The New York herald., 1877-10-07
Medimyal and Modern Cities-What
Would John Kelly Have Been IN
the Middle Ages:

| fairs, in short, change with the grown "
decline of society. But in all these mani
fold mutations human nature remains
pretty constant to itself. The stronger pas
sions Of the human heart never die out I;
they assert their force in every stage and
phase of the ever varying fortunes OF our
race. The bandits and robber chiefs OF
rude ages have their anaiogues IN the
present advanced state OF society ana
as the Mephistopheles OF Goethe is
the modern form of the ancient devil
devil without horns, hoofs, tail or the
smell Of brimstone-so the bandits ana
robber chiefs of other times reappear in our
Mortons, Gilmans, Tweeds, and the count
less host with whom the forgers pen or the
lobbyists bribe or the mask OF piety put on
to cover a swindlers rapacity serves the
same purpose as the swords, the ambush,
the physical terror and violence of semi
barbarous states of society. In our boasted
modern civilization we have incessant re-
productions of the old play in new thea
tire, wherein the inextinguishable greed for
rule OF pelf appears with fresh masks
and altered scenery. 1t is not the
scene painter or the costumer or the
orchestral performers that give life
ald interest to play, but faithful repre-
sentations of human nature and mex
tinguishable human passions. Modern So
ciety is perpetually re-enacting the Old
parts under the mask of new faces. Our
dishonest savings banks, insurance COM
ha
modern equivalents of ancient pirates and
Middle Age marauders. And if the modern
forms of robbery are semi-respectable they
do not differ in this respect from the an
cient, for Thucydides relates in the begin
ming of his great history that when sea rob-
bers in an age preceding his own were
asked by people whose shores they APP
preached whether they were thieves, they
had no more hesitation in giving an afiirma-
tive answer than if piracy were an honor
able profession.
Another modern form Of rapacity has its
exemplar in former times, although ambi-
ton quite as often as avarice was the NOV
ing impulse in the cases to which we now
allude. We refer to the control OF cities.
We pass over the ancient cities, about which
much might be said, and select those Of the
Middle Ages rs best suited to the comparison
we wish to make. Life in cities is the dis
tinguishing feature of the latter part Of
what we call the Middle Ages, and also OF
the age in which we live. The Italian and
German cities were the cradles of modern
liberty. They were oil seats Of manufac-
ture: many of them were also seats of COM
merce, and their guilds or trade unions
were the predominating influence in
their municipal life. In that age
the European monarchies were weak
and the agricultural lords or feudal
barons could generally thwart the mon
arch when they chose to combine To pro-
tect himself against the aggressions OF the
feudal nobility he granted privileges and
immunities to the cities, and as these were
under the local rule of the guilds the habit
ofmunicipal self-government trained them
in the love and practice Of liberty. The
italian and German free cities were also
largely engaged in commerce, which has
always been one OF the most potent instru-
ments of human progress. Our modern
cities are larger more civilized and more
important than those of the Middle Ages !;
but like them they are seats of manufacture
and commerce, and like them they are more
or less exempted from the direct con-
troll of the State in whose territory
they are situated. In Ame' lea we grant
charters to cities which confer upon them
large powers OF self-government and exempt
them in many respects from that immediate
control of the State authority to which the
rural districts are subject. The proportion
Of the urban to the rural population in
this age is altogether greater than it ever
was in the most fourishing period of the
medieval cities, and consequently the con-
troll of municipal governments is a much
higher object of ambition. In those ages
cities often made war upon each other for
purposes of tribute or dominion, and we
have something very similar in our modern
| life To be sure, we have no direct attempts
of one city to capture and control another ;
but the city of New York has been
a constant object of rapacity and
domination with people who live outside
it's limits. Instead of assaults by arms we
are assailed through lobbies in the Legisla-
ture, and .or twenty years we have leen as
effectually ruled from Albany and have paid
| as much tr butte in the form of official spoils
as any afflicted city of the Middle Ages ever
did to aggressive and domineering assail-
ants. Our captors from abroad have been
aided by traitors at home, and we have been
in the condition of MEDIEVAL city which
outside and inside conspirators combined to
rule and rob-
II is curious speculation to conjecture
what part Boss Tweed or Mr.. Kelly would
have acted had they lived few centuries
AGO, when the capture of cities by arms, in
stead of by political weapons, was the
order Of the day. Tweed would no
doubt have been renowned leader
of treebooters whose sole object was booty