The habitual assiduity of the Austrians leads them to cultivate, by preference, those occupations in which straight forward industry affords the means of suc cess. Hence their progress in mechanics, and the flourishing state of many of their manufactures. Another feature in the German character, and one at first somewhat difficult of explanation, is their predilection for music; a passion found to exist in the humblest ranks, and under the least favourable cir cumstances. We meet here, in villages, with wander ing musicians performing on trumpets made of the cherry-tree wood, or on the most grotesque vio lins. If in vocal music they yield to the Italians, they fully maintain the competition in point of in strumental performances—a taste which prevails as well in the fertile parts of the empire, as in the se cluded spots of Tyrol and Carniola ; forming a cu rious example of the results attendant on the conti nued piosecution of an elegant study by a slow and apparently inanimate people.
No country presents fewer examples of crimi nal offences than Austria. Year passes after year, without any necessity for the infliction of a capital punishment. Averse as the inhabitants are to French men, particularly in the shape of military invaders, we know of no example, during any of the late in vasions, of those secret assassinations which occurred so frequently in Spain.
Of the manners of the inhabitants of the moun tainous provinces of the empire, we may form an idea by fixing our attention on the Syrians and Ca rinthians. The middle range of these mountains presents a scanty pasturage ; their upper parts are covered with tracts of snow, while the yew and fir are the only trees which are seen to raise their heads amidst the tempest. The inhabitants of these ele vated districts are simple, hospitable, and religious; content with of their land and cattle ; cheerful and as simplicity and moderate de sires can make them, they have no wishes beyond the limits of their own territory. The only feeling which prevails among them with any keenness, is re ligious zeal. They are ardent Catholics, and open to all the idle suggestions of an illiterate priesthood.
They are In the habit of undertaking distant pilgri mages, which they are taught to consider as the best means of obtaining the forgiveness of trespasses. Along their roads are scattered mystic chapels, crosses, and other indications of the exercises of de votion. The traveller is often fortunate enough to find beside these religious erections a spring whose waters afford him a delightful refreshment, when pursuing his way along a confined valley. He finds himself here among a primitive race, who are unac quainted with the arts of men in a more civilized state, and are easily guided by an appeal to the heart. Their language is sonorous, and the echo which repeats the call from the mountain side, often proves a useful warning to the stranger when wan dering from the path, or when approaching to the brink of a precipice. Often, in the course of his journey, does he meet with inscriptions, in which the hand of a friend or a brother has recorded the name of one who has fallen a victim to the storm or the torrent.
5. Austria has long contained a considerable diver sity of religious sects, without having suffered from their contests in any part of her dominions except Bohemia, the country of the well known John Huss and Jerome of Prague. In the other provinces such excesses have been avoided, partly from the mode rate character of the inhabitants, and partly from the tolerant spirit of the Imperial Family. There
can be no doubt, however, that, had, the Reformation happily made progress in the Austrian dominions, the result, as in the north of Germany, would have been a very material advancement in all departments of productive industry. Trade, manufactures, lite rature, are all cultivated with superiority in the north; and if the agricultural produce of the south be larger, the cause is to be sought merely in superiority of soil and climate. Toleration, however, existed vir tually for a considerable time back in Austria, and it received a formal sanction from a law or Joseph II. which extended indulgence even to Jews and Mahometans. The Archbishop of Vienna is the • head of the Catholic clergy in a civil capacity ; but the Bishop of St Palten appoints the regi mental chaplains, and is accounted the superior of all clergymen doing duty with the army. Church patronage rests with the Sovereign, to the exclusion of the influence of the Pope. Convents, formerly numerous in Austria, have been considerably redu ced during the last thirty years ; but the church property is still very considerable.
In computing the relative number of different sects, it is common to estimate the Catholics at two thirds of the whole. Protestants are not numerous ; the Austrian people at large being too little enlight ened to exchange a worship which dazzles the ima gination by its pomp and ceremonies, for one whose chief appeal is to the understanding. The Greek church has no inconsiderable number of votaries scattered throughout Galicia, Hungary, Croatia, and Transylvania. These are superintended by a number of Bishops, some of whom recognise for their head the Archbishop of Leopold, while otherii, who differ in point of creed, are under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Gran in Hungary. The latter are particularly numerous in Transylvania. The follow ers of the Greek church, in one part or other of the Austrian dominions, are said to exceed the number of 2,000,000 ;—a number in a state of gradual in crease from the occasional influx of their brethren from Turkey. These new settlers are generally en gaged in trade, and pass for possessing no slight share of the address and artifice attributed to the Greek merchants of the present day. Galicia com prises a body of Armenian Catholics; a sect not wholly•unknown in Hungary. The Protestants, in cluding both Calvinists and Lutherans, amount, pile bably, to nearly 8,000,000 throughout the whole em pire, of which Bohemia and Moravia contain a very insignificant proportion. The well known associa tion of Herrnhutters or Moravian, owes its origin to an Austrian province, and takes date from the middle of the fifteenth century. The number of Jews under the Austrian dominion may amount to 300,000. Joseph H. took the lead of Bonaparte in an attempt to incorporate them with the mass of his subjects, by extending to them the enjoyment of similar privileges. He found, however, that their habits, if they yield at all, give way bus very slowly, and that ages will be required to iden tify them with their Christian fellow-subjects. In tolerating Mahometanism, Joseph had in view the promotion of commercial intercourse with Turkey, a number of traders of that country being in the habit, of travelling, and even of settling in Austria.