had its effect and the capitulation was signed.  This shows the perfect inutility of fortifying the old town of Vienna against a foreign enemy.  Indeed a capital city should never be fortified; it generally contains too many things of value, ever to be exposed to the risk of a bombardment.  It would seem, however, that the object of the Austrian government in reconstructing these works were to keep its own subjects at Vienna in check.  But in this case it would be much more advisable to construct a fortress on the heights of Kahlenberg or of Leopoldsberg, both of which command the city and the whole expanse below.  The Turks were encamped on the Kahlenberg at the famous siege of Vienna.

Vienna proper, the old town, is a Gothic city, but a very handsome one.  The streets are in general broad and well paved; but the Places or Squares are small.  With the exception of the Herrengasse, where the nobility reside, the rest of Vienna is inhabited by shopkeepers and wholesale dealers; and the shops are brilliant and well fitted up.  The Kaernthner Strasse, a long and tolerably broad street, and the Kohlmarkt present the greatest display of wealth.  Indeed the Kaernthner Strasse may be considered as the principal street; this street and the Kohlmarkt have a great resemblance to the finest parts of Holborn.  The Graben also present a fine display of shops and may be termed the Bond Street of Vienna.  The Sanct Stephans Platz where the Cathedral church of Vienna, called St Stephans Kirche, stands, is the largest Place in Vienna.  The Cathedral is a very ancient and curious Gothic edifice, and the steeple is nearly 450 feet high.  I happened to enter the Cathedral one day on the occasion of a solemn requiem celebrated for the soul of Prince Metternich’s father.  Had it been for the son, instead of the father, many an honorable man persecuted at the instigation of that most machiavelic of all ministers, might exclaim in making a slight alteration in a well known epitaph: 

  Cy-git M——­ ah! qu’il est bien
  Pour son repos et pour le mien!

Among the other striking buildings in the old town is the Hofburg or Imperial Palace, a very extensive quadrangular building, with a large court in its centre.  A Guard mounts here every day at eleven o’clock.  It was in one of the saloons of this palace that the celebrated Congress of Vienna was held; a Congress whose labours will be long and severely felt by Europe and duly appreciated by posterity, who will feel any other sentiment but that of gratitude for the arrangements entered into there.  The Hofburg was built by Leopold VII in 1200.  This building, from its being extremely irregular and from its having received additions at intervals in the different styles of architecture, has been aptly enough considered as the type of the Austrian monarchy, and of its growth from a Markgraviate to an Empire; in this, by the continued acquisition of foreign territories differing from each other in manners and hi speech; in that, by the continued addition of various specimens of architecture and style of building in its augmentation.