Travels Into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1802 Excerpt: ... CHAP. 7, Continuation of the tour through the duchy of Lithuania.--Num-_ her of Jews.--Badnessof the roads and want of accommodations.--Close of thedietine at Minsk.--Poverty and wretchedness of the natives.--Comparative view of the Swiss and Polish peasants..--Remarks on the Plica Polonica. IN our route through Lithuania we were struck with the swarms of Jews, who, though very numerous in every other part of Poland, seem to have sixed their head-quarters in this duchy. Ijf you afk for an interpreter, they bring you a Jew; if you come to an inn, the landlord is a Jew; if you want post-horses, a Jew procures them, and a Jew drives them; if you wish to purchase, a Jew is your agent: this perhaps is the only country in Europe where Jews cultivate the ground; and we frequently saw them engaged in sowing, reaping, mowing, and other works of husbandry. The roads in Lithuania are entirely neglected, being little better than by-paths winding through the thick forest without the least degree of artisicial direction: they are frequently so narrow as scarcely to admit a carriage; continually obstructed by stumps and roots of trees, and in many parts so exceedingly sandy, that eight small horses could scarcely drag us along. The postilions 'were were frequently boys of ten or twelve years of age, hardy lads, who rode posts of twenty and even thirty English miles.without a saddle, and with scarcely any covering except a shirt and a pair of linen drawers. The bridges across the rivulets were so weakly constructed, and so old, that they seemed ready to crack with the weight of the carriage, and we thought ourselves fortunate in pasting them without an accident. Some travellers have remarked, .that the forests., through which our route lay, are set on fire by lightning or o...