source of undefined pride to many ancient families dispersed throughout the country, that they could trace back their ancestry to an Anglo-Saxon original, but it was reserved for our own time to see this feeling extended to a large portion of the community, for, in the present day, the history of Britain, before the Conquest, is beginning to occupy a considerable share of the public attention; and works of great length have been written by some of our first historians for the purpose of investigating more closely the manners and customs of that interesting race, who, in the sixth century of our era, burst from the forests of Germany to found a commonwealth, which, barbarous though we may call it, seems to have been almost better adapted to secure the happiness of its members than many polities belonging to a nation of greater civilization.

The few remains of Anglo-Saxon legislation which have reached our times, display sufficient excellence to make us wish that our knowledge of that people was more complete; and the respect which is universally entertained towards them by the historian, has rather increased than diminished during the eight hundred years that have elapsed since the termination of their dynasty.

Hardly had the first shock of the Norman Conquest passed away, before the people of England began again to raise their heads from the storm which had assailed them. The oppressive enactments of the feudal system, intro

duced by the Norman conqueror, led the whole population to look back upon the paternal government of their native rulers; but, though some historians refer to the violent death of Rufus, and the existence of the large hordes of banditti led by Robin Hood, and many other facts, as instances of the enmity and indomitable spirit of the English yeoman, yet the yoke of conquest and of tyranny was fixed too firmly to be lightly shaken off, and the vestiges of that great revolution have not disappeared from amongst us even at the present day. He who has been in the habit of exploring remote and unfrequented districts, will easily understand how it is that nations, and even small tribes, will for ages exhibit lingering traces of the peculiarities of their forefathers, and when a great change has taken place amongst them at an early date, the mark which it leaves behind, will run on parallel with the former characteristics of the people to their latest posterity. He, who is acquainted with Anglo-Saxon history will not fail to discover points of character still existing in the country districts of England; and even the language as it is at present spoken amongst our peasantry bears a surprising resemblance to that which we find in books written more than a thousand years ago. But, unfortunately, the history of our country displays a second revolution, which has left a stronger impression on the character and condition of our people than even the Norman Conquest; and so slow are the fruits of national revolutions in arriving

at maturity, that we are hardly yet able fully to appreciate the evil and the good which this latter revolution has produced.

The troubles, which arose during the reigns of the early Normans between the Church and the Monarch, were at all events sufficient to warn those despotic kings that they could not push their tyranny to the very utmost; and it was a fortunate circumstance for the country at large that William the Conqueror and the celebrated Lanfranc were on a more friendly footing than their immediate successors; for during this pause the Church, which always was the natural protector of the people from the tyranny of the state, had time to acquire that strength and unity of purpose which enabled it for ages to hold unbounded sway over the minds and destinies of mankind. Who shall deny that this empire tended to the welfare of the people? Unless the history of Britain is a fable, it is clear that the Church was the mainspring of every good; the mother of every art and of all science; and the protectress of her children from oppression. When we see the majestic piles which every where are so plentifully scattered over this nation, and which even in ruins look down with contempt upon the utmost exertions which we may make to rival them, it is impossible to refrain from questioning the justice of those assertions which are sometimes put forth in disparagement of that system to which such mighty works owe their origin. When we daily hear complaints of the increasing misery of

the lower classes, crying for food and raiment, with no field open to the employment of their labour, whilst at the same time they are entailing a burden upon their country for their maintenance, which every day is becoming more heavy, it is difficult not to look back to the times when the population of our island, if not in affluence, were far removed from destitution, and at least provided with the necessaries of life. But all this system is now broken up. For three hundred years the power, which was once enlisted on the side of the poor, has been unable to protect them, or has ministered its services to the state, forgetful of those high duties by the faithful discharge of which the Christian Religion was mainly established throughout the world, and to which the Christian Church owed all the power and influence which compelled Sovereigns to respect her laws. As late as the beginning of the sixteenth century the monastic institutions, with which the whole country abounded, furnished food and shelter without stint to the hungry and the destitute: and the connection of relationship, or friendship, by which many a rustic family was bound to some brother, servant, or retainer of the adjoining monastery, formed a link between the classes of society, which has long since ceased to exist. Furthermore, the slightest acquaintance with the history of our country will shew that of all landlords the Church was the most mild and benevolent towards her tenants: and though the cause of this may be referred to the general principle by

which bodies of men are more debarred than individuals from making harsh bargains, yet the effects were equally beneficial towards the country population, who thus found maintenance for themselves and families without the necessity of that constant toil, which, in the present times, has reduced the rustic labourer to the condition of a beast of burden. But the days are gone by in which the poor and the oppressed look to the Church as their protector: the victory at Hastings did not inflict so severe a blow on the great mass of the inhabitants of this country as the destruction of the monastic establishments in the reign of Henry. The powerful descendants of the first William, reigning over two different peoples, and wielding at their will the military force of either of these to check the rebellions of the other, found both nations of their subjects too weak to contend with the power of the Church, which in every part of the country had its representatives to check the lawless conduct of the secular barons of the realm.

To the ecclesiastical establishments, which formerly existed in all parts of Europe, but within the last three centuries have been disappearing one after the other, must be ascribed the preservation of every kind of learning known among the ancients. This is a fact, which no one for an instant can dispute, and yet it has been said that the monks of the middle ages were an ignorant race of men, who had not sufficient taste to see the beauties of classical