Moser's other relations were equally hospitable, until I
became stupid and comatose from excessive nourishment. I could not
discover the faintest trace of hostility to England amongst these
wealthy Hamburg merchants. They had nearly all traditional
business connections with England, and most of them had commenced
their commercial careers in London. They resented, on the other
hand, the manner in which they were looked down on by the Prussian
Junkers, who, on the ground of their having no "von" before their
names, tried to exclude them from every branch of the public
service. The whole of Germany had not yet become Prussianised.
These Hamburg men were intensely proud of their city. They
boasted, and I believe with perfect reason, that the dock and
harbour facilities of Hamburg far exceeded anything to be found in
the United Kingdom. I was taken all over the docks, and treated
indeed with such lavish hospitality that every seam of my garments
strained under the unwonted pressure of these enormous repasts.
Hamburg being a Free Port, travellers leaving for any other part
of Germany had to undergo a regular Customs examination at the
railway station, as though it were a frontier post.
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