SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1926, Page 17

SUNDAY READING

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REV. A. H. COLLINS

FROM SERF TO CITIZEN. s “And the Chief Captain said with a great sum obtained I this citizenship, and Paul said: But I was born free.” —Acts, xxii., 28. We are citizens. To us belongs the dignity and duty of taking a share in municipal affairs. We may justly aspire to a seat on the council of the city, and no gifts we may possess would be misused if we placed them at the service of our fellows in the rule of civic affairs; but whether in office or in private life we owe it to ourselves and to our children that we cultivate pride in the city, local patriotism, into which the other flows as « river to the sea. I hold that no honour is too great to pay to men of integrity and insight who freely sacrifice their leisure hours, and sometimes their business, in order to make the city of their residence more healthful and beautiful, more .prosperous and pure. I hold it to be a serious failure of plain Christian duty for any man to enjoy the advantage of dwelling in the peace and security of a city and take no interest in its government and no part in its burdens. It isn’t honest. It is living on the fruit of other men’s toil and making no just return to the common weal. But citizenship, as we know it, is a thing, of comparatively modern growth. Our fathers were serfs and we are citizens, and the passage from one to the other is a long chapter, not to be read without wonder and gratitude to the pioneers and pathfinders, men of giant stature and lion heart. Serfdom itself was an advance on slavery, a, stage in the evolution of a citizen. Further, while the lot of a serf in the Middle Ages was one of indescribable wretchedness, his social misery depended very mufrh on the character of the lord of the manor. Just as there were degrees of misery in the cotton plantations of the Southern States of America, according as the owner was kind or cruel, so the serf suffered according to the disposition of the landlord. A FUNDAMENTAL DISTINCTION. The fundamental distinction between serf and citizen is one of freedom of choice as to place of residence and manner of work. The mediaeval serf had no such freedom, and his rights were reduced to a minimum; and it is from a state such as this that we must start our survey of the citizen of yesterday. Feudalism was a system of land tenure on the basis of military service. The lords of the manor held their lands on condition that they provided troops of war. The serf was allowed to live on the land on condition that , he rendered military and other service. The serf was bound to plough a portion of his lord’s land, give a certain number of days’ free labour in harvesting his lard's crops, and contribute a given proportion of his crops and cattle. This, of course, meant that the serf could not leave the estate or change the form of his occupation. Professor Thorold Rogers argues that the workers’ position in the days of the Plantagenets, was one of far more hope and plenty than under the House of Hanover; that wages were relatively far higher; and that the margin of enjoyable income over necessary expenditure was in consequence far wider. How far this is true I am not competent to say. This much seems plain —that no amount of material comfort, even if it existed, could possibly compensate for the absence of personal freedom, and that so long as the serf was bound to the soil and subject to a master, even though the best of masters, he had not taken the first step in the path of progress from serfdom to citizenship. He was a tool and not a man. INFUENCES OF HISTORY. The influences which combined to destroy feudalism as a system may be epitomised in this way:—(l) Military.— The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were times of incessant fighting, and England b-nl its full share of the strife. This invol\ I important changes of a social kind. Men travelled to and fro and knowledge increased. The crusades proved a failure as to their immediate object, but they gave a new impulse to Eastern travel, they quickened trade, and filled the minds of men with new ideas. The introduction of gunpowder made a great difference, for, as Carlyle said, “Gunpowder makes all men equal.” So long as the knights went to war clad from head to foot in iron armour and peasant fought in leathern jerken the arrow that killed the peasant glanced harmlessly from the knight. The serf fell, but the lords survived.” “The devil’s dust” changed all that. Knight and peasant stood on the same level and took the same chances. (2) Economic.— The Black Death which ravaged Europe in the fourteenth century had important economic influence. Pestilence swept away a third of the population. This reduced the supply of labour and increased its value. This, again, quickened the growth of land enclosure, and because sheepfarming demanded less labour and yielded greater profits and quicker returns ploughed land was turned into pasturage, and labour was driven into the towns. This, once more, meant that the labourer was freer to combine and consult for his social betterment. (3) Religion.—John Wycliffe was a religious reformer and more. I Like John the Baptist he came in the ’ I spirit and power of Elijah; he challenged the religious hollownces of the time and championed social justice. He gave the plain man a copy of the Bible in his own language, and so emancipated him from the dominion of a corrupt priesthood. He sent bands of preachers through the land, men who were in sympathy with the social aspirations and aims of the toilers. He and the Lollard preachers preached the social gospel and were loved and trusted by the people, for, as professor Thorold Rogers rightly says, “the success of a religious movement has naturally if not invariably been associated with a movement for improving the moral and secular ad--vantage of those whom it seeks to benefit.” (4) Education.—The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries witnessed the great awakening of learning known to history as the Renaissance. A new spirit was abroad, a spirit of keen intellectual enquiry; and the invention of printing gave that spirit a new expression. The discovery of the new world supplied a nenlarged sphere for that new spirit, and the Protestant Reformation applied it to the realm of conscience and faith. Europe came forth from her grave with a New Testament in her hand. The serf had found himself, had found hope, had found voice, and was soon to find freedom. His face was turned to I the light, but he still had a long, rough I road to travel.

Let us count some of the milestones. When Queen Bess came to the throne England had begun to cease the export of her wool, and decided to manufacture it for herself. But because the manufac-

turer was dependent on water power the population once more drifted back to the country, and the growth of a town population was arrested. Even in the sixteenth century we find a manufacturer who could rally a body of 100 of his weavers to light on Flodden Field. But the factory system was free of its greatest evil, for the employer was served by men, not “hands.” At this time, about a third of the land of England was held by religious houses. At their best the monastic orders were wise, considerate, and charitable. At their worst they were degenerate, oppressive, and hideously immoral. When these religious houses were disinherited their estates were handed over to a greedy crew of Protestant lords, whose cruelty and greed made their religion stink in the land. This land monopoly beggared the poor, yet the Vagrant Act of 1548 provided that these landless and destitute men were to be branded and made to work in chains! Wages were controlled by magistrates ' interested in keeping the labourer poor. The common rights that the poor had in feudal days were taken away by the enclosure of the land by the landlords. The Settlement Act deprived the worker of the right of choosing his place of abode, for it authorised the overseers to deport him to his legal settlement if he occupied a house of less than £lO annual value. The law of conspiracy effectually checked the effort of the worker to raise his status, for it made trade combination illegal; all contracts were illegal except between master and man; all meetings were illegal which had for their purpose the raising of the status of the toilers, and rewards were | paid to those who gave information of such assemblies. FELL ON THE WORKING CLASSES. The Napoleonic wars, which raged from 1792 to 1815, cost England £600,000,000, and the chief burden of it fell on the working classes. In 1795 wheat sold at 104/- a quarter, and the average price for 20 years stood at 98/6. The sup of social misery was full to the brim. It was during this period of war and want that human invention revolutionised industrial England. The four great inventions of Hargreaves, Cartwright, Compton, and Arkwright belong to this period. The effect was tragic, for while the ultimate result was a vastly increased number of workers, the immediate result was dislocation and misery. A machine which did the work of- 10 men was worked by one, and this one became part of the machine. In some cases the man disappeared altogether, and his place was taken by a woman or a child at starvation wages. The rest you know with the invention of machinery: the centre of gravity of the population once more shifted to the towns. Instead of being scattered over the face of the land in villages, men were massed in thriving manufacturing centres. Then followed factory legislation, Acts to safeguard health, the granting of the franchise, free education, and citizenship. Of course this is only a rough sketch, covering a wide period, and leaving unsaid much that needs to be kept in mind. But it is enough to indicate the marvellous patience, the wonderful courage and endurance of the men who struggled against a hard and cruel lot and blazed the track for our feet. They deserve our reverence and remembrance. They should never be forgotten. Wo should emulate their example, copy their patience, imitate their daring, and honour their memory. We are citizens because they as serfs played the man. The question we have to consider is this, What are we going to do with our citizenship? We have escaped from Egypt. We must march to Canaan. OUR FIRST DUTY. Now quite obviously our first duty is to use our citizenship. It is disgraceful when men and women are too indolent or too indifferent to public questions to register their vote. Votes are not toys to play with, but tools to use; not social decorations, but instruments for speeding the Kingdom of God on earth. Many evil things were said about the granting of the franchise. Carlyle and Stuart Mill had bitter things to say. One thing nobody predicted, viz., that the people would not prize and use a vote, yet 50 per cent, of the people never use their suffrages! The second duty is to use our citizenship unselfishly. We should go to the poll in a devout" and serious spirit. Rancour and spite are unworthy of us, and to selfishly combine to exclude any section of the .community from effice because, they, do not utter our shibboleth is to sin against the law of fair play. Finally, we should set moral issues first. Municipalities fail in their duty unless they strive to make the life of the city clean, wholesome, and beautiful. The most important thing is not property, but the -health, the happiness, the moral tone of the community. Our first care should be for the young and the physically and morally infirm. Temptation should be removed out of the path of the children. The liquor bar, the bookie, and the sisterhood of. shame, should be banished. It is an evil thing when good men are bad citizens, for when good men are bad citizens, public interests go to the bad with a rush. “I will not cease from mortal strife, Nor shall the sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem In England’s green and pleasant land.”