The Bavarians are, in general, robust, corpulent, and muscular ; yet in almost every particular the very f reverse of handsome. So grotesque, indeed, is their appearance, if we may believe Baron Reisbach, that many of them resemble caricatures rather than real figures of men. Their head is round and thick, their neck short, their shoulders narrow, their paunch broad and prominent, and their legs short and chubby. Their pace is heavy and slow, and their little eyes peeping through their swoln eye-brows, are sufficient ly expressive of their inherent knavery. The beauty of the Bavarian women' forms a strange and pleasing contrast to the shapeless clumsiness of the men. Their form appears the work of the graces ; their complexion outvies the finest carnations, and baffles the imitation of the ablest'painters ; while the fascina tion of these charms is completed by the vivacity and grace of their manners.
The Roman catholic religion is established in Ba varia in its worst form. Its numerous convents swarm with ecclesiastics of different orders, mutual hatred has often distracted the state with civil dissen sions ; while their influence over the people serves only to spread the contagion of those vices which dis grace their character. At no very distant period one half of the inhabitants of Bavaria were protes tants, and several public regulations were made for their security. But, through the intrigues of the Jesuits, they were exposed to every kind of oppres sion, and the court, swayed by the interested sug gestions of these ecclesiastics, endeavoured to root them out as pernicious weeds to the state. These persecutions compelled the protestants to abandon their country ; they emigrated to one of the wildest deserts in North America, and a great portion of Ba varia was left completely desolate.
The licentiousness of Bavarian morals is almost in credible ; and seems chiefly to proceed from the in dolence and bigotry which are characteristic of the nation. Neither order nor good morals can be ex:. pected to prevail among a people who prefer mendi city to the slightest exertion ; who are influenced by no higher principle than a blind submission to priests, infamous and profligate as themselves ; and whose basest crimes are expiated by a very trifling fine. The negligence, the selfishness, and the folly of those in power, tend greatly to increase the evil. In Munich alone there are not fewer than four thousand men maintained in idleness at the expense of the court. These men, in general uneducated and unprincipled, have no relish for any rational employment or re creation ; their whole time is spent in gaming and debauchery ; the rest of the inhabitants are infected by their example ; the contagion spreads throughout the country ; and the licentiousness becomes general and extreme. Such, indeed, is the universal depra vity of morals in this country, that a Gascon officer remarked, with no less justice than severity, that Bavaria is the largest brothel in the world.
From this prevailing corruption, religion and vir tue find no asylum. Even churches and universities, which ought ever to be their inviolable sanctuaries, are not free from the encroachments of profanity and vice. The ecclesiastics are no less licentious and in decent than the rest of the people ; inns and disorder ly houses are to be found in the neighbourhood of every church ; and even the sanctuary itself has some times been made the scene of the most abominable crimes. Students, too, who repair to the universi ties with the professed intention of improving in learning and virtue, are in general initiated in the grossest brutality. It is expected, as the indispen sable qualifications of every student in the univer sity of Ingolstadt, that he be provided with a thick bludgeon, and wear a helmet ; • that he be able to swallow eight or ten quarts of beer at a time ; and be ready, at all times, and on any pretext, to fight with the officers of the garrison. Such shocking irre gularities have, of necessity, lowered the reputation of the university ; and, in spite of the zeal and ability of the professors, and the annual edicts of govern ment, prohibiting a Bavarian from studying out of his native country, the number of its students is con stantly diminishing.
The peasantry of Bavaria, though perhaps less li centious than the citizens, are yet more brutal and disgusting. Coarse, slovenly, and dissolute, they are ignorant of all the comforts of civilized life, and are raised but very little above the level of the rudest barbarians. A savage ferocity mingles with their superstition, and often gives rise to scenes of blood. They value a festival, or public entertainment, ac cording to the fierceness of the quarrels by which it has been distinguished, and the number of the com batants who have been killed. This ferocity of dis position is connected with much personal intrepidity. Towards the end of the 17th century, the Bavarians were accounted the best soldiers in Germany. But they are now so impatient of order and discipline, that they deserve not the name of soldiers, and are of no use in an army, except to ravage a hostile coun try ; yet, irregular and undisciplined as they are, they often exhibit the most amazing efforts of courage, and, rather than recede one inch, will fight to the last extremity.
The military force of Bavaria, including the pala tinate, amounts to about 12,600 men.
See Reisbach's Travels in Germany, letters 8, 9, 10, II, and 12; Encyclopedie Illethodique ; Peuchet's Dictionnaire de la Geographic Commergante, Bee. ; Busching's Geography ; Schmidt's History of the Germans; and Coxe's House of Austria. (p)