existence;* and to these principles is she mainly indebted for independence.

In examining the course of events, we should not leave Holland unnoticed, so conspicuous does she stand forth in the annals of liberty, and so remarkable and peculiar is her history in that respect. The people occupying the lowlands about the mouths of the Rhine, and to the north of that river, the ancestors of the modern Dutch, were never subjected to the Roman rule. We believe that principles taught and practised, whether good or bad, are far-reaching in their influence. But whether, the principles of liberty, so successfully maintained by the original occupants of Holland, were or were not handed down from generation to generation to the times of the Reformation, certain it is, that the people of that country better understood and more fully enjoyed their rights in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, than those of any other country of Europe. Thither freedom's advocates were wont to flee and find refuge from persecution and death. It is thought that the pilgrim ancestors of New-England gained some additional knowledge of human rights during their sojourn among the Dutch, previously to their departure from the Old World, which enabled them the better to establish those rights on their settlement in the New.

But more of instruction and interest is to be acquired in a survey of the progress of liberal principles in the British empire. Macaulay remarks that, "the sources of the noblest rivers, which spread fertility over continents, and bear richly-laden fleets to the sea, are to be sought in wild and barren mountaintracts, incorrectly laid down on maps, and rarely explored by travellers. To such a tract the history of our country during the thirteenth century may not unaptly be compared. Sterile and obscure as is that portion of our annals, it is there that we must seek for the origin of our freedom, our prosperity, and our glory." It will hardly do to controvert Macaulay, but we may prolong his imagery. "The sources" of these rivers are supplied by water from rains and snows that percolates through the mountains; and we must look far back of the thirteenth century for those things that contributed to the "origin" of Britain's freedom, prosperity,

*The advantages accruing to the colonies from being under the protection of the mother country, were more than counterbalanced by her encroachments. Their history not only shows that they governed themselves, but presents the singular spectacle of a people ever engaged in the two-fold work of governing themselves and of repelling a power constantly seeking to govern them contrary to their wishes and interests.

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and glory. It has been held that our Anglo-Saxon ancestors descended from the Scythians, who so signally defended their liberties against all invasions, in times prior to the Christian era: particularly, that the Saxons in the north of Germany were a tribe of that people; and hence their love of liberty, and their knowledge, valour, and success in preserving it. Some may think this theory as unworthy of credence, as the notion of the Romans, that they originated from the Trojans. However all this may be, the Anglo-Saxons, from their earliest history, have been more successful in maintaining their rights than most other portions of the human race: not, probably, because they were constitutionally more attached to freedom, better able to defend it, or more valorous than the rest of mankind; but because they have been more favourably circumstanced, perhaps, for the defence of their rights than other nations. As a people they have been greatly distinguished for intelligence, valour, and independence. Nevertheless, very many of them have been sunk to the lowest depths of slavery. It is interesting to go over their history, from the time that many of them were held as absolute property by masters of the same Anglo-Saxon blood,-from the time that the ancestors of such men as Locke, Blackstone, and Peel were villains, adscripts to the soil, or absolute slaves,—and see them emerging from such a state, and steadily rising to all the advantages and glories of freedom.

A writer in the Biblical Repository of January, 1836, in an article entitled, Slavery in the Middle Ages, remarks:-" There seems to have been no general law for the emancipation of slaves in the statute book of England. Though the genius of the English constitution favoured personal liberty, yet servitude continued long in England, in particular places. In the year 1514, we find a charter of Henry VIII. enfranchising two slaves belonging to one of his manors. As late as 1547, there is a commission from Elizabeth with respect to the manumission of certain slaves belonging to her." Macaulay informs us, that "some faint traces of the institution of villanage were detected by the curious so late as the days of the Stuarts; nor has that institution ever, to this hour, been abolished by statute." The important fact then appears, that the extinction of slavery in England did not result from statutory law, but from the noiseless action of the liberal principles of the British constitution. Though the slavery of the Anglo-Saxons came to an end along in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, slaves continued to be introduced into England, and held as such, down to 1772, when the well-known case of Somerset took place. The last

*Sharon Turner's Hist. Anglo-Saxons.

of slavery in the British foreign possessions, ceased in 1844. Thus we see the power of Britain and the principles of her constitution simultaneously and co-extensively extending, till eventually, when the sun sets not on her dominions it shines not upon a British slave.

The primary principles which have led to these most auspicious results, and the leading events in this advancement, ought to be carefully studied. These principles are few and simple. The events are not numerous, but stand boldly and proudly out in English history. By the Norman conquest the laws and usages by which the people of England had been previously governed were overthrown, and the feudal system established. For one hundred and fifty years from that time the English groaned under intolerable oppression. That oppression was broken, or very materially diminished, by Magna Charta. Among the important provisions of that instrument the 46th article stands pre-eminent. It reads as follows:*"No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, disseized or outlawed, or banished, or any way destroyed; nor will we pass upon him, or commit him to prison, unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land." This was leaven in the meal. According to this provision, no freeman could be deprived of his liberties, except by legal process, and no legal process could do it but in case of debt or crime. This principle operating in connexion with other important principles of the British constitution, rendered the liberties of the English people safe, so long as they were at all vigilant. The provision in question remained for nearly five hundred years, without any law or regulation to give it any definite application, or to secure its action in all cases of unlawful violence. Still it had its place in the sure foundations of English law, and could at any time be appealed to with effect. But it came into more thorough and efficient action after the enactment of the law of the writ of Habeas Corpus, which took place in the reign of Charles the Second. This law is justly called the great bulwark and second Magna Charta of English liberty. After it had been in existence about one hundred years, it was most effectually used in the highly important case of Somerset, already mentioned, which was brought before Lord Mansfield by Granville Sharpe. So strong were the prejudices that existed against the race to which Somerset belonged, so long had the world been accustomed to behold their degradation, and so great were the monied interests involved in the case, that even the stern and lofty Mansfield seemed to be warped against the plaintiff. He * Tindal's Rapin.

delayed judgment, and twice threw out the suggestion, "that the master might put an end to the present litigation by manumitting the slave;" but the suggestion was providentially not attended to. The matter was pending for nearly five months, in consequence of pleadings and postponements; but the great principles of English law at length prevailed, and Mansfield gave his ever-memorable decision, that secured so important a triumph to justice, humanity, and liberty.* It was, comparatively, a very small matter that Somerset was liberated. This decision-to use the appropriate and expressive words of a certain writer-" revolutioned the jurisprudence of the realm; overthrew ancient precedents; reversed venerated decisions; and inscribed beneath the cross of St. George, on the royal flag, 'Slaves cannot breathe in England.'

The cause of liberty then received a new and powerful impulse, and a somewhat different direction. Soon commenced those movements that led to the abolition of the slave-trade, and the ultimate entire extinction of slavery in the British dominions.

The contest for the abolition of the slave-trade shows how difficult it is for right to gain ascendency over wrong, or liberty over tyranny, where prejudice and power, connected with monied interests, are to be overcome. For twenty years the contest incessantly went on, sometimes to the personal danger of those in favour of the measure. Every inch of ground was disputed; but the enterprise steadily won upon the sentiments of the nation, and gained favour in parliament, till finally the legality of the cruel traffic terminated in 1807. Next commenced those operations that resulted in the emancipation of the slaves of the British West Indies, and the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. These movements continued; and on the first of April, 1844, no less than twelve millions of hereditary slaves in the British East Indies, became free by act of parliament; since which time, no slaves have been legally held in the dominions of the English.

In thus looking over the course of events, we see how a few wellapprehended, leading principles have operated to raise the great body of the English people from slavery to liberty, and to strike off the shackles of oppression wherever the British power has extended. During five hundred years, from the time that Magna Charta was wrested from King John, we see no very marked advances made, at any one time, towards the attainment of human right. The mass of the people had not become sufficiently enlightened for any special advancement, although they were steadily increasing in intelligence * A full account of this interesting case is found in the life of Granville Sharpe.

and becoming more and more possessed of their rights. Though not successful in their attempts to establish a republic in the times of Cromwell, the convulsions of that period prepared the way for the revolution of 1688, and for the subsequent universal establishment of liberty in the English dominions. There is still, it is well known, much of oppression and suffering in Great Britain and Ireland; but it would be unjust to charge it all upon the British government, or any of it upon the real principles of the British constitution. Popery and the vices of portions of the people, contribute largely to it. The debt of Great Britain incurred by wars, gives rise to burdensome taxation;* the remains of the Feudal system, in the existence of extensive manors, worked by tenants; the legal support of the established Church, so utterly inconsistent with liberty, these things dispose many to give but little credit to England's professions of regard for freedom, or for what she has actually done in its behalf. Nevertheless, wherever it is clearly apprehended that England grants liberty, it should be allowed. We apologize not for England's faults. We have simply traced the real progress of liberty in her dominions, from which we can draw lessons of valuable instruction even in this Republic.

We should be glad to speak of the progress of liberty in other portions of Europe, but this we have neither time nor limits to do at present. Of our own country we need not speak at length, though a word or two we cannot withhold. Freedom has been her watchword through all the periods of her history, yet her history tells not of freedom only. Her Declaration of Independence is a text-book of liberty; but what a commentary do we write upon it in the slavery allowed to exist! Her constitution is such, that only by assuming that its framers attached certain meaning to certain words, can it be made to shield oppression in case of a single human being, and yet one-seventh of the people are slaves. But amid all this inconsistency and gloom, there is ground for hope. The principles on which our government is based, together with the prevalence of Christianity, will in time, it is believed, work out the entire enfranchisement of all in our land; and to similar causes are we to look for the ultimate triumph of freedom throughout the world.

From the investigation of this subject it appears plain that no substantial success can be made in this work, unless principles be

* It is ascertained from a late statistical work, entitled, "Porter's Progress of the Nation," vol. ii, that full ninety per cent. of all that is paid into the British Treasury goes to liquidate the interest on the war debt.