THE VINE AND CIVILISATION. 31 
Cesar, you will speedily be ruined, and driven from your 
throne, if you confide to the Church the intendance of your 
domains.’ The most eminent statesman of modern Germany, 
Mons. de Metternich, owed his eminent superiority to the 
stimulations of his wine of Johannisberg. If the people who 
compose Germany had multiplied their vines as they have mul- 
tiplied their pipes, they would long ago have raised their 
political position. 
‘* Holland is an example known to all. The Dutch have 
always drank beer as a common drink, but have always drank 
wine as an exhilarating beverage of first necessity. In the 
days of her commercial and scientific splendour she consumed 
a great quantity of wine. When a stranger presented himself 
in an honourable house, it was the custom to bring out the 
tray loaded with flagons of Bordeaux, of Spanish, and of Portu- 
guese. Even the countryman, the opulent producer of butter 
and cheese, consumed the soothing white wines of Bergerac 
and Clairac. Merchants, as a rule, at the clubs drank their 
half bottle of choice wine during the silent hours of whist and 
of ombre. 
‘**'To-day the custom of the hospitable tray has fallen into 
disuse, and is found only in some old patrician and religious 
families, who carry with them all that Holland still retains of 
its ancient manners and patriotism. Alas! their tables are 
impoverished, and are wanting in the wine that formerly 
warmed the cold and lymphatic Batavians, gladdened their 
minds, stimulated their intellects, and capacitated them for 
executing great enterprises. 
‘* Divers causes have reduced from 15,000 to 6,000 the tuns 
of wine that Holland drew from Bordeaux. Bad tariff laws, 
stupid embargoes on their ships, have offended the patriotism 
