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1818.]

The Causes of Misery developed.

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I

SIR,

HAVE at different times maintained that the radical cause of misery in England is the engrossment of farms and the monopoly of land, owing to fals reasoning on the subject, which conceives that social arrangements have ulterior objects more important than the happy subsistence of the people; and owing to the desire of the abettors of the late wicked wars to shift the cost from themselves, by getting higher rents from engrossers and monopolists than they are able to obtain from native cultivators, whose sole recommendations are their industry, their farge families, and their attachment to the soil.

In confirmation of my doctrines, I now submit to your readers a statute of Henry VII. the wisest prince that ever sat on the English throne; and an opinion, on the same statute, of Lord Bacon, who, it will not be disputed, was the greatest statesman and philosopher which the annals of Britain can boast.

An Act passed in the Fourth Year of the

Reign of King Henry VII. cap. 19. The penalty for decaying of houses of husbandry, or not laying of convenient Hand for the maintenance of the same.

Item, the king, our sovereign lord, aving a singular pleasure above all things to avaide such enormities and mischiefes as bee hurtfull and prejudicial to the common weale of this his land and his subjects of the same, remembreth, that among all other things, great inconveniences daily doe increase by desolation and pulling downe, and wilful waste of houses and villages within this realme, and laying to pasture lands, which customely have been used in tillage, whereby idlenesse, which is the ground and beginning of all mischiefes, daily doth encrease. For where, in some villages, two hundred persons were occupied and lived by their lawfull labours, now there are occupied two or three heardmen, and the residue fall into idlenesse; the husbandrie, which

35

is one of the greatest commodities of this realme is greatly decayed, churches destroyed, the service of God withdrawen, the bodies there buried not prayed for, the patrons and curates wronged, the defence of this land against our enemies outward, feebled, and impaired, to the great dispollicie and good will of this land, if repleasure of God, to the subversion of the medie be not provided. Wherefore the king our soveraigne, our lord, by the advice of the lords spirituall and temporall, and the Commons in this said Parliament assembled, and by authority of the same hath ordained, enacted and established, that no person, of what estate, degree, or condition that he be, that hath any house or houses, that at any time that now is, or that hereafter shall be lette within three years passed, hath beene, or for ferme, with twenty acres of land, at least, or more, lying in tillage and husbandrie, that the owner or owners of every such house, houses, and land, doe keepe, sustaine, and maintaine houses and buildings upon the said ground, and land convenient and necessarie for maintaining and upholding of the said tillage and husban drie. And, if any such owner or owners, of any such house or houses and land, take land and occupie any such house or houses, and keepe in his or their owne hands, that the said owner or owners, by the said authoritie, be bound in likewise ings upon the said ground and land, conto keepe and maintaine houses and buildvenient and necessarie for the maintaining and upholding of the said tillage and husbaudrie. And, if any man do contrary to the premisses, or any of them, that then it be lawful to the king, if any such lands or houses be holden of him immediately, or, to the lords of the fees, if any such lands be holden of them immediately, to receive yearly halfe the value of the issues and profits of any such lands, whereof the houses be not so maintained and sustained. And the same halfe deale of the issues and profits to have, holde and keepe to his or their owne use, without any thing therefore to be payed or given, till such time as the same house or houses bee sufficiently builded or repaired againe. And that no manner of freehold be in the king, nor in any such lord or lords, by the taking of any such profits, of or in any such lands in no manner of forme; but onely the king and the said lord or lords have power to take, receive, and have the said issues and profits, as is above saide; and, therefore, the king, or the said lord or lords, to have power to distraine for the same issues and profits, to be had and received by them, in forme above sayde, by anthoritie of this present Acte.-Ruffhead, 9 cap.

Harrington, and other political writers, consider this Act among the principal causes which concurred to throw power F 2

into

36

Autobiographic Particulars of the Son of Sirach.

into the hands of the people; and Lord
Bacon, in speaking of it, says, "Another
statute was made of singular policie for
the population, apparantly, and (if it bee
throughly considered,) for the souldiery,
and military forces of the realme. Inclo-
sures at that time began to be more
frequent, whereby arable land (which
could not be manured without people and
families,) was turned into pasture, which
was easily rid by a few heardsmen; and
tenancies for yeares, lives, and at will,
(whereupon much of the yeomanrie lived,)
were turned into demesnes. This bred a
decay of people, and (by consequence,) a
decay of townes, churches, tithes, and the
like. The king likewise knew full well,
and in no wise forgot, that there ensued
withall upon this a decay and diminution
of subsidie and taxes; for, the more gen-
tlemen, ever the lower bookes of sub-
sidies. In remedying of this inconveni-
ence, the King's wisdom was admirable,
and the Parliament's at that time. Inclo-
sures they would not forbid, for that had
beene to forbid the improvement of the
patrimonie of the king/lome; nor tillage
they would not compell, for that was to
strive with Nature and utilitie. But they
took a course to take away depopulating
inclosures and depopulating pasturage,
and yet not by that name, or by any
imperious expresse prohibition, but by
consequence. The ordinance was, "That
all houses of husbandry that were used
with twentie acres of ground and upwards,
should bee maintained and kept up for
ever; together with a competent propor-
tion of land, to be used and occupied with
them and in no wise to be severed from
them as by another statute, made after
wards in his successor's time, was more
fully declared. By this means, the houses
being kept up, did of necessitie enforce a
dweller; and the proportion of land for
occupation being kept up, did, of neces
sitie, inforce that dweller, not to be a
beggar or cottager, but a man of some
substance that might keepe hiends and
servants, and set the plough on going.
This did wonderfully concerne the might
and mannerhood of the kingdome, to have
fermes, as it were of a standard sufficient
to maintaine an able body out of penurie;
and did, in effect, amortize a great part
of the lands of the kingdome unto the
hold and occupation of the yeomanrie, or
middle people, of a condition between
gentlemen and cottagers, or peasants."

Bacon's Historie of the Reigne of King
Henry VII. p. 73.

In confirmation of these doctrines, I ask the promoters of palliatives, and those who conceive that monopoly and general happiness are compatible, whether, if 50,000 small farms, of from fifteen to thirty acres, were created within the next twelve months, 50,000 families would not thereby be placed in

[Aug. 1,

a state of comfort, who are at present in a state of wretchedness and destitution; and whether, if 50,000 families were so relieved, a new, prosperous, and happy face, would not be given to the whole nation? If it be flippantly remarked that small farms cannot maintain teams of horses,-I reply, that it is not necessary they should. Let the insolent fiscal regulation be removed which compels a man who lends a horse to take out a licence, and pay a dayduty; and, on the contrary, let public parish-stables be encouraged, where horses may be hired by small farmers for a trifling sum,-and this created difficulty would vanish. So, also, let it be in regard to all kinds of machinery.

Let us see what the unmanageable minority of patriots in e legislature, men who so long have professed so much, will propose or effect on this subject. COMMON Sense.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine,

SIR,

N your forty-fourth volume, at pages

35, 313, and 505, are collected various autobiographic particulars of Jesus, a son of Sirach; who is there shown to have been the Jesus of the Evangelists. These particulars include indeed his crucifixion and resurrection; but some further notices remain to be detailed relative to the time passed by him on earth after these events. before, I confine myself to his own account,-which may be reduced to the following propositions.

As

12thly. He passed his latter days in sonie collegiate establishment, where he gave lectures.

Draw near unto me, ye unlearned, and dwell in the house of learning.

Ecclesiasticus, li. 23. This college, as will presently appear, was situate at Lydda.

15thly. He advances mysterions pretensions to an eventual retributive jurisdiction; as if he meditated a second coming to Jerusalem, in his royal capacity of son of God.

He pleased God, and was beloved of him so that, living among sinners, he was translated. Wisdom, iv. 10. Thus the righteous that is dead shall condemn the ungodly which are living; and youth that is soon perfected, the many years and old age of the unrighteous.

For they shall see the end of the wise, and shall not understand what God in his counsel hath decreed of him, and to what end the Lord hath set him in safety.

They shall see him and despise him, but God shall laugh them to scorn; and they shall hereafter be a vile carcass, and a

reproach

1818.]

Original Papers in the British Museum.

37

reproach among the dead for evermore: with the execution of James, the for he shall rend them, and cast them down headlong. Wisdom, iv. 16-19. Thou hast chosen me to be a king of thy people, and a judge of thy sons and daughters. Wisdom, ix. 7.

So far Jesus has been pleased to reveal his own intentions. According to the Babylonian Talmud, his return was intercepted by an act of violence. The Shammæans, or Herodians,-who, on the part of Agrippa's family, watched over the retreat of Jesus,-had penetrated his intentions; and, after carrying him to the house of judgment, they *stoned the son of Satda in Lydda, and hanged him up on the evening of the passover: now, this son of Satda was the son of Pandira."

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This event seems to have been connected, and was therefore cotemporary,

*Lightfoot thus translates the passage in a note on Matthew, xxvii. 56.

brother of Christ, who undertook to announce and harbinger his return at Jerusalem: it is consequently to be placed about the forty-fourth year of the Christian era, and in the sixty-sixth year of the age of Jesus Christ.

* Eusebius, in the second book of his Ecclesiastical History, speaks of oue sword in the reign of Claudius, by Herod James (c. ix.), who was slain with the Agrippa; he also speaks (c. xxiii.) of one James, the Lord's brother, who was slain with a fuller's beetle, after being pushed over the balustrade of the temple, and stoned. In this recapitulation, Eusebius makes a double employment of the same anecdote: for, in his twenty third chapter, Eusebius professes to be relating the anecdote given by Josephus (Archæo, xx. 9, 1,); and, in his ninth chapter, protesses to be relating the anecdote given in the Acts of the Apostles (xii. 2). Now, the fact alluded to in Josephus, and in Acts, are unquestionably one and the same.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM,

Consisting of Copies of Original Papers in that National Depository.

Letters of Oliver Cromwell to Colonel Norton, from the originals, in the hands of Robert Symmer, esq.

Deare Norton,

HAVE sent my sonn over to thee, beinge willinge to answere Providence; and, although I confesse I have had an offer of a very greate proposition from a father of his daughter, yett truly I rather incline to this in my thoughts, because, though the other bee very farr greater, yet I see difficulties, and not that assurance of godlynesse, yet indeed fairnesse. I confesse that which is told me concerning the estate of Mr. M.* is more than I look for as things now stand. If God please to bring itt about, the consideration of a piety in the parents, and such hopes of the gentlewoman in that respect, make the businesse to me a great mercy; concerning which I design to waite upon God. I am confident of thy love, and desier all thinges may be carried with prevacie. The Lord doe his will, that's best; to which submitting I rest,

Your humble servant, Feb. 25, 1647. O. CROMWELL. For my noble Friend, Col. Richard Norton, these.

Richard Major, esq. of Hursley, in Hampshire, whose daughter, Dorothy, was afterwards married to Richard Cromwell, eldest son of the Protector.

The same to the same.

Deare Dick,

It had been a favour indeed to have met you heare at Turnham; but I heare, you are a man of greate business. Therefore I say, if it is a favour for the House of Commons to enjoy yon, what is itt to mee: but, in good earnest, when little honest, and attend your charge? will you and your brother Russell be a surely some expect itt,-especially the good fellows who chose you.

I have mctt with Mr. Major: `wee spent two or three howers together last night. I perceive the gentleman is very wise and honest, and indeed much to be valewed: some things of cominon fame did a little sticke; I gladly heard his doubts, and gave such answers as was next at hand; I believe to some satisfaction. Neverthelesse, I exceedinglie liked the gentleman's plainesse, and free dealing with mee. I know God has beene above all ill reports; and will, in his own tyme, vindicate mee: I have no cause to complayne.

I see nothinge but that this particular businesse between him and mee may goe on,-the Lord's will be done.

For newes out of the north there is little, only the mal partye is prevailinge in the Parliament of S.-they are earnest for a warr. The ministers oppose as

yett;

38

Original Papers in the British Museum.

yett; Mr. Marshall is returned, who says soe, and soe doe many of our letters. Their great committee of dangers have two malis for one right. It is sayd they have voted an army of 40,000 in Parliament; soe some of yesterday's letters: but I account my news ill bestowed, because upon an idle person.

I shall take speedy course in the kindnesse concerninge my tenants; for which, thankes. My service to your lady. I am really

Your affectionate servant,

March 28, 1648.

For

O. CROMWELL.

my noble Friend, Col.
Richard Norton, these.

The same to the same.
Deare Norton,

I could not in my last give you a perfect account of what passed between me and Mr. M. because wee were to have a conclusion of our speech that morning after I wrote my letter to you, which wee had, and having had a full enterview of one another's minds wee parted with this, that both would consider with our relations, and according to satisfactions given there, acquaint each other with our minds.

I cannot tell how better to doe itt to receave or give satisfaction, than by you, whoe (as I remember,) in your last sayd, that if things did stick between us you would use your endeavour towards a elose.

The things insisted upon were theise, (as I take itt,) Mr. Major desired 4007. p. ann. of inheritance, lyinge in Cambridgeshire and Norfolke, to bee presently settled, and to be for maintenance, wherein I desired to bee advised by my wife.

I offered the land in Hampshire for present maintenance, which, I dare say, with copses, and ordinary fells, will be communibus annis, 500l. p. annum; and beside 500l. per annum, in tenants' hands, houldinge but for one life; and about 3001. p. annum, some for two lives, some for three lives.

But as to this, if the latter bee not liked off, I shal be willing a further conference bee had in the first. In point of jounture I shall give satisfaction, and as to the settlement of landes given mce by the parimt, satisfaction to bee given in like manner, accordinge as wee discoursed.

In what else was demanded of mee, I am willinge, soc farr as I remember any demand, was to giove satisfaction.

[Aug. 1,

Only, I having been informed by Mr. Rollinson, that Mr. Major did, upon a former match, offer to settle the mannor wherein hee lived, and to give 20007. in monie; I did insist upon that, and doe desier itt may not bee with difficulty. The monie I shall need for my two little wenches, and thereby I shall free my sonn from beinge charged with them. Mr. Major parts with nothinge at present but that monie, savinge their board; which I should not be unwillinge to give them to enjoy the comfort of their society, which itts reason hee smarte for, if hee will robb me altogether of them. Truly, the land to bee settled, both what the Parliament gives mee and my owne, is very little less than 30007. p. ann. all thinges considered, if I be rightly informed; and a lawyer of Lincolns' Inn having searched all the marquess of

writings which were taken att Ragland and sent for by the Parliament,-this gentleman, appointed by the committee to search the said writinges, assures mee, there is no s ruple concerninge the title; and itt soe fell out, that this gentleman who searched was my owne lawyer, a very godly able man, and my deere friend, which I reckon no small mercye. Hee is also possesst of the writings for mee.

I thought fitt to give you this account, desiringe you to make such use of itt as God shall direct you, and I doubt not but that you will doe the part of a friend betweene two friendes. I account myself one, and I have heard you say Mr. Major was entirely soe to you. What the good pleasure of God is, I shall waite. Present my service to your lady, to Mr. Major, &c.

I rest your affectionate servant,
O. CROMWELL.

April the 3d, 1648.

I desire you to carric this businesse with all privacie, and beseech you to do soe as you love mee. Lett mee intreat you not to loose a day herein, that I may know Mr. Major's minde, for I thinke I may be at leisure for a weeke to attend this businesse, to give and take satisfaction; from which, perhaps, I may bee shutt up afterwards by imployment. I know thou art an idle fellowe, but prethee neglect mee not now, delay may bee very inconvenient to mee, I much rely upon you.

Lett me heare from you in two or three dayes.

I confesse, the principal consideration as to mee is, the absolute settlement of

the

1818.]

Original Papers in the British Museum.

the mannor wherein he lives, which hee
would do but conditionally, in case
hee prove to have noe sonn, and but
8000/. in case hee have a sonn.
But as
to this, I hope further reason may work
him to more.
Bibl. Birch. 4162.
Roger L'Estrange's Declaration of his
not being a Catholic.

Whereas Miles Prance and Lawrance
Mowbray made oath, in October, 1680,
that they had seen Roger L'Estrange
several times at mass in the Queen's
chapel. And whereas Richard Fletcher
made oath likewise, in the same month
and yeare, that L'Estrange had declared
Himselfe to be a Catholique of Rome,
and a member of that church, whereof
the Pope is the head. I do here de-
clare, in the presence of Almighty God,
that I never was in a popish chappell
in England from the yeare 1660 to this
day; that I neither am, nor ever was,
nor ever pretended to be, of the commu-
nion of the church of Rome. I deliver
this in awe and dread of a Divine ven-
geance: and, if it be not true in every
syllable, according to the best of my
knowledge, recollection, and beliefe;
or if I have any other meaning than
what the words barely and nakedly
import, may that blessed sacrament of
the body and blood of our Saviour,
(wch I hope by God's grace to receive
upon Sunday next, being Easter-day,
to my eternal comfort,) be unto me the
eating and drinking of my own dam-
nation.
ROGER L'ESTRANGE.

Attested by
Stephen Lammas, curate.
Thos. Harris, church-warden.
April 12th, 1682, in the parish of St.
Giles in the Fields.

Bibl. Birch, 4170. An Act that every Alderman's Wife shall have a Scarlet Gown.

Md. 7 Oct. 2d. Eliz. It was ordained that every alderman who has been mayde before Christmas next shall buy for his wife a gown of scarlet; and that every mayor, before the Michaelmas next, after his election, buy for his wife a scarlet gown, upon forfeiture of 107. five pounds to the use of the town, 50s. to the poor man's box, and 50s. to the use of the mayor. And that their wifes shall wear their gowns at the feasts following Christmas day, Easter day, Ascension day, Whit-Sunday, &c. &c. To forfeit 20s. for every default; 5s. to the poor's box, 5s. to the mayor, and 10s. to the use of the town.

Ordinance for the town of Cambridge.
Cole, vol. 20,

The Gule of August.

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The Gule of August, a term frequently used in old deeds, means no more than the 1st of August, from the Latin word gula, a throat; from a person at Rome being cured of a disorder in that part by kissing the chains of St. Peter, with which he was bound in the persecution under Nero. The same is also called Lammas-day, softened by us from Loaf-mass; a mass of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth, or of the corn, being anciently celebrated in England on this day, and not from any lambs being offered on that day by tenants to their landlords, as some have supposed; for in all ancient Saxon books it is called hlaf-mass; that is, loaf-mass. Cole, xxiii. 12.

Ducking Stools.

"Trumbellum is an engine of punishment which ought to be in everie libertie that hath view of frank pledge, for the coercion of scoldes and unquiett women, vulgarlie called ducking stooles; but these tumbrills, as you may read in an auncient statute, were also ordayned for the punishment of bruers breaking the assize."*

When I was a boy, I remember to have seen a woman ducked for scolding: the chair hung by a pulley fastened to a beam about the middle of the bridge, in which the woman was confined and let down under the water three times, and then taken out. The bridge was then of timber, before the present stonebridge was built. The ducking stool was constantly hanging in its place, and on the back pannel of it was engraved, "devils laying hold of scolds," &c. Some time after a new chair was erected in the place of the old one, having the same devices carved on it, and well painted and ornamented. When the new bridge of stone was erected in 1754, this was taken away, and I lately saw the carved and gilt back of it nailed up by the shop of one Mr. Jackson, a silversmith, in the Butcher-row, behind the town, who offered it me, but I did not know what to do with it. In Octob. 1776, I saw in the Town-hall the old one; I mean behind, or rather partly on the southerest corner of the modern one, a 3d. ducking stool, of plain oak, with an iron bar before it to confine the person in the seat, but made no enquiries about it. I mention these things, as the prac tice scems now to be laid aside.

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Cole 48, 172.

Statute 51, Henry II. statute of

assize.

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