CHAP. xxvi. GERMANY. 309 



part are far from being in such affluent cir- 

 cumstances as to allow of any great expenditure 

 in articles of luxury. Whoever has been admitted 

 to their hospitable but homely residences, whether 

 in the city or at their country castles, must have 

 remarked the small number and the light weight of 

 the silver spoons, forks, or other articles of plate at 

 their tables, and the paucity of many of those 

 household or personal ornaments and decorations 

 which are to be seen in the dwellings of the 

 middle classes of society in England. There are, 

 indeed, in Berlin several respectable manufacturers 

 of silver goods and jewellery, and some watch- 

 makers ; there are others at Dresden, Leipsic, 

 Breslau, Munster, Elberfeld, Aix la Chapelle, 

 and Cologne, and in each of the other cities small 

 workmen; but we are disposed to estimate the 

 consumption of the north of Germany, exclusive 

 of that of Hamburg, Frankfort, and other trading 

 cities, to be less, in proportion to the population, 

 than in Austria, Bavaria, Wirtemburg, Baden, 

 and the southern divisions of that country. In the 

 Hanse towns a great quantity of plate is manu- 

 factured, and great display made of every article 

 of luxury which can ornament the persons or the 

 dwellings of the prosperous merchants and others. 

 These, however, bear but a small proportion to 

 the individuals of the countries surrounding them, 

 from the supply of whose wants, and from the 



