4

MAYENCE. ECCLESIASTICS.

nants of striking splendour; but its old Cathedral, shattered by the balls of the famous siege, in 1792, its large churches, and ruinous red Palace on the Rhine excite an interest in their desolation and decay. Stately houses half-inhabited, or occupied by chandlers' shops - handsome public buildings converted into dirty Casernes and busy Cafés-here and there a heap of ruins untouched since the bombardment-public squares presenting forlorn chasmsremind one of the better days of the city, and of the calamities which have reduced it to its present state, not of tranquil mouldering decay, but squalid ruin and degradation.

Doctor Moore, when he visited Mayence thirty years ago, remarked the elegant Abbés with their handsome equipages, and the well-behaved troops who appeared cowed and kept under by the Ecclesiastics. The Chapter and the Grenadiers have now precisely changed places. You see the meagre occupants of the plundered stalls skulking to mass in threadbare soutanes, their looks proclaiming them no longer the monopolizers of the old Hock of

MAYENCE.-MILITARY.

5

the neighbourhood; while the Austrian and Prussian soldiers, to the number of 14,000, are parading about in the insolence of military superiority. The cafés, the billiardrooms, the promenades are thronged with these smoking and swaggering guests, who impart a sort of unhallowed vivacity to the gloomy haunts of superstition and monachism. The University Building is converted to a Barracks, and Hospitals and Guard-rooms strike one at every corner. The Bishop of Mayence, appointed by the Pope and subject to the Grand Duke of Hesse, is an impoverished prelate of little consequence, rarely residing in his see; where the Governor and Generals rule supreme. The majority of the troops are now lodged in Barracks, to the great relief of the inhabitants, who are, notwithstanding, discontented with their guests. The Austrians are complained of as too stupid, and the Prussians too mechans and too proud: the former are preferred-but the fault found with both is-that they have no money to spend. at the past times of the

the countenance of the

When you hint French garrison, townsman often

1

6 MAYENCE.-PRUSSIAN AND AUSTRIAN TROOPS.

brightens: "Ah! that was a different thing. I don't know how it was-bread was half its present price-there were as many florins spent then as kreutzers now".

"Sacre Dieu, ces Diables de Francais avoient toujours de l'argent"-said a poor fellow, whose wretched appearance was quite in keeping with his dissatisfaction. A shrewd, ragged barber, who performed the functions of Sacristan, was much more fond of entertaining us with the grievances of the town's people, than the history of the Virgins and Saints in a Church which he showed us. He was transported to find a sympathizing listener. His story was the same: the French knew how to spend their money--but these Austrians were brutes-they bought nothing but beer and tobacco-and the Prussians were such faquins and so proud there was no speaking to them without the chance of being knocked down; and then he would launch into abuse of the latter, and ridicule of the former, in phraseology not the most seemly, and conveyed in a confidential halfwhisper, as if proceeding from his habitual apprehension of a grenadier at his elbow.

MAYENCE. PRUSSIAN AND AUSTRIAN TROOPS. 7

The Austrians and Prussians, who detest each other, were at first continually disturbing the city with their broils. The most dangerous of these, which the newspapers detailed, was caused by an Hungarian regiment, complete barbarians, with whom it was impossible to live peaceably, and who are now removed. The animosities of the troops are now somewhat softened by habit, and restrained by military regulations. Prussian conceit and vivacity sometimes treat the heavy gormandizing Austrian rather unceremoniously. A Prussian officer drinking with some Austrians, joined in toasting military exploits with some cordiality, when an Austrian, by way of compliment, proposed to drink to the battle of Waterloo, a favourite theme of Prussian pride-calling to the waiter to bring a bottle of Champaign and six glasses. The Prussian taking fire at the paltry, honour intended for his achievements, bawled out with an expression of contempt, bring me six bottles of Champaign and one glass."

66

The policy of dividing a large garrison between inveterate enemies, and of sepa

8

MAYENCE. PRESENT GOVERNMENT.

rating it from the possession of the town, may justly be questioned; but the fortress was selected as one of the centres of strength of the German Confederation, and it is found less objectionable both for the military and the inhabitants to garrison it with the troops of the two principal powers than with motley contingents of the great and little Princes. The Grand Duke of Hesse willingly takes the acquisition of the city and a fine rich arrondissement of the ancient French Department of Mont Tonnerre, subject to this inconvenience. On any rupture, however, between Austria and Prussia, his City is sure to become a scene of bloody struggles, and to fall into the hands of the strongest party.

Mayence and the district extending along the banks of the Rhine from Bingen to Worms, of which it is the capital, are now under the civil government of the Grand Duke of Hesse's Council of Regency, headed by a President. The French governed the whole department by a Prefect, a SubPrefect, and one or two Sub-Officers; but German form and routine require about forty Counsellors of Regency, upper bailiffs,