MANNHEIM.

63

churches, and left not one stone of the ramparts standing onanother.

In the year 1794, the city was again bombarded by theFrench, and once more in 1795 by the Austrians, when onlyfourteen houses remained uninjured. In fact, from the veryfirst moment of the fortifications having been constructed,Mannheim became the seat of continual warfare; but sinceits ramparts have been removed, it has been changed into aplace of such special security, that it has risen to be one of theprincipal merchant-towns of the Upper Rhine, with harboursand railways on both sides of the river, and with a bevy ofEnglish residents pervading the domiciliary " blocks" fromA 1 down to T 4.

Goethe styles it the " friendly, cleanly Mannheim;" and itmust be admitted, that though the place has no picturesqueadvantages, it has social comforts that, in a Rhenish town,are sufficient compensation for its want of beauty; for (pro-digy of German "progress!") it has actually "trottoirs" andstreets without an open sewer meandering down the middleof them. It boasts a theatre, too, that has long ranked asone of the best in the south of Germany; for it was liere thatSchiller's play of " the Robbers " was produced under bis owndirection in 1782—the author having resided on the ParadePlatz, in the house called "zum Karlsberg;'''' and it was inone of the dwellings opposite the principal entrance to thetheatre that Kotzebue, the author of "the Stranger," wasassassinated by the mad student Sand.

With this brief catalogue, however, end all the points ofinterest in connexion with the " friendly, cleanly" (and any-thing but pretty) Mannheim.