nd Aix-la-Chapelle; but the great
prize-shootings of this country, which flourished at the end of the
fifteenth century, were embittered by religious discord. It is
remarkable that in the countries of Lower Saxony, on the North Sea and
Baltic, where the old Hanse towns had founded such noble city unions,
the prize-shootings were less frequent and distinguished. The most
zealous supporters of them were the Swiss, Suabians, Thuringians,
Meisseners, and Silesians. With the Swiss these great festivals
attained the character of exercises of arms; they were practical and
serious; the waggish humour and the tricks of the _pritschmeister_
flourished in Middle Germany.[72] It is not accidental that in the
whole of the Protestant portion of the German empire, the power and
comfort of the citizen have been most nobly developed.

If these particulars give only a very imperfect picture of the
splendour, the opulence, and the independence which were developed in
these festivals by the German cities in ancient times, yet they will
succeed in making the reader feel, that though we have gained much in
comparison with those times, we have also lost something. Only very
lately it would have appeared hazardous to the greatest city
communities to arrange festivals which, according to our rate of
money, would cost perhaps more than fifty thousand thalers; not to do
honour to the visit of some sovereign, but for the pleasure of German
fellow-citizens, and which would last three or even five weeks, and
commit many hundreds, or even thousands of guests during this period to
the friendly hospitality, partly of individuals and partly of the city
community. It is true that time has become more valuable to us, life is
enjoyed more rapidly, and we compress into days what would have
employed our ancestors for weeks. It is true that modern men seek
recreation in summer in ways which were almost unknown three centuries
ago. They isolate themselves from the bustle and hard daily labour of
the world among mountain woods and alpine valleys; whilst our
ancestors, on the contrary, sought pleasure and refreshment in large
societies of men, and left the narrow boundaries of their walls,--the
guild room and the council hall,--for those great re-unions in which
they could gain honour and prizes by their own exertions. But it must
not be forgotten that it was just in those last two centuries in which
the great civic festivals became impossible, that many general