d the
pride of Germany, had been severely injured in the old bad time; its
30,000 inhabitants were hardly the fifth of that community which, 300
years earlier, had mustered in fearful battle array; but the city was
still in the way to gain a modest position in the German markets, no
longer by the artistic articles of old Nuremberg, but by an extended
trade in small wares of wood and metal, in which some of the old
artistic feeling might still be perceived.

It was no better along the Rhine,--the great ecclesiastical street of
the Empire,--there lay, down the stream, the residences of three
ecclesiastical Electors in succession. In the Electorate of Mainz,
which, from olden times, had frequently maintained a great independence
within the church, two intellectual rulers had undoubtedly given an
enlightened aspect to a part of their clergy, and to the new portions
of their city; but in the old city and trades, little of the new time
was to be perceived, and the prebendaries who read Voltaire and
Rousseau were by no means an unqualified gain, at least for the
morality of the citizen. But the great Cologne was in the worst repute;
the dung-heaps lay all day in the streets, which were not lighted, the
pavement was miserable, and on dark evenings the necks and limbs of
passengers were in great danger, the roads also were insecure, filled
with idling ragamuffins. The beggars formed a great guild, counting
5000 heads; till noon they sat and lay at the church doors in rows,
many on chairs, the possession of one of which was considered as a
secure rent, and assigned as dowry to the beggar's children; when they
left their places, they went to the houses to demand food for dinner;
they were a coarse, wicked set.[32] On the whole, it is known that the
ecclesiastical rulers treated the citizens and peasants with
comparative mildness, and the military compulsion was less burdensome,
but they did little for the industry or cultivation of the people.

After them, in this respect, Bavaria was in worst repute, and no other
people since that has made such great progress; but about 1790 it was
said to be most behindhand in wealth and morals; the cities, with the
exception of Munich, looked decayed, and were poorly populated:
idleness and beggary spread everywhere; except brewers, bakers, and
innkeepers, there were no wealthy people. Even in Munich, countless
beggars loitered about, mixed with numbers of modish, dandified
officials; there w