b o o k merchants are defpifed, and commerce languifhes ; men of learn-
x i. .
i - _ ■ mg are negleCted, and letters are uncultivated; the nobles and
gentry alone enjoy the right of being land-holders, and center
in themfelves the whole powers and emoluments of government.
Daily, however, this odious flavery lofes ground; the age becomes
more enlightened; the citizen, the merchant, the manufacturer,
and the peafant, gain efteem and confequence; and the
time perhaps is not diilant; when they will burft the lhackles,
which prevent them from enjoying the common rights of man.
I f the prelent duke Ihould die without iflue, the right of appointing
the duke, according to the rules of fucceffion lately
eitablilhed, would be veiled in the diet of Courland, to be approved
of by the king and republic of Poland. But as Courland
is teo fmall a Hate to aft independently of the great neighbouring
kingdoms, the nomination of the new duke would entirely
depend on the will of that power which has moll preponderance
in the north, and confequently moft influence in Poland.
When Poland was the great preponderating power, Courland
was fubfervient to that republic; when Sweden, under
Gultavus Adolphus, and his immediate fuccelfors, role fu-
perior to Poland, Courland was overran by the Swedes, and its
fovereign led into captivity *. When the fortune of the houfe
of Vafa declined, and Ruflia gained the afcendancy, Courland became
almoll a province of Ruflia; its dukes were eleCted and
* James duke of Courland, taken prifoner in 1458, by Charles X. king of Sweden.
* depofed,
depofed, its councils directed by the influence of the court of C H A p .
Peteriburgh, and its dependence on Poland was a mere formality, n — „1
But as Ruflia has lately loll her influence in Poland, the duke of
Courland has emancipated himfelf from his abfolute dependence
on thè court of Peteriburgh. But whether this emancipation
is temporary or permanent mull depend on the fate of the pre-
fent war, and the iflue of the pending negotiations.
The prevailing religion of Courland is the Lutheran, but all
other religions are tolerated ; and by the ads of fubjeCtion, the
Roman catholics particularly are capable of holding all military
and civil offices, that of the chancellor and a few others excepted.
The language of the natives in Courland is a dialed of the
Livonian or Lettilh, the fame language which is fpoken, with a
little variation, by the natives in Livdnia and Elthonia, and is
probably derived froln the Finnilh. The nobles and gentry, being
defended from German fettlers, fpeak German ; and that
tongue is always ufed in the debates of the diet.
C H A P .