Travels in the North of Germany; describing the present state of the Social and Political Institutions in that country; particularly in the Kingdom of Hanonver

Front matter

.-3fc" •■-!£■— -O-—^"<^— <£■--■^—^"^— **■»■-<•§£■-- <£*— **$£■-. ♦ |T ♦ ♦ A Conserved under the k k Adopt a Book Appeal 4 I . . I ♦ Mrs LK La \\akcur i -B-ax+er y I * TRAVELS IN THE NORTH OF GERMANY, DESCRIBING THE PRESENT STATE OF THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS, THE AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, COMMERCE, EDUCATION, ARTS AND MANNERS IN THAT COUNTRY, PARTICULARLY IN THE KINGDOM OF HANNOVER. By THOMAS HODGSKIN, Esq. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. EDINBURGH : PRINTED FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO. EDINBURGH j AND HURST, ROBINSON, AND CO. CHEAPSIDE, LONDON. 1820. CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

Chapter I

Courts for the Administration of Justice. — Property the foundation of the right to administer justice—Patrimonial courts. — Justice chanceries. — Appointments of judges Salaries Chief court of appeal. — An example of tolerance. — Curious distinction. — High reputation of this court.— Advocates. — Regulations concerning Effect of public pleading on their importance, ... Page

Chapter II

Hannover — Civil Laws and Processes No civil code. — Different laws Dissimilarity between civil and criminal process. — Civil process described, — Great length. — Difference of opinion as to codes of law. — Opinions ofSavigny and Thibaut,

Chapter III

Criminal Laws — Processes and Punishments. — Criminal code of Hannover Remarks on it. — Unfitness of the code Is not followed in decisions. — What the judges do follow. — Torture abolished. — When last inflicted. — Criminal process secret. — Is regulated by the convenience of the judge. — Great VI CONTENTS. 43 77 length of processes. — Fail to instruct the people- Tribunals formerly public. — Number of persons punished in Hannover in a year Proportion of fe males — Proportion of thefts Cruelty of punish ments — Are more humane than formerly. — Few per sons punished in Hannover for coining or forgery. — Punishments of the police.— Comparative statement of the number of persons punished in Great Britain and Hannover, ... Page

Chapter IV

Hannover — Appropriation of Landed Property. —Different sorts of proprietors The sovereign. — Nobles. Corporations. Free property Large farms Minute division. — Meyer tenure described. — Leibeigen tenure described. — Consequences An example Discussion and improvement Economists.. — Farmers. — Bauers. — Middling class increasing. — Regulations influencing tlie number of poor. — One forbidding marriage without permission considered. — Manner of providing for poor. — A custom of exposing them. — Institution at Hersberg. — Benevolence and charity, -

Chapter V

Hannover — Agriculture Hannover an agricultural country. — Agriculture of economists. — Farm at Coldingen. Sheep. Shepherds. The family.— Agriculture of the marsh lands. — A mode of mending the land. — Farmers respected. — Bauers contemned — All follow the same agricultural methods. — Right of pasturage — Course of crops. — Mode of paying wages — Prices.— Implements Impediments to agriculture. — Origin of tithes. — Manners of female CONTENTS. VII 110 154 186 peasantry. — A custom of the bauers Plantage at Hannover, ... . Page Page

Chapter VI

Hannover — Manufactories Linen the staple of Germany. — Quantity manufactured in Silesia. — In Westphalia. — Cotton. — Wool. — Paper Iron. — Imperfect division of labour. — Wages of. — Imperfection of German manufactures wrongly attributed to the national character of the people. — Caused by the monopoly and interference of governments. — The guilds, -

Chapter VII

Hannover — Commerce. — Number of ships formerly. — Facilities for trade. — Commerce of rivers. — Reeulations and tolls on the Elbe — Regulations on the Weser. — Tolls Vessels employed on the Aller — on the Leine. — Limitations to the trade on the Ilmenau. — Tolls on roads Impediments to commerce in Germany. — Advantages of Britain — Effect of Hanse towns on the commerce of Hannover. — Canals. — Roads. — Posts, -

Chapter VIII

Hannover — Schools. — Education promoted by the clergy Regulations concerning — Children obliged to go to school. — A learned landlord — Institutions osthe town of Hannover. — Lyceum; date; description ; two customs of. — Palace-school described.— Hofrath Feder. — Girls' school of the old town ; of the new town; an opinion of the inspector — Parish schools Orphan-house — Sunday-school — Military and Garrison-schools — Seminary. — Bottcher the CONTENTS. 211 £62 324 founder who ; for what intended ; described ; self teaching principle at ; good effected by ; small funds of. — Quantity of children taught on the whole. — Man ner of teaching. — Precision of. — Head reckoning. — A novel method of teaching reading. — Religious in struction ; effects of on children ; on young men. — Punishments National education Observations, Page

Chapter IX

Universitt of Gottingen. — German universities founded by sovereigns ; professors not attached to any particular sovereign...— Difference between German and English universities.— Funds of Gottingen. — Manner of living there. — Privileges of German universities. — Tribunals of Gottingen.— Number of professors ; celebrated ones ; what they teach ; manner of teaching ; specimen of minuteness ; effects on character ; salaries ; honours Degradation of professors. — Consequences of patronage. — Number of students ; what they learn j their importance ; separation from the other classes of society ; manners ; .their comment ; eccentricities ; their unions.— Disturbance at Gottingen ; by what occasioned. — Remarks, T

Chapter X

' On the German Language. — Wrong criterions employed to judge languages by. — German language not unmusical ; examples. — German articles redundant Declension of substantives redundant. — Adjectives absurdly declined.— Changes in verbs redundant. — German language complicated Source osthe errors. — Is a rich language. — Kant; his merits and peculiarities, - CONTENTS. IX

Chapter XI

Literature Drama. — Works of Messrs Oehlenschlager and Grillparzer ; of Mr Mullner Guilt, a tragedy ; King Yngurd, a tragedy ; possess the characteristics of German literature. — Historical literature of Germany.— General characteristics of its fine literature — Its faults and beauties, - Page 346

Chapter XII

Influence of the situation of the Germans on their Literature. — Influence of their historical situation ; of their political situation ; of not participating in the naval enterprises of Europe ; of their education.— Their opinion as to authorship —Of the recent date of their literature. — Share the inhabitants of Hannover take in the general literature Periodical publications.— Gbttingsche gelehrte Anzeigen. — Freedom osthe press in Hannover, 385

Chapter XIII

Private Life and Morals. — Private life of a foreign people difficult to learn. — The religion of the Germans. — Toleration . — Examples of Catholic sovereigns with Protestant subjects. — Causes of tolerance Character and principles of Luther. — Church has no power. — Ceremony of confirmation. — Gentleness. — Instances of politeness.— Christmas presents. — Sociality.— Ceremoniousness. — Endearing epithets. — Free intercourse.— Commerce of the sexes. — Number of divorces Selection of wives. — Freedom of manners. — Extensive education of women. — Public display of affections. — Manner of announcing deaths and marriages, .... - X CONTENTS.

Chapter XIV

Alteration of Morals. — Are the morals of the Germans deteriorated ? — Influence of the immorality of sovereigns. — Murder of Count Konigsmark — Former state of sexual intercourse. — State of morals according to Riesebeck. — German morals improved — Source of the opinion that they have deteriorated, - - Page 443

Chapter XV

Cassel and Frankfort. — Cassel ; situation. — Wilhelms Hblie ; date of its improvements ; paid for by the blood of the Hessians. — The Museum. — Examples of the absurdities of learning. — Difference between Cassel and Hannover. — Fritzlar. — A tax on travellers. — Marb u rg. — G iessen Wetzlar. — Frankfort. — Fair. — Musicians, - 467

Appendix

. No. I An Account of Births, Confirmations, Marriages, and Deaths, in the whole German Dominions of his Majesty our August Lord, from the 1st of January 1817, to the 1st of January 1818, 486 No. II. — Persons composing the States of Hannover, - - 489 No. III.— Translation.— Regulations for the Meeting of the General States at Hannover, the 15th December 1814, - 494 No. IV.— List of the Public Lectures given in one year at Gottingen, for the half year beginning in April 1818, .... 504 No. V. — Measures, Weights, and Monies, mentioned in this Work, - - - TRAVELS IN GERMANY.

Chapter I. Courts For The Administration Of Justice

Property the foundation qfthe right to administer justice. — Patrimonial courts. — Justice chanceries Appointments qf judges. — Salaries Chief court of appeal. — An example of tolerance. — Curious distinction. — High reputation of this court. — Advocates. — Regulations concerning Effect qf public pleading on their importance. I he French introduced the code Napoleon, and their own forms of procedure, into Hannover. They swept away the whole osthe ancient institutions for the administration of justice, but they did not possess the country long enough to conquer the habits of the people, and, with some few amend ments, the ancient methods are again fully established. The present tribunals may be conveniently described as patrimonial courts, justice chan ceries, and the court of appeal. Both the administration of justice, and the power VOL. II. a of declaring what justice ought to be, or the whole of the legislative and judicial functions, were in most European countries, at a period antecedent to the present, considered as the attribute of property.

Many of the regulations now imposed on us as the will of the society, were originally the regulations of lords for their slaves ; and in their origin some of the highly honoured laws of Europe may be compared to the slave-codes of the West Indies. This state of things still in some measure exists in Hannover. The possessors of certain properties have the power of administering justice within their limits, and they appoint all the persons connected with the administration of justice. Courts constituted by their authority are called patrimonial courts. It is by virtue of the right of property that the monarch appoints his amtmen, who being officers for the administration of justice, amts are considered as patrimonial courts. The jurisdiction of town magistrates was confined to the land which belonged to the town, or which was under its immediate protection, and they possessed this jurisdiction by virtue of the right of property.

Towns, therefore, are also patrimonial courts. Hannover itself presents an illustration of this truth. It is divided into two parts, the land on which one is built belongs to the town magistracy, and is under its jurisdiction ; the land on which the other is built belongs to the sovereign, and is placed under a person appointed by him. I do not know the number of patrimonial courts belonging to individual noblemen which yet remain in Hannover, but at present the number is not considerable. The royal amts amount to at least 160. Patrimonial courts are distinguished by some of them having jurisdiction in civil suits only, while others have both civil and criminal jurisdiction. This difference is not a consequence of these courts belonging to individuals, or to the monarch ; it seems to have been introduced by chance, and to have been established by custom.

There are at least twenty towns with tribunals possessing full powers, and there are at least two courts belonging to noblemen, those of Hardenberg and Adelepsen, which also possess them. A committee of the states which was appointed to inquire into the administration of justice, recommended the separation of all criminal jurisdiction from the patrimonial courts, which are the property of individuals ; but owing, I believe, to the power of the individuals, this recommenda tion has not yet been complied with. The magistracy of the towns has been described in the chapter on Government. The members of patrimonial tribunals are appointed by the proprietors. They must be persons properly educated, and, in general, they must be approved of by the Crown. Each of these tribunals consists at least ot a judge, with two assistants, who bear tbe title of secretaries, or assessors.

Many of them employ several more assistants. Formerly these judges pre sided in some instances over two courts, which af forded them an opportunity, by multiplying the acts of both courts, to increase their emoluments at the expence of the unhappy suitors. They were some times also advocates by other tribunals ; and on the borders of two countries, they sometimes, till they were forbid, served two different masters. There are at least three educated jurisconsults, distinguished as amtmen, assessors, and secretaries, at each of the one hundred and sixty amts men tioned, so that the persons of this profession em ployed in the minor tribunals may be considered as extremely numerous. The amtman frequently unites a great deal of power in his own hands by being at the same time the tenant of the royal pro perty within his district.

In this the tithes, and a right to a certain portion of the labour of the peasants, is frequently included. He has also the superintendence of roads and bridges, in short, all the powers of the proprietor, of government, of the administration of justice, and of the police within his district. The persons living under him may certainly apply to superior courts if he oppress them, but, as far as the peasantry are concerned, this must be out of their power from poveity, and over them he is completely the lord. The amt men sometimes live very splendidly, and when they happen to dwell in some old monastery, or ancient baron's castle, they seem not imperfectly to repre sent the feudal nobility. They possess all their consequence without their pride, independence, or ferocity. Among their other duties, I must not forget to enumerate, that they are ordered frequently to visit the inns, in order to see if the guests have good food and drink provided for them.

They have also to see that no more osthe land occupied by the peasant is ploughed than he is allowed to plough by his contract. * This is surely, therefore, a most benevolent government, which takes such care of its subjects' palates and health, and which so carefully limits their exertions. The union of the administration of the royal property with the administration of justice, has long been a matter of complaint, and probably of serious inconvenience. It is, however, common in Germany, though, in some of the countries, in Brunswick for example, the two are separated. Absurd as the union appears, if the separation is to make two offices where one only now exists, it must rather be considered as an evil than as a good. Amts Ordnung. The whole of these functionaries are said to have borne their power so meekly, that it is doubtful it the evil of multiplying offices should be incurred for the advantages of the separation.

The best way to affect it would be, to sell or let the domains as if they were private property. All these minor officers of justice are principally paid by fees, which are regulated according to law. Magistrates of towns have also salaries. But it is unwisely made the interest of all these gentlemen to increase law-suits, and thus increase their emoluments. Since the restoration of Hannover lo its former masters, many minor patrimonial courts have been abolished. The French had also abolished them, but it is only now that it can be said that they are abolished never again to be revived. It is curious to read of courts whose power was confined to single houses, or by the marks made by the water as it dropped from their roofs. There were many other similar ones, with uncouth untranslateable names, and they prove completely how utterly ignorant our ancestors were of what we call order and good police.

In all the alterations which have been made, it is evident that power is leaving the nobles, and concentrating itself in the hands of the sovereign. In all the former practices, a state of society may be traced, in which power and government were founded on no views of general good, but on individual strength. He who was stronger than his neighbours usurped authority over them, and he established his power for the gratification of his own lusts. The general good of a former period could only mean the good of a part of those inhabitants who now form the different kingdoms of Europe. As conquest and usurpation went for ward, — as the ambition of governing was more ex tensively gratified — the terms general good were extended from the castle of the noble to the neighbouring villages and towns, and at length they were applied to provinces and nations.

The powers of modern governments were originally ill-acquired, and, from being concentrated in the hands of few sovereigns, they have now become an enor mous evil. Its very enormity, however, makes it more visible, and we may hope for its limitation from the doubts and alarm it will excite. Most of the patrimonial courts possessing juris diction in criminal causes have a curious method of examining or trying prisoners, without passing sentence on them. Many of the magistrates of the minor courts are ordered to send all the acts, as the papers relative to processes are called, to some superior court, for its judgment. And the magistrates of the towns, who are not obliged, very frequently send the acts both of civil and criminal processes to some superior tribunal, or to the mem bers of the faculty of jurisprudence, at some university, who pronounce the judgment.

The exa minator and the judge are, in such cases, different persons, and none of those passions which are so likely to be occasioned in the examining judge, by the obstinacy, impertinence, or independence, of the persons examined, can have any influence on the judge who pronounces the sentence. He may be deceived by the reports of the examining judge, but he has the power, if he suspects any thing wrong, to send the acts back to be revised. The examiner may give to the evidence the colour of his own kindness or malignity, but the operation of either of these dispositions is easily detected. The judge, therefore, pronounces according to the facts presented to him, independent of all other sympathies than those occasioned by his preformed moral opinions, and so far as these facts are cor rectly stated, his judgment is likely to be correct.

By the acts of one tribunal being thus exposed to the inspection of another, a sort of publicity, though far from the best sort of publicity, is given to the proceedings of courts, which produces, in a small degree, motives for honesty. On the other hand, as distant judges share with the examiner the responsibility of ordering the punishment, he may sometimes be tempted to be careless or un just. I am not quite sure that it is right to condemn a man to punishment after an examination of a written statement of facts, and without being guided by sympathy or antipathy. In a personal examina tion there are many little circumstances of voice and manner, which have a powerful effect on de termining our opinions as to guilt or innocence. These are part of the materials of an accurate judgment, and of all these the distant judge must be entirely ignorant.

There is a consciousness of innocence or of guilt, which lives in the eye or speaks in the voice of every man ; there is a nobility of thought, whose simple utterance commands belief; and there is a baseness of mind which deprives all words of any power of convic tion. These the sentencing judge should see and hear, for it is on his conscience the weight of a con viction, or the joy of an acquittal, rests.. Aman may be capable of convincing his judge by one em phatic word ; but this power is denied to every pri soner who is sentenced by judges whom he never saw. The law also hurls its vengeance against certain specified actions, the guilt of which was determin ed, perhaps, by the sympathies of law-makers who lived some ages ago. But guilt or innocence is something different from a visible or tangible ac tion.

A rifleman of an army coolly selects his vic tim, and kills him, but he does not commit mur der. An individual who shoots his deadliest foe, the despoiler of his fortunes, or the defiler of his JUSTICE CHANCERIES. bed, though he have been ten thousand times more injured than the rifleman, commits murder, lhe law, that is, the sympathies and opinions of per haps barbarous legislators, condemns him to ex piate with his life the act which he has committed. I shall not decide if he or the man who kills his fellow-men for sixpence per day be most guilty ; but from this example, it is clear that guilt is per fectly independent of any visible action. And a judge who pronounces on mere facts, who con demns any man because he has done a certain ac tion, inflicts on that action all the pain which the antipathy of the legislator appropriated to guilt.

There are seven superior tribunals, called Royal Justice Chanceries ; one is situated in the town of Hannover ; one at Celle : one at Gottingen ; one at Stade ; one at Osnabriick ; one at Hildesheim; and one at Aurich, in East Friezland. Each one of these chanceries has a director, and six or seven persons called justice-councillors, who are the judges, with a proportionate quantity of auditors, secretaries, assessors, taxators, clerks, and persons bearing other titles, to the amount of thirty per sons for the worst provided, and fifty for the best provided court. The jurisdiction of each of these courts extends over several provinces, but it does not extend equal ly to all persons. Thus the magistracy of the town of Hannover, with the exception of the bur- JUSTICE CHANCERIES. 11 germeisters, are amenable only to the town tribunals.

The members of the chief court of appeal at Celle, with their domestics, children, wives, and widows, so long as they remain at Celle, are amen able only to this tribunal, with sundry other simi lar exceptions. These courts are, of the first in stance, for certain persons, such as all their own members, of whatever rank, for noblemen, for clergymen, for both the actual and titular servants of the crown, and also for some persons who, be ing under the jurisdiction of some inferior couit, have obtained the special privilege of having these as courts of first instance. They are courts of se cond instance, or of appeal, to persons to whom the amts towns and private patrimonial courts are courts of first instance. Such distinctions are very strange. They appear to suppose that the inferior tribunals are only capable of administering justice to inferior persons.

By the members of the various courts being subjected to these courts only, and by the jurisdiction of certain courts being obtained as a favour, it seems as if partiality, or something more than justice, were to be obtained for particular persons. There are some reasons, however, to believe, though this practice may now be perverted, that it had its origin in a principle which was once common to all Germany, and somewhat analogous to that great axiom of the English law, that every man should be tried by APPOINTMENT OF JUDGES. his peers ; at least, that no man should be tried by persons of rank inferior to his own. * From the great many tribunals which there are in the kingdom, and from this difference in their jurisdiction, there is great uncertainty to which court a person must apply. In the town of Got tingen, for example, which contains 12,000 in habitants, there are eight different tribunals, in cluding those of the university as one.

The jurisdiction of each of these tribunals is not only limited by place, but also by the condition of the parties, and the nature of the offence committed, or the value of the thing in dispute. All these distinctions must be accurately known, before an action can be brought, or a prosecution com menced ; or the court will declare its incompe tence; or, being incompetent, if it gives judg ment, its incompetence is a reason for appeal, which will be sure to render the judgment in valid. The director and all the councillors of the jus tice chanceries are nominated by the ministry, and confirmed by the king. Advocates do not rise to these situations. The councillors or judges are * See Piitler, Vol. I. 210, 21 1, for a proof that this prin. ciple .vas geneial, and that something analogous to juries were known in all parts of Germany.

JUDGES. taken, in general, according to seniority, from what are called the auditors, who are young men of good or noble families, who study jurisprudence express ly to fill these situations, and who have little else to do till they receive the place of judge, but to attend to what is done by the judges. The auditors also are nominated by the ministers, and con firmed by the king, They are examined by the director and the whole of the bench, both when they are made auditors and when they are made judges. The college or chancery in general divides it self into two parts, for the quicker dispatch of business ; and from this circumstance, and the number of courts, the auditors and the judges have very little to do. Instead of being grave men, dignified by great wigs and silken gowns, they are some of the gayest young men of the whole country.

The director of the justice chancery of Hannover, who may be considered as one of the dignitaries of the law, dined regularly every day at a tavern, where the price of dinner was about Is. Sd. without wine, and 2s. 9d. with. He went regularly to some public garden to drink his afternoon's coffee, and passed his even ings at a public place, playing ombre or whist. There is a great difference between such a per son and an English judge. If the latter have more wealth, more stately vigour of mind, and a SALARY OF JUDGES. greater dignity than the former, he has fewer of the light and amiable pleasures of life. An Han noverian judge has in truth so little to do with professional duties, and so much with the amuse ments of society, that he has every appearance of being a perfect man of the world.

He bears no distinctive professional marks. Tbe settled salaries of the directors and of the councillors of justice are said to amount to 1200 or 1500 Thalers per year, — from L.200 to L.500. They have also fees, the amount of which cannot be known. They are generally considered as holding their places for life, unless they are pro moted. One instance has been mentioned of a judge being removed at the will of the sovereign. Several of the judges enjoy other situations under the government. Some of them, indeed, such as su perintendent of a theatre, seem to be incompa tible with the dignity of a judge. From this cir cumstance it is correct to assert, that the judges are dependant on the crown. If the country be to have political liberty, the perfect independence of these gentlemen should be one of the first things insisted on.

The chief court of appeal, situated at Celle in the province of Luneburg, was first established in 1713. Till August 1818, it was composed of a president and fourteen chief councillors of appeal, as judges. At that time four more councillors or CHIEF COURT OF APPEAL. judges were added, and two vice-presidents. It now, therefore, consists of one president, two vice presidents, and eighteen judges, with a proportionate quantity of secretaries, clerks, procurors, and other subordinate persons. The reason as signed for the addition to the number of judges, was the increase of business which the court was likely to have, from the territories of Hannover being so much increased. One of the additional councillors was said to be for Friezland, one for Hildesheim, one for Osnabriick, and one for the other little spots which have lately rounded the territories of Hannover.

The greater part of the inhabitants of Hilde sheim and Osnabruck are Catholics, and those of Friezland are Calvinists. It was therefore wisely declared, with regard to religious toleration, that these new members might be Catholics or Calvin ists. And as the right of presentation to the new places was at the same time conceded to the states of these provinces, the declaration would not remain a dead letter. It was not mere words which the sovereign could follow or not as he pleased. The king of Hannover has no spiri tual councillors with large revenues. Neither bishops nor archbishops have access to the roy al ear, and influence on the royal conscience ; and he is much more tolerant than the king of Great Britain. Though he be a Protestant mo- TOLERATION. narch, and his subjects chiefly Protestants, he ad mits Catholics to be members of the highest court of appeal in his kingdom ; and he sets an example of treating his subjects equally, without any regard to their religious persuasion, which is worthy of the imitation of the monarch of Eng land.

The tenderness of the royal conscience has often been made the excuse for withholding from the Catholics of Great Britain some of their rights as subjects osthe empire. But the same tenderness is not felt in the much more beloved kingdom of Hannover. This, therefore, must be considered as the mere excuse which interested men have made to cover their own bigotry. A portion of the members of this court, six, with the three presidents, are appointed by the sovereign ; the other twelve are appointed by the states. This practice was once general in Ger many. For example, the members of the celebrated Cammer Gericht, which was a court for the whole empire, were partly appointed by the em peror, and partly by the states of the empire, who were, however, in this case the electors, and other sovereign princes.