per satellites within and without doors, loudly clamored against them and their claims. These disputes were interrupted by the pro rogation of the Estates; and during the recess, the Sovereign and his Ministers, acting simply on the restored Constitution of the kingdom, issued decrees upon the most im. portant measures, such as an exchange of the province of Lunenburg against that of East Friesland; the organization of a national military force; and the obliging individuals who had entered into the first and temporary levy of the militia, to extend their period of service to six years. To the legislative body, some of these measures were af. terwards notified in a speech, delivered by the minister Count Munster, on the re-assembling of the body in December 1815. Some of the decrees were obviously and sufficiently grounded on the urgency of the period, and the confusion created by the return of Napoleon from Elba; and to an objection that the same defence cannot be set up for the municipal constitutions given to many towns recently acquired by Hanover, and for the establishment of a system of police throughout the country, without, as was pretended, the consent or participation of the representatives of the people, it is a sufficient reply, that the Government was empowered by the Constitution to act as it saw fit; and this, too, fortunately; for the Estates were losing the time in futile discussions, and leaving the two main questions, on which all depended, untouched. These questions were, the right of the King to look upon the crown-domains as his private property, which was strongly contested; and the extent of the privileges which the nobles were to be allowed in re. gard to taxation, and to the right of appointment to certain offices, or of preference in the nomination to others. by the Government before issuing the patent | very natural reason that the privileged classes of summons for the estates. The re-esta-wished to preserve what they considered their blishment of the old form of government was rights; while their opponents with their prosimply a necessary, though provisional, return to the statu quo, incident to the expulsion of the invaders. In the unsettled state of the public feeling, and of political affairs in general, it would have been worse than ridiculous to have sacrificed to the demon of Theory, by leaving the country without a Government till the different parties should have agreed upon one general panacea: the point therefore was not submitted to their consideration. But under the foreign rule the inhabitants had for nearly six years enjoyed some advantages, which they could not see abolished without regret; of these, the principal gain for the lower ranks was the equality in which all classes stood in the eye of the law, as comprehending the equal administration of justice, the equal partition of the burdens of the state, and the equal obligation to military service among all. Merit was the sole professed passport to advancement; and a legislative body had been established, ad captandum, in which all classes of inhabitants were represented, though the powers granted the Assembly rendered it feeble and ineffectual. If we consider that during this period popular opinion had made some progress; that French soldiers had been quartered in every house, and numerous regiments had served with different divisions of the French army, on which occasions, men of all classes had not only heard new rights discussed, but seen them put in practice; while others, either in their own persons, or those of their friends, had experienced the rapid distinction shewn to obsequious talent by rulers anxious to turn it to their own account; we may easily imagine that the hearts of many, and these the more restless, beat in anxious expectation when the new Assembly of the Estates commenced their deliberations. In the fifth meeting this body closed its doors to the public, and declared its sittings to be secret. By this resolution, although the results of the deliberations were known, yet the public were prevented from learning the reasons adduced in support of many measures which were adopted, to the surprise of the uninitiated. The urgent necessities of the times caused a vote, justifying the collection of the taxes on the provisory footing arranged by the Ministry, until a definitive mode of taxation should be agreed upon. Public business was thus enabled to proceed; but from that moment the Estates occupied themselves with long and fruitless discussions respecting this definitive measure, on which they could be brought to no unanimous decision, for the At length, in 1817, the Government thought it had discovered a plan of proceeding, which would at the same time definitively fix the right of the Sovereign to the lands in question, and cause the Estates to advance, one step at least, towards a freer field of action than they had hitherto attained. A fresh provisory system of taxation was laid before the Estates by the ministry, in which a land-tax was included, that was ostensibly to be levied only on the unprivileged landed property, but which his Majesty was graciously pleased to declare he would himself submit to for his domains, in his capacity of privileged landowner. This liberal example, it was hoped, would enforce obedient imitation on the part of the privi leged members of the Estates, for themselves, and their constituents. Things were thus brought to a point, decisive for both parties; but the nobles were not to be won from their excessive privileges. The royal proposal was at once decried and opposed by those who preferred their own immunities to the national weal; and this betrayal of the common cause naturally broke, in some measure, the intimate alliance between the king and his nobles, and probably lent weight to the strong expression of public discontent, which in 1818 and 1819 was manifested in many parts of the kingdom, and led to the establishment of the first constitution granted to the Hanoverians, and to a total change in the system of representation, though little or nothing was thereby gained by the nation. the Prince Regent, after denying any positive right on the part of the claimants to the constitution claimed, granted as a boon the form they had drawn up, but with the weighty alteration of a Parliament of two chambers: in the first of these, with the mediatized princes and counts, the deputies of the knights were placed, while the deputies of the towns and free owners of land almost alone composed the second chamber. The institution of two chambers might of itself have been of little consequence; or even advantageous, if the contest between privileged and unprivileged classes could have been modified, as by the practice of the British Constitution before the Reform Bill, and led, like that, to a balance of parties and free discussions in one chamber first: but the se. paration of these two classes into two indeWe have dwelt perhaps longer than some pendent bodies, one of which had the right of our readers may think necessary, upon of putting its veto upon all the resolutions of the constitution and proceedings of the first the other, was a death blow to the hopes of General Assembly of the Estates in Hano- the innovators. Count Munster, who was ver, after the Restoration; but without doing the organ of the royal will on this occasion, so, it would have been impossible to show and who was known to possess the intimate the true point of view from which the pre- confidence of the Regent, was, whether corsent state of that country must be regarded. rectly or not, looked upon as the author of We shall not dwell so long upon what was this measure, and hence arose from the called the constitution of 1819. It is merely movement party a clamorous outcry for his necessary to state that its plan was discussed, dismissal, in their demands of 1830. and, after long debates, approved by the General Assembly of the Estates, at the requisition of the King and Ministry. In the plan drawn up and forwarded to London for the royal sanction, an attempt was made to remedy two grand defects, which were notorious in the composition of the first General Assembly of the Estates; viz., the preponderance of votes given to the privileged classes; and the non-representation of a considerable class of landowners; i. e. those holding free estates, but not entitled to rank amongst the lower nobility. Twenty-two new deputies were now to be chosen by these free proprietors, which would have sufficed to restore the balance, if only one Chamber were retained, as had hitherto been the case. The anxiety and fervor of hope raised by the idea of a reform in the constitution, and which had brought so much suffering on the country, was not greater nor more groundless, than the dejection and supine ness induced by the first disappointment of those exaggerated expectations. We may here remark that this passive submission was the only choice left to the movement party after the language used by Austria and Prussia at the congress of Carlsbad. The renewed disappointment and dejection of that party can therefore be imagined when the Royal answer was brought, in which From the promulgation of the Constitution of 1819, the representation of the people sank to a complete cypher, as far as regarded the conduct of affairs. Men of influence and intrigue shrank from the station assigned to them, and great difficulty was found in procuring deputies to attend the convocations of the parliament. The shock of the July revolution roused all parties to a sudden and increased activity. During this period, when the voice of innovation was deprived of every organ but one so inefficient for the expression of its desires, their discontent was silent indeed, but not appeased. We have voluntarily passed over the detail of the former modes of administration re-introduced at the restoration, and since modified at various times, without being very materially improved, because those changes were based upon an unsound foundation; as it would have led to unavoidable explanatory digressions, which would only weary the reader. It may suffice to say, that the Government was supported by the constituted authorities, the civil and military employés, the force of cherished early habits and long established institutions, which the people at large had never been induced to depreciate notwithstanding the imperfections they contained, by the outcry raised in some quarters against them. But the complicated and tardy ad ministration of justice, where its officers were | accompanied by the condition that their proso numerous; the useless expense in salaries duce was in the first instance to be employed for men who were withdrawn, by appoint- to defray the civil list, which was also, amuments that hindered instead of forwarding singly enough, fixed by the constitution, at the public weal, from their proper station as 500,000 dollars annually. The present inindustrious members of society; finally, the come produced by the domains does not unwearied zeal of the fiscal authorities, in reach that sum, and the estates are obliged detecting every hidden source of gain, in to purchase lands sufficient to cover the order to make it contribute to a fund raised amount: but the direction of these lands is and appropriated without the full control of under their control, and by proper managethe nation, were causes of dissatisfaction too ment they perhaps look for a surplus at glaring not to be seized and set forth on the some future day. A second point granted impulse given by the French revolution in by the King, even more important for the July; and in Gottingen, the declaration of nation than the foregoing, but a much more discontent and demand for redress, bore the doubtful exertion of royal generosity, relates appearance of an appeal to arms: but the to the relative position of landholders and rest of the nation did not follow the example peasants towards one another. As this is thus given. A new monarch had ascended the point, in speaking of which we promised the throne, whose principles were not as yet known, but whose expressions of discontent with the government of Hanover, when he had visited the country as a curious stranger, all could well remember. An appeal was made to William IV. He rejected the advice of the minister so long obnoxious to the movement party, and who forthwith resigned; and a fresh summons was issued to prepare a new and approved constitution. The plan drawn up in 1831 by the States, and submitted to the Royal approval, contained the proposition of two chambers; but the knights were to be represented by their deputies in the second instead of the first. In other respects, the numbers and position of the members were but little altered; the King was, however, to have the power of nominating any individual possessing landed property to the annual amount of 6000 dollars (a little less than £900), to a seat in the Upper Chamber, or, in other words, of conferring a peerage upon him. Once more all hopes were exaggerated to be once more disappointed. The king arbitrarily transferred the deputies of the knights to the first chamber, and accompanying his consent by a far fuller reserve of his royal prerogatives than his predecessor had made, returned the plan, with these alterations, to be put in execution, without farther consent of the Chambers, for they were already dissolved at the time. This proceeding deservedly procured the new constitution the appellation of a "Charte octroyée:" it has been acted upon, indeed, but only under a strong protest of the ministry, and hence the present question arises. But the royal consent had been given to other propositions contained in the original plan, which were of paramount importance. In the first place, the long demanded concession, that the crown lands were the property of the state, was formally made, but to show that no class of the inhabitants could look with indifference at the present state of affairs in Hanover, we must enter a little more fully into detail for explaining its importance. The terms on which land is held by the German peasant from his landlord have long been unknown in England, if they ever prevailed to the same extent here. In all countries, however, there must have been a period when it was not possible to convert every value into money; and we find in those districts which lie most remote from the grand routes of commerce, and especially in those at a distance from the sea, the most frequent remains of contracts in kind. Land was, until lately, held all over Germany on a mixed rent, part of which was paid in money, part in labor, and part in produce of the soil. The origin of these contracts, for it is not denied that a contract once existed,* is for the most part lost in the obscurity of the middle ages; and much land held in this manner is supposed to have been allodial property, of which the owner surrendered the manorial rights to some powerful neighbor, and submitted even to the payment of a fee, or to some kind of service, in order to obtain his protection in a time of danger. Modern lawyers, looking rather to what they consider the advantage of the country and the agricultural class, than displaying much scrupulosity respecting the actual state of property, have stated as a broad principle, that land held on this kind of tenure must be looked upon in the same light as acknowledged fiefs, the virtual property in which is transferred on certain conditions to the holder; aud they assert that the origin of this mode of tenuret was a similar necessity to that which caused the granting of * Runde-Privat-Recht, p. 487. frefs, viz. the impossibility of cultivating in | sue for an acknowledgment of the right to any other manner, at a period when labor- purchase freedom from them in Hanover, ers were not to be had for hire, the ground conformably to the example set by the Gothus given away by the grantor. vernment of many States of Southern Germany. Without going deeper into these theories, it may be remarked that of late years a somewhat startling principle of legislation has been adopted and acted upon throughout the greater part of Germany; according to which, the holder of lands under any other conditions than those of a contract of lease for a limited number of years,can demand the surrender of the property hitherto supposed to be vested in his landlord, on the payment of an indemnification, which varies in dif. ferent countries, according to a standard decreed by the legislature.* The repugnance felt by the present age to many of the conditions by which great part of the peasants hold their land, made it easy to give these services the appearance of burdens degrading to human nature; and that some, deservedly regarded as such, existed, especially in the Hanoverian States, and were restored with the abuses before alluded to, cannot be denied. In the district of Osnabrück, for instance, the landlords claimed on many estates the rights of masters over serfs in the treatment of their peasants, who could not leave the ground, or marry, without purchasing their permission, and on whose death a certain portion of their property was claimed by the landlord. That this was a point which required to be approached with the greatest coolness and with the tenderest regard for the interests of all concerned, was as evident, as it was certain that no agreement satisfactory to all par. ties could be concluded without a cordial cooperation and conciliatory mode of proceeding between those interested in the question. How much, therefore, had both parties in Hanover lost, when the subject came to be discussed, through the distrust naturally inspired by violence or intrigues, alike inconsistent with the more rational spirit and true enlightenment of the age. Had the different classes placed confidence in each other's intentions, it would have been easier perhaps to realise the wish of the celebrated lawyer whom we have quoted once before; and by some clear and judicious resolutions as to the nature of private contracts in general,* to have avoided the disagreeable alternative of forcing any one to give up what he naturally looks upon as a sacred right of property. The advocates for a compulsory release of the peasants from the obligations of tithes and personal service, adduced some reasons rather more plausible as recommendations to adopt the measure than justificatory of its The usual fees, however, of the tithe of enforcement. These were, that the greater the produce of the land, a certain number of part of the services in question were more days' service in the year, either in manual costly to those who rendered, than profitable labor, or with horse and cart, bore more the to those who received them; that the taking character of a rent in kind, which could only of tithes opened the door to much oppresbecome an oppression by the manner in sion, inasmuch as the landlord had the pow which it was exacted. The cases in which er of preventing the peasant from housing unlimited service of this kind was demand- his crop until he chose to take his due; that ed, together with the right of forcing pea- tithes operate as hindrances to improved culsants into the immediate service of the land- tivation of the land, the laborer being unwilllord, and the power of commanding their at-ing to work for gain which he is obliged to tendance on hunting parties, might more share with another. fairly be classed with actual servitude, and looked upon as unjustifiable grievances at the present day. Every right of this kind claimed by the landowner in France, where the custom was also prevalent, was violently abolished at the Revolution. In the lands occupied by the French in Germany, the more oppressive of these claims were abolished without indemnification, and the others declared to be the subject of negociation between the parties interested. As these rights returned in their full force to the landholders on the restoration, it was natural that a demand should en * In some states 20 years, in others 25 years purchase has been fixed. This last is, in truth, the favorite argument of prejudiced ignorance in support of a pitiful fallacy. No one can be ignorant that the value of the tithe and the amount of rent actually paid, make up, together, the real amount of rent. The landlord loses it therefore, the Church gains it; but the tenant neither loses nor gains it, and merely pays to the latter what he would otherwise pay to the former. Tithe is a moral tax, a spiritual rent. But while the landlord's rent and the governments tax are both physical necessi ties, for both parties possess a power over the tenant, controlling even the love of mo Eichhorn, Deutsche Staats und Rechts-Ges chichte, iv. p. 721. ney, this last, in its turn, predominates over the moral necessity, or tithe, in the tenant's mind and poverty, sectarianism, indolence, and selfishness, all exert their cunning to find in words the excuse which fact cannot afford them. We shall reply to those questions shortly, and for the first we would say, The question has not been fairly started, for the act of the predecessor has been, as we shall show, established, even by the representatives of the nation, to be illegal and incomplete. To the second,-that though the Fundamental Law is declared null, the proceedings under it are recognized; and this to prevent injury to the subjects from the error of the ruler. Other and more weighty arguments than the foregoing were likewise brought forward to urge the necessity of adopting the measure of release. It was observed, that the transfer of land subject to these burdens was loaded with additional fees to the landlord, without whose consent it could not be To the third, that legal changes will be alienated; that no division of the land, either permanent; as they alone ought to be. by sale or by legacy, was allowed, in order We must here pause a moment to notice that he might not be exposed to the necessity also a fact which doubtless will, and ought, of claiming the dues from several possessors to have its fair share in the future negocia which he was entitled to receive from one tions between the king and his people; only; in short, that the whole law of inheritance for the peasantry depended upon the contingencies of this kind, to which the class was liable, and could not be improved until this impediment was done away with. namely, that no provision for the existing royal debts is made in the economical budget of the present ministry, to whom his Majesty's English politics were obnoxious; and this is surely a just and an honest ground But forcible as this reasoning is, the doc- for the retainment of his allowance in the trine of obliging others to give up establish- country where the debt was incurred for ed rights of property, is one which cannot who would argue that the creditors should be received too cautiously: for, the prece- be left to the mercy of still unsettled Hanodent once established, no farther barrier re- verian contingencies alone, for the repaymains to check an even transient popular ment of the obligations contracted only on impulse; and the rights of all property be- the faith of the British allowance to a Prince come a mere trust, held during pleasure of of its Blood-Royal? Any motion on this the very party most interested in its re-as- subject, though intended simply to insult the sumption. Nothing, therefore, is secure: Sovereign in question, would, if common least of all then, can it be desirable to have shame and common honesty did not reject the principle introduced in the shape of a it, injure but the English creditor, by deMANDATE FROM THE CROWN, which was priving him of his fair security. Such a the ultimate solution of the difficulty in this course, and the silly rumors of what the fucase. The estates had indeed expressed the ture is to be, circulated by the very party wish to lay down the principle of compul- who are certainly not in the confidence of sory release for the peasants, and as early King Ernest, can only create a smile. The as the year 1822 a plan was drawn out for whole affords one more melancholy proof its execution, but it was only with the new of the ignorance and inconsistency which of constitution that it was formally adopted, late years have marked the proceedings of and under this, NOT IN THE FORM OF A all who have taken a prominent part in the BILL PASSED BY THE TOTALITY OF THE LE- legislation of that country, whose welfare GISLATURE, but as a grant DICTATED BY ought to have been more carefully watched THE CROWN in the royal patent of WILLIAM by Great Britain; and whose fate, even now IV., accompanying the draft of the consti- that the relations between the kingdoms are tution which had received his assent. So no longer so intimate, cannot be matter of much for REPRESENTATIVE WEIGHT in the indifference to us. DEPLORED NEW CONSTITUTION! The Hanoverians require, however, no But, it is pretended, besides the danger of interference on our part now in their interestablishing the precedent that every mo- nal concerns; they are able to take care of narch on his accession has the right of over- themselves; and their interests would not throwing all that had been agreed to by his be more forwarded than our own by any predecessor, the question has fairly been intermeddling on this occasion. We have started, how far is this non-recognition to already noticed the coincidence in point of be carried? If the constitution is not to be time between the granting of the first nugaacknowledged, what is to be the fate of all tory constitution, in 1819, and the Congress contracts concluded under its guarantee? of Carlsbad: some of our readers may Are they to be dissolved? for in this man. been struck by the similarly contemporaner no permanent change can be effected. neous appearance of the second constitution, have |