236
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
conduct, he has a powerful motive to exert himself. The
expectation of promotion is ever before him. AH the
higher scholastic charges are filled by men who rise as it
were from the ranks. In the grammar-schools young
men from college enter as ushers and rise to be head
masters. In the village schools skilful masters are pro-
moted from places with small salary to larger schools
where the remuneration is better. A meritorious teacher
is sure to obtain an increase of salary where no opportu-
nity of promotion presents itself.
By this excellent system not only is a vast amount of
talent secured for the important office of public teacher,
but the hope of advancing to the higher posts in the
scholastic career induces a number of clever young men
to devote their time to the tasks of ushers or under-teachers
at low salaries. Thus a sufficient number of teachers can
always be found, and the schools are well supplied with
men who, not being fatigued with incessant labour, carry
a freshness and cheerfulness to their Classesthatis highly
beneficial. It is in this manner that with a very small
expenditure a highly valuable course of education is now
at the command of every German. The system of in-
struction at the village schools is admirable, and at the
grammar and polytechnic schools in the larger towns it
must be pronounced first-rate.
The common principle in Germany is to recognise no
distinction of rank. The school is open to all, and the
small fees (in villages, not amounting to many shillings ;
and in towns, but to one or two pounds annually) are
paid by all alike.. In the Duchy of Nassau a change has
been attempted at Wiesbaden, which, by giving a select
education to those who are willing to pay the small sum
Agkiculttjre on the Rhine.
237
of two pounds annually, allows a poorer class of scholars
to be educated almost without fees.
The rates levied for making roads do not exempt those
who use them from paying toll. The gates are usually
met with at distances of 1 German or 4∣ English miles
apart, and the toll on a two-horsed vehicle is generally
about twopence. In the towns a much higher toll is
commonly levied for paving-money. Roads between
villages are made by aid of local contributions, and are
kept in repair by the respective villages. The poor are also
maintained by their fellow-villagers under various local
arrangements, but food is happily not too dear anywhere
on the Rhine to render it impracticable for the aged and
even the partially infirm to earn in some manner their
daily bread, without the aid of workhouses. There is a
great deal of home-relief distributed in the towns by the
overseers, partly from the voluntary contributions at
churches, and partly derived from sums drawn from the
revenues of the respective towns. A pauper is, how-
ever, unhesitatingly removed to his parish, and men-
dicants are in general not tolerated.
The prisons are also a charge on the general revenue.
Their cost is diminished by a good system of prison-
labour, out of the proceeds of which, too, a small fund is
provided for discharged prisoners, a regulation which has
a most salutary effect. Excellent prison discipline is
established at Cologne and at Eberbach in the Rhinegau,
at which places the system of secondary punishments is
admirable. The charge for the police establishments is
one of the heaviest, and in its present shape the police
system is the most doubtful, as to any good resulting
from it, of all the German institutions.