Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-08-03
w. e. to II. C..

Ed. Register Before r. G. gives me
his second installment of "well ascer.
tanned facts" allow me to notice his
first batch.
1 mentioned certain English news.
papers to show that the fact of their
contempt and denunciation of blue
blood, of aristocracy, of hereditary priv.
ileges, demonstrated beyond dispute
the existence of democratic sentiment
in England that must not only be toll
Grated, but that was too strong to be
crushed. I referred to Henry Georges
pamphlet because it was fair, calm,
dispassionate statement of Ireland's
case by an outsider, an American, who
might fairly be presumed to be unprej-
udiced. Z. G. passes all this with a
line about "publications from partisan
standpoint in the heat of conflict" and
goes into matters of history where even
the dates are doubtful. and makes de-
ductions his own history does not war
rant. His general conclusions that,
because those who went to England
went from parts of the Roman empire,
they must have carried with them Ro-
man law, is not sound. Rome COM
bined policy with force, and disturbed
as little as she could, consistent with
her own aggrandizement, existing laws
in the countries she conquered, and es-
pecjally with respect to those laws that
related to the tenure of the soil; while
the north of Europe she never Roman
lied in scarcely any degree. When
Carthage fell she found the Carthagin-
ian laws relating to land and to agri-
culture SO admirable that she refused
to modify them at all. When the
Popes applauded the Emperors the
same policy was followed by the
Church, where narrow, hard bigotry so
generally prevailed; and we are told
that Augustine was instructed to con-
firm his teaching and forms of service
as nearly as practicable, to the usages
of the Druids whom he was trying to
proselyte. Sopowerful was this north
ern influence, even in the Church, that
it carried an ecumenical council from
Nice to Ratisban, and then carried the
vote fixing the day to be regarded as
Sabbath, to the suns dacg, or the day
Drudical Teutons set apart for the
worship Of the sun rather than the day
of the decalogue which was favored by
the Latin contingent. But what of all
this?e AS mere matter of history it
may be interesting, but as relating to
the issue of to-day it is of little or no
importance. I may have erred i'll say
ing that with Harold the last vestige
of Roman law expired, for there may
have been none left to die. AS the is
land had been subject to Roman con-
quest and occupation, it is presumable
there we're some vestiges Of their laws
existing there, though the few ac-
counts we now have of the laws and
customs of those times show northern
origin.
Of the origin of the feudal system we
know nothing; even the derivation of
the word itself is involved in dou bt;
and I only referred to William as car
rying that system into the island to
show that it was the foundation of a
British Empire, as. an analogous sys-
tenn of land tenure had once laid the
of Roman power. The vir-
tue of the feudal system lay in its prac-
tical recognition of the interest and de-
pendence of all upon the soil, by max
ing it the sole source of public revenue
or the only subject of taxation; while its
lay in the farming out of
the taxes to an hereditary aristocracy,
or o favored few who held their priv
ileges at the whim of the sovereign,
until after John signed Magma Charta.
If Roman law had ever obtained
there it certainly lapsed then, and
in regard to the land; hence
it would be nearer correct to call the
msrule OF England to-day a revival
and not "a lelic of Roman despotism."
at the time of the introduction of the
teudal system into England, Roman
Governors farmed the taxes out to the
highest bidder. Everything was seiz-
able; and the contractor sometimes lost
lis liberty or his life if he did not ex-
ort enough. There was a vast differ
,nce between the two systems as they
existed, side by side, then; and it is with
heir different results that we are in
crested not with their histories or
heir beginnings.
T. G. started to discuss this question
o give his countrymen light and hope
md wound up by shutting off ali hope
whatever. A queer comforter. l wrote
o show that there was hope; and if l
ode my hobby in showing it, that was
ny right. Every one has, Drought to
AVE, a hobby, if he has head, and
he effectiveness with which he rides
lis hobby demonstrates his ability; for