Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-29 00:00:00

nations exchanging all the blessings of mutual
discoveries and mutual good-will, instead of the
deadly point of the bayonet and. the muzzle of the
gun.
The insurgents having entered London, they
obtained an audience with the King, when he
" assured them, with a smiling countenance,"
says one chronicler, that all the demands they
sought of him, were fully granted to, them. These

were four :-1. The abolition of bondage. 2. The
reduction of the rent of land to fourpence the acre.
3. The liberty of buying and selling in all fairs
and markets. 4. A general pardon for the past
offences. •

These concessions, given on the part of
Richard, however, did not give entire satisfaction
to the whole body of the insurgents, and,
amongst others, to Wat Tyler, and that
portion of them which he commanded on
the occasion of this interview. He therefore
approached the King, and demanded from him his
Royal letters, in order thAt he might carry them
to the people, to convince them that what he said
would be faithfully performed ; but this bold man
suffered for his temerity, for being overheard by
Sir William Walworth—who was in attendance
upon Richard—address some insolent remarks, he
rushed upon Tyler, and stabbed him in the throat.
It was some time after the death of Wat Tyler
that the insurgents were ultimately put down ;
and the only good result that may be said to have
arisen out of this rebellion was, that it gave a blow
to slavery, from which it appears never afterwards
to have recovered.

Seventy years after this event, the people rose
again, in what is called the rebellion of Jack Cade,

and although this movement was unsuccessful in
regard to its immediate objects, there can be no
question that it helped to carry forward the body
of the nation another step in their course towards
their new position in the State. The difference
between the demands and the avowed designs of
the insurgents on these occasions, is very remark-
able, and throws a strollg light upon the progress
the Working Classes had actually achieved in the
intervening period. Thus, in 1380, their prin.
cipal demand, as we have seen, was the abolition
of villeinage, or the systein of slavery. To any
positive political rights, any power in interfering
in the making of the laws, or in the regulation of
public affairs, they made no claims. But, in 1450,
not a word was said on the subject of villeinage—
that .question was already settled ; and what the
people then insisted upon was, if not the conces-
sion of political power, at least the redress of
public grievances. Amongst others, the profuse
waste by the King of the revenues of the Crown,
the illegal seizure by the Crown of the property
of the subject, and the exclusion from the Govern-
ment of the persons of highest rank, and greatest
national influence in the kingdom, in favour of
One of their complaints, indeed,
amounted to a distinct assertion of popular rights,
—they remonstrated against the illegal interfer-
ence of the nobility in elections of knights of the
shire, and required that the free choice of their
representatives in Parliament should. be left
where the law had placed_ it—in the hands of the
people. The cry, therefore, for universal suffrage
is not of modern existence, but was popular with
the people living five hundred years ago. And
successful although they were not, the proclama-
tion of such pretensions by men with arms in their
hands, was sounding the trumpet to a battle which
could only end with the conquest by the popular
force of all that was claimed.

foreigners

[These articles ,dieing the Copyright of the Author, he
reserves to hiinsey. the right of their
.further publication
or translation.]