It is likely that both nations, as long as they remained politically independent, had different social ranks and classes among themselves. They had their elders and poHtical heads ; they had a priestly order of their own. They had also doubtless their good and bad, their illustrious and despised famihes ; for even now, sunk in universal degradation, they pride themselves on ancestral distinctions. The contempt with which the steelclad Germans, bold, enterprising, refined, and civilized Christians, sprung from a powerful and far-famed nation, regarded the poor, timid, and barbarous race of pagan shepherds, must have l)een from the first very great. When the Esthonians and Lettes were reduced to complete slavery, it became such that the Whites of xAmerica coidd scarcely regard with more liorror the contamination of black blood, than the Germans of Livonia would that of the Lettes and Esthonians.
The German nobles have always endeavoured to prevent these enslaved nations from occupying themselves in any way not connected with agriculture ; but many among them have gradually crept into other classes of society, and procured themselves freedom, refinement, and a German surname. Not only have many landowners taken particular peasants into their houses, and qualified them, by instruction, for the trades of carpenters, masons, &c., — not to speak of those domesticated as male and female servants — but many serfs having obtained their freedom glide into the different towns, become mechanics and shopkeepers, and very soon acquired German cultivation and manners. It is extraordinary, indeed, with what ease and rapidity the pliable Esthonians and Lettes Germanize themselves. In a very short time they become, in langiiai^e, niannor, and a)pearance, such thorough Germans, that it would be \(\vy difficidt to know them. Riga, Mitau, Reval, and Dorpat, contain many such half-Germans. Very often they appropriate a German
ELEMENTS OF THE TOPULATION. ZG'J
surname, or that of tlie particular Gesinde or Bauerhof, from, wliicli they came. This, however, can only be done with the permission of their masters. Many who ate unable to obtain this permission,, and who yet thirst for a real good German name, choose one privately, such as llosencrantz for instance, ticket all their property " Yane Rosencrantz," sign tlieir letters accordingly, and privately acquaint all their friends and relations that tliey wish to be called Rosencrantz, so as to be ready publicly to adopt the wished-for name, whenever they can obtain permission. After a few generations, all trace of Lettish or Esthoniau origin in these half-German famiUes generally disappears.
If we ascend the ladder of social importance, we find these halfGermans succeeded by the so-called " Klein deutscheny Under this name are classed German mechanics, innkeepers, stewards, foresters, &c. As the Lettcs and Esthonians have always adhered to their primitive modes of industry, the nobility of the country and the merchants of the towns have been obliged to obtain masons, carpenters, stewards, &c., from Germany. These Klein deutschen are certainly the most unpleasingand disagreeable class of society in these countries. They look down on the Lettes, with even more contempt, and are yet more proud of their German blood, than the proudest barons in the land. Among these Klein deutschen, moreover, Avill often be found the greatest vagabonds in the country, and not having the dependance of serfdom to fall back upon, they often sink into a more abject state of poverty than any other class in the country. They are seen at times begging their bread from those very natives for whom they profess so much contempt, and from whom in return they receive the ignominious denomination of Hungerleider (sufferers from hunger), a nickname, by the by, which the Lette is very apt to apply to the German race generally.
Above the Klein deutschen stand the deutschen Bicrger, including the merchants, shopkeepers, artists, and principal mechanics. They occupy the same rank as that of the burghers m our German towns ; but as in talent and industry they are below triem, so in outward polish and refinement, they are certainly above them. The tendency to hospitality and social enjoyment is univei-sal in the north, and makes the inhabitants more polite and refined, but at the same time less useful and industrious.
In earlier times, Livonia was a sort of Paradise for emigrating Germans. Every one freely followed whatever trade or profession he pleased, unrestrained in any way. Taxes and imposts did not exist, and forced levies of recruits were things vmknown.