Under Sir T. Dale the communistic organization of the colony was broken up. He assigned to every freeman three acres of land, requiring him however to work for three months for the common stock and to contribute also to the common stock three bushels of Indian corn. Soon the English doctrine of no taxation without representation asserted itself and the Colonists began to declare that without the consent of their delegates to the general assembly constituted by the company no tax could be levied on them by the Home Government-and therein lay the germs of American Revolution.

At this time the Church of England was regularly established in the Colony, parishes laid out, endowments created by voluntary contributions, and a tax laid on the parishoners for the support of the clergy.

A great advance in independence was made in 1628 when the King, desirous of contracting for the whole crop of tobacco raised in Virginia decided that an assembly should be convened to consider his proposal. It was convened and it rejected the offer. Under the commonwealth the assembly was empowered to elect the Governor.

The origin and early history of the colony explain the spirit and temper which it has exhibited in later times. It was a monarchical and an aristocratic colony. The early settlers were enthusiastic loyalists, many of them being of aristocratic birth. Again the one crop which prospered in Virginia was tobacco. But tobacco is a crop on which hired service and slave labour can be profitably employed. The gaol birds of England and negroes from Africa were imported for the purpose. Thus there grew up in Virginia a considerable class of large proprietors owning enormous estates, and living in great luxury. Among such the aristocratic spirit grew strong. The opposite conditions existed in the Puritan colonies of New England. Virginia, again, was episcopalian and therefore stood for the King and the ancient institutions. New England was Puritan and for the Parliament.

Lastly after the breaking up of the communistic system the lands in Virginia were granted to individual proprietors who

settled in unoccupied districts often very remote from cach other; and who, therefore, were unchecked by habitual contact with their equals. In New England it was required that all settlements should be in villages and townships-within reach of the parish school and the parish church; and the municipal organization, so favourable to the developement of the spirit of equality was perfect and regularly worked.

THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY

INTO MERCIA.

BY HOWARD S. PEARSON.

March 2nd, 1881.

Ir would be difficult to over estimate the interest which attaches to the subject of my paper. If the smallest scrap of archæology or of history becomes precious when it can be locally connected with our own special corner of the world, how great must be the interest with which we must regard the local effect of an event so pregnant with importance as the introduction of Christianity into our district. But unfortunately the information which we possess upon this particular subject bears no proportion to the interest which we naturally feel in it, and the time has long since gone by, during which it would have been possible by research to have made any material or trustworthy addition to the slender stock of our knowledge. Nothing is therefore open to me beyond the modest task of presenting the little that is known to us in an orderly and consecutive form; and by availing myself of such indirect help as the known characteristics of the peoples concerned, and the circumstances of their time may afford,-to draw such inferences as may be recommended by their intrinsic probabilities, and lie but little open to the likelihood of error.

As may readily be supposed, the authorities now extant are few in number and brief in detail. They may be said to consist of the Ecclesiastical History of England by Beda, or Bede, deservedly known as the "Venerable Bede";-of such portions of the "Anglo Saxon Chronicle" as concern our present enquiry;-and of the Chronicle of the Mercian monk Florentius, commonly known as Florence of Worcester. These may fortunately be described as, in

the main, perfectly reliable. Few characters during the whole story of English Literature stand out more clearly marked by a loveable simplicity and unselfishness of disposition than the Venerable Bede. Liable in common with all that is human to be misled by incorrect information or by error, subject also to that superstitious reverence for sanctity which gives too ready credence to all the marvels which may be attributed to the heroes of the Church; his personal character, his regard for truth, and his diligence in seeking it, are all above suspicion. The extreme brevity with which he dismisses the most important events greatly reduces his liability to error,-always more prone to cling to the fringe than to the bare texture of a story; and nothing is easier than to separate the miraculous part of the narrative, belief in which was almost inevitable in his time, from the main thread of the story. The sources from which he compiled the earlier portion of his history are matters of pure conjecture, yet his account of the immigration of the three tribes of the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons into England presents nothing which is open to suspicion. Bearing in mind that the Anglo-Saxon system of monarchical government was to a large extent hereditary, and that every petty king claimed to trace his descent from Wodin, it would appear certain that some record of the later stages of this mythical genealogy would be carefully preserved. Objections indeed against the existence of Hengist and Horsa based upon the meaning of those names, in an age when all names were more or less significant, can scarcely be considered reasonable. It is at least to be hoped that the typical New Zealander of Lord Macaulay will investigate the annals of our own times in a spirit of less trivial criticism; lest the exploration of Africa by a Livingstone, and the firm enunciation of liberal principles by a Gladstone, involve him in purely gratuitous and selfcreated difficulties.

The invaluable historical record known as the Anglo Saxon Chronicle was evidently compiled in different parts of the kingdom, under an official sanction and supervision the conditions of which are not clearly known to us. The date of its commencement is also uncertain, but it was evidently subsequent to the work of

Bede, from which its earlier portions are in the main borrowed, with certain additions of some interest as regards our present object.

Florence of Worcester,—a chronicler much more influenced by prejudice than Bede, was also later by some centuries than the latter, from whom his account of the Christianising of England is taken almost verbatim, and with due acknowledgement. The only value of his work, so far as the period in question is concerned, is in the few local details which he, as a member of a Mercian monastery, adds from his own knowledge; and thus we find that direct light upon our subject may be said to be confined almost to a single authority, the priceless work of Bede, perhaps upon the whole the most valuable, and certainly the most unique, historical work which we possess.

Passing by all considerations of minor tribal distinctions, which in no way concern the present question, we find England in the seventh century inhabited by men of two great races;—the Celtic, and the Teutonic, or to speak more precisely the Low German. The characteristics of these two races were not only strongly marked, but strongly contrasted, and remain at this day almost unaltered by the lapse of twelve centuries of changeful time. It would be presumptuous upon my part to express the desire that these still existing differences should be more diligently studied by our leading politicians, but it may be unhesitatingly affirmed that without a knowledge of them no endeavour to pacify the jealousies which still unhappily separate the inhabitants of these islands, can ever be other than hap-hazard and valueless guess-work. The invaders, the Saxons as we usually term them in the mass, were in an eminent degree practical, orderly, law-abiding, and persistent. All the virtues which appertain to solidity of character;-patience, perseverance, thoroughness and firmness,-they possessed in abundance; aud with them the corresponding defects of obstinacy, grossness, dulness of perception, and a certain heavy stolidity consistent enough with respectability, but presenting an almost insuperable barrier to greatness. The Celts may be fairly said to have been the exact opposite of all this. Keenly perceptive,