The laws relating to preservation of game were in every country uncommonly rigorous. They formed in England that odious system of forest laws which distinguished the tyranny of our Norman kings. Capital punishment for killing a stag or wild boar was frequent, and perhaps warranted by law, until the charter of John. The French code was less severe, but even Henry the Fourth enacted the pain of death against the repeated offence of chasing deer in the royal forests. The privilege of hunting was reserved to the nobility till the reign of Louis the Ninth, who extended it in some degree to persons of lower birth. This excessive passion for the sports of the field produced those evils which are apt to result from it a strenuous idleness, which disdained all useful occupations, and an oppressive spirit toward the peasantry. The devastation committed under the pretence of destroying wild animals, which had been already protected in their depredations, is noticed in serious authors, and has also been the topic of popular ballads. What effect this must have had on agriculture it is easy to conjecture. The levelling of forests, the draining of morasses, and the extirpation of mischievous animals which inhabit them, are the first object of man's labour in reclaiming the earth to his use; and these were forbidden by a landed aristocracy, who had not yet learned to sacrifice their pleasures to their avarice. These habits of the rich, and the miserable servitude of those who cultivated the land, rendered its fertility unavailing. There are but two possible modes in which the produce of the earth can be increased-one by rendering fresh land serviceable; the other by improving the fertility of that which is already cultivated. The last is only attainable by the application of capital and of skill to agriculture, neither of which could be expected in the ruder ages of society. The former is, to a certain extent, always practicable whilst waste lands remain; but it was checked by laws hostile to improvement, and by the general tone of manners. no Till the reign of Charlemagne there were towns in Germany except a few that were erected on the Rhine and the Danube by the Romans. A house with its stables and farm buildings, surrounded by a hedge or enclosure, was called a court the toft or homestead of a more genuine English dialect. One of these, with the adjacent domain of arable fields and woods, had the name of villa or manse. Several manses composed a march, and several marches formed a pagus or district. From these elements, in the progress of population, arose villages and towns. In France, undoubtedly, there were always cities of some importance. Country parishes contained several manses or farms of arable land around a common pasture, where every one was bound by custom to feed his cattle. The condition even of internal trade was hardly preferable to that of agriculture. There is not a vestige, perhaps, to be discovered for several centuries of any considerable manufacture; I mean, of working up articles of common utility to an extent beyond what the necessities of an adjacent district required Rich men kept domestic artisans among their servants; even kings, in the ninth century, had their clothes made by the women upon their farms; but the peasantry must have been supplied with garments and implements of labour by purchase; and every town, it cannot be doubted, had its weaver, its smith, and its currier. But there were almost insuperable impediments to any extended traffic- the insecurity of movable wealth, and the difficulty of accumulating it; the ignorance of mutual wants; the peril of robbery in conveying merchandise, and the certainty of extortion. In the domains of every lord a toll was paid in passing his bridge, or along his highway, or at his market. These customs, fair and necessary in their principle, became in practice oppressive, because they were arbitrary, and renewed in every petty territory which the road might intersect. One regulation rather amusingly illustrates the modesty and moderation of the landholders. It is enacted that no one shall be compelled to go out of his way in order to pay toll at a particular bridge, when he can cross the river more conveniently at another place. These provisions, like most others of that age, were unlikely to produce much amendment. It was only the milder species, however, of feudal lords who were content with the tribute of merchants. The more ravenous descended from their fortress to pil lage the wealthy traveller, or shared in the spoil of inferior plunderers, whom they both protected and instigated. In Proofs occur, even in the latter periods of the Middle Ages, when government had regained its energy, and civilization had made considerable progress, of public robberies by men of noble rank. the more savage times, before the twelfth century, they were probably too frequent to excite much attention. It was a custom in some places to waylay travellers, and not only to plunder, but to sell them as slaves, or compel them to pay ransom. Harold, son of Godwin, having been wrecked on the coast of Ponthieu, was imprisoned by the lord, says an historian, according to the custom of that territory. Germany appears to have been, upon the whole, the country where downright robbery was most unscrupulously practised by the great. Their castles, erected on almost inaccessible heights among the woods, became the secure receptacle of robber bands, who spread terror over the country. From these barbarian lords of the dark ages, as from a living model, the romancers are said to have drawn their giants and other disloyal enemies of true chivalry. Robbery, indeed, is the constant theme of the Anglo-Saxon laws. One has more reason to wonder at the intrepid thirst of lucre, which induced a very few merchants to exchange the products of different regions, than to ask why no general spirit of commercial activity prevailed. HALLAM. 36. SIR PATRICK SPENS. The king sat in Dunfermline town, "Oh, whare will I get a skeely skipper Oh, up and spake an eldern knight Sat at the king's right knee,— "Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor That ever sailed the sea. "" Our king has written a braid letter, "To Noroway, to Noroway, To Noroway o'er the faem; The king's daughter o' Noroway, 'Tis thou maun bring her hame." "Be it wind or weet, be it hail or sleet, 'Tis we must bring her hame." They hoisted their sails on Monenday morn Wi' a' the speed they may; They hae landed safe in Noroway Upon a Wodensday. They hadna been a week, a week In Noroway but twae, When that the lords o' Noroway Began aloud to say,— |