38 AGRICULTURE ON THE RHI>-E. 



Cleves the feudal tie soon gave way to a calculation ol 

 mutual advantage between the owner and cultivator, and 

 the custom of farming out land was here adopted earlier 

 and has been continued on a more extensive scale than in 

 any other part of Germany. 



That the opinion we have ventured, in ascribing the 

 free position of the peasant and landowner in the Duchy 

 of Cleves to the influence of trade, is not a forced one, 

 is proved by the fact cited by Rive in his valuable work 

 on the peasants' holdings in Westphalia. It appears that 

 when, in the fourteenth century, the county of Mark, on 

 the right bank of the Rhine, was united with Cleves, the 

 rulers of the latter district could not understand why the 

 relations between the feudal lords and the peasants should 

 not be allowed to regulate themselves in the natural manner 

 prescribed by mutual interest, as they had seen take 

 place on the left bank, They could not enter into the 

 feelings of the peasants to dej>end u|X)n customary privi- 

 leges, or on the interference of the government to protect 

 them from encroaching superiors. But it is likely too 

 that the statesmen of Cleves calculated too lightly the 

 disadvantageous position of Westphalia, which lay out ot 

 the high road of trade, and possessed no traversable roads. 

 To this county of Mark we now invite our readers to 

 follow us, and for that purpose recommend them to follow 

 the road from Marienbaum to Xanten, an old Roman 

 station, prettily situated about a mile from the river's 

 bank. The antiquarian may there seek the possible site 

 of the wood in which Civilis excited the Batavians to re- 

 volt against the Romans, and the position of the celebrated 

 Castra Vetera. Lovers of art will admire the magnifi- 

 cent church, which is too little visited by strangers, and 



