The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-12-23 00:00:00

of the

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Barons.
These competitors for universal dominion were the
Clergy. 1
When William meditated the invasion of England,l
his enterprize was warmly promoted by Alexander the
Second, who at that time filled the Papal Chair.—
The Roman Pontiff foresaw that if England submitted
.the Duke of Normandy, the authority of the
Church, hitherto only partially acknowledged in that
island, would acquire unbounded influence. Anxious'
to signalise his Pontificate by so valuable an ac.
quisition, the Pope employed those ecclesiastical wea•
pons which the superstitious credulity of the age ren-
dered more formidable than the armaments of tempo-
ral Princes. Harold was pronounced a usurper; his
adherents were excommunicated ; and in order to in-
spire the Norman soldiers with the fullest confidence
and success, Alexander presented the army with a
consecrated banner, and pronounced his benediction
on the enterprise. As soon as William was seated on
his newly-acquired throne, he testified his attachment
and gratitude to the Holy See, by soliciting the Pops
to send legates to England invested with powers to
regulate the affairs of the Church. A Council was
accordingly convened, and the Anglo Saxon prelates
instantly deprived of their dignities. The vacated
sees were bestowed on the favourites and supporters
of Alexander and William. The dexterous policy of
the Court of Rome, and the indefatigable zeal of
its agents, daily extended the ecclesiastical jurisdic-
tion, and the Clergy, availing themselves of the igno-
rance and superstition of the age, were enabled
to consolidate a power, which occasioned the most
fatal calamities to posterity. At the present day it is
hardly possible to form any adequate conception of
the tremendous authority with which the Church was
once invested. Tyrants are generally satisfied with
enslaving the bodies of their victims, and content them-
selves with employing chains, racks, dungeons, and
instruments of corporeal torture. But the clergy
aspired to fetter the minds of men, and to effect this
object, they brutalised the human intellect : no artifice
was spared, no expedient left untried to keep mankind
in ignorance; for the successors of St. Peter were
well aware that " all government resides in opinion,"
and they felt alarmed lest the dissemination of truth
should expose their duplicity and impositions in all
their native deformity. Unfortunately for the happi-
ness of mankind, their machinations proved too suc-
cessful, and enabled them to establish a dominion
more extensive and tyrannical than Imperial Rome, in
the zenith of her glory, had ever exercised. The judg-
ment of the sovereign Pontiff was infallible ; his mere
will,—universal law, and his decision was obligatory
on Princes, Kings, and Emperors. In all disputed
Accessions, he was supreme arbiter, and frequently
dispossessed a lawful monarch of his kingdom. The
dread of spiritual thunder awed the most powerful
and turbulent Sovereigns ; and those who had the te-
merity to resist his encroachments, were quickly
brought back to obedience by the sentence of excom-
munication or interdict.
In addition to the influence which they derived
from the ascendancy of their spiritual leader, the clergy
'Of pnglan4 were in possession of at least one-third of
\ she landed*property. These estates they held by mi-
,Atary tenure, which, as we already remarked,
peels to be the reason alb/4*y were admitted into
reat-140slative Asses*. The dignified mole-,
siastics'bi<d the power of conferring the order ofl
knighthood ; for Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, bestowed this mark of distinction on William

• •

myself with citing the following :—ln a Counc►► neiu _
A.D. 1075, severe penances were prescribed to all.
those who had killed or wounded any person in the
battle of Hastings, whether they bad fonght for or
against the Duke of Normandy. The archers who
could not possibly know hoer many they had killed or
wounded, were sentenced to three years penance.
But by a special clause, all these penances might be
redeemed by money, or by building or endowing
churches. These inflictions were of the most cruel
and torturing nature, and the richer the penitent the
more severe were his sufferings. The object of the
priests was money, and they well knew that all who
had the means would gladly accept the commutation,
and purchase by gold an exemption from hunger,
thirst, and bodily lacerations.

BRITANNICUS.
(To be (*Minted.)

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH PRESS.
___-......___

ern—Some French writer, Vol:rams, I believe, says " S'il
n'y avait pas trestle neewaver es pour an Nteitre—la terre ell se-
nit pas cultioie." This remark is true in more senses
than one.
I remember being perfectly delighted when I first heard o
the design of laying oat a Park, to be called the liZgiNT.ll
Nark, because I mooloded 'that, in the first place, it would
be made& space of pleasurable recreation, that would do bo-
sour to the known taste of the illustrious personage after
whom it was baptised ; and, in the neat place, I was in hopes
that, having ceased (thanks to the Six Acre) to breathe the air
of freedom, we should have at least an additional supply of
fresh air, which, though nothing in the way of equivalent, yet
to me, who am thankful for small mercies, was something.
Some one, I think it was WYNDILAM, used to call the out-
skirts of London the lungs of the metropolis—and there is a
mixture of wit and truth in the metaphor—but it grieves me,
who being somewhat asthmatic myself, have a sort of fellow.
feeling ; it grieves to, I say, to observe a consumption is
these lnop, that, I am satisfied, has a very prejudicial effect
on the great body to which they belong. Instead of a retie-
wallas fifths principle of life, which Mr. Nan, who, I sup-
pose, was the Noesecumon, led us all to expect, from ven-
tilating our ideas and stretching our legs in the Regina's
Park, we find ourselves paled out from the old rural roads
and joyous foot-paths on which we formerly exercised our
animal functions of walking and talking, and instead of the
vital properties of health and vigour, we find nothing sur-
rounding us but Use erirgertirs of builders, cow-keepers, and
Regent Canal Compaeleee*ew
As to any benefit -Nei imeeelee, the thing is no more. We
we driven by enclosures to the edge of the high road, where
we may, indeed, share the gratification of those equestrians
who come "to take the gait ;" but this, with a peep now
mid then over the Perk paling, is the full swing
ro of our enjoy-
ment. This, for aught I know, may be a very pfitable mode
of disposing of the Crown lands. The advantage arising
to the favoured purchasers of the building•ground—the profit
to be derived from the speculation by the Court architect—
these, no doubt, may be ample enough. With the canal pro-
prietors, too, matters may go swimmingly : they gut their
ground a good bargain. As far as all these parties are con-
coned, It ia so far good ; but as to the public—as to the peo.
pie at large—with regard to any benefit to be derived to
them, it is as much out of the question, and as wholly unat-
tended to, as—it always it.
The present age bashes@ called the age of cast and levee.
tore, and I think it is so. It is also the age of asenetkesent.
Our tends, our liberties, our privileges, our purses, all feel its
effect, and shriek ender its operation. There is hardly as
Act of Parliament passes, but it Is en act of nears's. Is the
Regent's Pan:, as it is called, thispriociple shines out in
broad daylight. Even those who have taken up their abode
in this *reason/el spot, will, one day, feel its full effect. It
is already beginning. The " cloud, no bigger than a man's
band," is in the horizon, and will, by degrees, obscure all
their prospects of enjoyment. The invalids of fashion may,
at present, take their carriage, drive without snoopiness,
but the rapid increase of buildings will soon bring carriages
of another description into the circuit. And, however lordly
and aristocratic the edifices may be, their residents must still
be subject to the imperious dosinios of that neeeralty which
has no law—mud-carts, dust•earts, dreg-earls, sad all the
various vehicles employed in the carrying trade maseeted
with the domestics raper's, will soon hemp, pet fikeek-by.
jowl, but who'd by wheel, with the chariot, belleedgoaerriole,
Madan, and all the endless variety of mf/leite falkistklaloag
the drive. Theo male, all the regalia., for bale aseom-
modalions must be supplied with the neeelleff WOW
convenience. Public-houses in abundance en egMeglem
up already ; in their trails will follow butellieitjt bikers,
fishmongers, and all the various trades whieh Meat
ter to the daily and hourly wants of the new nelljblinathood ;
and Ibis decorative Park, instead of bereeithe daisyshambles;
slip should blossom, chopping-blocks will rise, and green.
stalls will start up. Tbo high-bred occupants of both sexes,
who removed hitherto, reckoning on the new improvements,
might, perhaps, pardon the ordnance into the circle of a fancy
williaor, or might put up with the splendour of a chemist's
shop htelindle.light ; bet what can compensate for the ton-
ing in Of a talloweraandler ! What female of fashion•caw
support the alluvia of Goulds and rush-lights ! What Eaqui-
site eon live le the almoapttere of long and abort erase! Bet-
ter that he were prohibited for ever (rein oomileg within gun-
shot ofa as tree—better that he should sever see a grass-
hopper allabdays than to purchase enjoyment 'lamb a price
alibis! •• •• ••
But 1 hese as sympathy to throw away. Let this class of
sufferers take their chance : those who take hies on this
spot with their eyes open can have no just groeid of com-
plaint. The uoisance—as the law smith—does not come to
them—they come to the nuisance. My feriae' is for the
middling and lower orders ; for, after all, they are the life-
blood of the state 4 sod I lore to see this life- blood in a flow
of brisk and healthful circulation. Now damp, all the Doe'
bra agree, from Doctor AllOlll4llOll downwards, is, of all
evils, most to be avoided by delicate consolations; yet no
sooner have we reached this outlet of the metrepolis than we
find ourselies in the midst of canals, reservoirs, and greed
junctions; every breath that blows over us is bathed is
vapour, ten times more itawholesome that tbe smoke-dried
streets and squares we have left behind us. Contemplate
but fora moment the train of disagreeables in this way—here
your nose is assailed by a brick-kiln; presently pier path is
intercepted by the extension of a navigable canal ; offensive
odours is one direction, and relaxing moisture 11l another,
follow you in every step of your progress. As for 'prospect,
you are in a state of blockade ; at every turn your view is
cireamscribed by a crescent or cut up by a circus. But as to the
Jinxed footways—aad it is the maxim of all wary ad
mind politicians that " via trite at via tide." The
beaten path is the best path—as to the jocund footways,
over which the Loastosers, 'snag and old, lads and lasseef
formerly pursued their path to Primrose Hill and the
villages adjacent, they have completely disappeared—.
they are eleao goae from the map ; there is no more trace dl
them left than of Magna Chaska or the Bill of Rights. .They
have all been destroyed without " With your leave or hi
yorm leave," by the oaken of the Crown end the Regimen
rae Regent's Canal Company. Yes; the seirommodattelfil
benefit at first promised to the public at large, to wham.
loonies it was to be commented, been tuned aside to
pm*. WAY for the lalssiar *feeler% eosaezios and the pre-
beet. of Cant I:favourite*, Wok to fib Art/al Pietism saya,
w I say isothieg—l take Dolt metal% stern; Mt hart ot ma
man good fortune I mar nothing; horrible I will seg.
ttirengis all my knowledge if lib I have observed, that there
is sot a passion so rooted in the hams heart as the •
foriltbuipse O.
13, Inf.