a kingdom in Germany, formed out of the duchies which formerly belonged to several families of the Hanover, junior branch of the house of Brunswick. In the course of the revolutionary war, under the influence of France, the dukedoms of Bavaria, of Saxony, and of Württemberg had been raised to the rank of kingdoms; and when the overthrow of Bonaparte was accomplished, the dukedoms which had composed the electorate of Hanover were thought by the allied powers of sufficient consequence to be elevated to the same dignity, as, with the additions then made to them, they were nearly equal in extent and population to the other portions of Germany whose rulers had received that rank. It accordingly assumed that grade in 1814, under George III., and was acknowledged as such by all the powers of Europe.
The obscurity in which antiquity has involved the early history of nations can only be in a slight degree cleared up by tracing the origin of the families that maintained the continued rule over them. The ruling family of Hanover has been traced, by the combined efforts and researches of Muratori and Leibnitz, to an Italian origin, in the dark ages, that is, to the princely house of Este; and by Gibbon, from that house up to the descendants of Charlemagne. A Marquis of Este, in the eleventh century, married Cuniza or Cunegonda, an heiress of a princely family in Bavaria, whose son received the name of Guelph, derived from his maternal ancestors, and inherited their dominions, including the dukedom of Bavaria. The grandson of this Guelph, named Henry the Black, and his son named Henry the Proud, acquired by marriage new and extensive dominions on the banks of the Elbe and the Weser; and Henry the Lion, the most powerful prince of his age, was the first of the race who assumed the title of Duke of Brunswick. Under this Henry, who distinguished himself as a great warrior, an uncle wrested from him the southern portion of his territory in Bavaria and Swabia, and left him, at the conclusion of most bitter hostility, in the possession of the northern portion of it. He made the city of Brunswick the capital of his dominions, and, being in possession of the rich silver mines of the Hartz, was enabled to extend his power over the tribes of Northern Germany, inhabiting Holstein, Mecklenburg, and nearly the whole coast of the Baltic Sea.
Henry the Lion was twice married. By his first wife he left no family; and by his second wife, who was Maud, the daughter of Henry II. of England, though he had several sons, none of them left any issue except William, under whose only son Otho the partition of the house took place; Brunswick and Luneburg being divided into two dukedoms. The latter branch received the Hanoverian portion as a fief from William Siegfried, bishop of Hildesheim. After the death of Otho, and of his two sons Otho and William, who successively followed, the male line became extinct in 1369. Otho, elector of Saxony, who had married a daughter of William, was, by the influence of the emperor of Germany, Charles IV., invested with the government. He died without issue, having by his testament bequeathed the dukedom to his uncle Wenceslaus, elector of Saxony; a bequest which was contested by Torquatus Magnus, duke of Saxony, but at length was terminated in a compromise, by which Bernard, the eldest son of Torquatus, obtained the dominion, and reigned until 1434. After several successions, the power became vested in Ernest of Zell, who first introduced the Lutheran religion into his states, and died in the year 1546. The succession since has been, William, who died in 1592; Ernest, in 1611; Christian, in 1633; August, in 1636; Fredrich, in 1648; Ernest Augustus, bishop of Osnaburg, who was made an elector of the German empire in 1692, and died in 1698; George Louis, who, after the death of his uncle George William, inherited the dukedom of Zell in 1705, and succeeded to the crown of Great Britain by the title of George I. in 1714. He died in 1727, since which period the succession has been the same as in that kingdom.
The accession of the electors of Hanover to the throne of Great Britain, though it has led ultimately to a great extension of territory, has, on the other hand, subjected the electorate to sufferings and to oppression during the wars between Great Britain and France. At the commencement of the Seven Years' War, a French army invaded it; and the forces under the Duke of Cumberland, being unequal to its defence, were compelled, by the convention of Kloster-Severn, to abandon the country to the invaders. By the peace of 1763 it was again restored to its ancient sovereign. At the renewal of hostilities after the treaty of Amiens, Hanover was once more seized upon by the French, and by them delivered over to the king of Prussia, who ruled it till after his defeat at Jena. It was then incorporated as part of the kingdom of Westphalia, erected in favour of Jerome Bonaparte. This rule was terminated by the battle of Leipzig, by which Hanover, with the rest of Germany, was delivered from French domination, and returned to its ancient sovereigns, with the addition of the provinces of Hildesheim, Osnaburg, East Friesland, Goslar, and some other territories. On the other hand, Hanover gave up the ancient duchy of Lauenburg, which was transferred to Denmark, and some portions or bailiwicks, a part to Prussia, and a part to the Duke of Oldenburg.
Hanover has thus become a compact dominion, extending over 14,720 English square miles. It lies between 50° 18' and 53° 54' north latitude, and 6° 58' and 11° 56' east longitude. It is bounded on the north by the duchy of Oldenburg, the bailiwick of Ritzebüttel, belonging to Hamburg, and the mouth of the Elbe. On the north-east the river Elbe divides it from Holstein and Luneburg, belonging to Denmark, and from the duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; but it possesses the small territory of Neuhof on the right bank of that river. On the east it is bounded by the Prussian province of Saxony, and by the duchy of Brunswick; on the south it touches the dominions of Prussia, of Hesse-Cassel, of both the Lippes, and of Westphalia; and on the west the kingdom of the Netherlands is the boundary.
The kingdom of Hanover is divided in the following manner:
| Provinces | Extent in English Acres | Population | Number of Dwelling-Houses | |---------------|------------------------|------------|--------------------------| | Hanover | 1,601,280 | 296,000 | 40,745 | | Hildesheim | 1,121,920 | 322,000 | 44,199 | | Luneburg | 2,871,040 | 285,000 | 37,037 | | Stade | 1,725,440 | 244,000 | 37,747 | | Osnabruck | 1,441,280 | 244,000 | 39,411 | | Aurich | 743,040 | 152,000 | 24,261 | | Clausthal | 122,080 | 26,000 | 2,738 | | | **9,626,080** | **1,569,000** | **226,138** |
A new survey and division of provinces has been made within the last four years. The population returns are grounded on a census taken in 1817, since which the deaths have been deducted and the births added each year. This gives an increase of inhabitants of 236,400 in fifteen years. In the year 1832 the births appear to have been 48,273, and the deaths 39,806. The capital of each of the provinces is the city of the same name.
The chief cities and their population are as follows: Hanover, 26,300; Hildesheim, 13,800; Luneburg, 12,500; Emden, 12,100; Osnabruck, 11,800; Göttingen, 11,000; Zell, 10,300; Clausthal, 8,850; Goslar, 7,160; Leer, 6,340; Hameln, 5,750; Norden, 5,600; Stade, 5,500; Einbeck, 5,100.
The province of Hildesheim is somewhat mountainous, and that of Clausthal, containing the Hartz, is wholly so, as well as some parts near Göttingen. The other provinces form a part of that extensive plain which commences on the shores of the German Ocean, and terminates on the frontiers of Russia. The whole plain is a sandy soil, resting on a bed of granite, and is generally sterile, except on the banks of the various rivers that water it, or near the cities, where cultivation has improved it by artificial means. The most fruitful part of the kingdom is on the banks of the Elbe, and near the German Ocean, where, as in Holland, rich meadows are preserved from being immersed in water, by broad dykes and deep ditches, constructed and kept in repair at a great expense.
The most remarkable mountains are those of the Hartz Forest, three fifths of which are in this kingdom, and two fifths in the duchy of Brunswick. These mountains are not a part of any chain, but rise from a plain in a group by themselves, the highest points of which are nearly in the centre. The mass is about eighty miles in length from east to west, and about twenty-eight in breadth from north to south. The highest points, and their height above the level of the sea, are Bruchberg, 3020 feet; Wernberg, 2880 feet; Achtermannshöhe, 2710 feet; the Little Winterberg, 2684 feet; Kahlenberg, 2180 feet; and the Ramselberg, 1915 feet. These mountains are wholly covered with forests. On their lower sides the trees are of the deciduous kinds, but the summits are exclusively covered with pines. These mountains abound with minerals of almost every kind, and the principal employment of the inhabitants consists either in mining, or in manufacturing the iron and copper into domestic utensils. Some of the mining and manufacturing towns, as Clausthal, Andreasberg, Cellerfeld, and several others, are from 1700 to 1900 feet above the level of the sea; and their population would suffer most severely from the cold of the severe winters, but for the abundance both of wood and fossil coal with which they are supplied.
The whole of the kingdom of Hanover dips towards the north, and the courses of all the rivers are in that direction. These are, first, the Elbe, which borders a large part of the dominion, and receives into it the Ohre, which rises in the province of Luneburg; the Aland and the Jeetze, which come out of Prussia, and are navigable before they terminate in the Elbe; the Ilmenau, which becomes navigable at Luneburg; the Este, which is navigable to Buxtehude; the Lühe, navigable to Hornburg; the Schwinge, by which vessels reach Stade; the Oste, which passes Harburg, and is navigable to Kirchosters; and the Medem, which runs through the land Hadeln, and admits large vessels as high as Ottendorf. Second, the Weser, which enters the dominions of Hanover at Münden, being there formed by the junction of the Fulda and the Werra. It is navigable for barges from the spot at which its name commences, and it receives, in its course, the Hamel, the Aller, the Oertze, the Line, the Böhme, the Eyther, the Wümme, the Lesum (formed by the three streams, Rodan, Wiste, and Worpe), the Greste, and the Hunter; all of which are Hanoverian rivers, and continue their united courses till they are lost in the German Ocean near Bremen. Third, the Ems, a river rising in the Prussian province of Westphalia. After entering Hanover, it receives the waters of the Aa, the Hase, the Else, and the Leda. Before reaching the sea, it falls into the Dollart near Emden, which is the principal seaport in the kingdom. The vessels belonging to this port are about 270, and their tonnage 19,289 lasts. There are equipped at the mouth of this river upwards of fifty busses, which are employed in the herring fishery, and usually take and cure from 12,000 to 14,000 tons of that fish annually. Fourth, the Vecht, a river of short course, rising in the Prussian province of Westphalia, and terminating in the Zuyder Zee. Its principal importance is derived from a navigable canal, which commences at the city of Münster, and is the channel of Hanover, some trade through the Vecht to Amsterdam.
Though Hanover is generally a sandy soil, it has some small fresh-water lakes. The Dummersee, in Diepholtz, is about twelve miles in circuit. The Steinbudermeer, in the province of Kalenburg, is about four miles long and two broad; and the Dollart, at the mouth of the Ems, which is rather an estuary than a lake, is twelve miles across. The canals are all of short course. The Bremen Canal is designed to unite the Hamme, the Oste, and the Schwinge; and the Treckschuit Canal is intended to connect Wittmund with Aurich. The Papenburg Canal is only navigable from the Ems to that city.
Though considerable variations, in conformity to the different natures of the soils, occur in the husbandry of Hanover, yet it may be generally described as at a very low standard. The land mostly belongs either to the king, or to the nobles, as lords of the soil, who have under them a species of tenants called bauers, having the use of small portions of land, under many and various feudal conditions. These bauers pay little or no rent in money, but render the lord a stipulated number of days' work in seed time and harvest on his demesne lands, or give him a certain proportion of the proceeds of their crops. In most instances the lords have the right of pasture for their cattle over the whole land, and are the proprietors of most of the sheep and cows. There is an exception to this mode of holding, called the meyer law; but it extends over so small a portion of the kingdom as not to merit a detailed notice of it. The rotation of crops usually followed in Hanover is first a fallow, on which the land is cultivated to potatoes, peas, or flax; then follows winter corn, either rye or wheat, but chiefly the former; and to these succeeds summer corn, either barley or oats. As the fields are usually divided into small portions, like many of our common fields in England, and the larger divisions must all be cultivated alike, though belonging to different occupiers; and as the course that has prevailed from time immemorial must be continued; there is little or no room for improvement, and little encouragement for superior knowledge or greater activity. Such is the bad state of cultivation, that the increase of grain is not estimated to exceed four for one of the quantity sown throughout the whole kingdom. The breeding and fattening of cattle is a branch of rural economy, confined to particular portions adapted to that purpose, and is in the same backward state as the agriculture. By the latest enumeration of the live stock, which was previous to some provinces of 600,000 acres in extent being added to it, there were 224,500 horses; 675,926 head of horned cattle; 1,540,794 sheep and lambs; 15,728 goats and kids; 176,974 swine; and 1498 asses and mules. Much of the heath land, especially in the province of Luneburg, is used for no other purpose but that of rearing bees for the sake of their honey and wax. The hives are transported in waggons, at the commencement of the spring, to those more southern countries where the flowers bloom early, and are afterwards brought back when the heath flowers are fit for them, and remain till the proper time for taking the contents of the hives. Large numbers of geese are also kept by the bauers on the moist situations; their flesh is salted for winter domestic consumption, and their feathers are preserved for sale. These two sources, affording wax, honey, and feathers, yield the principal disposable produce of some of the provinces.
The manufactures of Hanover are very numerous, but none of them extensive. Except linen, linen yarn, and domestic utensils, few of them afford a surplus beyond the home consumption. The linen is of four kinds: first, that called Hausleinenwond, or household linen, the making as well as use of which is to be met with in every family; secondly, a coarse kind, that called the Lowendleinen; thirdly, Hanover is a hereditary monarchy in the house of Hanover, with a Salic law, which prevents the throne being filled by a female. In case the present branch becomes extinct, the heir of the duchy of Brunswick will succeed.
The legislative power was vested in the several states formerly, which caused a great complication, both in the financial and the judicial departments. This arose from the several parts which have successively been added to Hanover having possessed ancient constitutions, with considerable differences in the laws, religion, and institutions. By gradual arrangements these have been assimilated into one system, and a legislative body formed, which, as far as it has hitherto proceeded, works rather favourably for the general good. It consists of two houses. The upper house contains fifty-five members. They are in part the mediatorial sovereigns within the kingdom, in part the Protestant and the Catholic bishops or prelates, and in part the ministers at the head of the several departments of the government; but the greater number consists of the representatives of the nobility, proprietors of estates in the several provinces.
The second chamber is composed of seventy-two members, who are chosen for six years. Twenty-nine of them are elected by the cities, and the remainder by the proprietors of the estates in their respective provinces. Amongst these are several clergymen and lawyers. The president and vice-president are selected by the assembly, but subject to the approbation of the king, or, in his absence, of the viceroy. They assemble every year, and their attention recently has been chiefly addressed to the simplification of the finances, and to the abolition of those inferior local justiciaries, which had belonged to the proprietors of certain estates.
The revenue of the kingdom is derived from various sources, all of which have been clearly communicated to the public by one of the chiefs of the board of revenue, Mr Übelohde, up to the beginning of 1834.
The sovereigns of Hanover were, like most others in Germany, the largest landed proprietors in their domains. Their land, called the domains, with what was denominated the royalties, such as the mines, the posting, the road and harbour tolls, and other branches, amounted to nearly as much as the taxes. These have recently been given up by the crown, and form one branch of the general revenue applicable by the legislature to the purpose of paying the interest of the public debt, and defraying the expenses of the several departments of the administration.
The nett amount of this royal property, after deducting the expense of management and collection, and the sum appropriated to the viceroyal household, appears to have been, in 1833, 1,194,640 rixdollars, or £89,598 sterling; besides that derived from the mines and salt springs, which amounted to 117,000 rixdollars, or £8,775 sterling. The remainder of the revenue is obtained by taxation of various kinds, such as land, house, personal, and income taxes, by imposts on beer and corn spirits, by stamps, and by a custom-duty on foreign goods. These are the chief subjects of taxation, but there are some few of a smaller kind, more troublesome than productive.
The nett revenue now is found to produce as follows:
| Source | Rixdollars | Sterling | |-------------------------------|------------|----------| | From the royal treasury | 2,356,543 | L176,625 | | From the kingdom's treasury | 3,006,600 | 225,485 | | | 5,363,143 | L402,235 |
The whole expenses of the government, as enumerated below, amounted in 1832 to 5,390,800 L404,310
Thus leaving a deficit of 41,485 L2,075 The annual expenses are as follows:
| Description | Rixdollars | |--------------------------------------------------|------------| | Cabinet ministers | 90,950 | | Office in London | 14,400 | | Bailiwick and other expenses in the country | 618,350 | | parts, and police | | | Legislative body | 76,400 | | Ministry of foreign affairs | 70,000 | | Ministry of war | 1,657,950 | | Ministry of justice | 215,600 | | Ministry of religion and general instruction | 97,650 | | Ministry of the interior | 651,000 | | Ministry of trade | 41,300 | | Ministry of finances | 208,000 | | Interest of debt | 1,306,400 | | Pensions | 144,000 | | Expiring expenses | 198,800 |
Total: 5,390,800
or L.404,310 sterling.
The public debt consists in part of annuities, and in part of loans. The annual interest, as is shown in the account of expenses, amounts to nearly one quarter of these. It is, however, annually diminishing, by means of a sinking fund, tillgungo fond, the amount paid towards which is included in the 1,306,400 rixdollars of the expenditure. It now amounts to 311,100 rixdollars, or nearly one quarter of the annual interest.
In the expenditure of the ministry of the interior is comprehended the cost of improving the roads, the dykes, and the navigable rivers. It has been well expended, especially that on the roads, which have, within the last fifteen years, from the worst become some of the best in any part of Europe.
The military force of Hanover consists of an engineer and artillery corps, the latter composed of two companies of horse and one of foot, a corps of riflemen, a battalion of infantry, of which two are the guards and two light troops, and four regiments of cavalry. The total number amounts to about twelve thousand men, but many of them are indulged with furloughs, so that the whole expense of the army, including the repairs of the fortifications, is very small. Hanover has a single vessel of war moored in the Elbe to collect the dues on that stream, and some small craft at the mouths of the Weser and of the Ems.
The religious establishments of Hanover are the three Christian sects in different parts. The Lutherans are the most numerous, comprehending 1,235,200 persons, having ten superintendents or bishops, and 924 clergymen. They have also nine convents for men and eighteen for females, but the members of these are not bound to celibacy. The tithes are commonly paid in kind, but some of them have stipends from the government. The Catholics are about 200,000, having one bishop, and 143 parish priests. The Reformed are about 100,000, and have 114 parish churches, and a minister to each. There are, besides, three Mennonite and one Moravian congregation. The Jews are allowed the freest toleration as regards their worship, but are excluded from some of the civil privileges. Their number is about 12,000.
The business of education is well attended to, and abundant means are supplied to aid it, both by the government and the voluntary contributions of corporations and individuals. The first establishment is the university of Göttingen, founded by George II. in 1734. Its professors are scholars of great eminence in every branch of science and literature, and in 1833 it contained 845 students. There are, besides, five ecclesiastical seminaries, twenty-nine schools for the common sciences, and sixteen gymnasiaums or public classical schools; and each village and town has the appropriate number of elementary schools, amounting to the number of 3560. All are taught to read and to write, and the common rules of arithmetic. There are also surgical and medical schools, hospitals for midwifery, and a good veterinary college. The freedom of the press is allowed to the professors of the university, but all other writings must pass through a very mild censorship; though of late, from the proceedings of the diet at Frankfort, some restrictions have been enacted against the unlimited publication of political newspapers, and other smaller works.
The poor are provided for wholly by voluntary contributions, which are made from house to house at stated periods. They are in a great degree supported in workhouses, where their own labour contributes in some measure to their maintenance. Their food and clothing are of the coarsest kind. There are many hospitals and other charitable establishments for the relief and cure of the diseased; and, upon the whole, the poor are as well taken care of as in other countries where their maintenance is compulsory.
The language usually spoken in Hanover is the Plat-Deutsche, a dialect of the High German, more pure, and less complicated in its construction, but treated by the learned with more contempt than it merits. As the service in the churches and the instruction in the schools are exclusively in the High German, all the peasantry understand it, though they never use it when they can avoid it. The higher classes pride themselves in speaking the High German with greater purity than is practised in any other part of the empire.
Hanover has two standards of money, the Leipziger and the convention. The public accounts are kept in the latter. The gold coin called Georgs d'or is five rixdollars eight groschen in convention money; or, in Leipziger money, four rixdollars sixteen groschen. The other gold coin, the Gold-Gulden, is two rixdollars six groschen in convention, two dollars two groschen in Leipziger money.
The long measure is the rood of eight ells; the ell is two feet; the foot twelve inches. Six Hanoverian are equal to five Brabant ells. Land is measured by hufen and morgens. The hufe is thirty morgens, the morgen 120 ruthen, equal to 24-844 Paris feet. The morgen by which woodland is measured contains 160 ruthen. The liquid measure is the eimen, of 3-136 cubic inches, or the anker of 1-960 cubic inches. The latter makes sixteen stübchens or thirty-two kannen, and sixty-four quartiere or 128 nosel. The weights in common use are ships-pounds, lies-pounds, hundreds, and customary pounds. The ships-pound is equal to twenty lies-pounds; the hundred is 110 lies-pounds. The lies-pound is divided into two marks, the mark into eight ounces, the ounce into two loths, the loth into four quintins. The local weights and measures vary from these standards in all the villages of the several provinces.
See Erdebeschreibung des Königreichs Hannover, von Sonne; Weimarische Erdebeschreibung, vol. iv., part i.; Jacobs' View of Germany, &c. 1820; Weimar Almanach, 1834; Hodgskin's Germany; Hannoverische Zeitungen, 1833; and Über die Finances des Königreichs Hannover und deren Verwaltung, von Hofrath, J. G. L. W. Ubbelohde, 1834.
city, the capital of the kingdom of the same name, in Germany, as well as of the province of Kalenburg. It is built on an extensive plain on the river Leine, which receives the waters of the Ilme, and then becomes navigable to the Weser. The former walls, which were indefensible, have been destroyed, and planted, and thus converted into pleasant promenades. The city is divided into the old and the new town by the river. The former is old, ill built, and dirty; the latter is much Hanover, better, contains a fine square, some good streets, and several handsome public and private buildings. The most prominent of these are the palace of the Duke of Cambridge, the theatre, and the house of assembly of the states. The royal library, containing 25,000 volumes, and the cabinet of natural history, are objects of attention. The city contains seven Lutheran, two Reformed, and one Catholic church, with 2195 houses, and about 25,000 inhabitants. The chief trade is brewing beer, but it has those kinds of manufactures which are naturally encouraged in the capital of each kingdom, however small or poor. As the residence of a court, of an armed force, of the legislature, the courts of justice, and of several of the nobility, a great number of small tradesmen obtain subsistence by supplying their wants. The trade by water consists chiefly in transmitting wood, and some corn and flax, to Bremen, where it is shipped for markets at a distance. There is, however, an exchange and a chamber of commerce, and some of the bankers are considerable capitalists. It is situated in longitude 9° 39' 40" E. and latitude 52° 22' 18" N. Near the city is the royal palace of Herrenhausen, with fine walks, gardens, graperies, and plantations.