Of this country the climate is cold both summer and winter, except in the valleys, where heat abounds to a high degree. Except in the low grounds, agri culture has made little progress, though much la hour and patience have been expended in extending it. The natives ascend apparently inaccessible heights, carrying manure in baskets, to gain a few feet of land, and devote it to agriculture. After all, however, they are obliged to import corn. The bowels of the earth are more productive; every spe cies of ore, from gold to coal, being found there; but comparatively few of them are wrought. 'Mi neral springs are common. The salt mines are the continuation of those in Satsburg, and one of them near Hall yields 25,000 quintals. Vineyards are numerous, particularly in the valley of the Adige: the natives cultivate fruit trees; and from the forest, they rear silk worms, and export raw silk. The transit trade between Italy and Germany forms a most extensive and lucrative branch of commerce.
They are a singularly industrious people. They cannot be said to possess any manufactories; but every Tyrolean is a manufacturer. There is little division of labour. A family or an individual is obliged to do every thing for himself, else his few wants could not easily be supplied. And recourse is had to the most ingenious modes of fabricating the articles of which they stand in need. '' Do they re quire flour, or stand in need of oil? As every in dividual provides in some respects for his own wants, there are neither millers nor oil mills; but at the neighbouring stream the corn is ground, and the oleaginous plants are pressed. A German tra veller observes that, to abridge labour, he has seen a child rocked in its cradle by means of a wheel made to revolve by a stream." vii. 515.) The people have a thirst for independence; and if they cannot find employment at home, they do not hesitate to emigrate to other countries to gain a livelihood. Bavaria or the neighbouring pro vinces, which is their earliest outlet, do not satisfy them. They emigrate to the most distant countries, to England, America, or the East Indies, generally as pedlars, selling petty wares. Thirty thousand are calculated to leave their native land annually. They return, however, in old age, having amassed a little stock, to enable them to spend the evening of their days in comparative independence. The music of the Tyrolese. has been long celebrated for its simple and plaintive character. In other respects, they are distinguished by the characteristics common in their circumstances; loyalty, love of country, brave ry, frankness, hospitality, uncorrupted morals, su perstition, religion. They are all Roman Catholics, with the exception of eight or ten Jewish families. Their language is German. Tyrol cannot boast of a university, but there are various Lyceums, Gym nasia, and other seminaries, where every branch of education is taught. The number of such semina ries, including elementary schools, is no fewer than 819.
The history of Tyrol may be comprised in a few sentences. The Rhaeti, the ancient inhabitants, to whom Horace applied the epithet immanes, (lib.
iv. 14.) and who had made formidable encroach ments on the Romans, were first subjected to that people by Drusus, brother to the emperor Tibe rius. From that period their country composed an integral part of the Roman empire. On the in roads of the Goths and Vandals, it shared the fate of the rest of Europe, and fell into the hands of these ruthless barbarians. After several changes, it became subject to Austria about the beginning of the 14th century: in whose hands, with the little interruption which we are about to mention, it has since continued. This interruption refers to its being ceded to Bavaria by the treaty between the French and Austrians signed at Presburgh, (26th Dec. 1805,) after the power of Austria had been paralized by the disaster at Ulm and the defeat at Austerlitz. Bavaria treated her newly acquired territory in a most arbitrary manner. Not only did she exert herself to strip Tyrol of the privi leges she had enjoyed under Austria, but suppressed the very name of the country, and interfered with the sacred rights of the church. The Tyrolese were too brave and proud a people, and held liberty in too high veneration, long to submit to such indig nities. The flame of insurrection spread through out the province in 1809; and it was fanned and cherished by an individual whose great energies the crisis called forth,—the William Tell of his court try,—Andrew Hofer, a person of humble origin, but whose name now ranks with that of the first patriots and heroes. Ile performed prodigies of valour, and was ably supported by his suffering countrymen. But fate had doomed these noble ex ertions to be unsuccessful. Austria could render no assistance; the French and Bavarian forces pour ed into Tyrol; and after Hofer, like our Scottish Hero, had thrice rescued his country from the hands of the enemy, he was, like him too, betrayed into their hands; and he submitted (1810), with fortitude to a public death. Tyrol, meanwhile, continued in the possession of the Bavarians till 1315, when, by the congress of Vienna, it was re stored to Austria, and reinstated in all its ancient privileges. These privileges are not unimportant. It has, for example, a representative body, consist ing of four orders, the clergy, the nobles, the depu ties respectively of the towns and the peasants. Without the consent of this body no tax can be im posed. Tyrol is the only country subject to Aus tria, where the peasantry are adequately represent ed. The revenue which this country yields, we may mention in conclusion, amounts to 21 millions of florins, though there are no on the frontiers. This sum is obtained from a land-tax, and from duties which affect only the higher classes. The military force is confined to four battalions of light armed troops, but in cases of emergency, the Tyrolese are willing to rise to a man to defend their country.
See the article AUSTRIA; Beaumont's Travels through the Rhaetian Alps in the year 1786; Voyage dans he Tyrol, by M. de Bray; Kotzebue's Travels in Italy through the Tyrol; The Life of Hofer, trans lated from the German by Hall; and The Annual Register for 1810 and 1815. (Sc)