His third great measure was the grant (19 November, 1808)
of local self-government, on liberal yet practical lines, to all
Prussian towns and villages with a population in excess of 800. Stein
undoubtedly intended the last law to be a corner-stone in the edifice
of national constitutional government which he longed to erect in his
country, but in this respect his plans were thwarted and Prussia
remained another two generations without a written constitution. In
1811 Hardenberg continued the reform of the condition of the peasants
by making them absolute owners of part of their holdings, the landlords
obtaining the rest as partial compensation for their lost feudal and
servile dues. During the same period, the army was likewise reorganized
by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau; compulsory universal service was
introduced, while the condition imposed by Napoleon that the army
should not exceed 42,000 men was practically evaded by replacing each
body of 42,000 men by another of the same size as soon as the first was
fairly versed in military affairs.
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