daily laborers are at best but slaves." It is because the institutions of the land are so contrived that a few can obtain from the many, unceasingly and unobserved, large quantities of human labor without an equivalent. The reason is, we follow too much after the civil institutions of other lands. These institutions have been brought about in this manner: From the shores of the Baltic there came forth a race of Sea Kings who lived in their ships, and went to plundering wherever they could get a landing. They were a very great terror to the sea-coast inhabitants of Europe. Those who were in fear of invasion had to devise means of self-defense, which was called a government. When the invaders got possession of a country they instituted a government also, which has continued to this day. Those who laid the foundations of a civil state were pirates by profession, pagans in religion, men of ferocity, and dauntless courage. They made two agreements-one was we will plunder the people. This has been faithfully observed, and is still observed. The second part of the agreement was not to plunder each other. Kings have laid gradually exactions on the nobles, who have re-laid them on their vassals. The various names that used to be given to the sources of revenue have become "rents" and "taxes." The villains and vassals have become mechanics and laborers.

Changes have been made in the social condition of men at first the king ruled absolute, then a part of his power was taken away by the nobles. The priests exercised a sway over the nobility. Their power was broken at the time of Henry VIII. These were succeeded by courtiers and court gallants, who have used an influence over the ruling powers. From the time of William III to the present, England has been influenced by policy rulers, or political economists. The laborers of England are now associating themselves to

gether to get the necessaries of life at cost price, without employing merchants. In many cases the workmen are partners in the workshops and mines in which they labor. These facts indicate that the laborer will soon displace the other classes and rule.

Lord Kames, in his History of Man says: "Had the Norwegians known agriculture in the tenth century, they would not have ventured their lives in frail vessels upon a tempestuous ocean, in order to distress nations who were not their enemies. But hunger is a cogent motive; and it gave to these pirates superiority in arms above every nation that enjoyed plenty at home. Luckily such depredations must have their intervals; as they necessarily occasion great havoc among the victors. Agriculture, fixes a people to a spot, is an obstacle to migration, puts an end to a scourge, more destructive than a pestilence. It gives occupation and subsistence at home; it affords plenty of food."

William Walker thought in Nicaragua "That society was worn out, and they needed a new organization, and it would furnish certain labor to the negro." He chartered a vessel in California, and left in May, 1856, with fifty-eight passengers. On landing he began to levy contributions, this led to a conflict-six were killed and twelve wounded. He would have succeeded if the English warships had let him alone. If he had become chief ruler he could have used this language: "Dear people, I will establish justice, maintain order among you, and give you splendor and magnificence.'

FEUDALISM THE CAUSE OF THE GROWTH OF CITIES-A PLACE FOR ESCAPING SLAVES CITIES ARE NECESSARY TO IMPROVE MEN-HANSEATIC TOWNSNORTH AMERICAN REVIEW ON CITIES-SUFFERING IN CITIES.

"When we are piled on each other in large cities, as they are in Europe, we shall become corrupt, and go to eating each other."-THOMAS JEFFERSON.

FTER the fall of the Roman Empire the inhabitants of cities and towns were not any more favored than those of the country. They were, in

deed, of a very different order of people from the first inhabitants of the ancient republics of Greece and Italy. These last were composed chiefly of the proprietors of land, among whom the public land was divided, and who found it convenient to build their houses in the neighborhood of each other, and to surround themselves with a wall for defense. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the proprietors of land seem generally to have lived in fortified castles on their own estates, and in the midst of their own tenants and dependants. The towns were chiefly inhabited by tradesmen and mechanics, who seem to have been in a servile condition.

Britain, once a land of savage pagans, was, long after the Norman conquest, the abode of ignorance and superstition. For centuries past she has been steadily advancing in knowledge, civil and religious liberty. Her men of letters

have sent down to posterity noble works that shall live till science, philosophy, and poetry are known no more. Her lawyers have gradually worn off the rugged features of the feudal system, till the common law of England has been adopted as the basis of the American code. Her spiritual bastile, the State Church, has yielded to the attacks of nonconformity, and opened its gates to a qualified toleration. All that was dangerous in the maxim, "The king can do no wrong," fell with the head of Charles I, in 1649. A class of innovators, called "Reformers" are still at work on the institutions of England.

Humanity will find ample materials for despair, when contemplating the toiling classes condition. But philantrophy will find abundant source of hope in studying the character and deeds of their radical reformers. The past half century has seen an uprising, of the very substratum of society, in a peaceful struggle for inherent rights. No force has been employed except the force of circumstances; and the result has been eminently successful. This class discovered its strength during the revolution of Hamden and Cromwell, and received an impulse which it has never lost.

But

The nobility and gentry have too often silenced the popular clamor by admitting its leaders to the privileges of the "higher orders." Concessions were made to the middle men, which strengthened them to demand more. a truth, destined to be all-powerful in the nineteenth century, remained to be discovered, that the condition of the lower classes should be ameliorated. The lines which custom and intolerance had drawn between men, was to grow fainter as the day approached for the full discovery of truth. The earthquake shock of the French Revolution overthrew a throne rooted to the soil by a growth of a thousand years.

Britain felt the crash. The people discovered they were clothed with divine rights as well as kings. This was not expressed in courtly language, or made grateful to royal ears. From the conquest of William the Norman, to Victoria the Saxon, there has been a gradual circumscribing of the power of the nobles and prerogatives of the crown.

Much of all this is to be attributed to the rise and growth of cities, which have been fostered by kings and nobles. These are often at enmity with each other, and to gain the favor of the towns enabled one or the other to gain the ascendancy. A borough is a town and not a city. In its original signification it means a company consisting of ten families who were pledged to each other. Afterward a borough came to signify a walled town, and a place for safety. Some of the towns were called free-burghs and the tradesmen free-burgesses, from a privilege they had to buy and sell without disturbance and be exempt from toll.

These seem to have been very poor people, traveling about with goods from one place to another, and from fair to fair, as hawkers and peddlers. They paid taxes when passing through some of the great lords' manors, going over bridges, and for erecting booths or stalls at the fairs. These different taxes were known by the names of passage,* lastage,† and stallage. Sometimes the king or a great lord, upon some occasions, would grant to particular trades, or to such as lived on their own demesnes, a general exemption from such taxes. Such were called "free

* The most celebrated passage in Europe is the Sound, or the narrow entrance into the Baltic Sea. Here the King of Denmark has the Castle of Elsinore, and collects tolls from all nations. The Americans refused to pay the tax, this was a source of embarrassment to Denmark. To remit to one nation it would have to be done to all. The writer can not tell how settled. †ĻASTAGE, a duty paid for freight on transportation.

STALLAGE, the right to erect a stall in a fair-the rent for a stall.