ɛs AGRICULTURE OX THE RHINE.
and w ith a regard to propriety that must call for admiration.
Although a newspaper is to be found in every village,
and transatlantic proceedings now interest nearly every
German family, yet politics are not much discussed until
they assume the tangible form of interfering with village
property. The disputed points respecting general or
provincial parliaments, freedom of the press, and consti-
tutions granted or subverted, do not, in the present state
of things, sufficiently excite the peasant, who is more on
his guard against innovators, and against other prepon-
derating influences in the state, than against the growth
of the prerogative. We have already attributed to this
village system the feeling of a separation of interests
which we have observed between the peasants and what
are called the higher classes. The tic arising from large
landed properties, for the privilege of using which the tenant
in England was long considered as indebted to the favour
of the landlord, is here not to be found. Every man usually
occupies his own land and lives in his own house—not so
comfortably as an Englishman often does in a house
that is rented—but, certainly, independently. On the
other hand, the ill-will that threatens from a pressing
demand for land for manufacturing purposes in England,
need not here be feared, for the minute division of the
land, united with the security conferred by the officially
registered titles, facilitates the necessary transfers. In the
small villages the police is left to the management of the
headborough, who receives his instructions from the
chief town of the circle, and the popular clement in this
system reconciles the people to the strict registration of
the inhabitants, with their occupations, and property in
land and cattle, which is insisted upon. This registre-
λgkicultuke on the Rhine.
87
tɪon is again a source of credit, as mortgages must also be
registered to be effective, and titles to land are clear and
inexpensive to make out. Transfers of real property are
often made in Germany under these official titles ; the
expense of conveying which in England would more
than absorb the purchase-money. The village registers
are of ancient date in Germany, and since the military
surveys have been completed for the repartition of
the land-tax, are accompanied by maps that afford a
minute view of the country, such as leaves the most
ardent Statician nothing to desire. We are only be-
ginning to use the detailed information that can in this
way be collected, and the Prussian government has con-
tributed liberally to our stock of knowledge respecting
Central Europe. From the constitution of the village
government, that we have endeavoured to describe, it is
evident that the most detailed and authentic information
must be at the minister’s command. Out of this state
of publicity regarding private affairs a peculiar tone of
moral feeling necessarily arises. Every man’s proceed-
ings in the village being known, and the state of his pro-
perty being no secret, there is little room for an affecta-
tion of prosperity that docs not exist. On the other
hand, the poor know and keep each other in counte-
nance by their number. Nor do feelings of false pride in
these villages prevent young men and women from going
into service in the place where perhaps their parents oc-
cupied an independent position. There is a kindly tone
prevalent, very different from that which separates the
servant from the master in England. One table gene-
rally unites the whole family at meals, and the small Iand-
Λ-uner, as well as his wife, shares the field labour