The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-01-22

1
dead before their pages che This juxtapo-
sition of life and death is sectag. 1t is as it
were seeing venerable fo9 sculpturing out or
freshening the memorial fome loved friend,
and then meeting his gravellst little further
on, newly dug and soddedover. There are
here related many inciden illustrating the
manners and customs of eat and later times, |
| sprightly anecdotes, encountss of keen witted
men, the graphing of mindshat swayed the |
empire of literature and thdght among our
grave forefathers, whose tired was with the
dignity of conscious power, aid who vet could
often unbend to the infants S,est for knowl-
edge. The last of the genehtions of fthese
worthless have almost disappeaed Rut II will
be long before the character stics of their
mighty impress will have bed, worn away,
even amid the collisions of an ake of untiring
excitement; and while their corntry's history
shall stand to tell to posterity What God has
wrought for us, will, too, the memory Of the
instruments he chose for his wondrous works of
Providence, in our welfare, go down from age
to age.
These volumes, and those that are to follow
them, will help in this desirable end and wears
hence, (may it be many yet, when their author
and compiler himself is remembered among
the honored dead, will his labors be best ap.
preciated, and some successor in his 18th will,
do doubt, place his name too, in future I'll.
ton, greatly enlarged, of the Annals of the
American Pulpit. The work is printed in a
neat style, and we trust that the toll bestowed
upon its preparation will meet with a generous
patronage from discerning public.
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION
BY f. $. Greasy, NJ. A, &c. Third Edition. Revised,
with additions. New York ID. Appleton & Co For
sale by r. Farnham, Washington d. c.
This is book which deserves an attentive
perusal and more than this, too, it should be
carefully studied and pondered. Originally, it
appeared as small pamphlet, and with a
specific political object. Its authors, however,
saw fit to enlarge it, and make it more perma-
nent as we'll as useful and this third edition
now has the stamp of learning and close re.
search. The origin of that glorious old instru.
ment, the Magma Charta, and its development
into the British Constitution, whose elements
enter into every civil Constitution since formed
where the English language is spoken, is mar
rated, and its subsequent revision and confirma.
ton noted from one period to another together
with great variety of other information, re-
lating to the language and laws of England.
A book like this is worthy of much more ex
tended notice than we can give to it. All we
can do will be to glance at a few of the items
OF Importance, recommending our readers to
acquaiut themselves with the varied facts which
the author in his researches has presented |
bearing on the topics that fall under his obser |
walton. AS to the question respecting the orr
gin of the Anglo-Saxon nation, or how far the |
original Celtic race had any influence on the |
English language, &c, our author adopts DO. |
sition leaning rather to DR.. Arnold, than to |
Sir Francis Palgrave DIR. Arnold did not ad- |
NIT that this influence was very important, and |
MIR. Greasy says that there are about thirty |
words only in the English language of Celtic |
derivation which cannot be traced as subse-
quenty introduced from Scotland or Ireland |
These words, he thinks, relating for the most !
part to feminine employments, and correspond |
ing to the situation of the state of women in a |
h~'iOh1 cHOW llill OI Inc ancient |
British race the males were probably nearly
all destroyed by the Saxon conquerors, while !
'ne women were taken as wives or drudges. As |
Saxon times, he says sthas lptosably no very very
large portion of them were in state of absolute
slavery. Those who were so, were called |
TteoD, Esne, or ThroU. Most of these were
composed of the conquered Britons afterwards,
too of others, punished for crimes. The bulk
of the people were freemen, called Corls and
Thames. Any CorI who could acquire defined
amount of landed property could become a
Thane, or noble. The country was divided into
towns, whose chief officer was GeseJa, or
Reeue, whence our word sheriff. The Thane
was the lord of the township.
Mr.. Greasy enumerates the. kinds of officers
and modes of justice prevalent at that time,
with considerable detail. AS to the population
of England at the Norman Conquest, he states
it at one and a half to two millions. OF these,
probably one hundred thousand were destroyed
blythe Normans, and many more driven into
exile. William the Conqueror's army consist.
ed of sixty thousand men, of whom fifteen
tuOuSdHu lou III tnc DcSlucS THESE, now
ever, there were a number of attendants, as
usual, on an army; and Mr.. Greasy says that
probablylduring that monarch's reign as many
as two or Three hundred thousand more Normans
came into England. By the time of John, the
total population amounted to two millions
In reference to the .temdal system, it is our
authors opinion that there was little of it in
England before the Norman conquest. 1t did
prevail in Normandy, and no doubt was there
introduced. IL the time of John, it is asserted
that one half of the whole population were in
state of slavery. 1t was against this tyrant, as
our readers we'll know, the stand for their lib
critics was taken, by the Barons and others, led
on by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canter-
bury; and On the 18th of June, 1915, zone
hundred and forty.nine years after the Nor
man conquest, and seven centuries and a half
after the reputed era of the landing of the
first of our Saxon ancestors in the Island, they
met the king on the field of Runnymede, and ex-
torted from him the ver-memorable Magma
full, as well as various papers relating to it,
and the more perfected instrument, "made in
the ninth year of King Henry the Third, and
confirmed by King Edward the First in the
fve-andtwentieth year of his reign" He
states the principles for which the contest
was waged, and the liberties secured by the
Magma Charta, and the vigorous develop
ment" of which "was aided and attested in
many subsequent statutes, especially in the