Amidst these important arrangements, one great deficiency remained yet to be regretted. As if every mind had been engrossed by the grand concern of enereasing the opulence and multiplying the comforts of the community, scarce a thought was bestowed on those more elegant, but less essential arts, which " exalt, embellish, and render life delightful." While agricul ture and manufactures were carried to the highest degree of improvement, literature and science, with all the kindred accomplishments which tend at once to refine the taste and to polish the manners of a people, were left to languish for want of encouragement. Even commerce was checked by the narrow views o. a govern ment, more anxious to guard against povery by re pressing extravagance, than to extend the public re sources, by opening new channels for superfluous com modities, and thus offering new incitements to industry. It was reserved for Frederic II. to introduce a more liberal and enlightened policy. Aware how much com merce contributes to the power of a state, he favoured and prosecuted it by every practicable method ; award ing premiums to those who were most active or suc cessful in its various branches, and forming some con siderable commerical establishments. His passion for literature, science, and the fine arts, being caught by many of his subjects, gave new life to the universities, academies, and seminaries, which had been formerly almost wholly deserted ; and the crowds of learned men and accomplished artists, which his liberality attracted from every country in Europe, effected the happiest change in the taste and manners of the native inhabi tants. For a more ample account of the commerce and literary institutions of Brandenburg, we must refer our readers to the articles PRUSS/A and BERLIN. We may only observe, that the Transactions of the Berlin Academy, of which many volumes have been published, do much credit to Prussian science ; and that the spe cimens of painting, statuary, and engraving, which are occasionally produced in Potsdam and Berlin, might he acknowledged without a blush by the first artists in Europe.
There is no country on the continent, where the inter nal intercourse is more facilitated by excellent roads and regular stages than in Brandenburg. The rates of postage, and even the fare of postilions, are regulated by government ; so that travellers can calculate their expenses to the minutest item, without being teazed by incessant importunities, or vexed by arbitrary im positions.
The posts are likewise managed with much order in Brandenburg, and letters are conveyed with the utmost regularity and expedition. The two grand mails which go from Wesel to Memel in Prussia, and thence throughout Russia, and from Hamburg, by the way of Silesia, into Poland and Hungary, meet at Berlin, and are regulated in such a manner, that all these posts arrive and depart at eight o'clock in the evenings of Tuesday and Saturday.
The internal communication is still farther facilitated by the two great rivers, Elbe and Oder, which traverse the country in different places. The Elbe enters the Old Mark at Polke, and forms its boundary on the west. It receives the stream of 'ranger, near Sangermunde, and the Havel, a navigable river, near Werber. Thence it flows between the Old Mark and Priegnitz, till it comes nigh when it is joined by the Stepcnitz, a river so considerable as to be navigated by boats. The Elbe leaves the Old Mark near Waneter,
but continues to flow along the side of Priegnitz, from which it receives another river named Aland near Schnackenburg, and last of all the tributary stream of Elde, in the country of Mecklenburg. The Havel issues likewise from the country of Mecklenburg, form ing, in a certain part of its course, the boundary be tween the duchy of Mecklenburg and the Ukraine Mark, and is navigable to large wherries from Furs tenberg to Tchelenich. At Spandau it is swelled by the Spree and the Dosse, and thus becomes navigable to vessels of considerable burden till it falls into the Elbe. Its tributary river Spree, issuing from Lusatia, is large enough at Krasnich to bear rafts and floats, and becomes navigable at Cossenbladt. It receives another stream named Wendische Spree, at Kopenich, and loses itself, as we have already mentioned, on the Havel at Spandau. In its course it traverses several lakes, and is divided, at different places, into several branches. The Oder, a fine navigable river, flowing from Silesia, penetrates the New Mark ; receiving the circle of Crossett the tributary river Ober, which issues from Poland ; the stream Bober, below the town of Crotsen ; and above Kiist•in, the Waste, which is itself swollen by the waters of the Nome and the Drague. Below Written it is joined by the Old Oder, which takes its rise in the circle of Lobus ; next by the Finow, and last of all by the \Velze ; after which it penetrates into the country of Pomerania.
Brandenburg enjoys, also, the advantage of many excellent canals. One of these, named the canal of Platten, was executed by Mahistre, a celebrated engineer, at the command of Frederic ll. By this canal, which was begun and completed in the interval between the first of June 1743, and the fifth of June 1745, the navi gation from Berlin to Magdeburg is shortened by one hall. It commences near Parei, upon the Elbe, and crossing the rivers Ede and St•emna, proceeds to join the Ilavel near Platten, over a line of 8655 perches. This canal is twenty-two feet wide at the bottom of its channel, twenty-six at the surface of the water, and from forty to fifty between its banks. It has nine bridges at various intervals ; and three sluices, which, keeping the water at the height of twenty-one feet, give a singular facility to navigation from the Elbe to the Ilavel.
A similar navigation has been effected between the Spree and the Oder, by means of a small canal, by order of the elector Frederic William, whose name it retains. It is about three German miles in length, and its depth is five Rhenish yards. At Millrose, a town near the middle of the canal ; the stream of Schulabbe falls into a lake, from which the canal is supplied with water. It passes through ten sluices placed at regular intervals, and its fall, throughout its whole length, is supposed to be not less than sixty-two feet. Another canal, called the canal of Finow, unites the Havel with the Oder, taking its direction from Licbenwalde towards Oderberg, after having crossed the river Finow : it has thirteen sluices, and was cut by order of king Frederic II. about the same time with the canal of Platten. In a course of about twelve thousand Rhenish miles, it has a fall of 130 feet.