18,25 
ventured on the great measure of the 
Bank stoppage, and had lavishly in- 
curred a debt so enormous, that the 
bare amount implied an ultimate de- 
sign to evade the honest discharge of 
it, would hesitate to sacrifice any class 
to its preservation. An overruling 
necessity, wevare told, yhay render go- 
vernment bankruptcy unavoidable. 
Some such necessily appears already 
to have been incurred, for the payment 
of the dividends in full, is clearly in- 
compatible with the support of other 
burdens, which press on productive in- 
dustry: without some abatement in the 
claims of the public annuitant, the 
tax-gatherer, the landlord, the priest, 
or the pauper, those classes who aye 
the source of all wealth must be in- 
volved in irretrievable ruin. It was 
from a conviction of this alternative, 
that we have repeatedly recom- 
mended, though not without being ex- 
posed to a great deal of misrepresenta- 
tion, a new arrangement with the na- 
tional creditor. We could not con- 
ceive either the justice or expediency 
of preserving inviolate the immense 
mass of funded property, to the ruin of 
all other interests in society. But, in 
suggesting this expedient, we never 
intended that the fundholder should be 
made a solitary sacrifice to the safety 
of the state. Our idea was, that all 
classes should contribute in an equita- 
ble proportion: we had no notion of 
any attack on the funds, till every 
possible reduction had been made in 
the public expenditure, till our naval 
and military establishments had been 
reduced to the lowest possible scale, 
till every sinecure had been abolished, 
every unmerited pension rescinded, 
every inordinate salary and emolument 
curtailed; and even then, that there 
should be no reduction of interest, no 
peculiar impost, on the public annui- 
tant, without being accompanied by a 
corresponding levy on those classes, 
for whose real security, or imaginary 
fear, the debt, and all our present em- 
Darrassments, had been incurred. 
With this remark we dismiss the 
present number; and, we must say, 
with no particular admiration of its 
conients, nor any abatement of the 
disgust we have always felt for its 
principles. We hope we shall at all 
times be ready to appreciate whatever 
useful talent the Quarterly may con- 
tain; but, when we see a journal, pro- 
fessedly literary, devoted to corrup- 
tion, to personal abuse, and mere 
Letter on Agricultural Labourers in Germany. 
[Sept. 5 1, ! 
trade, we esteem it a duty to hold it 
up to general indignation, and, if pos- 
sible, abate a nuisance soinconceivably 
mischievous. 
> 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LETTER from M. DE BREYMANN to COUNT 
VELTHEIM, on the LAWS and CUSTOMS 
respecting AGRICULTURAL LABOUR- 
ERS 7 GERMANY, 
*Dear Count, 
7 OU request of me to give you 
a brief explication of the former 
and present state of that bondage 
(glebe adscriptio) yet subsisting in 
Germany; wishing, at the same time, 
to have explained the relative situation 
of that class of people which is distin- 
guished by the names of Pllichtigen or 
Contribuablen, terms which indicate, 
that such class has rents to pay and 
services to perform. They forma par- 
ticular order among the inhabitants of 
the German States, generally styled 
bauer, (boor, or peasant,) whieh, in the 
German language, has the signification 
of the Roman eultor agri. . However 
difficult this latter task may be, the 
historical points of this’ object losing 
themselves in the remotest antiquity, 
I will endeavour to satisfy your desire 
to the utmost of my ability, by a care- 
ful research in the pages of our best re- 
puted authors who have treated on the 
subjeet; and, with respect to the pre- 
sent condition of the peasants, I am 
able to give you exact information 
from my own personal knowledge. 
The bondmen (glebe  adseripti 
Leibeigene,) were originally found in 
those parts of Germany where the 
Wends and Obotribes were settled, 
namely, in Pomerania, Mecklenburgh, 
some countries on that side of the Elb, 
and a few provinces near the Weser, 
which had fallen under the dominion 
of the Frieses, and where the chief of 
each tribe was the only freeman and 
landed proprietor. But, in the follow- 
ing parts of Germany bondage has 
entirely ceased since 1811: in Hol- 
stein, as early as in 1787; in Pomerania 
only since 1811, in consequence of an 
order given in 1807. With respect to 
Mecklenburgh there remains yet a 
mere shadow of bondage, which must 
necessarily soon disappear, in conse- 
* We regret that, from an extreme 
pressure of matter, it is not in our power 
to give more than an outline of M. Brey- 
mann’s dissertation on a very important 
subject.--Epi?. . 
quence 
