42 AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE. 



monastic institutions were declared to be useless, and their 

 lands forfeited to defray the expenses of the state. The 

 Prussian government, however, did not expel the sister- 

 hood and hang them as useless vagabonds, like the 

 said Henry, but allowed the last members of the rich 

 " Stift" decent pensions, and their abbess tlie enjoyment 

 of her princely honom's until her death, which occurred 

 a short time since. Across this square at Essen, therefore, 

 the peasants might for a long time be seen trooping to pay 

 in money what in former times was levied in kind — the 

 first-fruits or rent of the land ; and although many praisers 

 of the good old times lamented the change that an English 

 ai-tist has conunemorated in his picture of the courtyard 

 of Croyland Abbey, still the Germans live too near the 

 reality of that picture, and know too much of its back- 

 ground, to wish to return to its epoch. The lay impro- 

 priators brought with them well-defined contracts, which 

 the spirit of the times and of the Prussian administration 

 were alike willing to adhere to, and to interpret favourably 

 for the peasant. But while the services, as part of the old 

 contract, were thus modified, the suit (a word borrowed 

 by Norman lawyers from the French, to signify the duty 

 oi following the lord to the field) became also more clearly 

 defined, and eventually included every male subject, 

 without regard to property or other distinctions. The 

 gathering of the vassals upoit an emergency to do battle in 

 the cause of the lord of the soil, has given way to the an- 

 nual conscription, and to the spring and autumnal military 

 manoeuvres. The personal bickerings of jealous neighbours 

 have been superseded by the policy which prevents all 

 probability of war except upon the largest scale ; but if 



