226 AGRICULTURE OX THE RHINE. 



the class-tax, levied on adult males of all ranks, in rates 

 fixed by their wealth, yielded 7,188,107 dollars. As 

 this last may be considered a general property-tax, the 

 direct taxes in Prussia amounted in 1844 to 19,000,000 

 dollars, or 3,000,000/. sterling; being more than one- 

 fourth of the whole revenue of 70,000,000 dollars. The 

 Royal forests and domains contribute 9,000,000 dollars 

 to the revenue of the state, on which there is a perpetual 

 rent-charge of 2,573,000 dollars (400,000/.) for the 

 civil list. This sum is no other than an absorption of 

 rents that are drawn from the land for the benefit of the 

 revenue — a payment in kind which it might be difficult 

 to obtain in another shape. 



We happen to be well informed concerning both the 

 amount of the land-tax in the Rhenish province of 

 Prussia, and the basis upon which it is levied, from a 

 critical inquiry into the mode of levying, published some 

 years back by the late Burgomaster of Aix-la-Chapelle, 

 M. Hansemann. The actual measurement of the land 

 for the purpose of taxation was begun while the Rhenish 

 province on the left bank of the river was under French 

 sway. It has since been completed, and the rate divided 

 according to the statistical survey, or as it is called in 

 Germany, the cadaster (from Kara and arepfo) oddly com- 

 bined), in which the supposed quality of the soil is regis- 

 tered, together with the divisions of property. The land 

 is classed according to this supposed quality at the time 

 the cadaster was formed, about 20 to 15 years ago. Of 

 course no other standard could be taken than the value of 

 the produce which the average skill of the farmer at that 

 time could raise from each field assessed at an average 

 market price. Where parties were dissatisfied with the 



