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292 MINERALOGICAL REMARKS.
talents, they do lefs harm: it is there pretty much Jew againft Jew;
but when they get into fmall towns and’ villages, they do great mif¬
chief, and frequently ruin the peafants and lower kind of people, by
furnifhing them with luxuries on credit, and then artfully come
upon them, and feize upon their property for payment, In Germany
and Bohemia I likewife found too many of them fixed in the {mall
towns and villages: how they fwarm in Poland is well known. The
Emperor Jofeph was at great pains to make this people more ufeful, and
lefs detrimental to the ftate, but he met with infurmountable ob¬
ftacles. As a fair and honeft difpofition is: of the greateft advan¬
tage to a nation, this fhould not be damped by examples: of mex
getting forward in the world by being deftitute of it. All religions,
and all principles of morality and politics, are not equally beneficial
to a ftate, and I can fee no reafon why the increafe of a dangerous
fe&t fhould not be prevented, or the whole ftock removed,
‘I examined fome hills covered with vineyards near the town ; they
are compofed of a reddith porphyritic bafalt, which is feen in many
places where the heavy rains have wafhed away the foil and formed.
ravines. The quantity of jafper found here is furprifing ; the walls
or divifions of the vineyards are made by piling up great loofe
blocks or fragments of it: it varies much in its colours; it forms
veins in thefe porphyrous hills, In other neighbouring hills fome
attempts have been made in mining, which have not been crowned
with fuccefs: one gentleman has loft near two thoufand pounds,
o almoft
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