ing the second annual report, are truly gratifying and won ART. VI.-Explanation of the Coloured Engraving. [Extract from Neale's Travels in Germany, &c.] KONINGSTEIN ON THE ELBE. D. 'INSTEAD of dwelling upon the cabinets of Dresden, the reader will be, perhaps, better pleased to be made one in a party to the hill fortress of Koenigstein, which is distant about sixteen miles up the Elbe. After passing through the village of Pirna, memorable for the surrender of the entire Saxon army to Frederick the great, during the seven years' war, we soon arrived at the foot of the rock on which the castle stands, where we left our carriages, and commenced the ascent. As soon as we reached the first gate, we were challenged by a sentinel posted on the walls above, and after a short delay received permission to approach by a very steep road cut through the 'living rock,' which reminded me of a similar, but smaller path, hewn in the rock of Dumbarton castle, in Scotland. The buildings are placed on the summit of an enormous mass of free-stone, insulated like that of Dumbarton, and hanging over the Elbe, as the latter does over the Clyde. The height is 1800 feet perpendicular, and wherever a weaker spot occurred, the rock has been blasted, and walls added, so as to render escalading impossible. There is no other approach than that before-mentioned, and all provisions, ammunition, artillery stores, &c. are lifted into the body of the fortress by means of a crane and pulleys. The works were commenced during the sixteenth century by the Elector Christian the First; succeeding monarchs have added magazines and bomb-proof casemates, and the present Elector has considerably augmented the defences and accommodations for troops. It is now an impregnable place of deposit for the archives and treasures of Saxony, and commands the passage into Bohemia by the Elbe. ART. VII.-Miscellaneous Articles. Manufactures.-[It is umbent upon the edi* journal, to observe y as to all quespolitical parties, States, or any his rule does ceive, forogency of books or ovided made Explanation of the Plate. 431 annual report, are truly gratifying and won on of the Coloured Engraving. 'cavels in Germany, &c.] anets of Dresden, the be made one in a distant about •h the vil -Ban D. en pla dion. The will probably iable exposition of s of political economy, pply to the occasion. Meanin pursuance of our original design, we insert the following essays, which have been lately communicated; repeating however the opinion formerly expressed that facts are still wanting, and that the neglect of facts, is much greater on the part of the anti-manufacturers, than on that of their opponents.] Political Economy.-There are few subjects so interesting to mankind as political economy, which is in its broad, liberal signification, the occasion of promoting national wealth and power, and individual happiness. Errors, always injurious, are above all so in political economy, and frequently destroy the energies of entire nations and blight their hap VOL. I. piness, for centuries together. Indeed a large portion of the miseries of mankind may be traced to this source. Wisdom on this point is no less prolific of advantages, than error is of misery. To multiply exemplifications is not necessary. A few of the most prominent may be worth showing. Spain and Portugal are striking and monitory examples. Blest by nature with every advantage, a wretched policy has rendered them poor and dependent for the very necessaries of life, upon the industry of other countries. Portugal affords the most instruce example, because the cause of "uin, isdistinctly ascertained, and ogress from prosperity to imhment was singularly rapid. the close of the 17th cenAllen manufactories were ned there, which supplied all demands of the country and the colonies, yielded immense wealth to the nation, and profitable employment to a considerable portion of the people. The importation of woollen goods was prohibited until a treaty was negociated in 1703, by the British Minister, Mr. Methuen, which removed the prohibition as to British woollens, which were, however, subject to a duty of twentythree per cent. Notwithstanding this duty, and the flourishing state of the manufactory, such quantities of British woollens, were thrown 1.to the market, and sold at such reduced prices, that the domestic manufacture was destroyed-the manufacturers ruined—and their workmen thrown out of employment. Mr. Methuen's treaty, (1703) by taking off the prohibition of British cloths, and by providing that nei ther these, nor any of the British woollen manufactures in Portugal, should hereafter be prohibited, was the immediate ruin of all the fabrics in that country. [British merchant, vol. 3. p. 76.] 54 We were shown a surprising well which supplies the garrison with water; it is 1700 feet in depth, and four feet in diameter, cut through solid rock, and has generally 80 feet of water standing in it. The sinking of this well was the labour of forty years; it was finished in 1553, since which time the spring has never been known to fail, and is calculated to supply a garrison of 1600 men, which the casemates will contain in the event of a siege. From this well thirty-six buckets of water are daily drawn up by means of a large wheel trodden round by four men; each draft requiring 800 steps. We drank of its waters in a wooden goblet turned by the hands of the Elector Augustus the First. Within one of the octagon towers is a dining-room occasionally visited by the Electors; it was formerly encrusted with mirrors, but these have been shivered, and partly liquified by the frequent assaults of the electric fluid during thunder storms; the tower has been lately supplied with conducting rods of metal, which have put an end to these disastrous visitations. From a window below we were shown a projecting pinnacle called pagenbetten, or the page's bed, to which a singular anecdote is attached. It is recorded that one day while the Elector John George the Second was dining in this tower, Charles Heinrich Van Grunau, one of his pages, having got excessively intoxicated, crept out from a window, and laying himself down upon the edge of the rock overhanging the Elbe, fell fast asleep. The Elector, on being shown his perilous situation, first caused him to be well secured by means of ropes, and then to be awakened by a flourish of drums and trumpets; and after permitting him to contemplate the terrific spot on which his intemperance had placed him, he was drawn up in safety to the window.' |