MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



467 



loaded with the prices of their 

 baskets of small merchandize, 

 which the 'soldiers would eagerly 

 purchase. Now the complaint 

 is, that every thing is stagnant — 

 the nobility poor — the merchants 

 impoverished — the manufacturers 

 ruined by their English rivals; 

 and the scantiness of expenditure 

 thus produced, is by no means 

 made up by the Ambassadors of 

 the Diet, who live with that 

 mixture of ostentation and nar- 

 rowness so common among the 

 German nobilitj'. 



The citizens, of more enlarged 

 views and consequence, whom I 

 know, are not vastly more pleased 

 with their condition. As their 

 superior wealth drew down on 

 them severer pecuniary calamities, 

 their actual condition is, they 

 admit, ameliorated; but they have 

 little or no faith in its security or 

 duration. Under the Prince Pri- 

 mate they were, at least, attached 

 to a system which could protect 

 them while it existed ; if they 

 were oppressed they had but one 

 virtual master ; they are now in 

 possession of a freedom which 

 they cannot defend — surrounded 

 by ambitious military sovereigns 

 —an isolated atom in the chaos 

 of unorganized Germanj' — with- 

 out appui or support, except in 

 their little civic trainbands, or in 

 their Excellencies, the German 

 Diet. 



The affair of Colonel Massen- 

 bach, which you have no doubt 

 read of in the papers, has put to 

 the test the value of the free 

 city's independence. The Colonel 

 took refuge in the city on being 

 pursued by the Prussian Govern- 

 ment. The Prussian Ambassador 

 at the Court of Hesse, was com- 



missioned to demand his delivery. 

 The Burgomasters hesitated, 

 deliberated, consulted with the 

 Senators, to come at last to the 

 only prudent determination — not 

 to hazard a refusal to the King of 

 Prussia. Their conduct is much 

 condemned by the citizens, who 

 consider the proceeding as the 

 first violation of their newly re- 

 gained privileges ; and no one 

 doubts that the magistrates them- 

 selves would fain have evaded the 

 summons, if a compliance had 

 not been the only politic course. 



Frankfort, for so considerable 

 a city, is by no means rich in 

 public buildings and objects of 

 curiosity. The Cathedral, a large 

 aukvvard edifice, possesses little 

 interest but in its antiquity, and 

 as the scene of the coronation of 

 the ancient emperors. The cele- 

 brated Roemer (town-house) has 

 still less architectural beauty : it 

 is an ordinary old white house, 

 on the Roemer Square, in the 

 ranks of the other buildings. In 

 a shabby office of the municipality, 

 you are shown, by one of the 

 clerks, the renowned Goldea 

 Bull; a musty parchment, settling 

 the constitution of the Empire, 

 in the time of the Emperor Fre- 

 derick II. The modern destroyer 

 of the Empire, had conveyed this 

 precious archive to Paris; but it 

 is now restored. Above is the 

 Kayser Saal, (Emperor's Saloon,) 

 a large shabby chamber, with aa 

 arched boarded roof — the scene 

 of the coronation entertainment. 

 The walls are decorated with old 

 fresco paintings of the different 

 Emperors: the last compartment 

 being singularly enough filled by 

 the figure of His present Majesty 

 of Austria. By another curious 



2 H 2 coincidence. 



