HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume III, Issue 3, 31 March 1857, Page 6

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

From 1307 to 1377.

(Continued from our last.) In the history of the great men who have at different times undertaken great designs in the world, it is curious to see how often ihey have led lo no great results from the i weakncssorpowerlessnessoflhcsous who have \ come after them ; and so it was now. Prince ' Edward may not have been a worse man ;han ; his father, but he had not the > irons' heart and firm hand which could hold the reins and drive according to his will a hardy set of men ' who cared for no interests lust their own. ; The various means he sought to hv.a him ' i from his troubles only drew ihe people's I violence against himself; as, feeling his own '. pcwerlessness to rule, he called to his aid ; favou lies whose pride and high position ; made then; ihc marks for envy and dislike, and while he spent his strength in propping up their power his father's prize slipped from his careless fingers, and Scotland's native King maintained his rule over the now freed Scots, while Edwards lime was passed, first in great feasts and banquets, and then in the battle field against his rebel subjects. II is ' own wife did more lo crush and ruin him j than even the great lords who were so jealous of j his power, and taking his son, a boy twelve ! years old, to France with her, she' laid plans ! of how she best might injure him : am! join- i i wg with a banished Englishman named ! Mortimer, for whom she had forsaktm !he ! duty which a wile owes to a husband, this

'Queen, whose name was Isabella, came,back ; to England, and heading the rebel people! forced the King to fly and to give up, by! papers which he signed, all claim to be the; King of a country which his father had be-! quealhed to him in such a prosperous state, j But loss of power was not the only punish-: mcni which Edward's weakness brought him. A short time after, he was cruelly murdered, ; and in a grave of Old St. Peter's he found \ the rest he had never had as King. I The road which lay before his eldest son, : who now was crowned as King, was not a i smooth one. A mother who had turned against her husband, a guifiy lord who ruled! this guilty mother, a race of Chiefs or Lords ! who, though they wanted justice for ihcm-l selves, would gladly seize it from the King or; lower people, a warlike nation, as the Scots | were, waiting on the borders of the land to plague and pillage it—all were around and \ against his opening path these various hostile powers a by of sixteen had to fight alone. But in this new King Edward his grand-j father's bold soul and strong will seemed to j have come upon the earth again; and at the end of 50 years, when this young boy had grown an old grey-headed man, and was 1 about to render up his life and kingdom to ! the great king Death, he could look back and say that at no former time had England been so great or all her people so well ruled by law. and so secured from future king's oppression. In this his people helped him ; as, when he wanted money for his wars against Loth France and Scotland, thrv

Tvould not let hsiu claim it as he wished, j but failed before his mind how in the I last two reigns it had been made law in the assembly of the people thai'"no suips ! could be taken by the King without the ! X 1 Parliament's consent. And so to make the j people help him in his plans, and to secerc i their favor and affection, he granted them I great benefits tfhc tihief of which were a' reform in all the Law Courts, where till this j time the French language had "been used i since Y\ llliani with his Norman Lords had j conquered England, but now once more ih e , i English tongue was -spoken. The Judgesi 100 had been but bLdly chosen and gave j for bribes the judgment which should ! have followed right; but now they were : yearly selected from the wealthy of the people, and if they gave an unfair judgment ; they might be dismissed ; so thai in Edward's j reign the law stood firm—a rock to be relied ! on by ihe people who took shelter under it i from all the cruel acts of men,who by their i greater might had claimed a greater right I over their weaker brothers. j There are three branches of the law in EnglanJ known by the names of Common ■ or Unwritten, Civil, and Statute Law. The first is that of which the written law itself is > lost Lut of which there are still found : histories of cases which show us what the practice of our forefathers had been. By the common law of England the eldest son succeeds to all his father's land, and on decisions given in King Edward's reign, much of the law which now directs our

business rests. The civil law, which came ■from foreign countries, has become subject to both the lloinmon and Slamie; and of 'the Statute, or written law, it is enough lo say that as it has been wished for by the people and settled by iheui with the Lords and King in full assembly of their Parliaments, and has been written and preserved with care, it is the one great power to which all bend. King Edward also passed a stature in his reign which greatly pleaded his subjects as by it it was established that in three cases only could a man be charged with the great crime of treason—lst. if he tried to pat the King to deaih—2nd. if he fought in war against hi-n— and, 3rd. if he helped foreign enemies within his country. But now We must return to Edward as we left him at his father's death, and see how he surmounted the grave troubles which were around him. As soon as, he had reached his eighteenth year, he seized the traitor Mortimer, tried him for the late King's murcer, and punished him by death. His mother he sent to one of his strong castles, where she lived on with time to sorrow for "tier sins ; and then he marched to Scotland •where he gained a victory over the Scots, but left them to follow up a larger prize which now opened to his sight. The King of France, who was young Edward's uncle,had just died, leaving no son "behind him to fill the throne, therefore his cousin Philip, as nearest male-heir, claimed it. and the Lords of France approved hi in as by their laws a woman may not reigh, and Edward, although nephew to the King, was so ihrough Isabella his mother, which by the law of France prevented his succeeding, iui longing for action, and longing to add so large and rich a country to his own, he called his troops together, got money fro«i his people, and sailed for France, j leaving his wHe.Qtieen Phili; pa, to carry on the w:ir agiunst the Scots. ilis son," the Prince ol Wales, railed from the color of \\\* armour the Black Prince, went with him and was made a Knight, a mark of great lienor at that time.