ENGLAND AND ITS PEOPLE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 12, 30 June 1859, Page 1

ENGLAND AND ITS PEOPLE.

Chapter 4. The Feudal System and Richard I. The number of years (276) which passed from the death of Alfred to the accession of Richard the I. was not so great as the difference between the characters of the two Kings. Alfred had Hived for and among the people of whom he was one; and to advance i heir good and prosperity had been the object to which foe devoted his talents and his powers. Richn&'d ruled like a despot over a people he could not speak, and used all the strength that in him lay to make his own name great and his own will supremo. The change in the condition of the Saxons and in the appearance of the country was not less great. Where once the lives and properly of all men had been equally cared

for, the powerful were now alone secure; and, in place of the feasting and merry makings that men had joined in during Alfred's days, there was now poverty and distrust and fear between the rich and the poor. Now, to explain how all this had come to pass, we must go back 400 years—to the lime when, tempted by the rich fields and shady forests of Great Britain, an ambitious, strong-willed man named William, Duke of Normandy, who lived in a land divided from England only by a narrow sea, had persuaded all the daring, greedy spirits of his own country to go over with him and divide the good things of the Saxons among them. The invaders were united and knew what they had come to do; the Saxons were scattered, and as their King, Harold, was slain in the first battle fought between them and the Normans, they had no one to lead or command them, and so the Normans triumphed, and from the North to the South no Saxon remained as well off as he had been. Many who would not yield were slain, their lands were taken by the conquerors, and their children forced to fly to countries beyond the sea: others who owned the foreigners as masters lived on in their old houses; but times were changed for them, the foreign lord was a master: the inhabitants of the domain trembled in his presence, and approached the Hall in which he lived with terror—the Hall which, when the old Lords of their own race lived there, had always been open to them, but was now filled with foreign soldiers and hard task-masters. Besides this change in the condition of the Saxons, a new language and many new customs were brought into England by the Normans, —among these there was one which more than any other enabled the conquerors to set at defiance ihe attempts of the conquered to throw off their yoke. Each great baron who received land from the King swore in return to fight for and follow him whenever called upon to do so; and each baron in his turn made his followers to whom

he granted land swear the same oath : so that an army of fighting men was always; ready to carry out the designs of the head man; and the will of the barons was the only check upon the will of the King. William promised the Saxons that the laws of their favorite King Edward should be maintained, but they did not find them of much use in shielding them from their oppressors. The difference is very great between the robbers of those days who seized what pleased them, and the settlers of (he time we live in, who pay for the land they live on, and are willing to share with those amongst whom they dwell the advantages of their laws and civilization. Strong castles sprung in every direction. They were surrounded by double sione walls between which the soldiers and workmen of every description lived: in the centre were strong stone towers where the valuables were kept, and in which the lord, his wife, and their attendants of rank were safely lodged. These stone castles were very different from ihe*low iMd huts and thatched hovels which belonged??'the original owners of the land, and the occupations of the people who dwelt in them were as different. In the castles the ladies sat working beautiful patterns and hangings for rooms, sang songs, and learnt the art of making medicines and healing ointments, whilst the gentlemen polished their lances, practised games of strength, hunted in the great forests. In the tents the work was different: the men and women had both to live by their daily toil: they herded pigs and dug the ground; but if they were found killing hares or deer in the forests set aside for the amusement of the strangers, they were put to death or had their eyes picked out.

Such was llie stale of England when KiChard became King, and bv his love of fame and self-willed temper, he did not leave it happier than be found it. Anxious to make his name resound through all the nations of the earth, he determined to leave his Kingdom to the care of . William de Loncscbamp while he himself calledills fighting men together and sailed for the Holy Land to fight against the Heathen who had seized the cityin which Christ died, ple liod had given him to care f6r were in misery athome ; money was wanted to carry on the war, and Normans and Saxons had alike to the tax fell heaviest on the latter, who, if they wo u !d not pay it, were tortured Mil ihey did. Driven bv their miseries to despair, some of the Saxons took shelter in the woods, and plundered all the Normans who fell into their hands, but the greater number of the people submitted tciihely to what they could not help. But even out of all this tyranny and misery the God who orders all made good come forth. The conquerors learnt from the men they had subdued many good laws and customs which before had been unknown to t J €m » I*™ the English never would have been the men they are" had they not' ilieNooman ilourage and the Norman higher power of mind been added to the Saxon temper which dfd not rise enough above the "pains and pleasures enjoyed by beasts as well as men. liven Jtmg Kichard's wars, which cost so brought home know.edge f. om the East and taught us arts before Unknown. But the men who worked the *vil cannot be thaiiked for the good which a tied* who was stronger than thev, brought to pass. * • p • There were many things in Richard which made him loved and admired although they did not make him a good King; he was brave and generous, and his strength was s«»ch that he could cleave a bar of iron in two by bringing his sword down with all his orce upon it. He gave freely to others the

rich things he valued himself, and when he was passing through an enemy's country on lus way from the Holy Land to England his generosity brought, him into great trouble, from which, if the story is true, the love of an old follower was the means of saving him. Kichard, dressed as a poor traveller, hoped to pass through the country unnoticed, but at one town where he staid a night, the Governor shewed him some kindness, to repay which Richard gave him so splendid and costly a ring that it was known he could be uo other than the King of England ; so he was seized and thrown into a dungeon where lie might have stayed all his life without his Iriends discovering him had it not been for the constancy of one of his old followers, to whom he had shewn kindness, who wandered all over the country seeking him, and at last, as he sat one evening under the walls of an old casile, began to sing an old song which Richard bad composed. When the King in the depths of his prison heard the noles he took them up and finished the song. The last act of his life was one of mercy: he and his soldiers had attacked a castle from which a.bow-man firing his arrow through a loop hole had wounded the King beyond all hope of cure. The castle was taken and the man who had shot the arrow was brought before tlie King. 4i What harm have I done you,"said he to him, "that you should thus have attempted my death?" "You killed my father and brother," said the man, 44 and I rrjoice to have slain you." Richard bore the answer patiently and ordered tl.fe man to be set at liberty.

So in men, as in limes and countries, good mixes with evil, and ihe tares grow with the wheat until the end.