PREFACE. XXV 



sist the first steps towards similar dangers, it would 

 have been a kinder and more statesman-like act to 

 have pointed out to her government how she might 

 profit by what is good in England without falling 

 into the delusions by which we have been beguiled. 



It is not possible for those at the head of the go- 

 vernment in Austria to tell the Emperor what is 

 best for the various provinces under him without 

 consulting them ; nor is it possible to know what 

 the real wants of the provinces are unless the inha- 

 bitants have free access and speech to the ministers. 

 Hence, as a preliminary to any improvement, is 

 the annual assembly of all the nobility or a certain 

 number of them, and representatives of, not dele- 

 gates from, the people, in order to consult for the 

 common good, and without whose concurrence no 

 law should be valid : increased life and animation 

 would then flow into the remotest parts of that im- 

 mense empire, whilst the whole power of the empire 

 would remain unimpaired. 



The best means of fostering the introduction of 

 money would be to encourage farmers from England 

 to settle upon the estates of the noblemen. In 

 England the lands are not cultivated by the pro- 

 prietors, but by another class, whose wealth is 

 equal to half that of the proprietors themselves ; for 

 example, if a farm of 300 acres be worth 10,000/., 

 the capital required to stock it would amount to 



