GERMANY.
the Encyclopredia was published, this great ' portion of Europe was involved in the confusion created by the French Revolution ;, its general boun daries, as well as those of each particular state, were undefined ; its policy, laws, and systems of govern• ment depended on the persons who ruled in France ; and neither its forces, revenues, or constitutions, could be considered as other than ephemeral.
The general peace that now prevails has at length rendered the limits of each state certain. The con tingents of troops which each is to furnish, and the degree of weight each is to have in the assembly that is to unite them into one political body, depend ing on the amount of the population, a census has almost universally been taken, of the accuracy of which there seems no reason to doubt.
Within the limits of Germany are portions of kingdoms, parts of whose territory are not within the sphere of the confederation ; thus Austria, Prussia, the Netherlands, and Denmark, have parts only of Germany within their dominions, and, there fore, will here receive such notice as is merely neces sary to give a view of the whole of Germany. Aus tria and Denmark have already been noticed in this Supplement, and the kingdoms of the Netherlands and of Prussia will occur in their alphabetical order.
The four kingdoms of Bavaria, Hanover, Saxony, and Wirtemberg, are too important to be wholly in cluded in a general article. Bavaria has. been al. ready treated of separately, and the other three will be noticed in their proper places.
the north have indeed much arid sandy land, but nature has provided along the borders of the rivers some rich and fruitful soils, where the most abun dant harvests are gathered. The south has also on its mountains much barren or slightly productive land; but the beautiful wallies and small plains between the hills rival in fertility the best alluvial lands on the banks of the northern rivers. In general, the soil in the north is heavy, and in the south light, the former most adapted for corn, and the latter for vines. The best soil is in the middle between the mountains and the sandy plains. In Bohemia, Sile sia, Franconia, Saxony, and on the Rhine, the pro portion of good soil is very much greater than in the north or the south.
Some of the loftiest mountains of Germany are those springing from the great mass of the Alps, and divided into the Rhetian and the Noric ; and seve ral of the peaks of those reach the line of perpetual snow. The eastern branch of the Noric chain runs through the Austrian dominions, and loses one part of that chain in Silesia, whilst another enters Hun gary. The other branch runs through Bavaria and Wirtemberg, to the west of the Black Forest ; and is • connected with the Odenwald, the Fichtelberge, and the mountains of Thuringia. It stretches to the Hartz, and the mountains through which the Weser forces its passage ; soon after which it is lost. Se veral other chains branch from these greater ones; and some of their peaks attain a considerable eleva tion. The principal mountains, and their height above the level of the sea, are as follows : but, in their progress to the north, their gradual declension in height is remarkable : Feet.
According to its present boundaries, Germany ex. tends from 45° to 54° 20' north latitude, and from 5° 43" to 20° 50" east longitude from London. It is bounded on the north by the German Ocean, by Denmark and the Baltic Sea ; on the east, by West Prussia, Poland, Cracow, Gallicia, and Illyria ; on the south, by the Adriatic Sea, Italy, and the Hel vetic provinces; on the east, by France, and the kingdom of the Netherlands. Its whole extent, in cluding rivers and lakes, is 243,832 square English miles.
The southern part of Germany is either covered or penetrated with steep mountains, one part of which extends from the Alps and the other from the Carpathian hills. These mountains gradually lose themselves in advancing northward ; and from the last of them, the Hartz, upon the confines of Hano ver, begins that vast plain, which extends over the north of Germany, through Prussia, and Poland, and a considerable part of Russia. This plain was pro bably covered by the water long after the more southern parts had emerged from the ocean, the evidences of which are apparent in the turf moors of the sandy districts, where expensive embankments and dikes are necessary to preserve the land from inundation.