The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-04-05

TIE SERVICE OF MONKS TO AGRICULTURE
IN ENGLAND.-1t is impossible to avoid u
brief notice Of what has been done by the
monks in England for the Improvement of
agriculture 1t is impossible to forget the
use they made of so many vast districts, I'M
cultivated and uninhabited, covered with
forests or surrounded with marshes. Such
was, it must not be forgotten, the true nature
of the vast estates given to the monks, and
which had thus the double advantage of
offering to communities the most inaccess-
BILE retreat that could he found, and of i'm
posing the least possible sacrifice upon the
munlhcence OF the givers. They surmOunted
all-the difficulties which stared them in the
face, Of beginning the cultivation of a new
country; the forests were cleared, the marshes
made wholesome or dried up, the soil IL
rigated OF drained according to the require
ments of each locality and bridges, roads,
dykes, havens, and lighthouses were erected
wherever their possessions or influence ex-
tended, in evidence of their unwearied and
watchful fervOr. The half at least of broad
northumberland was lost in sandy plains
and barren heaths the half of East Anglia
and q considerable part of Mercia were COW
cred with marshes difficult of access, in the
midst of which the future king, Ethelbald,
found refuge with the hermit Guthlac yet
IN both regions the monks substituted for
these uninhabited deserts fat pasturage and
| abundant harvests. The latter district, the
present name of which 1.-THE Fens) alone re-
calls the -marshy and unwholesome nature
OF the original soil, became the principal
theatre of the triumphs of agricultural in
dustfy performed by the monks. Mede-
hamstede, Ely, Croyland, Thorney, Ramsey,
were the first battfe-fie1ds of these con-
querOrs of nature, these monks who made
OF themselves ploughmen, breeders, and
Keepers of stocks, and who were the true
fathers OF English agriculture, which thanks
to their traditions and example, has become
the first agriculture in the world. The Eng
llsh word Improvement, SO frequently used,
and so expressive in relation to everything
that concerns bodily and mental labor,
seems to have been invented expressly for
their use. AS much might be said for another
word more ancient STILL but not less used
the word landlord, which expresses not
only the sentiment of dominion and terrific
rial possession, but also that kind of tute-
larry and almost personal solicitude which
SO happily combines the obligations and the
rights of property. They were the best of
landlords; such is the testimony given, by
all attentive and conscientious observers of
the past history of England, to the monks
who were the originators of ecclesiastical
property In that country, and who long re-
manned its sole guardians. 1t was not only
by their gifts, but by their able and gener-
Gus indulgence toward their direct DEEPEN
dents, that they exercised upon the inferior
classes an influence always benevolent, and |
always gratefully acknowledged. 1t was
W .he euectual, enlightened, ana unwearleQ |
protection whichthey extended to the poor |
and weak, who were under other laws and |
served other masters. They were," &C
cording to one of the great masters of mo-
dern learning, permanent mediators be-
tween the rich and poor, between the strong
and the weak; and it must be said, to their
eternal honor, that they understood and
fulfilled in marvellous way the duties of
thisl noble mission. They alone had the
might and the means of arresting the rough
hand of power, of mitigating the Just sever
lty of the law, of showing CLEAN of hope to
the eye of the slave, and of finding even in
this world, place and means ofexistence for
all those forsaken ones whose existence was
ignored by the state.-Ihe Monks of the
west, by the Count dc Montalembert