30 



and the peasants, sometimes by the payment of a 

 fixed sum, or by a security on the land allotted in 

 perpetuity to the peasant, for the payment of such 

 sum. Sometimes the peasant retained the whole of 

 the land he had before used, paying to the lord the 

 value of that portion which might otherwise have 

 been given up to him. 



The successive measures by which the peasants 

 were raised to the rank of freemen, were not received 

 by all with equal readiness. The lords were com- 

 pelled, but the peasants were allowed to decline com- 

 pliance ; and even to the presept day, some few prefer 

 the ancient mode of their holdings, to that which the 

 laws have allowed. 



Although the foundation is laid for a new and 

 better order of things, yet its effects on the agricul- 

 ture of the country have not hitherto been fully 

 realised. The abolition of personal services, and of 

 hereditary ownership of such services, has been too 

 recent for the full operation of the change of the 

 parties from the relation of master and slave, to that 

 of employer and employed, to produce the effect which 

 is its natural tendency. It is obvious, that all the 

 operations of agriculture are still performed by the 

 labourers, with a listlessness and slovenly indolence 

 which was natural to their former character, and which 

 their new condition has not yet had time to remove. 



The land in the three maritime provinces, as 

 indeed in almost the whole of Prussia, may be 

 considered as either in very large portions belonging 

 to the nobility, or to the new class of proprietors ; or as 

 very small portions, such as under the ancient sys- 

 tem were deemed sufficient for half the maintenance 

 of the family of a peasant. There are but very few 

 of that middle class of capitalists, resembling our 

 farmers, who can hire land to that extent, which one 

 able man can most advantageously manage, and after 

 stocking and working it, pay for the hire to the pro- 

 ^rietor. 



