C O I N I M P O R T E D .
Value in Roubles.
Ducats 448,793 - - - - - 1,207,741 xo
New rix-dollars 1,780,744! - 2,368,389 85 !
Old rix-dollars 138,9761 - - - 1,182,058 84!
Sum total of coin imported - * 4,758,189 79 i
* £• 793.031-
C H A P .
C H A P . V.
Mittau— Dutchy o f Courland— HiJlory— SucceJJion— Anecdotes of
Erneft John Biron— Confitution— Feodal Dependanee on Poland
— Rights of the King of Poland— Prerogatives of the D u k e -
Diet— Nobles— Religion— Language.
ON quitting Riga we eroded the Duna, paffed through a flat C H^A P.
fandy country, thinly inhabited, to the Ruflian frontiers, <— .1
about fixteen Englilh miles diftant from Riga, and entered the
dutchy of Courland. Our baggage was. moll itridtly examined
by a Ruflian cuftom-houfe officer, who even opened our portfolios,
and examined the fmalleft pieces of paper. This ftridt
fearch is made for the purpofe of preventing foreigners from
carrying out of Ruflia the current coin; an ufelefs precaution,
it ihould feem, confidering the debafed Hate of the
coinage.
Mittau, fixteen miles from the frontiers of Livonia, Hands in
the midit of a very fertile and agreeable country j is a long town,
containing a mixture of brick houfes, ftuccoed white, and wooden
buildings. It contains little remarkable but the palace and the
academy.
The