The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 3
Preface
Preface.
* I gladly take this opportunity of expressing my grateful thanks for the valuable assistance so kindly and liberally afforded to my inquiries by many German gentlemen, particularly the following:—Dr. Versmann, Senator of Hamburg; Dr. Gneist, Professor of Law, Berlin University; Dr. Lette, Chief Judge of the Prussian Court of Appeal for Land-legislation Causes; Dr. George von Bunsen, Member of the Prussian Parliament; Dr. Meitzen, Privy Councillor; Dr. Thaer, Professor of Agriculture, Berlin University; Dr. Hannsen, Professor of Political Economy, Berlin University; Mr. William Hertz, Publisher, Berlin; Dr. Engel, Director of the Statistical Bureau, Berlin; Dr. Boeckh, of the same office; Dr. Reichensperger, Judge of the Appellate Court, Berlin; Privy Councillor Schumann, of the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture; Privy Councillor Heyder, Director of the Rent-Bank for the Province of Brandenburg'; Mr. Kuesel, of the same office: at Dresden, Privy Councillor Kuenzel; and Privy Councillor Leonhardi, Director of the Rent-Bank for the Kingdom of Saxony; at Bonn, Dr Nasse, Professor of Political Economy, University of Bonn; and Dr. Hartstein, Director of the Royal Academy of Agriculture, Popplesdorf, near Bonn. I was also indebted for information as to the Prussian Land-credit Associations of Proprietors to Count zu Eulenburg of the Ministry for Home Affairs, and Mr. Petsch of the Association for the Province of Brandenburg. Their Land Debentures are incidentally referred to, but any account of these institutions would have been foreign to the immediate scope of my essay. They deserve, however, special mention as institutions which, although founded long before Stein's reforms were commenced, have greatly facilitated the transformation of the feudal nobility into heads of agricultural industry, by furnishing them with the means of carrying out land-improvements, and the floating capital essential for improved agriculture.
* While obliged to differ on some points of importance from Mr. D. C. Heron, and Mr. John Levy, I feel pleasure in acknowledging the assistance derived from the "History of Jurisprudence" of the former, and the "Letters on the Prussian Land-Laws" of the latter gentleman.
Those who are practically acquainted with the German land-tenure reforms will, doubtless, miss some topics familiar to them, and in particular the important legislation by which the scattered parcels of the peasant proprietors were gradually converted into compact farms. Its practical influence has been very great; but the subject being foreign to our experience, would have called for developments inconsistent with my limits, and even calculated to distract attention from the most essential points for the public of these countries. Should the present publication meet a favourable reception, I may hereafter be able to offer information on these and like matters connected with the Land-question in Germany and other States of Western Europe.
Henry Dix Hutton.
10, Mountjoy-Street, Dublin,31st October, 1867.