and their buildings, both public and private, excellent in their way and in the best state.  The streets of the faubourgs are broad but not paved.  The most celebrated of these faubourgs are Maria Huelf, Leopold-stadt, Landstrasse, the Rennweg, the Wuehringer Gasse; and I am persuaded that if the old town were united to the faubourg by means of streets and squares and the esplanade filled up with buildings, Vienna would perhaps be the handsomest city in Europe and the fourth in size, for the best buildings and palaces are in the faubourgs, viz., the Military College, the Polytechnic School, St Charles’ Church, the Porcelain fabric, the Palaces of Esterhazy, Kaunitz, Stahremberg, Schwarzenberg, Palfy, and the beautiful Palace and ground of Belvedere in which last is a noble collection of pictures open to the public.  At the Polytechnic school one of the principal professors is a friend of Mr F------’s, and he explained to us the nature of the establishment and the course of studies pursued.  The apparatus for every branch of science is on the grandest scale.  After dinner we repaired to the Prater, crossing a branch of the Danube which here forms several islands.  The Prater requires and deserves particular mention.  Part of it is something in the style of the Champs Elysees at Paris, and it is fully equal to it in the variety of amusements and enjoyments to be met with there; but it is far larger and more beautiful on account of its landscape and the diversified manner in which the grounds are laid out.  The Prater, then, is an immense park, laid out on an island of considerable extent on the Danube.  The nearest faubourg to it is the Leopoldstadt, which is also the most fashionable one, and a bridge conducts you from that faubourg direct into the Prater.  The Prater presents a mixture of garden, meadow, upland and forest; the lofty trees arranged in avenues or in clumps give a delightful protecting shade.  On the road destined for the carriages there is every afternoon a most brilliant display of carriages.  Another avenue is destined for equestrians, and two avenues, one on each side of these two, for pedestrians.  There are besides winding footpaths, that conduct you all over this vast extent of ground, and circular grass plots surrounded by trees where the pedestrian may repose and eat and drink if he will.  Here are restaurants in plenty, cafes, Panoramas, exhibitions of wild beasts, swings, tennis courts, places for running at the ring, do for burlesque dramatic performances, farceurs, jugglers, De Bach’s Equestrian Amphitheatre in the style of Franconi, Salles de Danse, baths, billiard rooms, gaming tables, and even houses appropriated to gallantry.  In fact, the Prater is quite the Paradise of the bourgeoisie of Vienna, who are fond of the pleasures of the table and take every opportunity of making dinner and supper parties.  The bourgeois of Vienna are far more sensual than spiritual and not at all disposed to self-denial.