HANOVERIAN VILLAGE LIFE. 473 



gradually the principle of private property was introduced and the 

 ownership of land became fixed. But this change did not affect pas- 

 ture or forest land. The result of all this has been the retention of the 

 communal idea in regard to the so-called village rights which belong 



to the citizens of E , but not to all its inhabitants. There are only 



sixty-six of these rights, and this number can not be increased or di- 

 minished, so that only a small part of the six hundred inhabitants of 



E are citizens. Each one of the 7'ights can be halved — thus, of 



course, also halving the privileges of the possessor, but the subdivision 

 can go no further. Each right gives its possessor the privilege of graz- 

 ing a certain number of sheep, cattle, geese, and swine on the public 

 pasture ; of mowing a certain amount of meadow-land, and of getting 

 stone and clay for building from the village pits, besides a considerable 

 amount of wood each year from the communal forest. Village rights 

 have thus a considerable value, and are sold at prices i-anging from two 

 hundred and twenty-five to three hundred dollars each. In order to 

 possess a right a man must own a house in the village, and he can not 

 own more than one right unless he increases the number of houses he 

 owns in the same proportion. 



Since the number of rights can not be increased, and since each 

 one can only be halved, there must, of course, be numbers of people 

 in the village who are not corporators. Such persons have none of 

 the privileges belonging to the rest except the permission to graze 

 cattle on the common pasture when they have paid to the commune 

 authorities a fixed price per head for each animal thus fed ; nor have 

 such persons any vote when communal affairs are to be passed upon. 



E is entirely independent of the neighboring city of G , 



but offenses against the law are tried by an inferior court sitting in 



the latter place. Each male in E who has attained the age of 



thirty years, and who is not a pauper or criminal, has a single vote in 

 the election of those officers who are to govern his village. These 

 officials are, first, a Bauermeister, having the combined powers of 

 sheriff and town clerk ; under him are two deputies and a Council of 

 twelve men, all elected for a period of six years. The Bauermeister, 

 who is genei'ally one of the wealthiest and most intelligent of the citi- 

 zens, keeps the village accounts ; makes the state and military reports; 

 registers births, marriages, and deaths, also sales and rentals of land ; 

 places criminals and insane in safe keeping ; receives applications from 

 the village poor ; gives notice of the commencement of military ser- 

 vice, to which each young man is bound ; and reports to the state at 

 specified times upon communal and village affairs. He is also Presi- 

 dent of the Council and of all village meetings. For all this hard 

 work he receives only forty dollars a year, and his assistants get no- 

 thing but the barren honor of election. Over the Bauermeister is 

 placed a state official who has control of a number of villages. Pro- 

 vincial and village taxes are collected by an officer elected for a term 



