New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-10-08

black, and l cheerfully concede to Mr.. Wink
Ter all the use he can make of these two fact
In establishing the theory of a permanen
race-distinction. Turning from this point,
shall merely quote the remarks of the his
torlans have mentioned on the evils an,
crimes which Mr.. Winker has worked him
self up to the point of regarding as race
qualities Of the negro.
Tin many parliameuts of Edward ILL., ant
Richard III. the sale Of redress is chartered
for as distinctly, and with as little apparent
sense OF disgrace, as the most legitimatt
business between two merchants would be
transacted" (Holland.) ''From the noble
bleman, who held the white staff and the
great seal, down to the humblest tde-waitcl
and gauger, what would now be called gross
corruption was practised without disgrace
and without reproach. Titles, places, com
missions, pardOns, were daily sold in market
overt by the great dignitaries of the realm
and every clerk in every department initiated
TO The best OF his power, the evil example,
\Macauleyo 1.-The King was, in truth, al
most the only person who could be trusted
not to rob the King" Qbid.) "Honors and
pubic trusts, peerages, baronetcies, regi-
ments, higates, embassies, governments,
comlnissionships, leases of crown lands, con-
tracts for clothing, for provisions, for ammu-
nltlons, pardOns for murder, for robbery, for
arson, were sold at Whitehall scarcely less
openly than asparagus at Covent Garden,
or herrings at Billingsgate." (JidD 1.-THE
naval administration was a prodigy Of waste
fulness, ignorance, and indolence-no esti-
mate could be trusted, no contract performed,
no check enforced !; the vessels were unfit
to go to sea, and the sailors glad to find
some usurer who would purchase their tickets
at forty per cent. discount; officers died for
want OF a morsel Of bread The military ad-
ministraton was still worse. The courtiers
took brides from the colonies the colonies
cheated the soldiers the commssaries sent
in long bills for what had never been fur
nished; the keepers of the arsenals sold the
public stores and pocketed the price. The
courts of justice were in such state that
their decisions, even in civil matters, had
ceased to inspire confidence, and their SER
Witty in criminal cases had brought upon the
kingdom the stain of innocent blood. The
poorer householders were frequently unable
to pay their hearth-money to the day. When
this happened, their furniture was dlstrained
without mercy; for the tax was farmed, and
farmer of taxes is, Of all creditors, proven
bially the most rapacious. The collectors
were empowered to examine the interior of
every house in the realm, to disturb families
at meals, to force the doors Of bedrooms,
and, if the sum demanded were not punctu-
ally paid, to sell the hencher on which the
barley loaf was divided among the poor chill
dren, and the pillow from under the head of
the lyinc-in wp,uan. TIL eolieas..s were
1vuaiy accused OF performing their unpopular
duty with harshness and insolence. 1t was
said that as soon as they appeared at the
threshold of cottage the children began to
wall, and the old women ran to hide their
earthenware. Nay, the single bed Of poor
family had sometimes been carried away and
sold" Nobody" said William Of Orange,
"hates bribery more than l. But have to
do with a set of men who must be managed
~
Of this state of things, the national debt went
up from nothing to one hundred and forty
million pounds sterling. So much for the
condition of things among white race just
emerging from servitude, in respect to gov
ernmental evils; and to complete the com.
parison, it is only necessary'to quote some
passages in respect to the popular vices and
crimes imputed by Mr.. Winkler to the me-
groes of the Gulf States. "The perjury of
England" says Sir William Hamilton,
islands pre-emiuent in the world" Buckle
says, ''The perjury habitually practced in
England is so general that it has become a
source of national corruption" And it is
well-known fact that the extensive organiza-
tions of white men Sin the Gulf States"
known as Ku-Klux, are bound by solemn
oaths to commit perjury for the relief of any
of their members who may come under the
coenizance of the law. AS to superstition,
until very recently incubation was regarded
BY the Scotch as flying in the face of Provi-
dence, comets were signs Of coming tribula-
ton, the Devil was known to transport the
bodies of men through the air, and perhaps
from its interfering with this means Of loco
molten the construction of roads was Bit
terly opposed in Scotland. On the other
hand, in l745, the English believed that the
Highlanders ate children; and certain per-
sons of noble birth among the latter had
what was called the right "of pit and gall
lows or of in1icting capital punishment.
Charles IL. touched for scrofula (; John Wes-
lev declared that to give up witchcraft was
to give up the Bible /; and John Knox was
accessory to the assassination of Archbishop
Beaton. Cattle-stealing was so popular that
the name of "herdship" was invented ex'
pressly for it; and thence says, "thlevlng
was not the peculiar habit of the low and
INDECENT, but often common to them with
persons of rank and landed estate" The
wife of the Lord High Commissioner of Ire
land was popularity regarded as witch, and
"was believed" to have been seen in the
likeness Of cat, seated on the cloth of state
by his side The Lord Chief Justice of the
same country declared from the bench thai
robbery was a necessary evil. On account
of bands of lawless characters, certain por
tions of London were said by Macauley tt
have been no less unsafe than the bog o
Allen. or the passes of the Grampians
Freebooters in the country carried of cattle
L Ill