If The French Since Their Revolution Have Not Always Fought For
Liberty, They Have Done So Invariably For Science; And Wherever They
Carried Their Victorious Arms, Abuses Were Abolished, Ameliorations Of All
Kinds Followed, And The Arts Of Life Were Improved.
Our Government since
the accession of George III has never raised its arm except in favor of old
abuses, to uphold despotism and unfair privileges, or to establish
commercial monopoly.
Our victories so far from being of beneficial effect
to the countries wherein we gained them, have been their curse. We can
interfere and be prodigal of money and blood to crush any attempt of the
continental nations towards obtaining their liberty; but when it is
necessary to intercede in favour of oppressed patriots, then we are told
that we have no right to interfere with the domestic policy of other
nations. We can send ships to protect and carry off in safety a worthless
Royal family, as at Naples in 1799, but we can view with heartless
indifference, and even complacency, the murders committed in Spain by the
infamous Ferdinand and his severities against those to whom he owes his
crown, all of whom had the strongest daim to our protection as having
fought with us in the same cause and contributed to our success.
The Platz at Leipzig is large and here it is that the fair is held. The
theatre is an elegant building and lies just outside one of the gates of
the city. Innumerable shops of booksellers are here and it is astonishing
at how cheap a rate printing in all languages is carried forward.
There are some pleasant promenades in the environs of Leipzig; but this is
not a time of the year to judge of the beauty of the country. I went,
however, to view the house occupied by Napoleon on the eve of the battle of
Leipzig. A monument is to be erected to the memory of Poniatowsky in the
spot where he perished.
I started from Leipzig on 7th March at eleven o'clock. I was five days en
route from Leipzig to Frankfort, tho' the distance does not exceed
forty-five German miles. I travelled in the diligence, but had I known that
the arrangements were so uncomfortable, I should have preferred going in a
Landkutsche, which would have made the journey in seven days and afforded
me an opportunity of stopping every night to repose; whereas in the
diligence, tho' they go en poste, they travel exceedingly slow and it is
impossible to persuade the postillion to accelerate his usual pace. He is
far more careful of his horses than of his passengers. This I however
excuse; but it is of the frequent stoppages and bad arrangement of them
that I complain. Instead of stopping at some town for one whole night or
two whole nights out of the five, they stop almost at every town for three,
four and five hours; so that these short stoppages do not give you time
enough to go to bed and they are besides generally made in the day time or
early in the morning and evening. We passed thro' the following cities and
places of eminence, viz., Lutzen; the spot where Gustavus Adolphus was
killed is close to the road on the left hand with a plain stone and the
initials G.A. inscribed on it. Weimar is a very neat city and where I
should like much to have staid; but I had only time to view the outside of
the Palace and the Stadthaus. Erfurt and Gotha are both fine looking
cities. In Gotha I had only time to see the outside of the Residenz
Schloss or Ducal Palace, which is agreeably situated on an eminence, and
to remark in the Neumarkt Kirche the portrait of Duke Bernard of Saxe
Weimar and the monuments of the princes of that family. At Erfurt there is
the tomb of a Count Gleichen who was made prisoner in the Holy Land, in the
time of the Crusades, and was released by a Mahometan Princess on condition
of his espousing her. The Count was already married in Germany and there he
had left his wife; but such was his gratitude to the fair Musulmane, that
he married her with the full consent of his German wife and they all three
lived happily together. Fulda, where we stopped four hours, appears a fine
city, and is situated on an eminence commanding a noble view of a very
fertile and extensive plain. The Episcopal Palace and the churches are
magnificent, and the general appearance of the town is striking. The
Bishopric of Fulda was formerly an independent ecclesiastical state, but
was secularised at the treaty of Luneville and now forms part of the
territory of Hesse-Cassel.
The Feld-zeichen of Hesse-Cassel is green and red. After passing thro'
Hanau, where we halted three hours, which gave me an opportunity of viewing
the field of battle there, we proceeded to Frankfort and arrived there at
twelve o'clock the 12th of March. I put up at the Swan inn. In summer
time the country about Fulda and in general between Fulda and Frankfort
must be very pleasing from the variety of the features of the ground. We
lived very well and very cheap on the road. The price of the diligence from
Leipzig to Frankfort was eleven Reichsthaler.
After remaining three days to repose at Frankfort I took my place to
Mayence and from thence to Metz and Paris. In the diligence from Mayence
and indeed all the way to Paris I found a very amusing society. There were
two physicians and M. L[emaitre], a most entertaining man and of
inexhaustible colloquial talent; for, except when he slept, he never ceased
to talk. His conversation was however always interesting and entertaining,
for he had figured in the early part of the French Revolution and was well
known in the political and litterary world as the editor of a famous
journal called Le Bonhomme Richard.[129]
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