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HANOVER. 



HANOVER. 



112 



by waste land, lakes, and rivers ; and the remainder, equal to 1,434,000 

 acres, is occupied by forests. The richest com provinces are — Hildea- 

 heim, Gottingen, the south of Kalenberg, the lower part of Gruben- 

 hagen, the marsh lands on the Elbe, Jetze, Oste, Weaer, Leine, and 

 Aller, part of Osuabnick and East Frieslaud. Rye is generally grown 

 for bread. Oats and barley are largely grown, and a good deal is 

 exported to England. Potatoes are universally cultivated. Turnips 

 are also generally grown. The country produces flax, tobacco, hops, 

 fruit, pulse, &c. 



In the marsh-land the breeding of cattle is more followed than 

 agriculture. East Friesland has the finest breed of cattle : it possesses 

 a very favourite breed of large-sized cows and oxen, has numerous 

 sheep, and excellent horses, of which several thousand are annually 

 exported to Italy and elsewhere. The total number of horses in 

 Hanover is estimated at about 300,000; of cattle, 950,000; sheep, 

 1,650,000, producing annually some 3,225,000 lbs. of wool, of which 

 two-thirds are exported. The immense heaths in the duchy of Liine- 

 burg are partly used as sheep-walks, and when the heath ia in blossom 

 the keepers of bees go with their hives from the villages to the heath : 

 the honey so obtained is valued at nearly 50,000!. per annum. 



The Harz forests are chiefly of fir and pine ; in Kalenburg, Bremeu, 

 and the Upper Weser they are chiefly of beech and otJc. Large 

 quantities of timber are annually exported. 



Manufaduret and Trade. — Manufactures are not carried on to any 

 considerable extent. Thread and linen, hempen-cloth, bagging, tc, 

 are manufactured, partly for exportation, at Osnabriick and some 

 other places ; and woollens and oalicoes at Gottingen, Miinden, and 

 some other towns. There is no other manufacture of any conse- 

 quence. The commerce of the kingdom, though considerable, is far 

 from being what might be expected from its favourable situation and 

 fine navigable rivers. It is chiefly confined to the exportation of the 

 produce of the country and the importation of colonial artistes, 

 English manufactures, French silks, jewellery, and wines, fruits, 4c 

 The principal commercial port ia Emdni ; and Miinden, at the junction 

 of the Werra and the Fulda, has an active trade with the interior 

 of Germany. There are four annual fairs at Hanover, and two at 

 Osnabriick, to which goods are brought from the fairs of Brunswick, 

 Leipzig, and Frankfurt. 



AtUffion, Education. — The religion is the Protestant : of the inhabit- 

 ants, 1,494,033 are Lutherans; 95,220, Calvinists; and 1071 of other 

 sects, chiefly Mennonitee and Moraviana There are 217,367 Roman 

 Catholics, chiefly resident in Osnabriick and Hildesheim; and 11,562 

 Jews. There is a minister of religious worship and public instruction. 

 The affiurs of the Lutheran and Calvinistic (or Reformed) Churches are 

 under separate consistories. The Roman Catholic Church is imder 

 two bishops. A good deal of attention ia paid to education. A 

 superior board in Hanorer directs all matters relative to the schools. 

 Hanover has a university atOomnoEN; an academy for the eqneatrian 

 order ; several special academies or colleges, and central and normal 

 schools; 17 gymnasia, attended by about 2250 pupils; 13 grammar 

 schools, with 2000 scholars ; and 3430 popular schools, attended by 

 215,000 scholars, in the towns and country, of which schools 3086 

 are Protestant and 344 Roman Catholia There are besides numerous 

 poorhousea, workhouses, and charitable institutions. Justice is 

 administered by six district courts, one for each of the landdrosteien 

 except Clausthal, and by the magistrates of the royal, manorial, and 

 other minor cotuls. 



Hanover is a limited monarchy, with two chambers. Besides the 

 ministry there is a council of state. The revenue is chiefly derived 

 from the royal demesnes and forests, the mines and salt-works, the 

 tolls on the Elbe and Weser, the receipts on the railways, the post- 

 office, direct (land, house, and income) taxes, indirect taxes, export, 

 import, and transit duties, and state lotteries. The total estimated 

 revenue for 1853-4 was 8,005,099 dollars (about l,200,000t); the total 

 expenditure was estimated at 8,332,718 dollars (1,249,900^) ; leaving 

 a deficiency of 327,619 dollars (49,000).). The national debt amounts 

 to 36,622,887 dollars (5,473,00«.). 



The military establishment is 18,500 infantry, 3720 cavalry, 1450 

 artillery, in aU 23,670 regulars, besides the militia, or landwehr. All 

 men able to bear arms, from the age of 17 to that of 50 without 

 exception, are liable to serve in the landsturm, or local militia. 

 There are 10 garrison towns. The manufactures connected with the 

 army \tn — one of small-arms at Herzberg, one of gunpowder at 

 Hersen, and a cannon-foundry in Hanover. 



UUtory. — In the remotest times of which we have any record the 

 countries between the Elbe and the Weser were inhabited by small 

 independent tribes of hunters and herdsmen. The Cherusci, celebrated 

 for their victoiy over the Roman general Quintilius Varus, dwelt about 

 the Harz and far into Westphalia ; the Chauci were at the mouth of 

 the Weser ; the Longobardi, or Lombards, on both sides of the Elbe. 

 When Charlemagne first introduced the Christian religion the country 

 was in the power of the Saxons. Though subsequently, as the imperial 

 power declined, many powerful lords, both spiritual and temporal, 

 arose with almost despotic authority, yet the condition of the peo{ile 

 improved ; the mines of the Harz and the salt springs of Luncburg 

 were discovered, and a considerable traffic began, by which Bardowieck 

 and Gandersheim in particular profited. Otho the Great gave in 970 

 the investiture of the duchy of Saxony to Hermann Billing, a wealthy 



lord in Luneburg, in whose family it remained till the death of the 

 last descendant, Magnus, in 1107. His aucoeasor, Henry the Black, 

 duke of Bavaria, and brother of Quelf, or Welf, a prince of the north 

 of Italy, marrying a princess of the house of Billing, obtained with 

 her the duchy of Luneburg, and afterwards acquired Brunswick, 

 Gottingen, and other principalities. 



The broils and troubles which continued for nearly a hundred years 

 after the death of his son, Henry the Lion, rendered general the habit 

 of living for security in fortified towns. Numerous little republics 

 rose, several of which became considerable cities. The Hanseatic 

 League found great favour here, and of the 85 towns compoaiug that 

 celebrated confederation 13 were in the present kingdom of Hanover. 

 We cannot trace the various partitions of territory which took place 

 in consequence of the division of the Guelf family into different 

 branches, all of which have however become extinct except those of 

 Brunswick Wolfenbiittel and Brunswick Luneburg, the latter of which 

 succeeded to the throne of England on the death of Queen Anne in 

 1712. In consequence of this event the electors of Hanover continued 

 to be kings of Great Britain till, on the death of William IV., the 

 crown of Great Britain devolving on Queen Victoria, and the succession 

 to the throne of Hanover being limited to the male line, the two 

 countries were separated ; and the Duke of Cumberland, eldest sur- 

 viving brother of King William, ascended the throne of Hanover by 

 the name of Ernest Augustus. 



Hanover co-operated with Great Britain in the war of 1741, and in 

 the Seven Years' War, which latter was peculiarly disastrous to it, aa 

 the country was through the whole time the arena of hostile armiea, 

 and suffered both from friends and foes. The tranquillity which 

 Northern Germany enjoyed for nearly thirty years after the peace of 

 Paris, 1763, and the vast increase of the commerce of England in North 

 America, doubled the trade of Bremen, Hamburg, and Altona with 

 the interior of Germany, which was still further augmented from 

 1792 to 1803 by the ruin of the commerce of France and Holland; 

 and this trade being carried on from those seaports through Hauover, 

 gave an extraordinary impulse to the prosperity of that kingdom. 



From the spring of 1793 Hanover took part in the war with 

 France, but in 1795 was included in the convention between France 

 and Prussia for the neutrality of the north of Germany. Bonaparte 

 took possession of Hanover in 1803, and treated it like a conquered 

 country. In 1806 Prussia announced that Hanover had been ceded 

 by France in exchange for Anspach, Cleves, and Neufchfttel, and was 

 for ever incorporated with Prussia. Bonaparte however again took 

 possession of it in the following year, and retained it till after the 

 battle of Leipzig in 1813, when the whole electorate was restored to 

 the lawful sovereign, who assumed in 1815 the title of King of Han- 

 over, that of elector having ceased by the dissolution of the German 

 empire. In 1819 a conatitution was introduced with a general assembly 

 of the estates of the kingdom in one chamber; and in 1833 a new 

 constitution was agreed to by the estates, and sanctioned by King 

 William IV., who however made various changes in fourteen of the 

 articles. This constitution was abrogated by a proclamation of his 

 successor Ernest on his accession to the throne, a proceeding which 

 led to very serious disturbances. The present constitution is virtually 

 the same as that of 1819. 



HANOVER, a landdrostel, or province, iu the kingdom of Hanover, 

 in Germany, comprises the former principality of Kalenberg or Calen- 

 bei^, and the counties of Hoya and Diepholz. It is bounded N. by 

 the territories of BredRn and the province of Stade, from which it is 

 separated by the AVeser and the Aller ; E. by the provinces of LUiie- 

 burg and Hildesheim ; S. by Brunswick, Lippe, and Prussian West- 

 phalia ; and W. by Westphalia, the Hanoverian province of Osnabriick, 

 and the grand duchy of Oldenburg. The area of the province ia 2330 

 square miles, and the population, according to the census of Decem- 

 ber 3, 1852, amounted to 349,958. 



The principality of Kalenberg, which forms the southern portion of 

 the province, comprises the basin of the Lower Leine, which river 

 drains its central and eastern part ; and a part of the baaiu of the 

 Weser, which crosses the south-west of the principality and again 

 touches its north-western border. The southern part of the princi- 

 pality is traversed by numerous offsets from the Harz Mountains, the 

 highest ridges being the Deiater Hills to the south-west of the city of 

 Hanover, and the Siintel Hills farther west, near a detached territory 

 of Hesse-Cassel. The plain between these two ranges is celebrated 

 for one of the exploits of the Saxon hero, Wittekind, who here sur- 

 prised and annihilated one of Charlemagne's armies in a.d. 782. A 

 large sepulchral mound and remains of the Saxon entrenchments still 

 mark the scene of the engagement. The northern districta are level, 

 in parts marshy, but in general well adapted for agriculture, with the 

 exception of Qess Moor, a large region of bog which extends to the 

 north of the town of Hanover, between the Fuhse, the Leine, and the 

 Aller. Another moor lies westward of this, between the Leine and 

 the Weser. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, flax, potatoes, and colza are 

 the principal crops. Some beet-root for making sugar, tobacco, and 

 hemp are also grown. There is a good breadth of meadow and pas- 

 ture land, and a considerable number of homed cattle and sheep are 

 reared. Timber is abundant in the mountainous districts in the 

 south-west of the province. Great quantities of turf are cut in the 

 bogs for fuel The principality takes its name from the village of 



