members of the
Government service, the clergy, the schoolmasters, doctors, artists,
and officers; the uneducated were the tradesmen, mechanics, and
labourers. The trade was mostly in the hands of Jews, it had become
almost a Jewish monopoly. When one of these tradesmen went bankrupt,
there was a commotion over the whole town, and I remember being taken
to see one of these bankrupt shops, expecting to find the whole house
broken up and demolished, and being surprised to see the tradesman
standing whole, and sound, and smiling, in his accustomed place. My
etymological tastes must have developed very early, for I had asked
why this poor Jew was called a bankrupt, and had been duly informed
that it was because his bank had been broken, _banca rotta_, which of
course I took in a literal sense, and expected to see all the
furniture broken to pieces. The commercial relations of our Dessau
tradesmen did not extend much beyond Leipzig, Berlin, possibly Hamburg
and Cologne. If a burgher of Dessau travelled to these or to more
distant parts the whole town knew of it and talked about it, whereas a
journey to Paris or London was an event worthy to be mentioned and
discussed in the newspapers. These old newspapers are full of curious
information. We find that if a person wished to travel to Cologne or
further, he advertised for a companion, and it was for the Burgomaster
to make the necessary arrangements for him.

French was studied and spoken, particularly at Court, but English was
a rare acquirement, still more Italian or Spanish. There was, however,
a small inner circle where these languages were studied, chiefly in
order to read the master-works of modern literature. And this was all
the more creditable because there were no good teachers to be found at
Dessau, and people had to learn what they wished to learn by
themselves, with the help of a grammar and dictionary. We learnt
French at school, but the result was deplorable. As in all public
schools, the French master who had to teach the language at the Ducal
Gymnasium could not keep order among the boys. He of course spoke
French, but that was all. He did not know how to teach, and could not
excite any interest in the boys, who insisted on pronouncing French as
if it were German. The poor man's life was made a burden to him. His
name was Noel, and he had all the pleasing manners of a Frenchman, but
that served only to rouse the antagonism of the young barbarians. The
result