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thieves," its glitter had ceased to dazzle Him. Turning away, His words were: There shall not be left here, one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down;" and with His men, who little thought then how dreadfully true this was, nor how dreadfully near, away He went out at the City gate, up the hill among the green olive trees, to His retreat at Bethany. There was a pause, however, under the shady trees, where Jesus sat and rested His weary limbs, in full view of the guilty City. The City walls, the great Temple, and the Garden of Gethsemane, were right before Him. It was a solemn pause, and His disciples appeared to have observed this, in some of those strange glimmerings so often seen playing on His benignant features. After such a day, and with the sound of those words in their ears, about the ruin which was coming, no wonder Peter, James, John, and Andrew ventured to ask Him, "When shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Thy coming ?" Out of place, and out of time, as these questions were, the Apostles were not rebuked; but He spoke again of His coming at the destruction of the City, and at the Last Judgment. He told them the " signs" of both visitations, and again that the final Judgment would rush on the world suddenly, unexpectedly, with darkening sun and moon, falling stars, and a strange shaking of the powers of heaven. Then came those beautiful parables of the "Ten Virgins" and the "Talents," indicating the mode of the Final Judgment, closing with the sad tragedy, now close at hand-"Ye know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed and crucified." This seems to have been on the last Tuesday of His earth-life, when this address was long and impressive. Far away from the Lake scenes, and in the solemn twilight, on the soft spring grass, amid the quiet rustle of the leaves on Mount Olivet, He pictured the future in graphic detail, till it filled His Apostles with wonder (Matt. xxiv. xxv. 12; Mark xiii. 1-27; Luke xxi. 1-32.) PRESENTIENS.

STRUGGLES FOR LIBERTY UNDER THE

PLANTAGENETS.

ENGLAND under the Plantagenets was a very different place compared witlr England in our own time. A glance at the social condition of the land is obtained from Fitz-Stephen's account of the kingly grandeur of Thomas à Becket. Besides mentioning the pomp of his retinue, the sumptuousness of his furniture, and the luxury of his table, he also states that "his apartments were every day in winter covered with clean straw or hay, and in summer with green rushes or boughs; lest the gentleman who paid court to him, and could not, by reason of their great number, find a place at table, should soil their fine clothes by sitting on a dirty floor."

At no period during the reign of the Plantagenets would the population of the country exceed the present population of Yorkshire, and probably, in the early part of the reign of Henry II., the population would not exceed two and a half millions. North of York there were no towns of importance, neither was there any trade or commerce worthy the name. The people were divided into the three classes of barons, freemen and serfs,

and were of composite blood. The barons in the former period of the Plantagenets were chiefly of Norman extraction, while the freemen were of Saxon and Danish extraction. The upper classes were hateful to the people, whom they treated as a conquered race. The freemen and the serfs both smarted under the Conquest, and cherished the hope of some day driving out their despotic conquerors. Yet we find that, in the course of 150 years, the hatred on both sides had abated, and through intermarriage and the natural affinity of the Normans and Danes, the distinction of Norman and Englishman had been forgotten, and in the reign of John we see a united people, one in blood, sympathy, and purpose. Mr. Freeman says, that "the Norman was a Dane, who, in his sojourn in Gaul, had put on a slight French varnish, and who came into England to be washed clean again. The blood of the true Normans, in the real Norman districts of Bayeaux and Contances, differs very little from the blood of the inhabitants of the north-east of England. See a French soldier and a Norman farmer side by side, and you feel at once that the Norman is nothing but a long-parted kinsman. The general effect of him is that of a man of Yorkshire or Lincolnshire, who has somehow picked up a bad habit of talking French. Such men readily became Englishmen."

Carlyle, in his work "Abbot Samson," gives a graphic description of the general appearance of the country at this period:

"How silent, on the other hand, lie all cotton trades and such like, not a steeple chimney yet got on end from sea to sea. North of the Humber, a stern Wilelmus Conquestor burnt the country, finding it unruly, into very stern repose. Wild fowl scream in those ancient silences, wild cattle roam in those ancient solitudes, the scanty, sulky Norse-bred population all coerced into silence, and feeling that, under these new Norman governors, their history has probably as good as ended. Men and Northumbrian Norse population know little what has ended, what is beginning! The Ribble and the Aire roll down as yet unpolluted by dyer's chemistry, tenanted by merry trouts and piscatory otters; the sunbeam and the vacant winds' blast alone traversing those moors. Side by side sleep the coal strata and the iron strata for so many ages; no steam demon has yet risen smoking into being. St. Mungo rules in Glasgow, James Watt still slumbering in the deep of time.

"Mancunium, what we now call Manchester, spins no cottonif it be not wool cotton,' clipped from the backs of mountain sheep. The creek of the Mersey gurgles twice in the four and twenty hours, with eddying brine, clangorous with sea-fowl, is a Lither-pool, a lazy or sullen pool, no monstrous pitchy city and sea haven of the world. The centuries are big, and the birth-hour is coming, not yet come."

In the fulness of time it came, and, in the travail of despair, noble men were born to struggle for civil and religious liberty. The names and deeds of Stephen Langton, Simon de Montfort, Humphrey Bohun, and Roger Bigod must live for ever in the minds and hearts of a grateful people, who reap the fruits of their labour.

During this period, also, a rich literature was produced, adorned with the names of Chaucer and Gower, Mandeville and Wickliffe, Matthew

Paris and Roger Bacon, not to mention the Subtle Doctor, and the Invin. cible Doctor, and the Doctor Profundus.

But, apart from the severer and more important struggles for constitutional freedom, many important changes occurred, which we can only just mention, before we proceed to the two main events in the reign of the Plantagenets-the granting of Magna Charta and the admission of burgesses to the House of Parliament. During the reign of John, the city of London obtained, by charter from the King, the right of electing annually a mayor out of its own body, as also the power to elect or remove its sheriffs at pleasure, and its common councilmen annually.

During the reign of Henry III. itinerant justices were appointed to make the circuit of the land, to hear cases, and thus prevent the annoyance and expense of suitors having to proceed to London or wherever the King held his Court. The kingdom was divided into six districts, which corresponded very nearly with the present circuits of the Judges. Still more important was the near approach that was made to trial by jury by the introduction of the assize of novel disseissin in the reign of Henry II., and its development in the reign of Henry III. By this custom, in a suit for the recovery of land, a tenant who was unwilling to risk a judicial combat might put himself on the assize—that is, refer the case to four knights chosen by the sheriff, who, in turn, selected twelve more. The sixteen knights thus impanelled were then sworn, and decided the case by their verdict. In criminal cases, at all events, we find an approach to a jury under Henry III. A person convicted of crime, who might be committed to safe custody on the presentment of a jury, had the option of appealing to a second jury, composed of twelve persons. The jurors differed in this respect from jurors in our own day, that they were required to be acquainted with the facts of the case, and were to decide on their own knowledge. They were, in fact, twelve witnesses. A previous knowledge of the case, which would now be an objection to a juryman, constituted in former days his merit and eligibility. During the reign of Edward I. the conquest of Wales was completed, and the conquest of Scotland made possible. Edward III. was the first to use artillery in war, and to this fact may probably be traced the victory of Crecy. During his reign the French language was abolished in pleadings and public deeds. It is also a fact worthy of note, that of the six kings of England deposed, two of them, Henry III. and Richard II., were Plantagenets.

An Act came into operation in 1266 which may be as suggestive to Temperance reformers as curious to the general reader, "The Assize of Bread and Ale." This was an Act by which the price of these commodities was fixed, and their vendors warned as to their good quality, the baker and brewer being respectively, in case of repeated violations of the law, ordered to be put in the pillory and placed on the cucking-stool. Butchers and cooks selling bad meat, &c., with regrators and forestallers, were also to be punished.

King John, the third of the Plantagenets, was one of the most mean, wicked, and unsuccessful kings that ever attempted to rule a kingdom. It has been said that we owe our liberties to our bad and foolish kings.

John had not only lost his French provinces, sold his kingdom to the Pope, and made it a part of the patrimony of St. Peter, but he had annoyed his barons by his pusillanimity, and enraged them by his insolent bearing towards their wives and families. His last act of submission to the Pope excited their universal disgust, while his endless exactions and impositions discontented all ranks of men. Not only did the barons unite to obtain a renewal of the charter of Henry I., which Stephen Langton had found in a monastery, but the yeomen and free peasantry of the kingdom also united and gave aid to them. The citizens of London, who at this time were becoming an important power in the land, also made common cause with the barons. The King had not a single follower, although the Pope endeavoured to help him by a Papal bull. But as in this, so in many other notable cases in English history, where the Pope curses the cause prospers. It has been said, in modern times, that if you want to ensure success in any political object, you must have a good cause and the opposition of the Times. But in the time of the Plantagenets, all that was required might be said to be a good cause and the opposition of the Pope. When John heard what the barons intended to demand of him, he said, "They might as well have demanded my crown. I will never grant such liberties as will make me a slave." And, assuredly, had he not yielded to their demands, they would not only have demanded his crown, but forcibly taken it from him, as their successors did from Henry III. for a time, and from Richard II. for Robert Fitzwalter was chosen the general by the barons, with the title of "Marshal of the Army of God and of Holy Church." Under his command the barons proceeded to levy war upon the King, marched to London, which they found waiting to receive them, and from thence issued proclamations. The King, with his magnificent retinue of seven knights, found himself unable, with this formidable army and the help of an absent Pope and a Papal bull, to fight the whole kingdom, and so discreetly, though very suspiciously, professed himself willing to yield. A conference was arranged to be held at Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines. After a debate of a few days, the King signed and sealed the charter which was demanded, June 19, 1215. It contained sixtythree articles.

ever.

(1) That no scutage or aid shall be imposed but by the Common Council of our Kingdom (except to ransom the King's person, make his eldest son a knight, or to endower his eldest daughter), but for these only a reasonable aid shall be demanded.

(2) The City of London shall have all its ancient liberties, and its free customs, as well by land as by water. Besides, we will and grant that all other cities and burghs, towns and seaports, shall have all their liberties and free customs.

(3) Common Pleas shall not follow our Court, but shall be held in some certain place. (The Court was fixed at Winchester.)

(4) A person fined for an offence shall not be deprived of his means of subsistence.

(5) No freeman shall be apprehended, imprisoned, disseised (deprived of property), or outlawed; we will not go against him, nor pronounce

sentence against him, except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

(6) To none will we sell, deny, or delay right or justice.

(7) That all men might leave England and return to it when they please.

(8) That the prerogatives of purveyance and pre-emption should not be abused.

(9) That there should be a fixed standard of weights and measures. This famous deed, commonly called Magna Charta, or the Great Charter, granted most important liberties and privileges to the various classes in the kingdom, barons, clergy, and people. On this memorable day was gained a bloodless victory, as important as glorious, a day on which was laid the foundation of that noble structure which has been from that time gradually built up and beautified by the valour, the wisdom, and the patriotism of the noblest men the world has ever seen-the structure of English liberty.

By the terms of this Charter many privileges of minor importance were conceded. We see, however, how the barons more especially considered their own interests, for while they-the feudal oligarchy-consented to the omission in the Charter of any restriction on tallage, a tax which pressed heavily on the people, and an abatement of which was proposed in the original stipulation, they steadfastly insisted on the proposed reduction of scutage, a burden which pressed upon themselves. Yet we cannot wonder at this, when we remember that, in our our own times, their successors carry out the same principle, and relieve their estates at the expense of trade and commerce. Let us rather give the barons all praise that they obtained the right for a portion of the people, at least, to be consulted in the imposition of taxation. But, as Mr. Hallam observes, *the essential clauses, especially the thirty-ninth, are tho e which protect the personal liberty and property of all freemen, by giving security from arbitrary imprisonment and arbitrary spoliation; the thirty-ninth clause containing the spirit of our Habeas Corpus Act:" "No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseised of his freehold, or liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we pass upon him nor send upon him, but by lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or delay to any man, justice or right."

Herein there is protection for person and property, and though this noble principle was the product of the dark ages, it shines brightly with the light of righteousness. Let the enthusiasm and reverence of most men be lavished upon the heroes of the Commonwealth-all honour to them!—yet we cannot help feeling profoundly thankful and very grateful to the noble men who demanded and obtained this vital principle of English liberty, without the shedding of a drop of blood, though literally at the point of the sword-men who fought against, not only a powerful King, but a yet more powerful Pope, and who believed they were struggling as well for their religious liberty as their civil rights. These barons appear to have possessed both the reverence of the Romans for law, and the love of liberty of the Saxons, as also the bold, wild daring of the