The star. (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1874-1875, 1875-04-06

scholars as Erasmus, he speedily rose
by his understanding and practical apti-
tude for public affairs, to the position OF
Lord High Chancellor Of England, under
Henry VIII.
Not approving of the divorce Of the
King from Catherine of Aragon, he ten
dered his resignation and 1t was accept.
ed. The King was indignant at More's
conscientious scruples about that d.
vorce. Henry's vindictive feeling was
greatly heightened ON More's re-
fusal to attend the coronation of Anne
Boleyn. Vain prosecutions and perse-
cutions were attempted against him;
but at last, when King Henry required
from all citizens the oath of supremacy
over the Church as well as over the
State, More refused (being Jealous
Catholic) to take the oath. He was
thereupon prosecuted for treason and
condemned to be hanged and quartered.
The sentence was afterwards changed
by the importantly of his learned daugh-
ter Marguerite Mrs. Roper) to behead-
ing. More passed through these scenes
with the greatest composure, because,
as Addison says, he was sustained by
conscious integrity. On the scaffold,
just as the fatal ak was to fall, be gath
cred up his long flowing beard, saying,
"this, at least, is not guilty of treason"
His head was exposed to the public
for seven days at London bridge and
then delivered to his daughter, who pre-
served it and at her death it was buried
in her arms.
Sir Thomas More was the first and the
greatest of modern champions of labor
and of the principles of equality. He
merely modified the theory of Plato by
the principles Of Christianity. His Uto-
pia is Plato's Republic adapted to our
times. Overlooking the impracticable
social changes he advocated, we look
into his work for some knowledge of the
condition of labor in his day and find
that he anticipated many measures that
are now popular in England, have been
made prominent even in Parliament, and
are destined soon to prevail.
| He represents himself as dining on
one occasion with the Archbishop OF
Canterbury, Cardinal and Chancellor of
England. A celebrated lawyer at the
table commended the severe execution
| OF justice upon thieves who were hanged
80 fast that there were sometimes twenty
on one gibbet; and yet he wondered why
so many thieves were left. More replied
that the punishment was out Of all pro.
portion to the offense, and was therefore,
Intellectual. He proceeded to say that
the only wise method of stopping theft
was by putting every man sin a method
how to live and so be preserved from the
fatal necessity of stealing and of dying
for it,"
Then in speaking of the causes Of theft
he said:
There is a great number of noblemen
among you that are not only idle them
| selves as drones, subsisting by other
mems labors, who are their tenants, and
whom they pare to the quick and thereby
raise their revenues; this being the only
instance of their frugality, for in all
other things they are prodigal, even to
the beggaring OF themselves.
This "frugality" of the mobiles at that
time is very much like the economy OF
the wealthy employers Of our day. In
answering more directly the question
what causes theft he says:
The increase of pasture by which your
sheep may be said now to deyour men
and unpeople not only villages but
towns. The nobility and gentry, and
even those holy men the abbots, not
contented with the old rents (because
wool is SO profitable) resolve to do hurt
instead OF good to the people. They
stop the course of agriculture, inclose
grounds, and destroy houses and towns,
reserving only the churches, that they
may lodge their sheep in them; and as
il forests and parks had swallowed up
the little soil, those wealthy countrymen
turn the best inhabited places into soil.
tudes; for when any unsatiated wretch,
who is a plague to his country, resolves
to inclose many thousand acres ol
ground, the owners, as we'll as tenants,
are turned out of their possessions by
, tricks, or by main force, or being
wearied out with the usage, they are
forced to sell them.
, These miserable people thus cast ou'
and robbed are many Of them forced tt
steal.
This shows that the evil Of land mo
nopoly had become in:olerable three
centuries and half ago, just as 1t nov
,, is in great Britain. 1t was then rene
died by Henry VIII, who, in order tt
up root Catholicism and plant securely
the Church Of England, contiscated th'
large domains OF the monasteries ant
distributed land to large portion of th'
people. During the past century and
half the crime of eviction and enclosure
has produced worse effects than resulted
from the monopoly that More describes
in his day, and the party of the people il
England is struggling for land reform b.
which the people may be enabled NOR
generally to enjoy their rights in tn
7 soil.
Astrong box OF the Shah of Persia con
t sists Of q small room 20X14 feet. Her
, spread upon carpets, lie jewels valued
7,000,C COO. Chief among them Is the kai
anian crown, shaped like fower.pot
!. and topped by an uncut ruby as large a