selves, repaired westward to the ports of Wales, or to those of Scotland, where they embarked, and went, as the old annals express it, to range through foreign kingdoms, exhibiting their sorrows and miseries in a state of exile. Denmark, Norway, and the countries where the Teutonic dialects were spoken, were in general the destination of the emigrants: some of the English fugitives, however, were seen to direct their course to the south of Europe, and crave an asylum among nations of entirely different origin and speaking a different language.

As to those Anglo-Saxons who would not or could not emigrate, many of them sought refuge in the forests with their families, and, if they were rich and powerful, with their servants and their vassals.

The great roads along which the Norman convoys passed were infested by their armed bands, and they took back from the conquerors what they had taken by force; thus recovering a ransom for their inheritances, or avenging by assassination the massacre of their fellow-countrymen. These refugees are called brigands by the historians friendly to the Conquest, who speak of them in their accounts as of men wilfully and wickedly armed against a lawful order of society. "Each day," say they, "was committed a number of thefts and murders caused by the natural villany of the people and the immense riches of this kingdom." But the native population considered they had a right to make the recapture of riches which had been taken from themselves; and, if they became robbers, it was for no other purpose than to recover their own property. The social order which they rose against, and the law which they violated, had no sanctity in their estimation; and thus the English word "outlaw," synonymous with banished man, robber, bandit, or brigand, thenceforward lost its disgraceful signification, and was employed by the conquered people in a more favorable light. Old narratives and legends, and the popular romances of the English, have shed a kind of poetic tint on

the character of the bold outlaw, and over the wandering and unrestrained life he led in the green woods and glades. In those romances the outlawed individual is always portrayed as the gayest and bravest of men; he is the king of the forest, and fears not the king of the country.

The north country especially, which had most obstinately resisted the invaders, became the land of the wanderers in arms, the last mode of protest, against power, by the vanquished. The vast forests in the province of York were the haunt of a numerous band who had for their chief a man named Sweyn, son of Sigg. In the midland counties, and near London, even under the walls of the Norman castles, various bands were also formed of these men, who, say the chroniclers of that age, rejecting slavery to the last, made the woods their abiding-place. The encounters with the conquerors were always sanguinary, and when they appeared in any inhabited place it was a pretext for the foreigner to redouble his oppressions therein; he punished the unarmed men for the mischief done to him by those in arms; and these again, in their turn, sometimes made terrible visits to those whom the vulgar opinion marked out as friends of the Normans.

Thus perpetual terror reigned throughout the country; for to the danger of falling by the sword of the foreigner, who considered himself as a demigod among brutes, and understood neither the prayers, nor the arguments, nor the excuses preferred in the language of the conquered people, was also added that of being regarded as traitors to their native land, or of being suspected of being such by the independent Saxons, who were as much maddened by their despair as the Normans were by their pride. Thus, no Englishman would venture even out of the neighbourhood of his own dwelling; but every Englishman who had taken the oath of peace and delivered hostages to the conqueror kept his house barred and fortified like a town in a state of siege. It was filled with arms of every kind, with bows

and arrows, axes, maces, heavy iron forks, and daggers; and the doors were bolted and barricaded. When the hour of rest arrived, at the time of making all fast, the head of the family repeated aloud the prayers in that age used at sea on the approach of a storm, and said, "The Lord bless and help us," to which all present answered, Amen." This custom existed in England for more than two centuries after the Conquest.

Thierry.

THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. (1066-1485.)

"EVERY throne which standeth aright, standeth upon three pillars the Priest. the Warrior-and the Laborer. The Priest prayeth day and night for the welfare of the people; the Warrior defendeth the people with his sword; the Laborer tilleth the earth, and worketh for the livelihood of all. And if any one of these three pillars be broken, the throne will be overturned." From the nature of the materials of history, the palace, the cathedral, and the castle, will always be the most prominent features in the picture; and we are therefore apt to forget that the indwellers of these proud and towering structures ultimately depend upon the cottage and the barn. All worldly wealth is derived from the fulness of the earth; and it is by the weal or woe of the peasant, that the prosperity of nations is principally to be defined. The importance of appreciating the real situation of the cultivator may be best illustrated by very homely imagery. Supposing that to-morrow each and every man in England, from the king downwards, were to be deprived by the wand of a magician of breakfast, dinner, and supper, without a coat to his back, or a bed to lie on; in this case it is very certain that all affairs would come to a stand. Of course such a state of things, as to the whole nation, is impossible; but it always

must exist with respect to a part of the community. So long as the hungry bellies are in the minority, there will be general peace and tranquillity, whatever the individual privations may be; but if, unluckily, the hungry happen to be in the majority, the country will always be disturbed and unhappy, notwithstanding the goodness of its constitution, or the excellence of its laws.

The homage, or 'becoming your Man,' was an obligation which the Germans brought with them from their forests. It was a fruit of the old oak, though somewhat matured, if I may use the expression, by cultivation. The lord was the protector of the 'man,' who, on his part, was bound to attend the superior to whom he had 'commended' himself, both in peace and in war. The price of this engagement might be a horse or a helmet, a shield of silver, or a purse of gold; and its duration was originally limited to the joint lives of the contracting parties. If the lord died, his son could not claim the submission of the vassal. On the other hand, if the vassal died, his child might choose any other lord. But he was bound, whilst the compact subsisted, to take his place in the hall of his superior, and to fight beneath his banner when it was unfurled; and so imperative was this obligation, that the vassal who abandoned his sovereign in the conflict rendered himself liable to capital punishment.

The subject of land tenure will be easily understood by the following comparison. A gentleman now lets a farm to his tenant, upon condition that the latter shall pay him so much money every year. If the rent be not paid the landlord seizes his tenant's stock, or ejects or drives him away from his farm. The 'squire reserves to himself the right of sporting over the fields, and there is an understanding that the tenant will do his best to preserve the game. The landlord also expects that the tenant should vote in his interest at the county election: if a body of yeomanry be raised, he considers that the tenant is bound to join the troop under his command. And, lastly, sup

posing that the tenant should not only pay his rent punctually, but duly perform his honorary engagements, and then die, leaving a son old enough to carry on the business of the farm, the landlord will probably renew his lease upon nearly the same terms.

In a similar transaction during the early ages of the feudal system, the landlord would have allowed the tenant to hold the farm, not upon condition of paying a moneyrent, but of following him to the wars, at his (the tenant's) expense, for a certain number of days in the year. Instead of trusting to the honor or feeling of the tenant to obey his wishes, he would have secured the fidelity of the vassal by a solemn oath. Still the essence of the arrangement is not dissimilar the landlord has parted with the possession of the land upon conditions; but the farm itself continues to be his property, and the tenant has only the right of enjoying that property. Palgrave.

FEUDALISM.

LET us examine this society in itself, and see what part it has played in the history of civilisation. Let us first take feudalism in its most simple, its primitive, fundamental element; let us consider the case of a single possessor of a fief* in his domain; let us see what will be the position and the duties of all those who compose the little society by which he is surrounded.

He establishes himself in an isolated, elevated situation, which his first care is to render safe and strong; he there constructs what he will call his castle. With whom does he establish himself? With his wife and children; perhaps some free men, who have not become proprietors, have attached themselves to his person, and continue to live with him at his table. These are the inhabitants of the interior

* Fief, land held on condition of military service.