470 STATE OF SOCIETY IN ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES. expanded, in regard to stretch of wing, from tip to tip; but it is by no means a ponderous species, being short-legged and somewhat slender-bodied, with a kite-like aspect, and certainly less bulky than the great harpy-eagle of South America (falco destructor). We incline to think that a full-sized seaeagle of our own shores would outweigh it. The great marine species of Eastern Asia (haliætus pelagicus) assuredly does so. We are also of opinion that the illustrious Prussian naturalist has entirely overlooked the palmipedes, or swimming birds, which possibly present us with the largest of all the winged species. A well-fed cygnet will weigh nearly thirty pounds; and so it may be doubted if any accipitrine bird, except the condor, would not kick the beam, when placed in the balance with a swan of the largest size. Even as regards expanse from tip to tip of the wing, few species of either land or sea exceed, or even equal, the albatross.-N. B. R. STATE OF SOCIETY IN ENGLAND IN THE It is hardly possible to estimate the effects on human comfort and on riches by the application of capital to the arts of life. We can fully do this only by making some inquiry into the mode of living in civilised countries in the middle ages. The following brief notices from Mr. Hallam's learned and judicious work may give us some distinct ideas on the subject. Up to the time of Queen Elizabeth in England, the houses of the farmers consisted of but one story and one room. They had no chimneys. The fire was kindled on a hearth of clay in the centre, and the smoke found its way out through an aperture in the roof, at the door, and the openings at the side for air and light. The domestic animals-even oxen-were received under the same roof with their owners. Glass windows were unknown, except in a few lordly mansions, and in them they were regarded as movable furniture. When the Dukes of Northumberland left Alnwick-Castle to come to London for the winter, the few glass windows, which formed one of the luxuries of the Castle, were carefully taken out and laid away, perhaps carried to London to adorn the city residence. The walls of good houses were neither wainscoted nor plastered. In the houses of the nobility the nakedness of the walls was covered by hangings of coarse cloth. Beds were a rare luxury. A very wealthy individual would have one or two in his house: rugs and skins laid upon the floor were the substitute. Neither books nor pictures formed any part of the furniture of a dwelling in the middle ages, as printing and engraving were wholly unknown, and painting but little practised. A few inventories of furniture, dating from the fifteenth century, are preserved. They afford a striking evidence of the want of comfort and accommodation in articles accounted by us among the necessaries of life. In the schedule of the furniture of a Signor Contarini, a rich Venetian merchant living in London in 1481, no chairs or lookingglasses are named. Carpets were unknown at the same period: their place was supplied by straw and rushes, even in the presence-chamber of the Sovereign. Skipton-Castle, the principal residence of the Earls of Cumberland, was deemed amply provided in having eight beds, but had neither chairs, glasses, nor carpets. The plate of Mr. Fermor, a wealthy country gentleman at Easton, in the sixteenth century, consisted of sixteen spoons, and a few goblets and ale-pots. Some valuations of stock-in-trade in England, from the beginning of the fourteenth century, have been preserved. A carpenter's consisted of five tools, the whole valued at a shilling a tanner's, on the other hand, amounted to near ten pounds, ten times greater than any other, tanners being at that period the principal tradesmen, as almost all articles of dress for men were made of leather. We need but contrast the state of things in our own time with that which is indicated in these facts, to perceive the all-important influence on human comfort of the accumulation of capital, and its employment in the useful arts of life. : LIBERTY, IGNORANCE, AND MORTALITY. UNDER this head the Presse has an article of several columns, by M. Bertillon. The object of the writer is to show that liberty and education are conducive to the extension of life; and some of the facts which he quotes in support of his theory are of great interest. He begins by quoting the authority of Bouvard in his Notice sur la Vie Humaine in the French colonies from 1831 to 1834. The free population at that period is given as 111,046, the births as 3,026, and the deaths as 3,090. The slave-population he sets down at 260,286, the births, 5,765, and the deaths, 7,214: thus showing that, although the proportion of deaths was nearly alike, this must be accounted for by the circumstance of climate, which would necessarily affect a large portion of the free population, being European, to a greater degree than the slaves, who were all natives; while the superiority of births among the free population indicates the influence of liberty in the increase of the population. As regards the mortality, however, M. Bertillon shows from the tables that have been published, that in the English colonies, before the emancipation, one Negro slave in five or six died; while of the free blacks, who served in the English army, the deaths were only one in thirty-three. He adds that in the French colonies in 1847, the births in the free population always exceeded the deaths, and among the slaves the deaths always exceeded the births. The author then proceeds at great length to notice the mortality in prisons, and draws from the tables which have been published conclusions strongly in favour of his theory. It should be remembered, however, that these tables were made up from returns at a period when the hygienic regime of prisons was very inferior to what it is now; and, although it may be true that the deprivation of liberty may contribute to shorten life, the great mortality in prisons of which he speaks may be attributed to other causes than the effect upon the physical condition of the prisoners arising from a sense of degradation, and other mental sources. To this part of the article, therefore, we are not disposed to attach the importance assigned by the author; neither do we accept as positive all that he says of the mortality in the army. His figures, indeed, show a large proportion of deaths. He says, "Men who are no longer free, who live in an absolute and forced communism, who pass their lives in a narrow subjection, although the chosen part of the population, are more exposed to mortality than freemen." And then he quotes returns, which show a much higher degree of mortality in the army than among civilians. But does it follow necessarily that this difference is caused by the absence of liberty? We know nothing to indicate that the restrictions to which the soldier is subjected are of a nature to shorten life, either as regards the influence of subjection upon his mind or his physical treatment. The most interesting part of the article in the Presse is that in which the writer treats of the influence of education upon mortality. The statistical information that he gives on this point is exceedingly curious; and we agree with him when he attributes the decline in the state of mortality to the higher degreee of education in the people. As the mind is expanded by education, habits and prejudices which are opposed to cleanliness disappear, and the hygienic ameliorations which we owe to modern science are eagerly adopted. A stronger illustration of this truth cannot be given, than the progress that vaccination has made in those parts of France where education is most general. Cleanliness, which is so conducive to health, is also, in a high degree, the consequence of education; for educated persons become necessarily a higher order of beings, and acquire habits which are opposed to the filth and the promiscuous intercourse of the uneducated. The author gives us a proof of the effect of ignorance on mortality in a table, by which he shows that in the Côtes-du-Nord, where 702 persons out of 1,000 can neither read nor write, the average duration of human life is only 31 years; in the Finistère, where the proportion is nearly the same, the average of life is only 27 years; in La Vendée, where the number of persons in every 1,000 who can neither read nor write is 621, the average duration of life is only 32 years: whereas, in the Calvados, where the number who can neither read nor write is only 246 in 1,000, the average of life is 49 years; and in the Manche, where the number of totally uneducated is 255 in 1,000, the average of life is 42 years. The nine departments in which the average of duration of life is the lowest, namely, 30 years, are the Finistère, Corrèze, Cher, Haute-Vienne, Puy-de-Dôme, Dordogne, Côtes-duNord, Allier, and Indre; and in these departments the average number of persons in 1,000 who cannot read or write is 752. The departments in which education is most general, there being only 145 persons in 1,000 who cannot read, are the Jura, Haute-Marne, Meuse, Doubs, Haute-Saône, Vosges, Meurthe, Côte-d'Or, Ardennes, Aube, and Moselle; and in these departments the average duration of life is 36 years. THINGS AND WORDS. THE following is said to have been written by Luther on the wall of his chamber with chalk : Res et verba, Philippus; res sine verbis, Lutherus; verba sine re, Erasmus; nec res, nec verba, Carolostadius. Philip Melancthon has both matter and eloquence. Luther has matter without eloquence. Erasmus has eloquence withAnd Carolostadt has neither matter nor out matter. eloquence." VARIETIES. from Tuscany, that "the Grand Duke, when a petition was presented to him on their behalf, peremptorily rejected it, saying it was a matter of conscience with him, and justice must have its course." FRANCE.-The PERSECUTION AT FLORENCE of the "Christian Times" who writes (From a Correspondent of "The Times."-By letters received from Florence it appears that on the 7th instant the Court of Cassation reject ed the appeal for a reversal of the sentence pronounced against the Madiai. It is generally supposed that this has been obtained in consequence of the urgent demands of the Government, and with the view of inspiring a wholesome fear in the public mind by an example of terrible severity. By the sentence now confirmed, Madame Madiai will be subjected to forty-five months' hard labour at the galleys, and her husband to fifty-six months', besides having to defray the whole expense of the trial, and it will be remembered that their sole crime has been the abandonment of the communion of the Romish Church, and, according to the literal terms of the sentence, "for following the pure Gospel" (puro Evangelo). To this add, from a Correspondent PERSECUTION IN Gazette de France states that the Bishop of Luçon had refused to authorise the singing of a Te Deum on the birthday of Napoleon, unless the body of a Protestant, who had been interred by order of the Mayor in the Catholic cemetery, should be removed therefrom. The Prelate notified his resolution in the following terms: "The diocese is plunged into affliction in consequence of the non-execution of the orders of the Minister of Public Worship with regard to the Cemetery of Cugand. Canticles of thanksgiving would be unbecoming under such deplorable circumstances, and His Grandeur has informed the Government, that he would not order |
