28 AGRICULTURE. 



Of the condition of this people since the year 1764 

 (and before that period it was much worse), we 

 may form an idea from the edict of Maria Theresa, 

 called the urbarium, or law of contracts between 

 landlord and tenant, by which it is declared that 

 corporeal punishment, inflicted by the master for in- 

 solent words or conduct, shall not exceed twenty- 

 four strokes with a cane for a man, and the same 

 number with a switch for a woman. Nor is the 

 commercial condition of this people better than the 

 civil ; they are not only obliged to take from Aus- 

 tria many things which they could obtain in other 

 places of a better quality and at a lower price, but 

 they are also compelled to carry to Vienna the pro- 

 ducts of their own soil and labour, where their sale 

 is embarrassed and their value lessened by heavy 

 and oppressive taxes. The same remark applies 

 to Galitia, whose natural outlet is the Vistula or 

 the Nieper ; but of these she is not permitted to 

 avail herself, and, like her sister kingdoms, is com- 

 pelled to seek the markets furnished by the Dan- 

 ube and Trieste. " The consequences are obvious ; 

 the tenant works only to satisfy hunger, and the 

 landlord is satisfied with little more than * victum et 

 vestitumj "* food and clothing. 



The amount of lands annually cultivated in Ba- 

 varia is one million one hundred and sixty-five 

 thousand acres, which produce about six millions 

 of bushels of grain, of which two millions are sur- 

 plus. The Palatinate (one of the dependancies of 

 Bavaria) is also very productive. The route between 

 Heidelberg and D'Armstadt, called the Bergstrass, 

 traverses one of the finest districts of Germany, and, 

 perhaps, of Europe ; where are seen extensive vine- 

 yards, vast meadows, and fertile fields, producing 

 wheat, barley, tobacco, madder, rhubarb, turnips, 

 &c., &c. In the year 1799, all the electoral pos- 



* Geog. Math., vol. iv., article Hungary. 



