[p. 558]
|558| the so-called scribes have upon the administration of the state as a general scourge of the land, and indeed he declared that it is the former Württemberg estates constitution in whose innermost part this evil is firmly rooted, which grants the scribes “a wide field for arbitrary will, oppression and fleecing” (Div. V, p. 58). A committee was thereupon appointed for the drawing up of an opinion with proposals for the improvement of the institution. When in the course of six weeks this subject did not come up for discussion, Herr von Forstner repeated his motion on 28 June; he remarked on that occasion that, even if the nuisance is an abomination to many a respectable principal of scribes, such a man cannot prevent it and can only wish for a reform in silence, because he does not dare to touch the sanctuary of the old constitution, knowing that this evil is deeply grounded in it and most intimately interwoven with it. He adds that the Württemberger will never (that is, even after the restoration of the old constitution, – on the contrary) feel relieved in his fate so long as this evil is not removed; that it is unbearable and more than sufficient to drive the common man to despair. He adduces as fact and from irrefutable testimonies that this evil has at all times brought about the so frequent emigrations of the Old Württembergers abroad – emigrations which took place both in the greatest bloom of the former estates constitution and under the reign of the most diverse Württemberg rulers. What else could move [them], he further exclaims, to it than the constitution? What expressed itself in it so unbearably? What brought them to despair under this constitution? Nothing other than the oppression of the estate of scribes. And it was the constitution which entitled this estate to harass the subject, etc. – On a further renewal of his motion (Div. XVI, p. 84) he cites from the opinion of a former Württemberg president of the government, von Gemmingen,
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