Digitised Manuscripts and Books

Frankfort merchants :while Frankfort owed its political impor- . . > . a Be A ce te ie ie 3 . a tba ie hee tanee to being a'free and independent 'town - virtually a repub- lic -, and the seat of the Bund, the German Confederation to which , under the Presidency of Austria, plenipotentiaries were accredited by all the European Powers. It was a proud little city : proud of its wealth, which Corporation jealously suarded by decree- ing that no paupers and none but Prankfort citizens should abide within its gates, denying the rights of citizenship even to the inhabitants of the nearest villares althoush they were within the territory of the republic ; proud of its arigtoe- racy , though most of its patricians had no handles to their names ; proud of its history , for the Emperors of Germany had Q for centuries in its Cathedral amid a pomp and 2en crowned j~ et display , the recollection of which , when I was a ehald, sti lingered in the memories of its older inhabitants : and last » proud of having been the birthplace of Goethe. The twain on which Frankfort lies derives most of its > waters from an affluent , the yeckar , and soon pours them into the Rhine at Mayence . The river is too shallow to allow of much navication » Still the quays were lively enough for much of the trade came in barres and flatbottomed vessels i wnile small steamers like the Thames penny-boats plied between tne Clty and the neishbourir townlets. Only one bridse - once ef: with houses and shops like the old London pridge - eon- nected Frankfort with the townlet of Sachsenhausen on the Opposite b - a place renowned for the superlative uscliness