but were persuaded in vain " to commute their piety into gold." In fine, the condition of the common people was not improved, nor was the tyranny of the aristocracy broken, by the holy wars. However, there can be no doubt of the public mind, throughout Europe, having been heated and strongly excited by the extraordinary military, and partly commercial, enterprises of the Crusades. And this mental activity, nurtured by the knowledge derived from expeditions undertaken by men into the interior of Asia, gradually increased by what it fed on, and ended in those glorious discoveries, of America by Columbus, and of the doubling of the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco de Gama. And these two important discoveries taking place about the same time, changed the destiny of the world.

The demand for shipping, for the conveyance of men and horses to the Holy Land during the Crusades, called into existence the fleets of Genoa, Marseilles, and Venice, and the commerce of those towns was extended to all parts of the shores of the Mediterranean sea. The principles of the maritime law, at present in force in Europe, were established in the thirteenth century, by the commercial cities of the Mediterranean. The important principle that the flag covers the merchandise, and that, during war, private property on board of vessels should be protected, was established by the municipality of Marseilles. The very forms of the charter-parties, now in use in the sea-ports of Great Britain, were taken from the contracts entered into with Genoa, to convey troops, pilgrims, and goods to the ports of Syria.

To a manufacturing and commercial people like the British, the revolutions of the Crusades have been of the greatest importance, as they have, more than any other nation, profited by the new channels of navigation and

trade to the East and West, opened since the fifteenth century.

When all these circumstances are considered-when the extension of geographical knowledge is taken into account -when the mind dwells on the consequences which have resulted from the discovery of America, and the transplanting, to that quarter of the world, of the sugar-cane and the coffee plant, first brought to the knowledge of Europe by the Crusaders-and, above all, when one reflects on the reformation of religion, and the other changes in Germany, France, and England, which followed that event, the mind is impressed by the stupendous importance of the revolution of the Crusades, to which all the extraordinary events referred to can be directly or indirectly traced. So important have those enterprises been in their results, that almost every writer on the history, politics, morals, jurisprudence, and manners of Europe, since the thirteenth century, has delighted to expatiate on them. But it has been remarked, that, contrary to what happens in most military enterprises of great pith, they did not form at the time the subjects of romance or poetry. Probably there was too much of the reality of horrors and misery of every kind, to allow any scope to the imagination.

Having briefly noticed the events which issued out of the Crusades, it will now be necessary to go back to the cause which led to them, and it is very instructive to find that taxation was the spark that ignited the inflammable materials. of the whole of Europe. A poll-tax of one bezant, a gold coin of uncertain value,* imposed on pilgrims entering the holy city of Jerusalem, roused the pity and indignation of all Christendom, for great numbers of pious persons reduced

The value of it is supposed to have been about equal to twenty shillings sterling.

to the extremity of misery, and even torture, by the infidels, in consequence of their inability to satisfy the demand made on them. And, when the cruelties inflicted on the pilgrims by the Mahommedan barbarians had reached their height; an extraordinary man, of ardent temperament, of pious zeal, and possessed of that species of eloquence suited to the age, and to the minds that he addressed, preached the deliverance of the Christians, and the liberation of the Holy Land from the exactions and power of the infidels. The Pope took up the cause; and the kings, and princes, and the armed population of every country, assembled at the call to carry the cross to Mount Calvary. Now were presented the most extraordinary spectacles which the world ever saw : all Europe poured forth its inhabitants from the plains, the mountains, and glens of every country; "the people were turned from intestine discord to foreign war, from dull superstition to furious zeal." Men, who had never met but as mortal foes, now rushed forth to fight side by side in the same cause. The expeditions, which followed each other under various leaders, were in numbers more like the armed migrations of nations, than armies equipped for battle.

From ignorance of the countries through which they marched, and from deficiency of provisions, the severest hardships were endured; and in the first Crusade, out of 800,000 men, women, and children, who departed from Europe, only about 40,000 encamped before the walls of Jerusalem.

But it is foreign to the design of this notice, to go into details of the Crusades: the object is to illustrate the effects of cruel taxation. One great passion moved the millions who rushed to the plains of Palestine; but, mixed with that, there were other strong impulses and fierce emotions. Fanaticism and superstition were stirred

by the excitement of adventure, and by the desire for military renown, and the hopes of being able to avenge on the head of the unbeliever, the cruelties inflicted on the Christian, occasionally soothed the soul of the stern Crusader. But cupidity and avarice never lost their power from first to the last of the crusading expeditions. The active minds of the popes and clergy, who kept alive, for so many generations, the crusading disposition, had their attention always fixed upon the accumulation of property in the church; and the rapacity was at times carried to such lengths, as to defeat its own end by the disgust which it created among the laity.-On the other hand, the rapacious barons, with armed hand, at times relieved the church of its superfluous wealth. In several countries of Europe, a projected crusading expedition was almost an excuse for levying a tax on the people. In England a tax of 10 per cent on real and moveable property, called Saladin's tax, was levied by Henry II. And Richard the First, that romantic warrior but blood-thirsty savage, expended every shilling that he could raise in the Crusade, on the return from which he was made prisoner, and entailed such a heavy expense on his subjects for his ransom.

Fortunately for mankind, the credit or funding system was unknown in those ages, otherwise nations, for centuries. afterwards, might have been called to pay interest on debts incurred to set up a gothic king on the throne of Jerusalem. But to Richard of England is due the merit, of having settled, by treaty with Saladin, the exemption of the people of the West from all taxes on making the pilgrimage to the holy sepulchre. This took place in the year 1191, about a hundred years after the first Crusade.

About this period, the spirit of crusading was becoming weak, and people were more and more reluctant to respond

to the calls of the pope and their kings to raise funds;taxation cooled zeal: but as the fifth Crusade was led against Constantinople, which it carried by assault, and plundered of its immense wealth, the hope of pillage revived the religious desire to secure possession of the Holy Land; and for ninety years longer, the Aristocracies of Germany, of France, and of England, were rivals for the possession of the prize.*

The many centuries emphatically called the dark ages, were a period of darkness that might be felt. The only light that was perceived through the gloom, was the flickering rays from monasteries, reflected on the strongholds of robber-chiefs. Cupidity unrestrained, save by the danger of dividing the spoil, seized, throughout the greater part of Europe, the goods of every one not under the protection of a powerful chief. The bodies and souls of men were retained in pledge; the first enslaved by an armed power, and the latter kept in bondage by priests, who asserted an influence beyond the grave.

The law of the first-born, and the law of mortmain, though contradictory in their terms, agreed in securing to a barbarous Aristocracy, property and power acquired by

It is not possible for the mind of a man, living in the present age, to conceive what would have been now the state of Europe, and of the world at large, had the Crusades not been undertaken. If the authorities, under whose power Palestine lay, had perceived their true interests, and had they encouraged pilgrimizing Europe, by consistent hospitality to the pilgrims, and protection to their property, instead of cruelly oppressing the devotees, and rousing the indignation and enterprising energies of the inhabitants of Europe, by the exaction of heavy taxes, the human mind would have remained in the sleep of the dark ages, and, at this day, dreams would have stupified the souls of men. But the world seems to be governed by an overruling Providence, through the cupidity and passions of men, as instruments to effect his purposes.