PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2004, 21 July 1892, Page 40

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

The Cholera in Itussla. When I read of the advance of cholera from Central Asia into European Russia, my mind flew back to the Black Death in 13S1 and its effects on modern history. I have just been reading "English Social Reformers," the latest volume of Methven's University Extension Series. In the introduction reference is made to the evolution of history, which is generally gradual in its operation, " bub, at times, accentuated and hastened by sudden rapids and cataracts in Its course. History, after all, is occasionally dramatic, and there are three great dramas which have affected our social development. They are the Peasants' Eevolt of the fourteenth century, the social Revolution of the sixteenth, and the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth." To put the Black Death in its proper setting, we require briefly to glance at the feudal system which was so greatly affected by the unparalleled death rate all over England, but particularly in the north and east ; and further to fully appreciate its effects on the system, we ought to have a fair idea of the difference between feudalism on the Continent and feudalism in Great Britain. I do not intend to go into the subject fully ; indeed Ido not know if I can do it satisfactorily, even if I wished, for it cannot be dealt with in the half-dozen paragraphs that are generally set apart for it in histories. There were villeins, serfs, cottars, free men, and slaves, each section havicg distinctive duties, rights, aud privileges. So leaving details, we find that before the Norman conquest there was feudalism on the Continent and feudalism in Great Britain. On the Continent the barons had extensive consolidated tracts, could issue their own coinage, built castles, and had power of life and death over their retainers, who swore allegiance to them. Their power so nearly approached the absolute that they controlled the actions of their sovereigns. William the Conqueror, however, when perfecting the feudal system in England, weakened the power of his nobles in many ways. Though individual barons held sway over large areas, their holdings were scattered. One baron, for instance, held 200 manors, but they were scattered all up and down the country, so that it became a difficult matter for a baron to mass his forces in any one place if he •wished. William I required all retainers to acknowledge him as their paramount lord, instead of the lord from whom they directly held their lands. He did not allow the barons to build castles, to make war on one another, to issue coins, or to control the administration of the laws. But perhaps the greatest check of all during the rule of the Normans was the fear of the English, who bad to choose between two masters, the Norman kings or their barone, who had come over mainly for loot. The Norman rule was stern but fairly jusr, while the rule of the barons they knew would be simply ?;u'srule They preferred the former. By the feudal system they were protected. Further, under ib no man was both landless and lordless. It however, tended to isolate district?, and retarded the development of industries. It is essentially a war, not a peace institution. But after the death of the Norman rules, the system gradually weakened. Personal services were commuted for money payments; and money also took tne place of payment in kind. The extravagar.ee of the nobles, foreign vsars, the growth of industries in spite of obstacles, all tended to weaken the feudal bonds. Side by side with the villein!-', who gradually emancipated themselves from feudal restrictions, there grew up a wage-earning class developed from the cottars, who originally had land, but net sufficient to maintain themselves, and who went about doing odd jobs. Gradually but surely the feudal system was dying out when THE BLACK DEATH precipitated its dissolution. This plague originated in the Eabt, swept across Europe, and invading England, carried off one half of the population. The natural result was rotting harvests and untilled fields, for the labourers left demanded higher wages than the landholders were -willing or able to pay. " Combinations and confederacies of labour became frequent, and the struggle became

more and more bitter." It is said that the labourers were organised by Wiclif'a priests, who, being under no particular authority, spread socialism broadcast among the peasantry. These priests had passwords and a jargon of their own, and the intense interest they took in labour problems made them trusted and respected. The first visitation of the plage took place in 1349, but it made its appearance again in 1361 and I$G9. Following came the enforcement of the statute of labourers, the revival of the obsolescent feudal tenure, and the collection of the shilling poll tax, which fell so oppressively upon the lower classes. In 1381 the rebellion broke out, but, as you know, outwardly it was unsuccessful. The Black Death, bowever, had produced such a scarcity of labour that it became impossible to rigidly enforce feudal conditions. Before the Black Death no one of the lower classes was both landless and lordless ; after it, owing to the liberty gained and the development of the wool industry, a ola9S both landless and lordless was created. In fact, from the Black Death we may date the origin of the modern wage-earner, though it was not until the introduction of the factory system that the value of the land became so great as to bring about an entire divorcement. The wars with France and the Wars of the Koses succeeding the Black Death completed the social revolution that the. Black Death had hastened by killing off the nobility and Riving a cbanca to the villians to free themselves from feudal tenures by giving gifts of money which were very accpptable to a nobility that had developed a fast style of living, and in addition had degenerated into a privileged class of plunderers. The Black Death sounded the death knell of feudalism ; Bosworth Field saw its extinction, it was the last battle of the barons. Is the present unquiet the Black Death of the nineteenth century ? If I had the time I would count up the columns of telegrams directly relating to labour — they wouldn't be many — in the Witness for say 1881, and the columns referring to the same topic iv 1801. I think you would be astoundfd at the result. Our literature is steeped in labour and other social problems hardly referred to openly 10 years ago. We are in the same state of ferment that the peasantry was in iv 1331 when John Ball, the mad priest, and William Langland, a poverty-stricken poet, addressed the masses with inspired words. I haven't written much about the cholera, have 1 1 Well it suggested the Black Death, and that brought in feudalism, on which I have possibly written something you had not read before. Home Rule. Since the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832 I don't think any election has equalled in intensity of interest that just taking place. Some weeks ago I thought of writing a few lines about the question of Home Rule for Ireland, but as Mr R. N. Adams has covered so much Irish history I do not feel called upon to take the question up. bo far as I can see theoretically Home Rule is unquestionably within the rights of the Irish. But the facts (a) ttafc a large majority of the Irish is Catholic, (V) that a large amount of Ireland is owned by absentee landlords and by English and Scotch Protestants, whose ancestors were given estates that were taken from the Irish without giving them an equivalent, and (c) that there is a wholesome dread of another of those wars of religion and race so prevalent in the past, throw difficulties in the way that cannot be easily overcome. The union of the Parliament in 1801 was certainly an iniquitous business, and to my mind reparation should be made. Ido not see why separation could not be accompanied with safeguards. If Mr Gladstone comes into power it will be the cause of much excitement and anxiety whether Home Rule becomes an accomplished fact or not. There are some publishers who say that a review, whether favourable or unfavourable, makes little difference to a book ; that, in fact, the success of a book depends upon how it is advertised and how it is treated by the retail trade. But the current number of " The Author " gives a potent fact or two of a different kind from the private history of a literary man. In one case_ a book produced anonymously hung fire for six weeks ; then, as the immediate result of a laudatory notice in the Saturday Review, a demand sprang up, and in a few months 13,000 copies were sold. The same writer published a three-volume novel, the demand for which remained stagnant until a favourable review in The Times made the fortune of the book. A girl of 16 charged at Napier with being a common drunkard, admitted that she had come into town to " knock down" her cheque. She was admonished and discharged with a caution.