172

DOMESTIC MANNERS OF THE TRUSSIANS.

IV.

FORMS OF ETIQUETTE AND MANNERS.

§ 1."Red Eagles," — Titles — and Models of Letter-writing.

The key to the manners of the Prussians — apart from tlieirbeliaviour at table and tlieir utter want of decency and refine-ment at home—is to be found in the fact tliatthey are a peopleonly just emerged from " predial slavery." Even as recentlyas 1807, none but nobles or other privileged persons couldacquire property, it being impossible tili then for tradesmen andpeasants to possess even the smallest portion of a landed estatein tlieir " own right," Tliose plebeians who occupied farms then,did so by the favour of tlieir " lords," and were bound in returneither to lielp to tili the lord's own land, or eise to give him asmuch as half 'of the produce of theirs—tliough many were com-pelled to do both the one and the other. Nor was it tili the year1811 that the peasants and merchants were allowed to becomethe unconditional proprietors of the lands they held; and toobtain this privilege, they had to surrender to the lord one thirdor one half of the entire estate, according as they had been pre-viously bound either to do Services or to pay rent for the same.In a nation, therefore, in which the great body of the people,only forty odd years ago, existed in a State of serfdom, we canhardly expect to find much liberty or independence of feeling;for it is the peculiar character of slavery, that the condition is