Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-15 00:00:00

CHAPTER THIRD

FRIENDLY
AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS OF THE
inE IMAMAN CONQUEST.—LIMITED
DIFFERENT,,
OF THE PEOPLE.—DESCRIPTION OF THE
TRADES THEN, IN ,EXISTENCE.—
THEIR UOODS AND CHATTELS.
Before • will
1,,_„ referring to the next period, Iwi
',“enY notice herescertain peculiar Institutions of
mosetimes,*hich must interest considerably the
Working.e classes. They did. not, it is true, extend
n 0 but
beii6fiQ
erencet a leffeets.to them as much as they do
rev but, nevertheless, they deserve being
s the' prototype and precursors of
those. social combinations made :for -tha.benevolent
object
,of Mutual aid., I allude: to the Guilds, or
ittr;"'L Societies, of the Anglo-Saxon times.
' "i?g the numerous evidences of their existence
a`ne,_„struinent belonging to the Establislithent of
iia.Rs'"ula Of Thanes at Cambridge. 'ln it we find
vlievery member was bound to take 'an oath of
ty, to the others ; and- its objects. were
table aid; if required, during life; and
4
al after it. Some of its regulations were of a
Weseess pleasing character although no' doubt theyquir
theland-of protection-that was
eft by. living in such violent'tines. -For,
)7,.,44,r1ee if one of the members was killed, and, the •
-1-4,_l',eid;• refused to pay the eight pounds to the
—Qua, all the body were to revenge the death of
their member, and bear the consequence alike. Or,
if any of their members in fight killed another, „
Was too poor to pay the compensation to the
guild, then each person belonging to it was.
Obliged to 'contribute towards the, bfine. They "J
appear, on the whole, to have been friendly asSo-
mations, made for mutual aid and contribution to
Meet the pecuniary exio-encies which were per-
petually arising from burials,b penal mulcts,. .sand
other payments or compensations. In short, with
the exception of some barbarous objects peculiar
to the age, they had-the same friendly-and paternal
aims' as the benefit societies of the present day,
Which I shall hereafter have occasion 'to notice. in
scythe future part of this history.
-On the whole, then, I do not think the working
classes of the present day have much ground to
regret that theiOst was not cast In Anglo-Saxon
times. If Some -Of 'our rude, hare-legged' fore-
fathers, of a thousand years ago, eoiild-be brought
from their graves, and conducted into the presence
of one of our vast public assemblies,, their first ex-
clamation would probably be one of ;surprise at the
litrtregeness of our attire ; and they would have
hesitation in coming to the -conclusion that
tue --
persons whom they saw around them must all
be Thanes, or persons of considerable wealth. But
When they should learn that very many of them
Were Working men—when they should further
Pe-informed of their personal independence, their
habits of life, and the peculiarities of their trades,
would unquestionably be tempted to ask,
riowny what magic has this been performed ?" And
man •
What y million of years they had been asleep ?
toldzaotulfdrbeeedotmheir perplexity when they were
and industry were the only
exceeded period the period of their repose had not
It is true seven or eight hundred years !
by th. ,avvhen we measure eight himdred years
Ruccessive generations of
me
-n,- the preric.oednsfeleit otro absorb a great duration
ualan existence. But when we recollect that
each year some man is born who will reach a
hundred and upwards, and that this must have
occurred at the beginning of each' of the eight
centuries, it is obvious that what has happened
Within eight hundred years must: have happened
in the life-time of not more, and perhaps less, than
eight successive individuals. Does it not, then,
strike us with astonishment to reflect, as we com-
Pare England now with England eight hundred
Years ago, and to remember the mighty changes
which have occurred in the intervals, that they
have been effected in the interval between the
birth of the first; and the death of the last, of a
series of eight successive men ! So rapidly, though
apparently so slow, are the changes constantly
operating in society.
I now quit the Anglo-Saxon Period, 'to glance
at the state of our labouring population subsequent
to the Conquest. The effects of this memorable
event were so beneficial to the Saxons, that though
the system of serfage, or slavery, was still suffered
to exist, there is reason to believe that no man
could be a slave unless by birth, or, in some cases,
by judicial punishment. The scandalous sale of
slaves seems to have been soon afterwards
checked. Christianity began to bestir itself.
Pope Alexander the Third, in the eleventh
century, issued a Bull, or Edict, Rome,
enjoining the emancipation of slaves ;- but this
seems to have been rather an exhortation than a
law, for we find the Roman Catholic Clergy
extensive slave- hOlders ; and as late as • the reign
of Richard, the Second (1377), the Commons
complained to the King that the monastries and
other religious bodies contrived to get their slaves
married to free women, who had property, or
could inherit it, and thus indirectly get much
property into their hands. Nevertheless, the
servile -condition of the working classes- did -
experience a certain mitigation. For in the year
eleven hundred and fifty-two the Great Council
at :Westminster decreed as follows :—" Let'no man
for the future presume to carry on the wicked -
trade of selling men in market, like brute beasts,
which has hitherto been the common custom in
England."

The words of the law show, that although
slavery still existed in its most odious forms, there
was a wise disposition growing up to extirpate it.
Society-, in fact, was now beginning to develop
some important elements. A new order of men
was beginning to display itself between the
Conquest and Edward the Third's reign—that is,
between 1066 and 1327. This was a class
of persons who, without having an absolute right
to dispose as they would of their labours, were
yet permitted to enrich themselves by the fruits of
their industry. Thus the servile tenants of manors
Were permitted to occupy small portions of land
for their own use, on condition of attending, on
Certaio days of the year, to the cultivation of their
lord's domain. They were now liberated from
servile or promiscuous duties at the arbitrary
pleasure of their lord, and were only tied down to
specific services, such as reaping the lord's corn, or
cleaning his fish-pond, harrowing two days in the
year, or giving three days to the carting of his
timber, and other services of the like kind. Men
began to receive wages, and even a servile tenant
might, if he had the means, employ another's
slave, as a substitute iu doing the lord's work.
This, it will be perceived, was an important
sta in the progress of the working classes. But
still, as far as we can penetrate into the obscurity
• of those times, the condition of the working man
Was of a very sorry kind. The diet of the agricul-
tural labourers, who then formed the great bulk
of the workinc, classes, was miserable indeed, con-
sisting of a few fish, principally dried herrings,
and a loaf of bread. At harvest-time, a period
reat rejoicing, when they fared unusually
Well,s they received the lord's best sheep,
land a supply of cheese—article 4 of great
-111.11rY, as, there is every reason to think neither
pleat nor cheese entered into their usual consump-
tion. As to wheaten bread, they hardly. ever
tasted it. The sudden variations in the price of
cybeat_ at. this time, surpasses all belief. Stow
Lens us that in 1317 the harvest was all got in
before the 13th of. September, and that wheat,
Which had before beerieighty shillings the quarter,