OF GERMANY. 
19 
an important change in the classification of the 
population. The number of independent trades 
men decreased, whilst dependent wage labourers 
increased in the same proportion. The larger 
towns became gradually populated with restive 
masses of the proletariat, which, of course, gave 
the cities quite a different appearance. Still 
more striking, however, is the increase in the 
number of people employed in trade and industry 
at the expense of the agriculturists, in other 
words, the change from the agricultural into the 
industrial state. This tendency, which has also 
manifested itself in other western European 
countries, is illustrated by the fact that in 1816 
78 per cent, of the total population in Prussia were 
still engaged in agriculture and forestry ; in 1849, 
64 per cent. ; in 1867, only 48 per cent. ; in 1882, 
4 2 l per cent, lived on agriculture ; in 1895, 35I 
per cent., and now only about 27 per cent. This 
explains the rapid growth of industrial cities like 
Essen, Dortmund, Bochum, Mannheim, etc.; yet, 
compared with England, the distribution of the 
population in Germany is nothing extraordinary ; 
m I 9°i, already more than 35 per cent, of the 
whole population of England lived in big cities, 
2 5 per cent, in London alone. 
In accordance with the rapid growth of the 
towns, the housing has assumed quite a different