MEN WHO MOVED THE. f WORLD ALONG.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 38, 7 May 1907, Page 6

MEN WHO MOVED THE. f WORLD ALONG.

THE INVENTOR OF GUNPOWDER. While there are a great many scholars who are of the opinion that the invention of gunpowder is to be attributed to Roger Bacon, it is by no means settled that the grand old Franciscan is entitled to the honour In fact, the invention of gunpowder is veiled by a thick mystery, which, in all probability, will never be cleared up. 0 But the inventor, whoever he may have been, was the urisconscioua means of introducing the greatest agent of human good that history, knows anything about. To be sure, gunpowder has been made to be the means of the mangling and murdering of millions of the hyman race, and of the destruction of billions upon billions of property; but, notwithstanding all this, the good that gunpowder has done vastly outweighs the evil. Before the invention of gunpowder there were practically two sorts of people—soldiers and theologians. The’ men who would not enter the church had to go into the army. The only business of mankind was war and religion—the killing of ou< another and the saving of the souls of those that had been killed. There was neither trade nor commerce, not manufactories ; there was no science, no literature.

Gunpowder, so soon as it came into common use—about the end of the fourteenth century—established a hard and fast distinction between the “civil” and the “military,” created the “standing army,” and left the rank and file of the people free to follow the pursuits of peace and the arts that make for civilisation. Thus, to use the words of Mr. Buckle, “the European mind, instead of being, as heretofore, solely occupied either with war or with theology, now struck out into a middle path, and created those great branches of knowledge to which modern civilisation owes its origin.” But for gunpowder, or something equivalent, the squalor and wrechedness the superstition and slavery, of the Dark Ages would probably have kept right on, nor would they have ended but with the extinction of the race itself.

Speaking of slavery, we are thereby reminded of the almost incalculable assistance that gunpowder rendered the cause of democracy.

Before the invention of gunpow'der the chief reliance was placed upon the: cavalry, which was made up exclusively of the aristocrats—the men who owned the wealth and held the power of the State. It is easy to see that the foot soldier—who was most always one of the “common people”— had but few chances as against thej mailed knight on his mailed charger, armed with powerful lance or ponderous mace or broadsword.

But so soon as gunpowder came into use the “mailed chivalry” had to take a back seat. The baron in his coat of steel could laugh at Gurth,, who had only his coat of sheepsgray; but when, instead of a crossbow, or, maybe, a rusty old scythe blade, Gurth found himself handling a blunderbuss or manipulating a cannon, the baron had to get out of the way, for powder and ball cared nothing even for the finest armour. j And so, thanks to gunpow'der, military prestige passed from the nobles to the people. The man on horseback, who lived in the castle and lorded it over the serfs, had had his day. The place that he had so long held had been kept by power ; but when gunpowder gave the serf as much power as had hitherto belonged to the lord, things began to look up, and the morning of liberty had dawned upon the world.