tertaining the hope that she will wisely limit all
her future efforts to the cultivation of the arts of peace and
civilization. From Belgrade I crossed to Semlin, whence I proceeded by
steam to Vienna.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

VIENNA IN 1844[26]

Improvements in Vienna.--Palladian style--Music.--Theatres.--Sir
Robert Gordon.--Prince Metternich.--Armen
Ball.--Dancing.--Strauss.--Austrian Policy.

Vienna has been more improved and embellished within the last few
years than during the previous quarter of a century. The Graben and
the Kohlmarket have been joined, and many old projecting houses have
been taken down, and replaced by new tenements, with the facades put
back, so as to facilitate the thoroughfare. Until very lately, almost
every public building and private palace in Vienna was in the
Frenchified style of the last century, when each petty prince in
Germany wished to have a miniature Versailles in his village capital.
All the new edifices are in the Palladian style; which is suitable,
not only to the climate, but to the narrow streets, where Greek
architecture would be lost for want of space, and where the great
height of the houses gives mass to this (the Palladian) style, without
the necessity of any considerable perspective. The circumstance of
many of the architects here being Italian, may probably, in some
measure, account for the general adoption of this style. It is
singular, that although Vienna possesses in St. Stephen's one of the
most beautiful specimens of Gothic architecture, not a single edifice
in this taste of recent date is to be seen, although a revival of it
is noticeable in several other parts of Germany.

Music is one of the necessaries of existence in Vienna, and the
internal consumption is apparently as great as ever: there is
now-a-days no Mozart or Haydn to supply imperishable fabrics for the
markets of the world; but the orchestras are as good as ever. The
Sinfonia-Eroica of Beethoven catching my eye in a programme, I failed
not to renew my homage to this prince of sweet and glorious sounds,
and was loyally indignant on hearing a fellow-countryman say, that,
though rich in harmony, he was poor in melody. No; Beethoven's wealth
is boundless; his riches embarrass him; he is the sultan of melody:
while others dally with their beauties to satiety, he wanders from
grace to grace, scarce pausing to enjoy. Is it possible to hear his
symphonies without recognizing in them the germs of in