The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-26 00:00:00

ENGLAND IN THE OLDEN TIME.

(From Dean " Lives
ry. of the Archbishops of Canter-
Few persons seem to be aware of the amount of
prosperity enjoyed by our ancestors after the
fusion of the British and Anglo-Saxon races, and
before the invasion of the Danes. Nearly the whole
of the southern part of our island was at that time
under cultivation ; and William of Poictiers speaks

of England, at a later period, as the storehouse of

Ceres. Rye, barley, wheat, and oats were grown,
and the orchards were prolific with cider. The

grapes were acid, and the wine was coarse ; but
. . .

Smithfield and Holborn were vineyards from which
the cellars of London were filled, while the other

provinces regaled on the vines of Gloacestershire
and Essex. The hum of bees was heard in various

parts of the country, and their whereabouts is indi-
cated by the name of "hells." Honey was a valu-
able article of produce and commerce, being manu-
factured into sugar and mead. There appears to
_ _ _

have been a wild pony natural to the island, and
English horses were in demand in the foreign mar-
kets. Although they were never much employed
by the Anglo-Saxons in military serNice, we may
presume that field sports required the maintenance
of steeds, and fox hunting was popular not only
with the thanes, but, as we learn from Alcuin, with

the clergy and monks of Northumbria. The popu-
lation of the country being small, there were still
in existence large hunting fields, from which the
wild animals paid tribute to the tables of the
luxurious, while, beneath forests of oak and
beech, the serfs and slaves were watching the
swine which formed the animal food of the masses.

In the plains were herds of cattle to supply the
large demand for leather, when leather was required
not only for shoes and breeches, but for gloves,
with which even the common people were obliged
to cover their hands before they ventured to pene-
trate the thick entangled wood. Eels, in abun-
dance, supplied the Midland districts, and fisheries
were established on all the coasts. On the coast
resided the merchants, whose social position was as
high as it is at the present time. The successful
trader had a right to the rank and privileges of a
thane, and the laws made for the encouragement of
commerce was esteemed. The basis of all our im-
provements in the manufacturing districts at the
present time-is iron. Whenever a manufacturer or
mechanic gets an idea into his head, he goes to the
implement maker to help him to carry it out. And
even in the Anglo-Saxon times, though for a diffe-
rent reason, iron was the basis of wealth. It was an
age when every man's hand was against his brother ;
when all Europe was one vast battle-field ; when
in the most retired district none but an ecclesiastic,
and in many districts not even he, could go unarmed.
Swords, battle axes, halberds, javelins, spears, arrow
heads, all kinds of missile weapons, in addition to
defensive armour, head-pieces, greaves, and shields,
were everywhere in demand, and the possession of
iron was better than the possession of gold.
IThere can be little doubt that it was this, in
addition to the surface gold, that rendered Britain
such a valuable colony of ancient Rome.
Pennant, in his History of Wales, adduces
authentic evidence to prove that the Romans esta-
blished ironworks in the Forest of Dean in Glou-
cestershire. Iron foundries existed also in Sussex
and Kent at a very early period. The ironworks in
the northern and midland counties were not opened
until centuries after these had been in operation.
The ironworks in Sussex were not abandoned till
1776, and then not from want of ore, of which we
still possess an ample supply, and of superior qua-
lity, but because, in the expense of smelting it, it
was impossible to compete with the coalfields in the
north. In the counties of Sussex and Kent, timber
or wood was almost indigenous, and hence in the
Anglo-Saxon times, Ohm wood alone was employed
in furnaces, the value of coal being scarcely known
the southern counties were what the mining dis-
tricts of the north have subsequently become. To
these sources of wealth must be added the plentiful
supply of flint ; flint being employed instead of
iron in many of the missiles of war, though requir-
ing the use of iron to shape and point it.

In our allusions to the courts Ethelbald and Offa,
we have seen the decay of morals among public
men ; and the evil example set by the great was the
more injurious, from the conformity of the royal
criminals to the church, and the readiness evinced
by worldly ecclesiastics to account their benefac-
tions as compensating for their crimes. From the
court, corruption descended to the monasteries.
It had been the wisdom of Theodorus to convert
the chief monasteries into schools of learning,
and these institutions were, for a season, a bless-
ing to the land; but when zeal for learning de-
clined, they became very much what the colleges
would be in our present universities, if they were
no longer places of education. From the begin-
ning, the monasteries of England had with few
exceptions been free, and in their corruption they
became lax. With laymen chiefly for their abbots,
they became at first agreeable country houses, re-
plete with all the appliances of learning and plea-
sure, but afterwards they gradually degenerated
into abodes of idleness and dissipation. In-
centives to evil are sure to succeed rapidly on
the removal of intellectual restraints or religious
excitement. The demand for monastic reform was
everywhere on the increase among that portion of
the community which was still earnest in the cause
of vital Christianity and the religion of the heart.
It was first raised by Bede ; it was repeated by
Alcuin ; it was urged in the time of Wulfred ; but
among the evils of the time, the inactivity of the
primate, and, in consequence, of his suffragans,was
one of the greatest. We do not indeed find com-
plaints made of the rapacity and injustice of the
English prelates,—charges brought against the
French hierarchy in its dealings with monastic in-
stitutions,—but there was a carelessness and negli-
gence in enforcing the regulations enacted with a
view to reform, from time to time, at the provincial
councils. Religion itself was emasculated, us
we gather from the popular legends ; and in-
stead of forming that manliness of character
which nerves the true Christian to notbh le once
high-spirited eaeetosef
of daring, superstition brought down
high-spirited Saxons to acondition
imbecility which would have incapacitated the
English race from becoming what we see it to he,
if the arm had not been nerved to resist the horrors
of a foreign invasion, and if new blood had not been
infused into the veins by the fusion of Danes with
Anglo-Saxons, through a peaceful process to which
we shall have frequent occasion to refer. But that
degeneracy in animal courage which rendered the
demoralised Anglo-Saxon an eas re to
incapacity
to therm"
led,
led, nevertheless, to onegreat result.eemthe leadingnaey T
of the rulers and th gff i of tbe clear
few e under
enabled thecfa
The
the
sighted, energetic and o generous prince, t bring
on
m
discordant elements of the Heptarchy into har y
and order, and in the King of Wessexto establish
a monarchy in England.

.C>
-
_

TILE BOVZ'
,PROSECUTIONS: "!
That tyrannical provision in t;le Code Napoleon
which punishes all comments on the conduct of a
public trial has just been used by the State Procura-
tor Moller and his abettors to inflict an indignity

on our countrymen at Bonn. It will be remem-
bered that when, on the examination into the case
of Mr. Macdonald, this official applied a number of
insulting epithets to the English travelling on the
Continent, the English residents at Bonn signed a
protest in which the conduct of M. Moller was
spoken of in terms not more severe than were
warranted by the provocation, but too free for the
institutions which prevail even in the Rhenish Pro-
vinces of Prussia. The inculpated functionai:y at
once proceeded against our countrymen for improper
language uttered against him while he was in dis-
charge
of his public duties. What was thought of
his
conduct in the first trial by the Prussian Govern-
ieent is now well known to the world. Although
the creed at Berlin is that an official can do no
wrong, yet the spirit with which the matter was
taken up in .
England and the remonstrances of the
British Legation induced the authorities to inquire
in to the matter, and the result was that the Procura-
tor Moller was reprimanded and told to be more
guarded in his language for the future. However,
t his could not prevent him carrying on his prosecu-
tion against the British residents at Bonn. They
had in their protest used language which might be
construed into a contempt of Court, and bad in
particular charged the prosecutor with a "cowardly"
attack on the English nation. So Mr. Perry, w.he
drew up the document, and all who signed it, have;
been brought to trial, and the process is onlijust
over. Sentence has been pronounced, an Mr.
Perry has been condemned to pay 100 thalers, or
undergo five weeks' imprisonment in default. Three '?foA
other gentlemen are fined 25 thalers each, with nine
days' imprisonment in default.
The magistrates engaged in this second investi-
gation are acknowledged to have behaved with Act
all due courtesy ; and, no doubt, they were glad to
have an excuse for passing a comparatively lenient
sentence. But against any sentence at all we muiat
protest in the name of justice and common sensd.
nci
at,
Whatever may be the technical merits of the case,r.
there is no doubt that Moller showed so much
j no. tro
i
gligence in his duty and so bad a spirit n his re-
marks that any criticism on him is fully justified. i
slzaH.
In the first place, if an officer of State is to be pri-
.
f.
vileged in the performance of his duty, he s bound
to confine himself strictly to the matter in hand.
Moller might have inveighed against. the defen-
unfairly., to obtain a conviction,
dant.; he might have used all his infine.nce,. even
the criticisms of the English resideni:g, for h© would
not have wandered from the strict without justifying
litoits of his
duty. But when, without cause, merely to ;rag
his spleen against the Englishrien o
he declaimed in an insulting
friendly
an
wthom he sdaw
with the'
coarsest language against a
people, he will
be thought by all unprejudiced my ent° have for-
feited the privilege of his office. The case, accord-
ingly, against the English defendants is so pecu-
liar, the circumstances are so exceptional, the pro-
vocation was so great, that an acquittal was the
only proper solution of the affair. M. Moller
should have been told that the comments were not
made on him in the execution of his duty, but in
doing something which was totally unconnected
with his duty—that is, giving way to his temper
and polluting a court of justice by an unseemly

harangue.
But, bad though the conduct of the State Procu-
rator would have been even were Mr. Macdonald
guilty, it is now proved to have been far worse.
If even the original, defendant had behaved dis-
gracefully, if he had been in his own person All
that Moller described the English people to be,
still the Procurator's language would have been
indefensible. He would have had no business to
generalize, and to cast on a community the blame
due to one man. But it is now conclusively shown
that Mr. Macdonald's account of the affair was
perfectly correct, that the places were taken by
him, that he merely touched Dr. Parrow's wife
when she entered the carriage, and indicated to
her that this was the case; that the lady's hus-
band immediately began to storm, and called an
inspector, who, without giving any opportunity for
explanation, ordered Mr. Macdonald out of the car-
riage, and that Mr. Macdonald was morally, if not
according to police regulations, justified in refusing
to leave: It also appears that this very Dr. Parrow
persuaded a lady who might have given evidence
to absent herself, and by these means aided in pro-
curing an unjust conviction. To the Procurator
Moller it fell to make the prelinainary examination
—it was his duty to sift the matter, and it was
owing to his negligence and stupidity that Mr.
Macdonald was brought into court at all. After
blundering in this first inquiry, and coming to the
conclusion that Mr. Macdonald was in the wrong,
he takes upon himself most zealously the part of
prosecutor, and launches out in the manner so often
described. More than this, he, in accordance with
the usages lately exposed in the police trial at Ber-
lin, kept Mr. Macdonald for six days in a dirty
In icon, when the whole matter ought to hnvo been
settled in at most 48 hours. When all these dbllin-
quencis are put together, there is certainly sail-
eient reason that Moller should be prevented from
wreaking his vengeance on our countrymen for
merely protesting against his most offensive acts.
It is now for the Prussian Government to say whe-
ther this sentence shall be carried into effect, and
also to decide whether some compensation is not
due to Mr. Macdonald for the scandalous treatment
which he has undergone. We sincerely trust that
our Minister at Berlin will not lose sight of this
affair. Foreigners are unable to understand the
importance which Englishmen attach to the per-
sonal treatment of their countrymen abroad, and
how the Bonn Railway case excites them as much
as any question of high policy. But our feeling is
the right one. Individual security is more essential
even than national greatness. The sum of a com-
munity's happiness is made up of the happiness of
its members, and every household among the upper
and middle classes of the United Ringdom will
find their safety and pleasure in foreign travel
diminished if the Bonn Railway case ends in the
victory of an un courtly official.

PLYMOUTH, Dec. 25.—1 t is very unusual for
snow to remain long on the ground in this vicinity, but for
nearly a week past the town and the neighbouring country
have been covered. The weather is, however, very calm.
The chief interruption to the regularity of the trains on the
South Devon, Cornwall, and Tavistock Railroads has been
caused by an increase of traffic exceeding the ordinary ave-
rage of the season.
RACES.—We see how much will has been expended
to extinguish the Jew, in vain. Look at the unpalatable
conclusions of Knox, in his " Fragment of Races"---a rash
and unsatisfactory writer, but charged with pungent and
tudorgetable truths. " Every race has its own habitat."
"Detach a colony from the race, and it deteriorates in the
crab." Sec the Shades of the picture. The German and
Irish millions, like the negro, have a great deal of guano
in their destiny. They are ferried over the Atlantic, and
carted over America, to ditch and to drudge, to make corn
cheap, and then to lie down prematurely to make a spot of
green grass on the prairie.—The Conduct of Life, Ey
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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ebrefeeactlletud the
home indeed whole fortunes are concentrated in their windows.
Foremost among such establishments is that of Mr. Ben-
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hom 3e3oanf
Adr3t.4, Ludgate-hill, which
xhwhibicihtsmthaeyratruoghtleyp
t a high position
artisticgaid designsllefil
josfahilli
and while the beaUtiftll is thus cherished,,ne
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on,
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all parts of the globe. Watches safe by post to
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