Travels in France and Germany in 1865 and 1866, including a Steam Voyage down the Danube, and a ride across the mountains of European Turkey from Belgrade to Montenegro

Front matter

TRAVELS IN FRANCE AND GERMANY. VOL. I. T Pi A Y E L S IN FRANCE AND GERMANY IN 1865 AKD 1866: INCLUDING A STEAM VOYAGE DOWN THE DANUBE, AND A RIDE ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF EUROPEAN TURKEY FROM BELGRADE TO MONTENEGRO. BY CAPTAIN SPENCER, AUTHOR OF " TRAVELS IN CIRCASSIA," Etc. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, 13, GBEAT MABLBOROUQH STEEET. 1866. The right of Translation is reserved. LONDON : PRINTED BY MACDONALD AND TUGWELL, BELNHEIM HOUSE.

Preface

. The choice of such a title for a work as shall at once express its true scope and aim, without appearing to be either pretentious or sensational, is always a difficult task for an author. Brevity being, above all things, essential, I felt that it was only in a preface I could hope to give my readers a full and clear insight into the nature of my present work. The following pages are, indeed, something more than a mere narrative of travel, as they contain a variety of notes and observations on the social, moral, and political condition of the countries through which I travelled, gleaned during repeated visits to the Continent, and which wdli be found preserved in the substance of different conversations held with such of the inhabitants as, from their position and intelligence, were best qualified to pronounce a decisive opinion on the questions we discussed. A VI

PREFACE.

. With every wish to do justice to the present ruler of France, while acknowledging the astute policy by which he has raised himself to the high position he occupies — at the same time, that he has succeeded in curbing the revolutionary tendencies of the excitable people over whom he has been called to reign — I have not hesitated to censure such of his acts as I thought called for condemnation. As an Englishman, I am bound to acknowledge that his conduct towards this country has always been just and conciliatory, and the readiness with which he adopted, and put into practice, the doctrines of free trade, show him to be a man in advance of many of the statesmen of continental Europe. Still, if I have " set down naught in malice, I have naught extenuated." As an impartial writer, I have felt it my duty to tell my countrymen the opinions I heard expressed in conversation by Frenchmen of every class and degree.

The result of my own observation leads me irresistibly to the conclusion that the repressive policy he has so long, and, let me say, successfully pursued, has been carried some what too far. In his desire to put an end to everything in the shape of political agitation, he

PREFACE.

. VII has almost suppressed free thought throughout the whole of France. With him and his government free thought is dangerous — subversive of law and order, revolutionary and anarchical in its utterances; whether spoken or written, it must be suppressed. It might be argued that a dread of free discus sion must betoken the consciousness of some inherent failing on the part of a ruler. Now, without going this length, and while admitting that the French people are perhaps not yet ripe for the blessings of a perfectly untrammelled press, and that full liberty can only be enjoyed with safety by those who have gone through a long preparatory training, I must think that the repressive policy of the French Emperor has been unduly severe. " L'e'tat, c'est moi." Do not trouble yourselves about the affairs of State — I am alone responsible for such matters, and will think for you.

This would seem to be the true interpretation of the third Napoleon's policy, and it certainly does appear a rather dangerous one in the nineteenth century. In short, what the Roman Catholic Church undertakes to do for the conscience, the present ruler of France undertakes to do for the

PREFACE.

. intellect. But since men have refused to surren der their conscience to the keeping of a priest, they are hardly likely to resign their liberty of thought for any length of time to the keeping of a minister of the interior. As might be expected, the tendency of this coercive policy is to plunge the entire French nation into a state of mate rialism — men are degenerating into mere auto mata, whose only object in life is to make money, dress well, and enjoy themselves. The higher aims of existence seem to be gradually lost sight of ; la Bourse rules the day, and rem, rem quo cunque modo is now the motto of France — of France once the high-souled and chivalrous. A reaction must come, sooner or later, and it will be well if it finds the government prepared to meet it. Free thought may be repressed for a time, but, like the pent-up gases in the bosom of a volcano, they will at last find a vent for themselves amid the convulsion of an earthquake.

In turning to the other people of Central Europe — the Germans — whose present position, both social and political, has also been discussed at considerable length in these volumes, it is pleasing to see, so far as German unity is con-

PREFACE.

. IX sidered, that their prospects are very much changed for the better by the extraordinary events of the last few weeks. They seem at length on the point of achieving the high destiny that has been predicted for them by every observant traveller who has been accustomed to mingle with them for the last few years. And, however much we may sympathise with poor Austria and the petty princes of Germany, a great central German Protestant power, controlled by one of the most honest, right-minded, industrious people in Europe, would be a great gain to the whole civilized world. I have now only to say that, whatever offence the present King of Prussia may have given to the ultra-democratic party, society is deeply indebted to him. German unity will be a very different thing under his auspices from what it would have been if the Republican party in 1849, or the democracy of the cities with Schleswig-Holstein as their rallying cry, had triumphed in 1864.

In both cases the present King of Prussia saw the danger — in both instances scotched the hydra before it had time to arrive at maturity, and history will do justice to the motives and the actions of this spirited and patriotic monarch. X

PREFACE.

. With respect to the war with Austria, that man must be a very superficial observer of recent events in Germany who can see nothing in them but a plot of M. von Bismarck. He may have originated the time and the manner, but he had the wisdom to see that the time was come to strike the blow for German unity. He saw that the whole intellect of Germanywas with him, as this work wdli show. He saw that the hour was come to destroy for ever that clumsy machine, the Deutsche Bund, and to terminate at once the ever recurring disputes between Austria and Prussia. He knew that the whole people, both north and south, would gladly join even the reddest of the Red Republicans, if by that means they could gain the object they had in view — a united German Fatherland. Finally, I consider the exclusion of Austria from the councils of the German Father land as a happy event, not only to Germany, but to Austria herself.

She wdli now be compelled to turn her whole attention to the magnificent countries she rules over in Eastern Europe, of which the reader will find in the pages of this work a somewhat lengthened description. She still possesses in Hungary and her other provinces all

PREFACE.

. XI the materials that form not only a prosperous but a powerful empire ; but her rulers must for ever cease to be German. She must have a different rallying cry on the field of battle than that of " Es lebe der Kaisers' unless she would remain as she has always been, weak and wavering — now leaning in her distress on Russia, then on France, and again on Prussia. My voyage down the Low-er Danube will be interesting to the general reader as a characteristic sketch of the present state of Hungary. In my ride across the mountains of European Turkey he will find a description of the manners, customs, and social condition of a people living in a state of the most primitive simplicity, and practising all those virtues which distinguish men who have not yet been corrupted by the wealth, luxury, and artificial civilization of the West. Edmund Spencer. Norfolk Terrace, Bayswater. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Chapter I

Important Changes in Social Life on the Continent — What France was in 1815 — Progressive Improvement of that Country in all that relates to Material Existence — The Great Anglo- Saxon Invasion — Its Effects upon the Habits, Manners, Customs, Industry, Political and Religious Opinions of the Continental People— Advantages of a Freehold over a Leasehold Tenure in building a Town — Paris of 1815 contrasted with Paris of 1866 — The Octroi, its Advantages and Disadvantages — How it may be made available in the Improvements of a Town . . .1

Chapter II

The Improvements in Paris considered in a Military Point of View — National Character of the French — Their Inaptitude for a Constitutional Form of Government — Contrast between the Physical Education of the French and the English — In what manner the French are trained to be Soldiers — Influence and Tendencies of the Conscription — Military System of Education . . .17 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IH. Tact Displayed by Louis Napoleon as a Ruler of France — In what Manner French Intellect is kept in Bondage — Hostility of the Government to a Free Press — Oral Substitute for a Free Press — Autocratic Government — Its Influences on the Character of a People . . .36

Chapter IV

Observations on the French Maritime Force — Conscription for the Navy— Its bad Effects — The Emperor's Plan for establishing the Superiority of the French Marine — Its Failure — Opinion of Foreign Naval Officers on the French Marine contrasted with that of Great Britain — Reports of the Council- General of the Various Departments engaged in the Shipping Trade . . . 47

Chapter V

Public Opinion in France — Progress of the Gambling Mania in France — Salons de Causerie — Legitimists — Orleanists — Constitutionalists — Their Views — Universal Suffrage — Its Demoralizing Effects — The Sentiments of Young France — Desire for Liberty of the Press and Constitutional Government ...... 60

Chapter VI

Uncertainty of the Present Political Condition in France — Hostility of the Government to Literature — Men of Letters in General — Journalism as it is in France — French Pasquinades — Their Influence upon Society — Talk of the Salons — Great Britain and France contrasted — Their Systems of Government — Absolutism versus Constitutionalism — The General Pursuit of Pleasure in France . . . ... . .75 CONTENTS. XV

Chapter VII

Leave Paris for Germany — -Unexpected Rencontre in a Railway Carriage — Opinions of a Russian Nobleman on the Present State of France and England — His Book — What he Thinks of the French and English System of Government — Their Armies and Naval Force — His Opinion on the State of Agriculture in France and Great Britain — Industry and Commerce . ... .97 CHAPTER Vin. Present Condition of the French Agricultural Population — Impoverishing Tendencies of the Subdivision of Land — The Want in France of a Wealthy Landed Aristocracy — The Severe Labour imposed upon Women in France — General Aspect of the Country Towns in France — Soldiering, and its Effects upon the Moral Character of the Agricultural Population in France — Lorraine and Alsace — Gauls and Teutons — Arrival at Strasburg . 113

Chapter IX

Great Military Display at Strasburg — A Mystification — Claim of France to the Left Bank of the Rhine — How France got possession of the German Provinces, Lorraine, Alsace, and the Suntgau — Demoralizing Rivalry of the two Great German Powers at the close of the Last War — The Mountains of the Vosges the Natural Boundary of France — The Germans and their Civil Wars — Their Effects, and how France profited by them . 134

Chapter X

The Rhine — How the Railway has affected its Political Importance as a Boundary — Wish of the Germans for a United Germanic Empire — Arrival at Carlsruhe — Interesting Debate of the Unionists in the Salon of the CONTENTS. Hotel — Freedom of Speech in the Grand Duchy of Baden — Rencontre with an Old Friend — His Views upon the Present State of Germany — The King of Prussia and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg — Prospect of the Duke of Edinburgh becoming Emperor of Germany . . 148

Chapter XI

Discussion on the Present Political State of Germany continued — What Germany was, is, and will be — Prospects of the Unionists — Opinion of a German — A Great Political Writer upon the Germanic Confederation — The Influence that Prussia must exercise over the Destinies of Germany — What must be the Fate of the Petty Potentates of Germany — What the French are thought of in Germany — Great Britain the Natural Ally of Germany — Friendly Feelings of the Germans towards the English . 161 CHAPTER Xn. Elucidation of the Mystery — Carlsruhe — Aspect of the Town — Magnificence of its Miniature Court — Its Favourable Effects upon the Manners and Habits of the People — Petty States and their Government contrasted with those of Great Military Powers — Their Effects upon the Morality and Well-being of their Subjects — The Legend of a Lady Fair and Karl the Hunter — Pleasant Drive through the Hartwald Forest — The Favorite and the Princess Sybilla Augusta . . . .180 CHAPTER XHI.

Arrival at Baden-Baden — The Kursaal — Gaming Tables — Their Demoralizing Tendencies — Reflections of a Ruined Gambler — Description of the Salon and its Visitors Imitations of Punch — Visitors to Baden-Baden — Scene at the Rouge-et-Noir Table — Farewell to the Temple of Pluto CONTENTS. XVII

CHAPTER XIV.

Society at Baden-Baden — Efficacy of its Waters — Beautiful Environs — The Neue Trinksaal and its Fresco Paintings — Type of the Germanic Bund — Interesting Conversation between the First Napoleon and Duroc — How an Artichoke led to the Conquest of Germany and the Confederation of the Rhine — The Mediatized Princes of Germany and their Peculiar Privileges . . . 206

CHAPTER XV.

An Oriental Traveller — Our Journey to the East — Palace of the Grand Duke — Vehm-gericht Dungeons — Curious old Church at Baden-Baden — Tour through the Grand Duchy from Baden-Baden to the Source of the Danube — Production — Great Fertility of the Soil — Character of the Inhabitants — Freiburg and its Cathedral — The Breisgau — Hbllenthal — Moreau's Famous Retreat — -Arrival at Donaueschingen — Difficulty of procuring a Bed — Natural Honesty and Kindness of the German People — Visit to the Sources of the Danube and the Neckar — Influence of the Danube and the Rhine on the Civilization of the World. 216

CHAPTER XVI.

Journey through the Black Forest — Its Inhabitants — Schaffhausen and the Fall of the Rhine — Constance, and the Interest Attached to its Historical Recollections — Absence of Religious Prejudice in Germany — The Kaufhaus and its Curiosities — The Reformer Huss and his Murderers — Sketch from the Work of a Contemporary Writer on the Pope's Visit to Constance — The Great Council at Constance — Its Purport, and the Humanizing Influence it Exercised over the Pope, the Princes of the Church, and the other Rulers of Men . . . CONTENTS. XVIII

CHAPTER XVII.

The Great Council of Constance in 1849 — Its Dispersion by the Present King of Prussia — Steamboat Travelling on the Lake of Constance — Legend of the Shrine of St. Gebhard — Bregentz — Beautiful Scenery — Passports — Strictness of the Austrian Regulations — Swabian Alps — Original Home of the Hohenzollern Family — Biographical Sketches — The Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns — German Railways — Railway-carriages in Wiirtemberg . 245 CHAPTER XVm, Opinions of the German Intellectual Classes on the Writings of Bishop Colenso — Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Liberalism in Bavaria — An Interesting Tete-a-tete — An Old Traveller discovers that All is not Gold that glitters 258

CHAPTER XIX.

Peasantry of Wiirtemberg — Stuttgart and its Public Buildings — Great Wealth of the Wiirtemberg Royal Family — Where the Money comes from — How the Electors of Germany became Kings and Reigning Grand Dukes — Unpopularity of the King and Queen — Marquard Hotel — Luxurious Living — Arrival at Ulm — The Danube- — General Mack's Shameful Capitulation to the French in 1805 — Poor Austria 273

CHAPTER XX.

* Novel Description of Boat — Dislike to Change and Progress inherent in the Character of the Germans — German Writing and Printing unintelligible to the Rest of Europe — Their Money, Weights, and Measures — What Germany was before the Thirty Years' War — Lecture at Heidel- CONTENTS. XIX berg — Enthusiasm of the Youth of Germany — Professors and Students — Who are the Supporters of the Bismarck Policy — Aspirations for German Unity — Military State of Europe — What must follow — The End justifies the Means — England and Honest Michel . . . 284

CHAPTER XXI.

Voyage down the Danube — On Board the Ulm Packet — Dillingen — Dreary Appearance of the Town — Superstition of the Lower Classes in Bavaria — Altercation with a German Landlady — A Soft Answer turneth away Wrath — Visit to the Battle-Field of Blenheim — Beautiful Scenery of the Danube — The Old Towns of Germany — Ingolstadt and Loyola the Founder of the Jesuits — General Tilly and the Thirty Years' War — Biographical Sketch of that General

Chapter I

Important Changes in Social Life on the Continent— What France was in 1815 — Progressive Improvement of that Country in all that relates to Material Existence — The Great Anglo- Saxon Invasion — Its Effects upon the Habits, Manners, Customs, Industry, Political and Rehgious Opinions of the Continental People — Advantages of a Freehold over a Leasehold Tenure in building a Town — Paris of 1815 contrasted with Paris of 1866— The Octroi, its Advantages and Disadvantages— How it may be made available in the Improvements of a Town. AMONG the various meditations that now and then occupy the mind of an old traveller, none are moreinteresting,none more deserving of notice, than those which suggest to his recollection the varied important changes which have taken place in the condition and prosperity of civilized man since the peace of 1815.

Vast countries, which he had then seen reduced by war and rapine to poverty and bankruptcy, he now beholds not only prosperous in every sense of the word, but with a population in some instances nearly doubled in amount. Even those lying on the confines of benighted Asia, although their onward progress has not been so rapid, exhibit unmistakeable evidences of the salu tary influences of time and tranquillity. Still, VOL. I. B CHANGES IN SOCIAL LIFE. although we readily admit the benefits we have derived from so long an exemption from the calami ties of war, we must not forget how large a debt of gratitude we owe to the impulse given by the application of steam to the industry and commerce of the world. We must also remember that this powerful agent has been the means of carrying into every country into which a steamboat or a rail has penetrated, a degree of enlightenment, and an acquaintance with the arts and manufactures of civilized life, to which the inhabitants had been hitherto strangers.

To say nothing of the active part which we as a nation took in securing the peace of the world, few persons except those who like myself have been an eye-witness of the fact, can be aware how large a share our locomotive countrymen have had in originating various ameliorations in the manners and institutions of the Continental nations, and in assimilating them to our own. This will be better understood by the younger portion of my readers when I tell them that the gates of the Continent were no sooner opened, after the downfall of our implacable enemy, the first Napoleon, than a host of sight-seers, whose name was legion, spread them selves over the Continent, numbers of whom took up their permanent residence in various parts of France, Italy, and Germany ; and as these were joined year after year by others similarly disposed FRANCE IN 1815. 3 we can well imagine what an influence so many thousands of well-educated men must have exercised over the inhabitants of every land in which they made their home, and how rapidlythey pro pagated their own peculiar views and opinions.

This irruption of our ever-restless countrymen, an irruption which never could have been effected save by a race of men at once energetic and wealthy, has been most appropriately termed by more than one foreign w*riter, " the great Anglo- Saxon invasion of the nineteenth century." And, undoubtedly, of every other invasion it has been the most salutary in its effects, for not only did these stranger armies enrich the inhabitants of every country they invaded, but they initiated them by example into the knowledge of various little mysteries and amenities of social life to which they had been hitherto strangers. As might have been expected, our old enemy, and nearest neighbour, France, was the first coun try that benefited by this peaceful inroad of the wealthy islanders. Even at this distant day, when I picture to myself what France now is, and what I found her in 1815, when, as a little fellow, I was being conducted to a school in Paris, I think she had every reason to be thankful for the downfall of a man to whose insatiable ambition to become the Em peror of the West she, in common with the other countries of Continental Europe, was equally the B FRANCE IN 1815. victim.

How well do I remember, even at this distant day, the dreary towns I passed through on my route, and the wretched appearance of the in habitants ; for however much we may have suffered in being burdened with a national debt, we were mercifully spared by a kind Providence from what may be justly termed the horrors of war — in vasion, and its innumerable ills. How well do I remember the swarms of mendicants that surrounded our carriage at all the post-stations, and their piteous cries for bread ; neither have I for gotten that many of these unfortunates were maimed soldiers, still wearing the uniform of the first empire. This was doubly impressed upon my memory from the circumstance of the great interest my father, himself an old Peninsular officer, took in these poor fellows, evidenced in the liberal manner with which he distributed among them sundry small pieces of silver.

In truth, no man but an actual eye-witness, who happened to be travelling in France at this par ticular time, can form an idea of the sufferings and privations her people endured after the capitulation of Paris, when they might have been said to be lying at the mercy of a million of foreign bayonets. Among other things that particularly drew my attention at this time was the total absence in the hotels, as well as in the private residences of the MY FIRST ADVENTURE. 5 gentry, of those little household luxuries so indis pensable to health and the comforts of existence. It seemed as if war, and everything connected with it, had been for years the only remunerative industry of the people, and that every fraction of the public money had been expended in fitting out and supporting these vast military expeditions which, in the long run, were only destined to provide matter for the pen of the historian in his description of a war which ended so ingloriously to the victor of so many battles, and in a manner so mortifying to the self-love of a gallant people.

In connexion with this subject, I must relate my first adventure in the land of the Gaul, which deserves to be recorded, if for nothing else than to show how widely we differed at that time in all our habits, customs, and usages, from a people who were only separated from us by a narrow channel of the sea. My father, who at the period referred to was somewhat of an invalid, rarely took any beverage stronger than tea, and knowing how little the French prized the fragrant herb, had pro vided himself with a plentiful supplybefore leaving England. Now, as my little sister and myself were supposed to speak French wdth great fluency, having been taught it almost from infancy by a French emigrant, we were deputed by my father to give the necessary instructions to the waiter as A FRENCH HOTEL. to the preparation of a dish of tea ; but whether the garcon, who was a native of Picardy, under stood no other language than his own patois, or that our French, spoken with an English accent, was unintelligible to him, I cannot say; certain, how ever, it is, the attempt made by the cook to comply with our wishes was most original, for the waiter laid on the table, much to our discomfiture as linguists, and to my father's infinite amusement, a large soup tureen, filled with the water in which the fragrant herb had been boiled, the whole carefully seasoned wdth pepper, salt, onions, gravy, and similar savoury ingredients.

Tea at this time, as a beverage, was altogether unknown to the majority of the French people, whereas at present it is in general use, and its value as a refreshing beverage fully appreciated. Our little adventure of the tea soup took place at Abbeville, in the " Hotel du Tete de Bœuf " (at that time, as it is at present, one of the best hotels in France), where we took up our quarters for the night. In every other respect we had reason to be satisfied with the accommodation. The viands were excellent ; the coffee and wines all that could be desired; the table-cloth and napkins white as snow, with an abundance of silver forks and spoons ; but the knives — how can I describe them 1 — so primi tive in shape, and utterly useless in any other menage than that of a Frenchman. DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENTS. 7 Among other things that appeared strange and inconsistent in a country so highly-civilized as France, we were very much surprised to find that throughout the whole house there was not a carpet, nor even a bell to summon a waiter ; while, to add to the other discomforts of the English visitor, the lavatory consisted of nothing better than an earthenware vessel, in shape resembling a pie-dish, and a bottle containing about a pint of water.

Yet, in contradiction to this, and perfectly characteristic of the French, the furniture of our rooms was at once gorgeous and ornamental — quite palace-like in shape and appearance. Still, perhaps nothing occasioned greater annoyance to an English visitor than — a desagrSment wdiich, in some degree, even yet exists — the intolerable odour that pervaded the whole house, arising from a melange of garlic, cabbage-water, and, worst of all, the very defective state of the drainage. That we have learned much that is useful in our intercourse with the French, cannot be denied, hut they must admit that in everything connected with domestic com fort and cleanliness, they are not a little indebted to the number of wealthy English residents that settled in their country after the peace of 1815. In making these observations, I have been actuated solely by one motive — that of drawing the attention of the more youthful portion of my readers to the great fact of the powerful influence THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLAND.

England and her children have exercised in impressing an Anglo-Saxon stamp upon the manners, customs, and ideas of the great Euro pean family. How different would have been the result if we, in common with the other continental nations, had been compelled to submit to the crushing military despotism of the first Napoleon ! If such a dire catastrophe had occurred, it is not too much to say that the whole civilized world would have been paralysed in its financial and commercial operations, and no other result could have ensued but universal bankruptcy. Again, steam, that great invention of the age, together with its numerous appliances, must have lain in abeyance ; and, worst of all, we should have found history repeating itself in a state of society some what resembling the semi-barbarism to which mankind had been reduced by brutalizing wars and insurrectionary outbursts, after the fall of the Roman empire.

At the same time, free trade, which tends more than any other influence to unite nations, even the most bellicose, in the bonds of peace and friendship, would never even have been thought of. It would be idle to speculate any further upon what might have been the future of the past. Still, I cannot refrain from remarking that, events having taken a different turn, the whole civilized world has been spared, by a merciful Providence, PARIS one of the greatest disasters that could have be fallen the human race. Happily for the nations of Europe, a brighter sky has dawned upon them since those troublous times ; and that great people, who, from their position, unity, and natural valour, exercise such a very powerful influence over the councils of nations, are becoming every day more solicitous to adopt the principles, ideas, and customs of their Anglo-Saxon neighbours, more and more convinced of the advantages to be derived from peaceful, industrious, and commercial pursuits, and, consequently, less likely to lend themselves willing dupes of the ambitious schemes of any other military adventurers.