304 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



of tlie most sumptuous and richest cities in the world, and 

 certainly the finest in the north of Europe. It is a proof of 

 that somewhat paradoxical fact, the utility of great fires. 

 Nothing, in fact, is a more effective method of beautifying 

 and improving a city than burning it down. Such was the 

 case with London in 1666, Moscow in 1812, and Hamburg 

 in 1842. Since the great fire, Hamburg seems not only to 

 comprise two cities, but two cities of different nations and 

 different periods. The old one, with its tortuous canals, 

 crenelated roofs, and multitude of windows, is completely 

 Dutch, and reminds us of the middle ages. The new one, on 

 the contrary, with its broad, straight streets, and its large 

 brick houses, is altogether modern English. 



Hamburg is not only a handsome, rich, and flourishing 

 city, but it is also a free city perhaps to this last epithet 

 she owes the former three. Yery different from her sister 

 Frankfort-on-the-Maine, completely under the control of 

 Austria and the Germanic Diet, their edicts do not extend 

 to the north of the Elbe, and this Yenice of the north is a 

 true republic, a true democracy, without court, without 

 nobility, and without privileges. 



Twenty-four senators are elected from amongst the most 

 distinguished persons in the city, and form the government, 

 the administration, and the high courts of justice. Fifteen 

 tribunes of the people, chosen by the five parishes of the 

 city, under the name of ober alien, regulate and control the 

 authority of the senate; four syndics, who exercise the 

 functions as responsible ministers of the interior, finance, 

 justice, and the army and navy ; four burgomasters, who 

 hold the executive power. Such is the simple, solid, and 

 regular organization of this primitive government. 



Hamburg owes much of her prosperity to the weakness 

 and rivalry of the little states that surround her, and to the 

 necessity felt by both England and Russia of protecting this 



