may be called an Act of Confederation, by which the princes pledged themselves to maintain each other in independence: and by the 13th article they promised their people to re-establish, or to constitute, legislative chambers! LAW. By the most ancient Germanic law, there existed a kind of parliament ("the Mayfelder"), trial by jury, and a public administration of justice. The Roman law has supplanted the Germanic, and is now the basis of the administration of justice-in Prussia, with important improvements by Frederick II. In the Rhenish provinces of Prussia, Hesse, Bavaria, on the left bank of the Rhine, the Code Napoleon, with open courts and trial by jury, is still in force, and rooted in the attachment of the people. The same Code has partly been adopted by some of the southern states. Education.-The Germans flatter themselves that scientific education is more universally diffused amongst them than anywhere else. They possess 23 Universities; scarcely a town of some odd thousand inhabitants is without a lycæum, where, besides the ancient, the modern languages, history, geography, mathematics, &c., are taught. The people are actually obliged to send their children to school up to a certain age. The national education and medical affairs are not left to chance or free trade, but are everywhere placed under the care of an especial minister of state. Prussia here takes the lead again. The system of the German Universities is radically bad. The professors are not placed in a state of independence, and must court popularity by advocating political opinions which may make them popular among their pupils. They too often become bad politicians, and few of them possess even the groundwork for the career of men of the world-common sense. Their pupils take advantage of their release from home-influence to commit all sorts of childish extravagances. Oxford and Cambridge have many detractors-at least the members of our universities, on the whole, are gentlemen, and will well support (with all the faults that can be alleged against them) a comparison with German students. They delight neither in swilling beer, wearing jack boots and goat's beard, nor in taking part with the mob in revolutionary riots, bad imitatations of the Faubourg St. Antoine-excesses which would be properly coerced by the exercise of the ferule. Character of the Germans.-Tacitus, even in his time, praises them for their bravery, good faith, good nature, and chastity. Their bonhomie has been ridiculed by the French, perhaps from their too great simplicity or modesty of deportment, and the negligence they are apt to show to externals. The Southern Germans are perhaps more guilty of this than the Northern, but then they possess more cheerfulness, and hilarity too, than the latter. They are sober, religious without austerity or show, moral and generous, and of persevering industry and steadiness. With them the most rigid economy must be and is observed, as, by the old Germanic law of inheritance, property is equally distributed amongst the children. The translator of Schiller's "Song of the Bell," a beautiful picture of German life, lays particular stress upon-"The serious character of a people who begin the common business of every-day life with prayer, who attach importance as well to the manner of performing an action as to the action itself,-the custom of travelling, either in their own or in foreign countries, in the interval between the completion of their education and their settlement in life,—the household manners, where great attention is paid to the minutiae of domestic economy." Society is very pleasant, the Germans being frank and sociable, and as, from the constant divisions of property, there are not such vast differences between man and man as elsewhere, most have a little, few too much. Their general information, the resources drawn from their passion for reading (about 8000 books are annually published), their love of music, furnish ample materials for rational entertainment. Perhaps an additional charm of domestic life is the kindly apostrophe of Du (thou), amongst the members of a family, old friends, and schoolfellows; which endearing term marks the more intimate circle of society. We conclude with some of the great names in literature and the fine arts. Natu Klopstock (1748), Lessing, Gessner, Wieland, Gleim, Gellert, Voss, Bürger, In Painting, Germany maintains a very respectable position with the following names: Lucas Kranach (1472), Schoreel, A. Dürer, Holbein, Hemling, Rubens, Lingelbach, Ostade, Kraft, Mengs; and the living artists, Overbeck, Rottman, Cornelius, Hess (two), Schnorr, Krüger, Bendemann, Lessing, Hildebrand, Kaulbach, Steinle, Magnus. Sculptors are P. Vischer (1500), Dannecker, Rauch, Tieck, Schaller, Schwanthaler, and As for Music, Germany claims the palm for the family Bach, Handel, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Winter, the Rombergs, Fesca, Weigl, Weber, Hummel, Ries, Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Spohr, Marschner, Lindpaintner, Mayseder, Strauss. German Inventions are Gunpowder, by Berthold Schwartz at Freiburg, 1348. The air-pump, by Guericke at Magdeburg, 1650. Lithography, by Senefelder, at Munich, 1800. Steam-press, by König, 1812. The two greatest blessings Germany conferred upon the rest of Europe areThe Art of Printing, by Gutemberg, at Mentz, 1436; The Reformation, by Luther, at Wittenberg, 1517.-A. J. n. For a history of the countries upon the Rhine under the Romans, and during the middle ages, see Vogt, Rheinische Geschichten und Sagen, 3 vols. 8vo. Frankfurt-a-M. 1817. 40. SOME PECULIARITIES OF German MannERS. A fondness for titles, orders, and high-sounding forms of address, which was ever the characteristic of the Germans, though perhaps less intense than formerly, has by no means yet disappeared. The German is scarcely happy until he can hang a little bit of striped riband from his button-hole, and every effort of interest and exertion is made to increase the number of them, and of the crosses and stars which dangle from them. This is the eagerly coveted object of every placeman. "There are two things," says the Eckensteher, "that a Beamte cannot avoid-Death, and the third class of the Red Eagle." At one of the diplomatic meetings during the Congress at Vienna, when all the members were assembled in the hall of conference, a foreign envoy approached Prince Metternich, and begged him to point out Lord Castlereagh. The Prince indicated to him the English minister, who wore neither star nor uniform. "Comment?" said the doubting diplomatic; "il n'a pas de décoration ?"-"Ma foi," replied Prince Metternich, "c'est bien distingué.” One habit of German society, which cannot fail sometimes to occasion a smile to an Englishman, though it costs him some trouble to acquire it, is the necessity of addressing everybody, whether male or female, not by their own name, but by the titles of the office which they hold. To accost a gentleman, as is usual in England, with Sir (Mein Herr), if not considered among the Germans themselves as an actual insult, is at least not complimentary; it is requisite to find out his office or profession. Madame and Mademoiselle, addressed to German ladies, are equally terms of inferiority. The commonest title to which everybody aspires is that of Councillor (Rath), which is modified and extended by various affixes and prefixes: there is a rath for every profession an architect is a Baurath; an advocate a Justizrath, &c. &c.; and a person with no profession at all contrives to be made a Hofrath (court councillor), a very unmeaning title, which is generally borne by persons who were never in a situation to give advice to the court. The dignity of Staatsrath (privy councillor) is given to members of the administration; some real dignity is attached to it, and the persons bearing it are further addressed by the title of excellency. The title Professor is much abused, as it is certainly appropriated by many persons who have no real claim to it by their learning or office. It is better, in conversing with a German, to give a person a rank greater than he is entitled to than to fall beneath the mark. Geheimrath, for example, is higher than Professor. It is upon this principle that an Englishman is sometimes addressed by the common people, to his great surprise, as Herr Graf (Mr. Count), and often as Euer Gnaden (Your Grace). "Every man who holds any public office, should it be merely that of an under clerk, with a paltry salary of 401. a year, must be gratified by hearing his title, not his name. Even absent persons, when spoken of, are generally designated by their official titles, however humble and unmeaning they may be. The ladies are not behind in asserting their claims to honorary appellations. All over Germany a wife insists upon taking the title of her husband, with a feminine termination. There is Madame general-ess, Madame privy councillor-ess, Madame daybook-keeper-ess, and a hundred others."-RUSSEL. Read and see Kotzebue's amusing ridicule of this, in his Comedy called Die Deutschen Kleinstädter. These titles sometimes extend to an almost unpronounceable length; only think, for instance, of addressing a lady as Frau Oberconsistorialdirectorin (Mrs. Directress of the Upper Consistory Court). This may be avoided, however, by substituting the words Gnädige Frau (Gracious Madame) in addressing a lady. It must at the same time be observed, that this fondness for titles, and especially for the prefix von (of, equivalent to the French de, and originally denoting the possessor of an estate), is, to a certain extent, a vulgarity from which the upper classes of German society are free. The rulers of Germany take advantage of the national vanity, and lay those upon whom they confer the rank under obligation; while they, at the same time, levy a tax upon the dignity proportionate to its elevation; thus a mere Hofrath pays from 30 to 40 dollars annually, and the higher dignities a more considerable sum. If, however, the title is acquired by merit, no tax is paid, but merely a contribution to a fund for the widows and children of the class. Certain forms and titles are also prefixed on the address of a letter: thus a Count of the high nobility and ancient empire must be addressed Erlaucht (Illustrious); a Count of the lesser noblesse, Hochgeborener Herr (High-born Sir); a baron and a minister, even though not of a noble birth, is called Hochwohlgeboren; a merchant or roturier must content himself with being termed Wohl(well) geboren; while Hochedel (high noble) is ironically applied to tradesmen. "In one respect, in Germany, I think politeness is carried too far-I mean in the perpetual act of pulling off the hat. Speaking ludicrously of it, it really becomes expensive, for, with a man who has a large acquaintance in any public place, his hat is never two minutes at rest."-NIMROD'S Letters from Holstein. A curious instance of the extent to which this practice of bowing is carried occurred to the writer in a small provincial town in the S. of Germany. At the entrance of the public promenade in the Grande Place he observed notices painted on boards, which at first he imagined to contain some police regulations, or important order of the magistracy of the town; upon perusal, however, it proved to be an ordonnance to this effect:-"For the convenience of promenaders, it is particularly requested that the troublesome custom of saluting by taking off the hat should here be dispensed with." It is not to friends alone that it is necessary to doff the hat, for, if the friend with whom you are walking meets an acquaintance to whom he takes off his hat, you must do the same, even though you never saw him before. German civility, however, does not consist in outward forms alone, and a traveller will do well to conform, as soon as possible, to the manners of the country, even down to the mode of salutation, troublesome as it is. If he continue unbending, he will be guilty of rudeness and on entering any public office, even the office of the schnellposts, the underlings of the place, down to the book-keeper, will require him to take off his hat, if he does it not of his own accord. An English traveller repaired to the police-office at Berlin to have his passport signed, and, having waited half an hour, said to the secretary to whom he had delivered it, "Sir, I think you have forgotten my passport." "Sir," replied the man of office, "I think you have forgotten your hat!" In thus recommending to travellers the imitation of certain German customs, it is not meant, be it observed, to insist on the practice prevalent among the German men of saluting their male friends with a kiss on each side of the cheek. It is not a little amusing to observe this, with us feminine, mode of greeting, exchanged between two whiskered and mustachioed giants of the age of 50 or 60. Smoking is a most important branch of the business of life of almost every German of every condition; and to say the truth, I am rather inclined to think it a good thing for the common people. If they did not smoke, they would probably drink more."-Lord Dudley. Universal as is the practice of smoking throughout Germany, it is entirely prohibited by the police in the streets of the great capitals; and persons ignorant of this regulation, or wilfully infringing it, are often stopped by the sentinels on duty, and compelled to remove the pipe or cigar from their mouths. Public Gardens and Taverns.-The outskirts of every German town abound in gardens and houses of public recreation, whither the inhabitants, not merely of the lower orders, but of the most respectable classes also, repair on summer afternoons, and especially on Sunday, to breathe the fresh air and forget the cares of business in the enjoyment of coffee, ices, beer, and the never-absent pipe. A band of excellent music is not wanting; indeed it forms the great attraction, and is usually advertised in the papers for a day or two beforehand; it performs for the entertainment of high and low, and the exciting tones of the waltz seldom fail to originate a dance, in which the citizens' wives and daughters, with their husbands and sweethearts, whirl round for hours in the dizzy maze. It is true the time when these places are most frequented, and when the music and dancing are kept up with the greatest spirit, is the Sunday afternoon, which may, perhaps, shock the feelings of an English or Scotch man, accustomed to the rigorous Sabbath-keeping of his own country. A dispassionate examination, however, of the two systems, and of the effects produced by each, will probably induce him to pause before he gives unqualified approbation and preference to that of his own country. |