THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. OR Register of the Weather for Jan. 2 Letter from a Traveller at Berlin, Report refpecting Lincoln- Obfervations on Police in general; illuftrated by two very extra- Curious and interesting Extracts: and private Property are injur- archies in general, and on the State of the British Empire at the clofe of laft Century, contraft- ed to its prefent Power, Fin- 3 ib. 9 ib. 13. 16 24 26 Curious Inftances of the fafcinat- Picture of Paris at the close of - State of the BAROMETER in inches and decimals, and of Farenheit's THERMOMETER in the open air, taken in the morning before fun-rife, and at noon; and the quantity of rain-water fallen, in inches and decimals, from January 1ft to 31ft, within one mile of the Caftle of Edinburgh. Edward [ 3 ] 11-18-46 LETTER FROM A TRAVELLER AT BERLIN, [From Varietie of Literature.] Berlin, Dec.-1785. fore took extraordinary pains on this ALREADY have I been here a fubject, and often flood looking at a whole week, and have not yet written to you. One reafon was, because I thought you would hardly expect to hear from me 'fo foon upon my last, having arrived here in a much shorter fpace than I myself could have imagined. Another reafon I have to offer is, that always towards evening I have been fo fatigued with tramping about on this wretched pavement, in truth the wretchedeft I have ever trod, that it was impoffible for me to think of writing. You know my cuftom is, on coming to fome great city, to be gin by taking a view of the houses, palaces, ftreets, avenues, and public fquares; here however I made it my particular business to make my furvey with the utmost accuracy; as, when ever one hears of the remarkable ob. jects in capital cities, the elegant tyle and exterior magnificence of Berlin is fure to be cited. I there street from three to four different places; fo that, if it had been at Paris, I should certainly have been favoured with the name of un homme de cocagne. And now the refult of my obfervations is, according to my ufual fate, to find the matter otherwife than books and travellers had defcribed it to me, totally different from the general judgement. There is no want of itinerary def criptions of Germany in general, or of particular circles of it; but then these are moftly written by natives. The German, who has never been out of his country, and yet will pretend to pass a judgement on its towns and cities, can naturally only take for his ftandard the things he has met with in it, and will hold what he here has thought the most perfect of its kind, to be alfo the most perfect that can any where be produced. The Swifs think with great liA 2 berality delightful than they are at Drefden and what is the whole country when brought in comparison with what are called beautitul fpots in Switzerland, in Italy, France, and the fouthern counties of England? As to the repute in which Berlin is held for beauty, with fome allowances I fhould very willingly permit it to pals; but when it is affirmed to be the most beautiful city in the world, I cannot help thinking the account of it is much exaggerated, and that it ftands in the fame predicament with the former. Throughout Germany, Berlin is indeed the only city of its kind. Of all the cities in that extenfive region, which are fpoken of as being well-built, Manheim is too diminutive and too regular, Caffel has, in a manner, but one handfome quarter, and Drefden, befides the fine profpect a city affords in which all the houses are conftructed of hewn ftone, and, though large and fpacious, are not built in a truly grand tafte, has but little to boast of. A German therefore, who has never paffed the Alps, and perhaps never croffed the Rhine, muft neceffarily be astonished at the quantity of modern and lofty buildings, adorned with columns and pilafters, with fef toons and ftatues, he meets with at Berlin. But this is the fole caufe of his aftonishment; and if it were excited in ever fuch a multitude of perfens, Berlin would fill not be the most beautiful city in the world. berality on this point. No country has ever been fo frequently travelled over throughout, by all claffes and conditions of its inhabitants, as Helvetia; but every company that form themselves for fuch a party, endea vour whenever they can, to attach at leaft one foreigner to them, and fometimes more, whom aecident has brought thither, and who are always to be found there in the fummer feafon; and no where does a foreigner find it easier to meet with a conductor in his excurfions in the interior of a country, than there. The native is ufeful to the foreigner by his know, ledge of the topography, the language,the manners of the country: the latter enhances the pleasures of the former, inafmuch as by confidering every thing in a quite new and peculiar point of view, he gives rife to remarks, which would never have ftruck the minds of the natives. Hamburg is certainly obliged to this circumftance alone, for the extraordi. nary fame it has acquired on account of its fituation, and the beauty of the country around it, of which its inhabitants are fo proud. It is true, for a flat country, it poffeffes confiderable variety. The villages about Hamburg, which all partake of the opulence of that city, every where fhew traces of it; they are clean and wellbuilt, and manifeft a comfortable condition rarely to be found in the villages of Germany. The fcite of the eity itself, on the broad majestic Elbe, into which the Alfter flows, We need only confider it with a where they form a handfome bafin, little attention, for presently perceivdoubtless contributes not a little to ing three feveral taftes in its buildthis reputation, At the fame time, it ings. King Frederic William the first is not to be denied, that Hamburg was fond of uniformity in the highest owes fomething of it to the admira. degree, and accordingly we find it tion of the multitudes of Germans, in all that he defigned. Frederic II. who go thither from parts not very at the beginning of his reign declahighly favoured by nature, and probably have never before beheld a large river in all their lives. No man will ever perfuade me, that the banks of the Elbe at Hamburg are more red himself an admirer of the light, frivolous tafte at that time predominant in France, though he afterwards adopted the purer but fill more pompous Italian. Hence arose a mix ture, |