HAXTHAUSEN, August Franz Ludwig Maria von (1792-1867), baron of Haxthausen-Abbenburg, was born on his father’s estate near Paderborn in Westphalia, February 3, 1792. Educated at first at home, he proceeded in 1811 to the school of mining at Klausthal in the Harz, and after serving in the Hanoverian army in 1813-15, entered the university of Göttingen. On finishing his course there in 1818, he occupied himself with the management of his estates, and the study of the land laws and the legal rights of the peasantry. The result of his studies appeared in 1829 in Die Agrarverfassung und ihre Conflicte, a work which attracted much attention, and procured for him an official commission to investigate and report upon the land laws of the Prussian provinces with a view to a new code. After nine years spent in laborious collation, he published in 1839 an exhaustive treatise, Die ländliche Verfassung in den Provinzen Ost-und West-Preussen. In 1843-44, at the request of the emperor Nicholas, he undertook a similar labour for Russia. The fruits of his investigations in that country are contained in Studien über die inneren Zustände, das Volksleben, und insbesondere die landliehen Einrichtungen Russlands (3 vols. 1847-52), in Die Kriegsmacht Russlands (1852), and in Hie ländliche Verfassung Russlands (1866). In 1836 he received the honorary title of privy state-councillor, and afterwards of hereditary chamberlain of the principality of Paderborn. In 1847-48 he sat as a member of the combined diet at Berlin, and afterwards of the first Prussian chamber. After travelling through a large part of Europe, Baron Haxthausen retired to his estate. He died at Hanover, January 1, 1867....