51 



mauds. Though the price of whiskey is low, yet the 

 farm produce is still lower; and neither that, nor the 

 bad beer which is commonly brewed, can be afforded 

 by the peasantry as an usual drink. 



In common seasons this description of people suffer 

 much in the winter ; but in times of scarcity, such as 

 followed the disastrous harvest of 1816, their distress 

 and their consequent mortality is largely increased. 



It is not intended to insinuate that all the small 

 farmers are in the circumstances here described. In 

 some situations there is a most pleasing difference ; 

 on the banks of the Oder, below Kustrin, a colony is 

 established on a rich tract of land, called the Xeide- 

 rung, recovered by embankment from the river. The 

 inhabitants were invited here on account of a perse- 

 cution of the Protestants in Bavaria and the Palati- 

 nate, during the reign of Frederick the Great. They 

 are exempt from most burdens, the soil is highly 

 fertile, and the district more resembles some parts of 

 Flanders than the other districts of Prussia. The 

 properties are from six to twenty acres, but subdi- 

 viding as the population increases, as each of the sons 

 share the land alike. It is thickly peopled, and most 

 of the produce is consumed on the spot where it 

 grows. 



A similar district near Dantzic, on the banks of the 

 Vistula, called the Neherung, exhibits a similar pic- 

 ture. The chief inhabitants are a religious sect, 

 called Menonites, whose principles forbid them to 

 become soldiers, from which they are excused, on 

 condition of paying a higher rate of taxation. 



On the banks of the Xiemen, and in some other 

 spots, are similar groupes of small occupiers in tole- 

 rably easy circumstances. They are, however, not a 

 thirtieth part of the whole of the class, and where 

 they occur are only exceptions to the general de- 

 scription. 



As these people happen to be placed in spots of 



