Her decline has been referred to various causes, such as the desertion of the herrings from her shores! the accumulation of sand-banks in the different ports and rivers on the Baltic: but, more particularly, to the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope; which has been the means of diverting commerce into a new channel. Other influences have no doubt contributed, for the Hanseatic League may be compared to a luxuriant tree with the germ of decay in its root; the towns composing it, had, it is true, ports and ships, but no territories, no colonies, they were merely bazaars for the reception of merchandize; Tyre, Carthage, Venice, &c. were the same, and all experienced a similar destiny. The prosperity of England rests upon a securer basis: she has not alone an extensive territory, but numerous colonies, speaking her own language, and actuated by the same spirit of enterprise; and these will in future ages, whether they are dependent, or independent, open immense resources to the mother country.

The political institutions of Lubeck are similar to those of Hamburg, and she is, like the latter, a free town; her population, in junction with the small surrounding territory, amounts to forty thousand, and as a member of the Germanic Confederation, her military contingent is four hundred. Her commerce and manufactures have become so unimportant as scarcely to deserve mentioning; the former is confined to commission houses, and the transit of merchandize by flatbottomed boats, on the shallow rivers that surround her; and the latter to sugar refining, leather, spirituous

liquors, gunpowder, and tobacco, in all its various forms. However, the good citizens are not yet bankrupt in hope, for they anticipate a renewal of their trade when the projected rail-road shall be completed, which will unite it with Hamburg; but, it is to be wished, that it may prove a more profitable speculation than the Holstein canal: and though those rail-roads already in operation connect towns teeming with commercial activity, yet the experiment may succeed, of first making the rail-road, and then creating the commerce !

Prior to the late war, Lubeck was fortified, but in common with most German towns, her fortifications were rased by the French, and the present generation has benefitted by the misfortune of their predecessors, for the stagnant moat, with its pestilential exhalations, has been converted into an agreeable promenade. We perceive the following inscription at the entrance :"The care of these grounds is confided to public opinion;" and they could not have been entrusted to a better guardian, as the undisturbed neatness of the grounds sufficiently testify; indeed the conduct of the citizens not only when taking a promenade, but on every other occasion, evinces great attachment to good order and regularity; they breakfast, dine, and sup, at the same hour; the shops close at the same hour; and after nine o'clock in the evening, there is not a creature to be seen in the streets! They are enemies to theatrical, and to every other species of public amusement; and, as may be easily supposed, their religious opinions tend somewhat to the puritanical.

Travemünde, a small town about three leagues dis

tant, is the sea-port of the little republic. The river Trave unites it with the capital, but the advantages of its situation are rendered nugatory by an immense sand-bank, called the "Platte," which continues increasing. A packet boat sails from hence every week to Riga and St. Petersburg: the voyage is usually accomplished in from ten to fourteen days.

After leaving Travemünde, I immediately entered the duchy of Mecklenburg Schwerin, and continued my route along the coast through Wismar, formerly a most important town, and one of the best ports in the Baltic; but from the loss of commerce it has a triste appearance, and seems fast verging to decay. During the thirty years' war it was taken and retaken by the Swedes, who kept possession of it till 1803, when it was transferred by purchase to the Duke of Mecklenburg.

I was not sorry to hasten from its dreary streets to a small sea-bathing place, situated in the centre of the most picturesque scenery on the Baltic, which fully justifies the appellation of Dobberan, (beautiful town), for, as it now lay before me, with its fine old Gothie church, the castle with the ducal colours waving in the wind, the ruins of the monastery, the white houses mingled with the variegated foliage of the wooded heights, and the glimpses occasionally obtained of the sparkling waves of the Baltic, I have rarely seen a more charming landscape, in which softness is the prevailing feature. With respect to the town itself, in point of external beauty, it is much upon a level with the others in the neighbourhood of the Baltic, except

5

MONUMENT TO PRINCE BLUCHER.

27

that it is more animated during the bathing season, when, being a favourite resort of the duke, who is affable in his manners, and extremely popular, it attracts a great number of fashionable visitors. Like most German bathing places, king Faro has here also established his throne, whose subjects bring him offerings until despair and ruin too often overtake them. The environs abound in fine prospects; that seen from the summit of Dietrichshagen, is the most extensive. The eye grasps almost at a glance the greater part of the dukedom of Mecklenburg, the coast of Holstein, the islands of Rügen, Fermern, and Laland: it is even said that some eyes (mine were certainly not of the number) can discern Copenhagen.

The town of Rostock, only a few leagues distant, is interesting as being the birth place of Marshal Blucher, and for containing a fine monument erected by the inhabitants to the memory of their gallant countryman. On the front of the pedestal is inscribed

Dem Furst Blucher von Wahlstatt die Seinen.

His countrymen to Prince Blucher von Wahlstatt ;"

and on the back the following lines, which I shall endeavour to render into verse, for the gratification of those of my readers who do not understand the German:

Im Harren und Krieg,
Im Sturz und Sieg,
Bewusst und gross,

So riss er uns vom Feinde los.

"In the perils of war, or in councils' debate,
In defeat, or in victory's laurel'd repose,

He was daring, yet cool, not depressed, nor elate,
And delivered his country from tyrants and foes.”

The next thing that arrested my attention at Rostock, was the apparently superstitious veneration paid to the number seven. It has seven gates, and seven streets, the latter branching out from its handsome marketplace; seven bridges, and seven doors to the townhouse, seven bells and seven doors to Saint Mary's cathedral, and seven fine old lindens in the Rosengarten and, last of all, the number seven represents the arms of the town; which, though now shorn of its beams, was at one time of some importance, and formed part of the Hanseatic League. From its name, Rostock, (urbs rosarum) we should be inclined to suppose that the rose was here in its true home, nevertheless it appears doubtful, in this ungenial climate, if roses ever existed in sufficient numbers to justify the appellation; if they did they have certainly died of a decline, like the trade of the town, which is now merely confined to home produce, and the importation of a few colonial articles, together with the Berlin fashions for the beaumonde of Mecklenburg. Saint Mary's church is interesting, as it contains the remains of the justly celebrated Hugo Grotius.

A few leagues from hence I crossed the frontiers of Prussia. Truly this nation is much indebted to the winged creation, for they have adopted the eagle as an ensign, and they owe their colours to the magpie; not however, that either the colours or the ensign were