dency to sour the temper: Though it must be acknowledged, that it has not always the power of sweetening the very austere trunks on which it is sometimes grafted; but in a character naturally benevolent, every good disposition will be strengthened and animated by real piety. Of this I have seen a thousand instances, and I believe her Imperial majesty affords one.

LETTER XCI.

Vienna.

THE emperor is of a middle size, well made, and of a fair complexion. He has a considerable resemblance to his sister, the queen of France, which, in my opinion, is saying a great deal in favour of his looks. Till I saw something of his usual behaviour, I did not think it possible for a person, in such an elevated situation, to put every body with whom he conversed upon so easy a footing.

His manner, as I have often mentioned, is affable, obliging, and perfectly free from the reserved and lofty deportment assumed by some on account of high birth. Whoever has the honour to be in company with him, so far from being checked by such despicable pride, has need to be on his guard, not to adopt such a degree of familiarity as whatever the condescension of the one might permit, would be highly improper in the other to use,

He is regular in his way of life, moderate in his pleasures, steady in his plans, and diligent in business. He is fond of his army, and inclines that the soldiers should have every comfort and necessary consistent with their situation. He is certainly an economist, and lavishes very little money on useless pomp, mistresses, or favourites; and it is, I suppose, on no better foundation than this, that his enemies accuse him of avarice.

I cannot help regarding economy as one of the most useful qualities in a prince. Liberality, even when pushed to an imprudent length, may, in a private person, proceed from a kind of greatness of mind, because his fortune

is in every sense his own, and he can injure nobody but himself by lavishing it away. He knows that when it is gone, nobody will reimburse him for his extravagance.He seems therefore to have taken the resolution to submit to the inconveniency of future poverty, rather than renounce the present happiness of acting with a magnificen liberality and bestowing on others more than he can afford.

This is not the case with a prince.-What he squanders is not his own, but the public money.-He knows that his pomp and splendour will be kept up, and that his subjects, not he, are to feel the inconveniences of his prodigality. When I hear, therefore, that a king has given great sums of money to any particular person; from the sums given, the person who receives it, the motive for the gift, and other circumstances, I can judge whether it is well or ill disposed of; but, in either case, it cannot be called generosity.

The virtue of generosity consists in a man's depriving himself of something for the sake of another. There can be no generosity in giving to John what James must replace the next moment. What is called generosity in kings, very often consists in bestowing that money on the idle part of their subjects which they have squeezed from the industrious. I have heard a parcel of fiddlers and opera dancers praise a prince for his noble and generous behaviour to them, while men near his person, of useful talents and real worth, were distressed for bread.-The emperor certainly has none of that kind of generosity.

His usual dress (the only one indeed in which I ever saw him, except at the feast of the Knights of St. Stephen) is a plain uniform of white faced with red.-When he goes to Laxenberg, Schonbrun, and other places near Vienna, he generally drives two horses in an open chaise, with a servant behind, and no other attendant of any kind.—He very seldom allows the guard to turn out as he passes through the gate.-Nobody ever had a stronger disposition to judicious inquiry. He is fond of conversing with ingenious people.-When he hears of any person, of what

VOL. I.

Y

ever rank or country, being distinguished for any particular talent, he is eager to converse with him, and turns the conversation to the subject on which that person is thought to excel, drawing from him all the useful information he can. Of all the means of knowledge, this is perhaps the most powerful and the most proper that can be used by one whose more necessary occupations do not leave him much time for study.

He seems to be of opinion, that the vanity and ignorance of many princes are frequently owing to the forms in which they are intrenched, and to their being deprived of the advantages which the rest of mankind enjoy from a free comparison and exchange of sentiment. He is convinced, that unless a king can contrive to live in some societies on a footing of equality, and can weigh his own merit, without throwing his guards and pomp into the scale, it will be difficult for him to know either the world or himself.

One evening at the countess Walstein's, the conversation leading that way, the emperor enumerated some remarkable and ludicrous instances of the inconveniences of etiquette, which had occurred at a certain court. One person present hinted at the effectual means his majesty had used to banish every inconveniency of that kind from the court of Vienna. To which he replied, It would be hard indeed, if, because I have the ill-fortune to be an emperor, I should be deprived of the pleasures of social life, which are so much to my taste. All the grimace and parade to which people in my situation are accustomed from their cradle, have not made me so vain, as to imagine that I am in any essential quality superior to other men ; and if I had any tendency to such an opinion, the surest way to get rid of it, is the method I take, of mixing in society, where I have daily occasions of finding myself inferior in talents to those I meet with. Conscious of this, it would afford me no enjoyment to assume airs of a superiority which I feel does not exist. I endeavour therefore to please, and to be pleased; and as much as the inconveniency of my situation

will permit, to enjoy the blessings of society like other men ; convinced that the man who is secluded from those, and raises himself above friendship, is also raised above happiness, and deprived of the means of acquiring knowledge. This kind of language is not uncommon with poor philosophers; but I imagine it is rarely held by princes, and the inferences to be drawn from it more rarely put in practice.

A few days after this, there was an exhibition of fireworks on the Prater. This is a large park, planted with wood, and surrounded by the Danube, over which there is a wooden bridge. No carriages being allowed to pass, the company leave their coaches at one end, and walk. There is a narrow path railed off on one side of the bridge. Many people very injudiciously took this path, to which there is an easy entrance at one end, but the exit is difficult at the other; for only one person can go out at a time. The path therefore was very soon choked up; the unfortunate passengers crept on at a snail's pace, and in the most straitened and disagreeable manner imaginable; whilst those who had kept the wide path in the middle of the bridge, like the fortunate and wealthy in their journey through life, moved along at their ease, totally regardless of the wretched circumstances of their fellow-passengers.

Some few of the prisoners in the narrow passage who were of a small size, and uncommon address, crawled under the rail, and got into the broad walk in the middle; but all who were tall, and of a larger make, were obliged to remain and submit to their fate. An Englishman, who had been at the countess Walstein's when the emperor expressed himself as above mentioned, was of the last class. The emperor, as he passed, seeing that those of a small size extricated themselves, while the Englishman remained fixed in a very awkward situation, called out, Ah, monsieur ! Je vous aie bien annoncé combien il est incommode d'être trop grand.-A present vous devez être bien de mon avis ; -Mais comme je ne puis rien faire pour vous soulager, je vous recommende à Saint George.

There are people, who having heard of the emperor's uncommon affability, and of his total contempt of pomp and parade, of which the bulk of mankind are so much enamoured, have asserted, that the whole is affectation. But if the whole tenor of any person's words and actions is to be considered as affectation, I do not know by what means we are to get at the bottom of his real character. Yet, people who have a violent taste for any particular thing, are extremely ready to believe, that those who have not the same taste are affected.

I do not remember that I ever told you, that our friend R―, who loves his bottle above all things, and who, I believe, esteems you above all men, let me into a part your character of which I never had the smallest suspicion.

of

One day after dinner, when a couple of bottles had awakened his friendship, and laid open his heart, he took it into his head to enumerate your good qualities, and coneluded the list, by saying, that you were no milk-sop.I know what that expression imports in the mouth of R. I therefore stared, and said, I had seldom seen you drink above three glasses at a time in my life.-Nor I, said he; but take my word for it, he is too honest a fellow not to love good wine, and I am certain his sobriety is all affectation.

LETTER XCII.

Vienna.

I

RETURNED very lately from Prince Lichtenstein's house at Felberg in Austria, where I passed a few days very agreeably. The Lichtenstein family is one of the first in this country, whether considered in point of antiquity, wealth, or dignity. This prince, besides his lands in Austria, has considerable estates in Bohemia, Moravia, and that part of Silesia which belongs to the empress. Like Prince Esterhazy, he has body-guards in his own pay.I believe no other subjects in Europe retain this distinction.