The professors who showed us the library, and the different museums, seemed to be men of enlightened sense and great erudition.

Knowledge, indeed, appears to be very generally dispersed: and in all the societies in which I have been thrown, I have been surprised at the information which the conversation of both the men and women displayed. The French language is universally spoken by the higher ranks; and many of them are well acquainted with the best English works.

Several British families are settled at Vienna; and for those who have reasons for preferring a residence on the continent, certainly no place can be more agreeable. They are all (I speak from experience) willing and anxious to show civilities to their countrymen, and to render them whatever services their experience and local knowledge enable them to afford.

The accommodations at inns and hotels are both bad and extravagant. Foreigners purposing to visit Vienna, ought to give directions to their correspondents to engage for them private apartments; as the number of the latter which are clean and comfortable is far from great. I am fortunate enough to inhabit an elegant set of rooms; to which I was recommended by lord M., who passed the preceding winter here. They form part of a large house

built by a speculator of the name of Millar, who exhibits a museum similar to that of Merlin in London.

The carriages manufactured at Vienna, though much inferior to those made in England, are substantial, handsome, and certainly better than any other town on the continent can produce. They are of various sortscoaches, chariots, barouches, phaetons, gigs, and sociables. Some of these are in the old French style, but others are completely à l'Anglaise. The horses are generally good; and I have seen some which even in England would be admired. The carriages of the rich are commonly drawn by four, and frequently by

six horses.

The servants wear rich liveries: and scarcely any Austrian of respectability appears with less than two footmen behind his carriage.

The style of dress is very expensive. The habit of being en grand costume at all great dinners and formal parties, obliges every per son, who does not wear a uniform, to have several suits; and I have seen some very splendid dresses. The ornaments of the ladies are equally superb, consisting of all sorts of jewels, and a rich variety of lace and other valuables.

The habit of good living extends itself even to the lower classes; and I hear, from a person

well acquainted with the subject, that a tradesman here would think himself disgraced were less than five dishes to appear every day on his

table.

Of the commerce of Vienna I know nothing; but I much doubt whether the advantages which, by means of the Danube, this town ent joys, of a communication with the east, are sufficiently estimated.

In appearance, the middling ranks are respectable. The number of miserable objects is small; and ample provision is made for those who by illness or accident are rendered incapable of work.

The population of Vienna, including the suburbs, is calculated as amounting to something less than two hundred thousand.

The police is admirably managed; but all the duties attached to it are, as in most of the towns of the continent, performed by soldiers.

I believe I have now touched, though certainly very slightly, on all those points on which I think it likely that you may wish for information. I shall now take my leave of you and of Vienna, and shall conclude this long letter by remarking, that, were I compelled to pass my life out of England, this would be the spot where I would take up my residence. Dicam quid amplius? I am not for

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getful enough of the superior happiness which my own country affords, to put any other place in comparison with Great Britain: and in giving Austria the next place in my esteem, I offer it the highest compliment which my sincerity and national pride will allow me to pay.

I am, &c.

LETTER XXXVIII.

Tiresome journey from Vienna to Dresden- Bohemia-Plain where general Daun beat the Prussians under the command of the great Frederic-Prague, and curiosities there - The watering-place of Toeplitz-Bad roads thence to DresdenApproach to that city-Arrival at Dresden.

My dear sir,

Dresden, July 3, 1803.

AFTER ten days' hard traveling, we arrived in this city last night. I found the journey so extremely tiresome, that I shall avoid as much as possible entering into a detailed account, lest I should communicate to you some of the ennui which I have myself experienced. Suffice it to say, that from Vienna to Prague the roads are execrable; that though we were not detained above five minutes at each posthouse in changing horses, and had no reason to complain of any want of zeal in the postillions, we proceeded so slowly that we spent fourteen or fifteen hours every day in our carriage, while the distance traversed in that time seldom exceeded four posts: that the inns were uniformly bad, and the landlords uncivil; while our bed at every place consisted of a truss of straw, on which we laid our own linen and blankets.