Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-08-01
miscellaneous.
CONDITION OF THE GERMAN PEASANTS.

%tricts, or by persons looking forward to that posi-
tion the latter by physicians-a restriction which
will strike the American reader o little
strangely.
Perhaps the following specimen Of this class Of
discussions may be of interest, as setting forth
what is working in the public mind. 1t is trans
fts5 from q number Of the Augsburg Gazette, of
recent date, In some parts of this article, per-
haps, allowances ought to be made on the ground
of the writer's Partially to his own people, aud
the wish not too much to encourage emigration,
and especially where the writer Institutes a COM
parison between the Germans and English. This
article and others refer to the movement OF 1913
as initiatory to one which must continue until all
that is desirable is effected. How far it is correct
We shall not attempt to say. This much, however,
Is clear, that our views Of the matter ought at
least to be modified 10y what able German writers
themselves say.--New York Ecening Post.
TIE ELEVATION OF TIE GERMAN
PEASANTRY.
Less noisily than the events Of politics-but Cor
that reason tbe more powerful and permanent in
their consequences are the changes Of social life
wont to move forth. They express themselves not
in a suddenly occurring accident which draws all
eyes upon itself-no telegraph crowds them to-
gether in a brace of words in order to announce
them to an astonished world and even to the his
sorian, who casts his glance over great periods of
time, it will not seldom be difficult tie fix in their
details the beginning and the course of such n
social process. Scattered over a wide territory,
they unfold themselves in the interior of families
and households-they grow as the grass and as
the seed and as they are formed out of atoms, We
mark nottheir growth until something ola contrast
with earlier conditions has been reached. May it
not be that such q contrast has thus even now
been reached in the condition Of the German
peasantry? Should we not mark the last few
years as forming an epoch in this process? If we
put together what we partly saw a short time ago
in our own Germany, and partly heard from other
sources, we may so believe. All accounts agree
in this, that the former either begins to recover
himself, or, where he was already wealthy, to os-
tablish himself in that condition. The old chief
seats of agricultural wealth were in the northwest
and southeast of Germany. OF the former, in
Lower Saxony and Friesen Of the latter, in
Bojoores of Old Bavaria, Tyrol, the Grand Duchies.
rs also parts of Steiermark and Carinthia, a solid
peasantry has, from the dark ages, maitaincd itself
upon its secure acres, But now these central crys-
affiliations spread themselves out, and embrace
other German stocks, and even the Sclavonic tribes,
Ia thing almost unheard of in Sclavonic history,
as sharers in this happy development. While we
learn that the peasantry Of the Rhenlsh provinces
begin TO free their property from debts, we also
find the catalogues of bankrupts shrinking to a
moderate aggregate in Wurtemberg; and while
in the province Of Zwickau, as also in Westphalia,
the worth of Handed property is in a short time
doubled, so also in the untruitful region oil South
Bohemia, we learn that a farmer, without injury
10 his property, often gives his daughter 6,OOO
Aorins* or more as a marriage gift. Indeed, there
are sections in Lower Bavaria, and in southwest
ern Bohemia, where the inhabitants are at a loss
for a convenient way of spending their money, be-
cause their mental sense of need has not ad-
yanced with their incomes.
For these social facts there are many reasons, o.
which, ever subservient to difference OF soils, some
times one, sometimes another prevails withou
doubt, however, the freeing of the peasantry from
many exactions of feudal times, stands in the frs
rank. As.an indispensable condition of all furthe
progress, this shaking off of the burdens wrough
its moral effect, not so much in a material as in
psychological way having become e~verywher
independent, the peasant felt his Independence
could act more freely in his business, and wa
from henceforth secure that improvements in hi
management would result in his own good abOy
that Of all others. From this time forth the effort
of agricultural societies were turned to Il icrtil
soil, and as no one had ever doubted the tenaciou
industry of our farmers, so must we also from TIL
time forth rank them high Tor activity and menti
aptness. Less drawn to these things without, an
more Ommitted to his own responsibilities, th
farmer acknowledged the interest which he had il
common with his neighbors. Then the communal
life took a new flight.
But that which fastened this entire development
nay. perhaps made it possible, was it concurrenc
in time with two other social phenomena. W
refer to the fourishing of our industry and tn
high prices of the last few years. With the gen
eral thrift of industry, the farmer saw gatherin
about him a mass oil consumers VINO ueManueU III
agricultural products, and with this demand tn
price must necessarily rise. The nett income GU
Of which the peasant provided for his property
was formerly on an average so small, because h
was obliged to seek the consumer of his product
Mt a distance now, however, finding the consuu
ers right at his side, he spares a sum from the Coz
of transportation, as also from his own strengt
and time, which is estimated ut almost suficieI
for the supply of all Germany. The c%omplotio
of the railroad system still further diminishe
these conveyanceS, laid open more distant coUr
tries to the moving and urgent action OF industTij
life, and as it is q further Characteristic Of Germa
industry that, extended over a wide territory,
has many central points, so the peasantry in n
one section are entirely excluded from these ad
v~antages. From this time forth the heavy masse
of agricultural products had only to seek til
neighboring markets, which either consumed O
worked them up, and in their stead sent to markt
manufactured articles less bulky, and so nor
easy of transportation.
In relation to the present high prices of ii
means of liying-that we may not claim to ad
ourselves to the number of sagacious men VII
have attempted the solution OF the prOblem-wltI
out being fully satisfied, we yield to the preyailin
view. But, however it may be, may we not still
Notwithstanding the embarrassments which We n
more or less experience. present a few fayorabl
aspects of this question, which in many respect
is still so enigmatical, by asking whether the rs
of the price Of the necessaries Of life is not tn
beginning ard progress of a general rising o
wages, and SO of the better condition Of the work
ing classes? Ought we not to repeat, in thu
present state of the world, what the political econ
omists have cited for illustration about the owners
of a diamond and a loaf of bread, where the
owner of the bread, as the holder of the needful,
dictated the price to the owner of the beautiful
and costly? In like manner do the farmers, even
now. set a high price on their labors, and hold
back at first offer because they sec that the demand
reaches them in spite of the high prices. But il
it is not to be denied that the rise Of the prices Of
the necessaries of life operates as an enormous
tax for the benefit of the landholders, yet must we
on the other hand, acknowledge that, according Il
? a natural law of commerce, the advantages OF tn,
farmers return in a hundred indirect ways to tn
good of all the other classes. Our farmers are N
longer Of the kind VINO lock up their gains for
ever 10 their chests. They pay of the debts, an,
from these discharged mortgages may have com
no small part of the capital which we have seel
so plentifully flowing into the banks. They still
further improve their means of production, so tina
Al. A ~-.,k -, 80 . r.an - r.n - 81 81