avenge the deed; when the king, at the very instant of the crisis, with presence of mind and calmness, exclaimed to the multitude, "What means this clamour-Will you kill your king?—Come, I will be your leader; follow me to the fields, and what you ask, you shall have." The spirit and confidence thus displayed did more to disarm the revolution than any force that could be brought against it; and the circumstances show, in a most striking manner, how a blow well aimed, and a word timely uttered, are able, like the interposition of a superior power, to turn from its course an event that was about to overwhelm a nation. But it is only the history of a rude age that can present incidents of such a dramatic character. The concessions which had been made to Tyler and his followers were rescinded, and many hundreds of the prisoners taken, perished by the hand of the executioner.

The period from the death of Richard II. to the accession of Henry VII., a space of eighty-six years, was a most unhappy one for the people of England. No advantage was gained from the wars of Edward III. in France, save the name of some fruitless victories, which only flattered the ambition of the king who won them. These wars and some flashing victories were continued to the death of Henry V. when, happily for the English people, and still more so for the French, an end was put to military expeditions, which exhausted this country as much as they devastated France. But after the death of Henry V. followed the civil wars, which continued for about thirty years, until the ambitious pretensions of two families were quashed by the union of the interests of the two factions under the seventh Henry. Wars with France and Scotland-cruel civil wars-military burdens, and exactions on the people to gratify the

ambition of kings, or to increase the power of the Aristocracy, distinguished that long period.

The reign of Henry VII. was an important epoch in the history of England. The cupidity of this king acted as a stimulus to the people, to rouse themselves from their lethargy, and we find that, in several parts of the kingdom, there were insurrections, caused by the severity of taxation. But the most active principle put in motion during this reign, was contained in the Agrarian law, which broke the entails of estates, and caused their alienation to other hands. Many great properties were thus dismembered, and distributed among many citizens.

This reign is also distinguished by several events of great consequence that took place, unconnected with this country, but which have had more influence on it than on any other nation of Europe. These were-the discovery of America, and the invention of printing; the opening of the passage by sea to the East Indies, was also a circumstance which eventually led to a British empire in India.

Here these jottings from English history must end, in order to proceed to the consideration of other matters connected with the circumstances of this country.

ECONOMIC CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE REFORMATION-THEY FORMED A GREAT PROPRIETORY REVOLUTION.

SACERDOTAL exactions from the people, and exemption of the clergy from the burdens, have created more evils to society, and kept it longer in a state of torpor, than all political taxation put together. This must necessarily be the case, as the canon law is a much more serious matter than a lay act of legislation, and a church a much more durable body than a government.

The history of sacerdotal encroachments on the property of a country, would present schemes of deep-laid spoliation perfectly astounding.* Before William of Normandy landed with his army, it is calculated that more than a third of all the lands in England were in the possession of the clergy, exempted from the payment of all taxes, and even military services. So that the ruthless hand of the conqueror, by dividing the lands among his barons, effected an improvement in the country.

This circumstance shows what a singular combination could take place in human affairs, when an event so violent

The Church-reserves of public lands in Canada are a proof of this: the proportion allowed by law was one-seventh, but the clergy, or their agents, in the act of measuring, contrived to make it a fifth, and, in fact, they secured about half the land in some districts.-Durham's Report on Canada.

as the conquest might be considered an amelioration of the condition of a country.

Within two or three generations of men, the cycle of an unjust and oppressive system of lay-taxation, may perhaps be wound up; but it will require more than a thousand years before priestly usurpations shall be put down, or modified by the people subject to the payment.

Previous to the third century, the ministers of the christian religion were maintained by voluntary contributions raised among the faithful; and it would appear that the amount collected was so liberal wherever churches were established, as to tempt the holders of the fund to unfair and partial distribution. "The commencement of the third century was also distinguished by the effort to exact as a right, and on the authority of the Levitical law, the contributions which had been hitherto solicited on the more generous terms of christian equity, or of christian benevolence."* About the same time began the attempts of the secular power to encroach on the increasing wealth of the christian churches; and down to the Reformation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the avarice of the clergy and the cupidity of the civil government were in constant action, to secure the spoils wrung from the people. In the beginning of the third century, the people of Christendom were partly wheedled and partly frightened into the endurance of tithes; and to the present hour, even in Prostestant England, the soil is robbed of the tenth of its produce, to support a church as an instrument of state, for political purposes. The vast wealth of the clergy of England was coveted by the arbitrary Henry VIII, and his confiscation

* Vaughan's Introduction to the Life of Wycliffe, page 30.

The statistics of tithes, showing the enormity of the exaction on certain articles of produce are extremely curious, and ought to be condensed, and

of the religious houses and their revenues put him in funds to celebrate the Reformation. The change of property at the Reformation effected good by stimulating industry, although at the same time the public were defrauded of an immense amount, which passed into the hands of families who paid no valuable consideration.

On considering the state of affairs in Europe, during the dark ages, down to the middle of the sixteenth century, it will be perceived that most of the events originated in the desire of the church and its branches to possess themselves of the property of the laity. The persecutions of popes and synods, the fires, the racks, and the dungeons of the Inquisition, were raised and employed, as much with the view to bring under confiscation to the church, the property of heretics, as to punish their bodies and torment their minds for disobedience to the requirements of the rubric.*

Long before Luther and Calvin appeared, to dispel the delusions of the Church of Rome, by the presentation of the Bible to the people, the rapacity of the clergy had awakened a pretty general desire in England to get free of

added as a fortieth article, to the Articles of the Church of England. It would appear, on the authority of the Rev.. Harlett, quoted in a note at p. 290 of Chalmer's Political Economy, that the tithe of an acre of hops, raised on land worth forty or fifty shillings an acre, is generally worth from £3 to £4. And the value of the tithe of an acre of carrot-seed, raised on land not worth 20s. an acre, is from seven to eight pounds, equal to a tax of seven or eight hundred per cent. on the rental!

To make a tenth produce seven hundred, is truly a modern miracle of the church!

• The unhappy Jews have in every age been objects of persecution, and victims of cupidity.-In Spain the Inquisition made the most of them.-In the fifteenth century, on the expulsion of the whole race from Spain, their property fell a prey to power, both lay and sacerdotal. A house was given for an ass to carry the unfortunate owner-and a vineyard was exchanged for suit of clothes, or for a weapon of defence.-Mill's Crusades.