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to science or to history. The American ported, but they have maintained that revolution commenced, as all violent law; they have at that sacrifice, perrevolts against established authority manently raised the wages and improved must commence, by "riot and outrage." the condition of their fellow-labourers; In order to evade taxation without re-by doing so; they converted the servile presentation," the Americans entered farmers into reformers; and at the same into a combination against the use of time sent a dagger to the vitals of that tea; but fearing that the cupidity of which has subsisted, and can only subtraders might defeat their object, and a sist, by the plunder of the industrious, cargo of tea arriving in the port of Bos-and the oppression of the poor. And ton, some of the inhabitants of the does it become us then to speak lightly town boarded the vessel in the night, of the sacrifice? Only as it would beand tossed the whole cargo into the come me, who shall enjoy the advantage The Americans do not look back of his devotion, to speak disparagingly. to this exploit, as one unworthy of men of the efforts of HETHERINGTON, who, of intellect and information! The tak-running every hazard of prosecution ing of the Bastile was a "riot; " the and suffering, bravely publishes his unraising of the barricades of July was an stamped paper in defiance of unjust law. "outrage against the law;" but the In politics all now depends on this, gallant youths of the Polytechnic School that the people really rouse themselves, thought it not unworthy of "intellect and that they be not deceived by any and information" to rush to the defence vague or general expressions in favour of these barricades. To the question of liberty. The very men who are now of Mr. KEIGHLEY, " When did we find engaged in stifling the throes of liberty "the members of Mechanics' Institutions in France, are the men who led the opbreaking through the laws of the land, position to Charles the Tenth. But they or concerned in acts of violence? my did lead it, and it was unavoidable that answer is-In July, 1830, in the streets the people ́should be deceived by them. of Paris. But what is history to say of us, if we Even as concerns the recent tumults allow ourselves to be deceived by the in the agricultural counties: what were party of HUME, who supported the adthey? The people, according to the ministration of the Duke of WELLINGrecent testimony of a member of the Tox through a whole session, when a House of Commons, who had travelled breath could have destroyed it; by the much, were more hardly dealt with than party of JOHN WOOD, who was relucthe people of any country in Europe; tantly driven from the Duke's side, by (and that Europe contains Russia, the Duke's declaration against all Austria, Italy, and Portugal; and the reform, and who, returned by the brave country of which we speak is the once weavers and spinners of Preston, is now "mérry England;") they were told by joining the Ministry to defeat the Ten those who affected to consider them Hours' Bill, by parliamentary manageignorant, that their wages were low ment? With regard to Mr. RICHARD because they were too numerous; they POTTER, he has yet to make his choice found their country invaded by crowds for the people, or against them; I trust of poor Irishmen, who, driven by their he will make it well. He has been with own necessities, were willing to work us, and with us I hope he will remain. for half their hire; they rose and drove I hope he will recollect that there is no out the invaders; they found the thrashing which they were ready and willing and able to do, done by machinery; they broke that machinery; they insisted generally on the observance of the law of the Scripture, that " the labourer is worthy of his hire." Many have been put to death; many have been trans

middle course; that those who are not for us are against us. I should be sorry to find myself against him. But against him I must be, if he is not with the people.

I have too much respect for your love of truth, and for your love of the interest of the people, to suppose that any

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apology is necessary for the freedom" obliged to keep a tragedy and a with which I have considered the "comedy company; but should this opinions of some of your members, or "scheme be carried into effect, only one rather their inadvertent assent to the "complete body of actors will be necesopinions of others, on subjects on which sary; while the public will have it is my business to weigh all opinions greater variety, both in the pieces well; and with the confidence, that in" and in the performers. It is also in the coming struggle, you at least will contemplation, in this case, to reduce do your duty, "the prices of admission-the boxes to 5s., the pit to 2s. 6d., and the gallery to 1s. 6d., abolishing, if possible, the "shilling gallery."

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I am, Gentlemen,
Your faithful friend,

and obedient servant,

THE EDITOR OF THE ADVERTISER.

GOOD NEWS.

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There, I look upon that as real good news. I wonder who this wise fellow Captain POLIILL is; I wonder if it be the same little strutting cock that brought WooD and JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR upon their marrow-bones at PresI TAKE the following from the Morn-ton? Faith, the clever speculator seems ing Chronicle; and it is the best piece to have got his match here! I do pity of news that I have seen for a long these player-folks! All over the kingtime. It shows that the THING is dom they are in tatters and in ruin. I going to pieces in all its parts; that it have driven the jackdaws and bats out is stricken; that the hand of death is of at least half a score of their theatres, upon it; that it is sold to the devil, and which really seem to present, in the only wants fetching away. way of proxy, the situation of the great "The very scanty audiences at the tatterdemallion THING. All seems ruin two great winter theatres, in the be- and decay--the cobwebs sticking about ginning of last week, led to the most everywhere. I must say, that the playergloomy reports regarding the inten- people have always behaved with great "tions of the Managers; and the belief civility to me; and, for their own sakes, "that Drury-lane would close suddenly I rejoice at the prospect of seeing them was strengthened by the fact, that completely broken up. In the fields and nothing was advertised in the bills to on the downs they may become real shep"be played after yesterday. On Thurs-herds and shepherdesses; real maids of "day night, however, the attendance the mill and milkmaids the divers damon the part of the public was so good sels may become; make love in earnest, "(at least 270l. having been taken at not in sham; and I can assure the fe"both houses) that a new prospect males, that they will find the real "seemed to open, and it was resolved" HODGE" a great deal better, a great "to try the experiment for another deal more substantial and satisfactory, "week. However great may have been than the sham Hodge, whose limbs are Captain Polhill's loss, it is understood made of bolsters, and the red of whose "that it has not been so heavy by more cheeks arises from ruddle. Those of "than 2,000/. as at Covent-garden. them who are given to sing will find "A prospectus has been issued for the delightful assistance in the larks and "sale or letting of Covent-garden Thea- the nightingales. The month of May “tre, and we understand that a new is approaching-just the gay time for "and plausible scheme is in agitation, the birds. A wheat-field, she having a "viz.-for the same person to hire both hook in her hand for cutting up the Drury-lane and Covent-garden (at a docks and the thistles, is precisely the "reduced rent of course), and according scene for a Phillis who has just escaped "to circumstances nightly, to play from the stink of the gas. comedy at the one and tragedy at the change! How happy these lasses will “other. At present, each theatre is become! When we consider how they

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are wanted in the fields, what a desire | are gone never to return. Of this Capthey must naturally have to act in re- tain POLHILL may be assured. Will ality that which they have so long been PETER THIMBLE say that the want of acting in sham! One must have the employment here arises from surplus heart of the devil to wish them to remain population? Yet if he do not say this, where they are.

That

what becomes of his doctrine? As to the heroes, they will turn their doctrine he means to apply, I suppose, daggers of lath and tin battle-axes, or only to those who create the victuals, rather they will exchange them, for hoes drink, and clothing; in short, the and hooks and other implements of hus- THING is destroyed: it is not what it bandry. I cannot indeed pledge myself was any more. I have always said that that they will find the change altoge- the Whigs would destroy it, and they ther so advantageous to them: the ladies have destroyed it. will be charmed with the rural simplicity and frankness and unhesitating conduct of the swains in real life: but I am afraid that the heroes of the sock

OF THE

PROGRESS

OF THE INCOME

OF THE

and buskin will be found wanting in ORIGIN AND
some of those requisites, which are ab-
solutely indispensable to render their
suits successful amongst the female
chopsticks; whose great simplicity,
and, as Doctor Black would call it,
"want of education," always make
them prefer the substantial to the an-
tallactual.

CHURCH OF SPAIN.

Now to business. If Captain Polhill

(Continued from No. 14, col. 833, vol. 75.) CHAPTER VII. 1

of several sorts of income derived to the Church of Spain on account of her Seignories.

have a mind to have his theatres filled, he will let them to me. I will be bound to fill them, each of them, once a week The church in Spain possesses by until the month of June; and he will royal grants, several seignories and have the further satisfaction of knowing domains, in which the tenants and that sense has, at last,' been heard in vassals contribute by different paythese regions of everlasting nonsense. ments to the church. From the Gothic If he will let me have his theatres, I times, the church got several approwill, in the course of a month, make priations; but according to the system every sane creature in this WEN see of the age, the land was then cultivated clearly, that the people of this country by bondmen, and it was not until the ought not to pay one single farthing expulsion of the Saracens that the more on account of what is called church began to assume seignorial prethe national debt. If he do not con-rogative.

sent to this, I should not at all be The vassals used to pay to their lords surprised to see him compelled to a sort of tribute, formerly called mincio let his houses for cholera hospitals. and now luctuosa (i. e. mournful). This What a breaking up! What a surplus tribute consisted in the best head of population of player folks! And what cattle in the possession of a vassal at the is the cause of this melancholy change? time of his death. Nobody was exSimply this; that the chopsticks will empted from this tribute, the very same no longer live upon potatoes. This is domestics in the royal household leavthe true cause, and this cause will go ing to the king the horse in their posworking on, reform bill or no reform session when they died. The king, as bill, until the jackdaws and starlings is already stated, used to convey some and bats inhabit these two monstrous of his domains to several persons and places. The sooner this takes place the churches, as a remuneration for their better; the flashy days of old SHERY services; and in those cases, these

seignors substituted instead of their true condition of the poor tenants, and sovereign, received the same pensions who, on the other hand, are affected by which belonged to the monarch, before interests far different from those of the his accession, save only the tribute called | ecclesiastical contractors; so that, while monada forera. these commonly extort in an unmerciful manner the luctuosa, the others, on the contrary, very seldom or never extort any sort of cattle from the farmers.

The luctuosa was one of those seignorial pensions, and the churches accordingly used to receive it from the tenants and vassals within her domains. This contribution is, now unknown in most provinces of Spain except Asturias and Galicia. It was indeed justly abolished, as a tribute which increased the calamity of the afflicted, since the unfortunate persons who were called for the payment of it, besides the grief they had to sustain for the loss of their parents and relatives, were nearly ruined by the loss of part of their cattle, the only means for the support of their families and the cultivation of their farms.

The usual manner in which the secular seignors receive the luctuosa, is more conformable to the will of the princes who originally granted this prerogative, as well as to the pious intention of the church. Berganza asserts that the tenants could offer in payment twenty-four maravedis (little less than two-pence) instead of a cow; and we learn from the Becerro de Behetrias (a sort of statistical book) that this was the plan adopted in former times. Now there is nothing settled on this account, so that a great many ruinous The council of Compostela, in 1114, law-suits are undertaken for the exacin consequence of these inconveniences, tion and payment of the luctuosa; perfectly known to the fathers, enacted and it would be a very wholesome that those tenants who kept up the cul-improvement, that a certain sum of tivation of their farms left by their pa- money should be generally agreed on rents, should be exempted from the payment of this tribute; and it is a pity that this wholesome regulation has not been generally enforced, since we regret to see that the sons of the Asturian and Galician farmers are still grieved with the payment of the luctuosa, notwithstanding that they keep up the cultivation of their fathers' farms.

The clergy in Asturias and Galicia, generally speaking, are very zealous in the performance of the duties of their holy profession: but it is a pity that this very zeal turns out, though in an indirect way, to the disadvantage of their tenants. They usually entrust the administration of their ecclesiastical property to a sort of contractors with a view to keep themselves disengaged for the pastoral duties of their holy profession, and most of those men being commonly people of covetous habits, do not scruple to rob the poor.

and adopted, as an equivalent for the luctuosa, and if it could not be the twenty-four maravedis of old, at least it might be a moderate contribution.

There is in Galicia another sort of luctuosa known under the name of abadia, because it is paid to the rectors of parishes usually, called abades (abbots) in that kingdom. Those rectors, upon the death of their parishioners, used to receive the best garments or the bed of the dead person, and sometimes both. This tribute is not altogether incompatible with the luctuosa, since there are many parishes in which they pay the luctuosa to the jurisdictional seignor, and the abadia to the rector. Noblemen are exempted from the former, but not from the latter. This tribute is also known in other provinces in Spain, but on a moderate scale; upon the death of a beneficiarius, their heirs pay to the rector the clerical The method observed by the secular cap and the prayer-book of the deseignors, is not so ruinous as that ceased; but in some bishoprics in Galiabove-mentioned: they keep regularly cia they are bound to pay the horse or their magordomos or stewards, who are mule of the deceased with the harness more intimately acquainted with the appertaining to it, the garment used by

the deceased just before his death, his | vigour usually displayed by that moprayer-book, his table with his table narch, the described abuses still subsist service, and moreover the tenth and in many places. Some ecclesiastical -eighth part of his property. This con- persons, particularly among the monks, tribution is very ancient in Spain; but, receive still this sort of tribute, as a part nevertheless, it originated, no doubt, in of their patrimony, according to the violence and oppression. The very principles of the feudal system. same seignors, who cannot but acknowledge the tyranny of this tribute, have come very often to a special agreement with their debtors, whereby this tax is reduced to a moderate suni.

There was in Spain another sort of seignorial pension, called muneria, by virtue of which the lord of a domain took possession of the property of any of his vassals who died without le wful heirs: this was a kind of reversion of the property, incident to the territorial dominion of the seignor: but this pri

consequence of the dominion, since we observe that it was granted to the monastery of Cardeña, many years after it had got the seignorial domain. A great many churches in Leon and Castille were possessed of this privilege.

The church in Spain acquired too, on account of her seignories, another sort of income called infurcion; or, as it is called in Galicia, furnage, which vilege was far from being a necessary originated in the laws of Leon, under which authority, the kingdom of Galicia was populated after the conquest. In the 25th chapter of the ordinances of Leon, there is a regulation by which any possessor of a house built upon another's soil, is bound to pay to the Another sort of income incident to seignor ten loaves of wheaten bread, the dominion, is the laudemium: the half cantara of wine (2 gallons), and a possessors of an enfileusis, whenever good sheep, provided that he have neither they convey their lands to another pera horse, nor an ass. Though this tri-son, must pay a pension to the enfiteubute is still in vigour, the seignors have tic seignor, as an acknowledgment of substituted for it an equivalent sum of his dominion: the Spanish law reduced money, or a quantity of other fruits of this pension to two per cent. of the the country. price of the sale, which is, certainly, a The above-mentioned ordinance of moderate rate: but in spite of this Leon exempts from paying the said statute, there are still a great many tribute those who possess either a horse signors who extort five and even or an ass, just because they were bound ten per cent. The church of Spain to employ their cattle in the service of granted some lands of her domain under the seignor two days in the year. this sort of enfiteutic contract, and acThese and many other sorts of vassal-cordingly receives the laudemium in age, an ancient relic of the feudal sys-cases of conveyances.

CHAPTER VIII.

Of the Precaria; a contract known under this name.

tem, began to disappear gradually, the There are many other kinds of domipecuniary taxes being more conform-nical pensions enjoyed by the church in able to the present state of society than Spain on account of her seignories, which personal services. In the records of the we purposely omit, being not very im Cortes of Valladolid, 1351, there are portant. sundry indications of the tyrannical abuses introduced under this head; and in the 45th petition the Galiciaus complain of the covetousness of seignors who extorted from them personal services without paying them as the ordinances directed. King Don Pedro the Justiciary issued some proclamations to protect his subjects from this oppression; but notwithstanding the justice of his measures, and the

some

1. SINCE the expulsion of the Saracens, the property of the church of Spain was greatly augmented, not only by the means already described, but by some others very little known before that period. We are aware, that, from the times of St. Augustin, some Christians

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