Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1847-04-29


ter, and AL Hassan, the Armenian merchant,
and this, gentle reader, is true story.]
THE ANGLO-NORMANs.
TINS article, which will occupy couple of
columns or so in half dozen numbers of
the Waterman, treat. of one of the most
important as well as ne of the most in
teresting periods in e history of our IA
ther-land. lndeed,4 'cnture to say that
i, gives better in + ato the leading
point y the h land than can
be sslnld i,,s,,- - $n,..,ls- p,saderouq
volumes. In thu sobjugation OF England
by the Normans, md the slow and almost
silent revolution which has since been re-
storing the liberty of the people, is sum-
med up the history of England for more
than seven centuries Though SO many
centuries have elapsed, the people of Eng
land have not yet recovered from the blow
inflicted by single tyrant. The lesson
ought not to be useless to the American
people in these days of lust for conquest.
From the North British Review.
INTRODUCTION.
CHE study of liberty is almost entirely
contained in the study of history" One of
the greatest profcients in this study has
made the following emphatic statement -
Liberty-the first social want and condi-
tion-has yielded nowhere but to force and
an armed conquest. 1t is terror alone which
has made slaves among men Of every race.
Open history at any part you will, take at
hazard the climate and epoch, if you meet
with colony of men, whether enlightened
or still savage, living under system of SER
vitude, be certain that in looking back you
will find a conquest, and that these men are
the conquered. Similarly, if you remark "a
population quartered in some inaccessible
place, who preserved it against the invasion
of foreign race, be sure that on visiting
it, you will find liberty there. This perpet-
ual distinction is the key of social history."*
A key, however, with which few histori-
ans are acquainted. The standing-point
with writer's of this class, in general, is not
the field or the street where the vanquished
population, despoiled of their property and
their rights, toll and suffer, but the castles
and palaces of their masters. Attracted by
physical power--dazzled by the false SPLEEN
dour of courts-their heroes are not patri-
OTIS struggling for freedom, the dearest pos
session and the divine right of man-but
the royal or imperial robbers who have made
hourishing nations desolate. Armies, bat
! ties, victories, conhscations, court lntrigues
and the fortunes of royal families-often vi
cious imbeciles, who never uttered though
or performed deed with the design of ben.
citing mankind-these are the themes o
popular and school histories. According tc
them man, as man, is essentially ignoble-
His intellect, his virtue, his divine Likeness.
go for nothing. If he is socially unfortu
nate, he is morally degraded. Successful
wickedness alone can elevate him so as t.
give him prominent place on the page o
history, and niche in the temple of fame
The English nation consists of compile,
elements To know it truly it must be an
alysed; and this cannot be done while thesl
elements flow on together in the mighty
stream of modern society. We must g
back to the past, examine the continent for
ces at the moment of their meeting, ant
trace their conflict downward, yielding NOR
and more as they advance to IA peaceful no
mogeneousness and a patriotic unity. |
was thus that Sir Walter Scott, whom a higl
authority has pronounced " the greatest mas
ter of historical divnation that ever exist
ed" was enabled to produce his IvanhOe.-
In this splendid creation of his unrivallet
genius, he exhibits the Normans and Sax
ons, conquerors and conquered, still tremf
ling before one another 100 years after tn
, Conquest.
"The novel of Ivanhoe places us fou
generations after the invasion of the MOI
mans. At this period the historian Hum
can only present to us King of England
, without telling us what king is or what
! means by England; while Walter Scott
entering profoundly into the examination {
events, shows us classes of men-distno
interests and conditions-two nations
double language-customs which repel an
combat each other ON one side tyrann
and insoence, on the other misery and hi
tred-real developments ofthe drama of tn
&, Conquest, of which the battle of Hasting
was only the prelude Many of the val
+ pushed have persisted, many yielded to I'll
yoke, but many still protest against it. III
e SdrOn stdUe has not forgotten the liberty
his fathers, nor found repose in bondage
y To him his masters are still foreign usurl
q ers, He feels his dependence, and does NJ
! believe Is ts-.se-a social necessity. He know
4 what were his rights to the inheritance whc
he no longer possesses. The conqueror, c
4 his side, does not yet disguise his domin
ton under vain and false appearance
a political arstocracy. He calls himself No
q man, not gentleman. 1t is as Norman SC
: der he reigns over those who submitted
a the sword of his ancestors. We find in hi
4 the vain and distrustful conqueror, attrib
\ ting the origin of his fortune to the super
ority of his nature; believing himself of
better race and purer blood qualifying h
I race with the epithet of noble; employin
on the contrary, the name of SarOn as ,
q injurious epithet-saying that he kills Sa
on without scruple, and ennobles a Sake
= woman by disposing of her against her will
, pretending that his Saxon subjects posse
h nothing that is not his ; and threatening,
-" they became rebellious IN scaln them -