HANOVER HANS A. 



631 



same privileges as the former provincial deputies. 

 The provincial estates were not abolished, and the 

 regent reserved to himself the right to change and 

 modify the charter, which is founded on old aristo- 

 cratic principles. The Hanoverian nobility is noted 

 as the most arrogant in Germany, and the least ad- 

 vanced in modern liberal ideas. There are two 

 chambers, neither of which is founded on the prin- 

 ciple of general representation. Their first session 

 was opened, December 28, 1819, and the duke of 

 Cambridge, brother to the regent, in his speech, re- 

 minded the two chambers that they were divided only 

 to investigate the affairs of the country more 

 thoroughly, and not to have different principles of 

 deliberation. Publicity of debate, of course, was not 

 admissible. The privileges of these chambers 

 amount to little more than the liberty of discussing 

 matters which government lays before them. By 

 the edict of October 12, 1822, the government re- 

 ceived a new organization, and the kingdom was 

 divided into seven districts. At the head is a minis- 

 try at Hanover, which makes reports to the king in 

 England, and receives orders in regard to affairs of 

 importance. In many parts of the countiy, the 

 feudal jurisdictions still exist, and, in many instances, 

 the judicial and executive authority are still united, as 

 was formerly the case almost every where. At Zell, 

 there is a supreme court of appeal. The duke of 

 Cumberland, brother to the late William IV., is now 

 king of Hanover. 



HANOVER ; a city of Germany, the capital of 

 the kingdom of that name, on the Leine, which here 

 becomes navigable. It is in the form of a half moon, 

 and is separated, by the river, into two parts, called 

 the Old and New Town. These were formerly sur- 

 rounded with walls and ditches ; but, in 1780, part 

 of the ramparts were levelled, and laid out into 

 streets, and the rest formed into an esplanade, where 

 a monument has been erected to Leibnitz. Hanover 

 belonged to the Hanseatic league, in the middle 

 ages. The town has an antiquated aspect. This is 

 particularly the case in what is called the Old Town. 

 The New Town, which stands on the right side of 

 the river, is built in much better style than the Old. 

 The public buildings are the elector's palace, and 

 the public library, founded by Leibnitz. The chari- 

 table institutions are an orphan-house, two hospitals, 

 and two poor-houses. For the purpose of education, 

 there is a gymnasium, a female school of industry, 

 and several elementary schools. The Georgianum 

 is a school, erected in 1796, for the education of forty 

 sons of Hanoverian nobles. Herrnhausenand Mont- 

 brillant are country mansions of the royal family, 

 at some distance from the town. The inhabitants of 

 Hanover derive their chief support from the presence 

 of the court, and the gentry of landed property. 

 They have, however, some manufactures on a small 

 scale, such as gold and silver lace, the printing of 

 cotton and linen, the preparation of cichory for coffee, 

 brewing, making of vinegar, &c. Population 27,500 ; 

 154 miles W. Berlin; 9 42' 51" E. ; lat. 52 22' 

 25" N. 



HANSA, or HANSEATIC LEAGUE. In the 

 middle of the thirteenth century, the sea and land 

 swarmed with pirates and robbers. The German 

 trade, during this reign of violence, became exposed 

 to various accidents, when the merchants lost the 

 right of travelling with tinned attendants, and the 

 convoy afforded by government degenerated into a 

 means of extorting a tax without yielding any pro- 

 tection. Hamburg and Lubeck, which, with Bre- 

 men, had become important, since the time of the 

 Othos, found a powerful common enemy in the 

 Danish king Waldemar, whom they opposed with 

 great vigour. This circumstance, the insecurity of 



the navigation of the Elbe, which was becoming con- 

 stantly more infested with pirates, and the increasing 

 dangers of the roads, gave rise to a convention, in 

 1239, between Hamburg, the free city of Ditmarsh, 

 and Hadeln, and in 1241, to a confederacy between 

 Hamburg and Lubeck, in which they mutually 

 engaged to defend eacliother against all violence, and 

 particularly against the attacks of the nobles. The 

 confederacy was joined, in 1247, by Brunswick, which 

 served as a depot to the two first named towns ; for 

 while Italy was in possession of the trade to the 

 Levant and India, a commercial route had been 

 formed through Germany, by the way of the Upper 

 Palatinate and Franconia, to the East of the Hartz, 

 and through Brunswick to Hamburg, although, at 

 the same time, some goods were carried down the 

 Rhine. Thus Brunswick was especially interested 

 in the allied towns, which were soon joined by 

 numerous others. This union was called, by way of 

 eminence, the Hansa, which in the old Teutonic 

 dialect, signifies a league for mutual defence. In a 

 short time, the members became so numerous that, 

 in 1260, a diet was held at Lubeck, the chief city of 

 the league. Regular meetings of the confederacy 

 now took place there every three years, about Whit- 

 suntide, and the general archives of the league were 

 kept there. 



The number of the Hanse towns varied. The 

 largest number was eighty-five, as follows : Anclam, 

 Andernach, Aschersleben, Berlin, Bergen in Nor- 

 way, Bielefeld, Bolswaert in Friesland, Brandenburg, 

 Braunsberg, Brunswick, Bremen, Buxtehude in 

 the duchy of Bremen, Campen in Overyssel, Dantzic, 

 Demmin in Pomerania, Deventer, Dorpat, Dort- 

 mund, Duisburg, Einbeck in the Hartz, Elbing, 

 Elburg in Guelderland, Emmerich in Cleves, Frank- 

 fort on the Oder, Golnow in Pomerania, Goslar, 

 Gottingen, Greifswald, Groningen, Halle in Saxony, 

 Halberstadt, Hamburg, Hameln, Hamm in West- 

 phalia, Hanover, Harderwyck in Guelderland, Helm- 

 stadt, Hervorden in Westphalia, Hildesheim, Kiel, 

 Coesfeld in Munster, Colberg, Cologne on the 

 Rhine, Konigsberg in Prussia, Cracow in Poland, 

 Culm in Prussia, Lemgo in Westphalia, Lixheim in 

 Lorraine, on the borders of Alsace, Lubeck, Lune- 

 burg, Magdeburg, Minden in Hanover, Munster, 

 Nimeguen in Guelderland, Nordheim, Osnabruck, 

 Osterburg in the Altmark, Paderborn, Quedlinburg, 

 Revel, Riga, Rostock, Rugenwalde, Ruremond in 

 Guelderland, Salzwedel, Seehausen in the mark of 

 Brandenburg, Soest in Westphalia, Stade in Bremen, 

 Stargard, Staveren in Friesland, Stendal, Stettin, 

 Stolpe, Stralsund, Thorn, Venloo in Guelderland, 

 Veltzen in Luneburg, Unna in Westphalia, Warberg 

 in Sweden, Werben in the Altmark, Wessel, Wisby 

 in Gothland, Wismar, Zutphen, Zwoll in Guelder- 

 land. 



These towns were divided into four provinces, each 

 having a chief town. To the first belonged the 

 Wendish or Vandalic towns ; chief city, Lubeck : to 

 the second, the towns of Cleves, the Mark, and 

 Westphalia, and the four towns in Guelderland, 

 which were not subject to the government of Bur- 

 gundy ; chief city, Cologne : to the third belonged the 

 Saxon and Brandenburg towns ; chief city, Bruns- 

 wick : and to the fourth, the Prussian and Livonian 

 towns ; chief city, Dantzic. At another period, the 

 whole was divided into three provinces. At the 

 same time, four great factories or depots were 

 established in foreign countries: at London, in 1250; 

 at Bruges, in 1252 ; at Novgorod, in 1272 ; and at 

 Bergen, in 1278. Charters from kings and princes 

 gave firmness to the whole ; and, in 1I3G4, an act of 

 confederacy was drawn up at Cologne. 



In the fourteenth century, the league every where 



