AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE. 45 



vation effected in the middle of the last ceutuiy. Formerly 

 the taxes of the state fell upon the lord ; the heaviest of all, 

 that of personal service in the field, Ijeing regarded as a 

 mark of honour. The custom of standing armies with 

 arbitrarily chosen officers deprived the lord of this badge 

 of distinction, and he was ill prepared to substitute a money- 

 payment lor his personal sacrifice. A standing army 

 demands a regular revenue, and the introduction of a 

 land-tax was found necessary. The imposition of this 

 tax was what occasioned the first formal recognition by 

 the crown of a right enjoyed by the peasant in his hold- 

 ing. The Empress Maria Theresa, in her celebrated 

 " Urbarium," asserts the right of the crown to interfere 

 between the landlord and the peasant, on the ground that 

 if the latter is oppressed by too severe service, he 

 cannot contribute to the exigences of the state. The 

 transfer of the land to the occupier from the feudal lord 

 thus received the sanction of the crown. The Emperor 

 Joseph II. sought to extend this innovation to all the 

 otlier provinces of his empire. In Hungary he met with 

 determined opposition, but the principle was everywhere 

 eventually triumphant. Whetlier the mode adopted of 

 effecting the change was, in all circumstances, a desirable 

 one or not may be questioned, as we have seen. 



We may assume that the pressure felt in any rank of 

 society as the result of increasing population is a wise 

 ordinance intended to spur men to exertion. In Germany 

 (as in Ireland at present) the want of easy internal com- 

 munication and of credit, owing to the repeated agita- 

 tions of warlike neighbours or ambitious leaders, confined 

 the peasant population exclusively to agriculture. The 

 pressure which these felt as their numbers increased 



