New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-08-12
Old EngIand'S Life, Its Customs
and Its Poor.

of Humble Life in England BY Fred
erick w. lakewood. With forty-four
illustrations. Svo PIP. i16 Brentano's
THE CUSTOMS or OLD ENGLAND BY
F. J. Smell. With seventeen illustra-
lions Emo PIP. xii, Sl2. Charles scrib-
THE KINGS CUSTOMS. Volume H.
An Account of Maritime Revenue. Con-
traband Traffic. the Introduction of
Free Trade and the Abolition of the
10 1856. BY Henry Alton and Henry
Hurst Holland With a preface by +.
:. Parry. c: b., Deputy Chairman Of
the Board of Customs and Excise. SVo,
PIP, XII, 800. Imported by f. p. Dutton
& Co.
OF the trio of books here grouped to-
gether, the first two are popular in the
best and most serious sense of that flex-
IDLE ard much abused word The third.
which is the completion of an important
economico-historical undertaking deal
ing with a subject that. while vitality in
teresting the British people. is yet. from
its nature. the very reverse Of popular
reading. is humanized by the skill of it's
authors
There is more than a touch of irony in
the title OF Mr.. Hackwoods book, which
is a history of poverty in England from
Saxon days down TO the present hour Of
British preoccupation with revised poor
laws, education acts and the arrest of
the deterioration of the race. The
author begins with the Saxon system Of
mutual dependence of master and man.
Of the "hlaford," or lord of the loaf" and
his Lady" i'm which honorable title the
word ''hlaf." or loaf" may likewise be
traced. and their dependents and slaves
The slave trade of Saxon England, we
learn. was as we'll organized as that of
ancient Rome. Bristol being its CHEF
marke; for export. Stranger still Is il to
earn that
Vilenage was never abolished by statute
IN England; IL fell into desuetude. and died
q natural death. Startling az II may
eppesr. the English law on this point is
i'm such condition that although de- tactic
vllenage by birth ceased some time in the
DAYS of the Stuarts. man may still make
himself a villein by acknowledgment in
court OF record.
The movement of population away
from the country to the urban centres
began early in Norman England. Sturdy
serfs ran away from their feudal owners
residence for a year and a day within
town walls legally constituting them free
men. This was the origin of the labor
ing class but many of these "masterless
men" as they were called. became men
&c iCh rnhharc
Those In the towns sweled the number
of the INDECENT 10 such proportions ,hat
,he organization of means for their re-
lief became urgent. The mendicant or
ders crossed the Channel from the Con-
tinent and undertook the work. Up to
the close Of Elizabeth's reign. when poor
laws we're enacted and poor rates i'm
posed. the relief OF poverty depended en-
tirely upon private charity and the ac-
tivities of the Church.
The pictures drawn by Mr.. lakewood
Of this poverty in the good old times
from feudalism to the Reform movement
I'm the beginning of the last century. are
truly appalling while the economies OF
curious reading. The scarcity of labor
crs caused by the Black Death sent the
price of labor up at a bound in town and
country, the consequence being that the
great land owners converted their arabic
lands into pasturage, wool having be-
come the countrys staple of export
Thus the scarcity of laborers. was con-
vcrted into a decreased need Of labor
which again increased the restitution Of
the poor The lordly way in which the
common lands were annexed by the
mobiles is described at great length. as is
the deplorable effect Of the closing Of all
the religious houses by Henry WILL
which suddenly cut off a great source Of
charitable relief
There are chapters on "spitals" and
''bedlams." on the treatment Of the sick
and the insane. on almshouses and the
rise Of eleemosynary education. on the
licensing OF beggars and the badgng Of
paupers. Sir Walter Scott Is said TO
have known
"A character" who was the last person
in the South OF Scotland 10 wear the livery
Of the licensed or privileged beggar, and
VINO died Just before the close Of the
eighteenth century. The dress Il described
- a long blue gown OF worsted or frieze,
with belt about the waist The badge
Of poverty" worn on the breast was OF
white metal some FIVE inches I'm diameter,
and bearing an embossed inscription
From poverty to petty crime is but
step Thus the rogue, the impostor, the
vaeabond. the cut-purse, the footpad
came into being. The gypsy was added
10 the native element. and, on some
what higher scale in the social ladder of
restitution. above the wandering singer
and musician, there came into being the
itinerant chapman and tinker the pig
pye man. and all their kind y ''coster
monger" by the way. was originally one
who sold "costards" or apples from
stall. The author enters fully into the
Ife of this world Of Indulgence. trickery
ana crime. its haunts and methods and
It's slang in the seventeenth and
. eighteenth centuries. lie gives brief
biographies OF number Of its historic
representatives. and also devotes a chap
ter to the literature OF the begging
cult"
Much still remains to be done for the
poor. hut this exceptionally readable and
informing volume proves. above all else,
how much has been done already i'm