and tongues." The first of those universal monarchies was the Assyrian or Babylonian; upon the ruins of which Cyrus erected that of the Medes and Persians; to which succeeded the Macedonian or Grecian (the fruits of the ambition and conquests of Alexander the Great); which was at length swallowed up in its turn by the Roman, the most powerful of the four great empires of antiquity.49 About seven centuries before the Christian era the Teutonic or Gothic tribes migrated from Asia, and passing into Europe over the Cimmerian Bosphorus, expelled or subjugated their predecessors, the more antient Celtic tribes, by whom this portion of the globe had been originally peopled.50 49 Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire (properly so called) and was destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians, who, rebelling and uniting together, subverted the Assyrian empire, The precise time of this event is among the uncertainties of antient history and chronology; but it is generally attributed to the confederated armies of Cyaxares, K. of the Medes, and of Nabuchodonosor, K. of the Babylonians. Of the Babylonian or Chaldean empire (sometimes also called the Assyrian) the capital was Babylon. Cyrus took Babylon, and subverted the Chaldean empire about 539 B.C. Cyrus, who was the conqueror of Babylon, and thus transferred the empire from the Chaldeans to the Medes and Persians, was particularly foretold by name above a hundred years before he was born, and is honoured with the appellation of "The Lord's anointed." (Isaiah, xliv, 28; xlv, 1.) Let the infidel and the sceptic consider this! He put an end to the Babylonian captivity, and restored the Jews and their temple. Alexander the Great established the Grecian or Macedonian empire upon the subversion of that of the Medes and Persians (circ 323 B.c). And this, in its turn, was destroyed by the Romans, who, at the period when our history commences, were engaged in a desperate struggle for the preservation of the Roman capital from the aggressions of the Teutonic nations. 50 The first inhabitants of Europe were the Celts or Celtæ, by whom Britain was peopled even before the Trojan war, more than 1200 years before the Christian era, as tin was then brought from Britain by the Phoenicians. The remains of these antient Celta, and of their language, are to be found in the Gaelic or Highland Scotch (spoken in the Highlands of Scotland); in the Erse, or Irish, in Ireland; the Manks, in the Isle of Man; in the Welsh, in Wales; and the Armorican, in Bretagne. The Cornish, also a Celtic dialect, spoken in Cornwall, ceased in the last century. The Teutonic tribes who succeeded the Celtæ are divided into two great branches, the Scandinavian and the Germanic. They passed into Europe about 680 B.C. The Germanic branch were on the Danube about 450 B.C., and on the Rhine about fifty years before the Christian era. (See the Tables of the Celtic and Teutonic Languages, ante, p. 44.) Whilst the Romans were extending their conquests, and establishing their dominion over the civilised portions of the earth, the Teutonic or Gothic tribes, who were preordained by Divine Providence to become the regenerators of mankind, and the avengers of their outraged liberties, grew up by silent and almost imperceptible degrees, into great and powerful confederated nations, and when imperial Rome had filled up the measure of her iniquity, these hardy warriors descended in countless myriads from their northern abodes, levelled that mighty empire to the dust, and on its ruins erected the standard of civil liberty. These Teutonic invaders at length established ten kingdoms in Europe, and thus accomplished a long series of predictions.51 It is agreed by all historians, that one of those ten kingdoms erected upon the ruins of the Roman empire is that of the Saxons and Angles in Britain.5 We now call the reader's attention to our Saxon or Gothic ancestors, and this we will do in the eloquent language of the most eminent of our writers on Anglo-Saxon history. "Our language, our government, and our laws," says that eloquent historian, display our Gothic ancestors in every part. They live not merely in our annals and traditions, but in our civil institutions and perpetual discourse. The parent tree is, indeed, greatly amplified by branches engrafted on it from other regions, and by the new shoots which the accidents of time and the im 51 These prophecies commence with those of the prophet Daniel, during the Babylonish captivity, in the sixth century before the Christian era. 52 Some reckon the ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire was dismembered by the incursions of the Northern nations as follows: I. The Ostrogoths in Mosia. II. The Visigoths in Pannonia. III. The Sueves and Alans in Gascoigne and Spain. IV. The Vandals in Africa. V. The Francs in France. VI. The Burgundians in Burgundy. VII. The Heruli and Turingi in Italy. X. The Lombards, at first upon the provements of society have produced; but it discovers yet its Saxon origin, and retains its Saxon properties, though more than thirteen centuries have rolled over with all their tempests and vicissitudes." Again, says the same learned historian "When they first landed in this island, they were bands of fierce, ignorant, idolatrous, and superstitious pirates; enthusiastically courageous, but habitually cruel; yet from such ancestors a nation has, in the course of twelve centuries, been formed, which, inferior to none in every moral and intellectual merit, is superior to every other in the love and possession of useful LIBERTY: a nation which cultivates, with equal success, the elegancies of art, the ingenious labours of industry, the energies of war, the researches of science, and the richest productions of genius." 53 Another learned writer says -— "The whole fabric of our laws, ecclesiastical as well as civil, is built on a Saxon foundation . . . . . the remains of their civil and municipal customs and regulations are still visible in our cities, towns, and villages . . . . . to our Saxon ancestors has been generally attributed that envied palladium of English liberty, the Trial by Jury. . . . . What are our present Parliaments but the revival of the free and simple pitena-zemot (the Assembly of the Wise) of our Saxon ancestors? It is remarkable, indeed, that the establishment of this bulwark of our constitution is coeval with the destruction of Norman tyranny and the recovery of Saxon freedom." 54 Again "No person can doubt of the indispensable utility of Saxon literature in elucidating the topography and antiquities of our island, in explaining our proper names, and the origin of families, in illustrating our provincial dialects and local customs; all which are the memorials of the antient manners and characters of our ancestors; and without a knowledge of which every Englishman must be imperfectly acquainted with the history of his own country." (Ibid., p. 28.) Rude and barbaric as were our Saxon ancestors at their first arrival in Britain, they yet possessed, in an eminent degree, those great fundamental qualities upon which alone a 53 Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons (4to, book I, chap. i, p. 27). 54 Ingram's Inaugural Lecture on the Utility of Anglo-Saxon Literature, &c. (4to, Oxford, 1807). great nation can be permanently established,-indomitable courage, an enthusiastic love of liberty,-the most exalted patriotism,—and a devoted attachment and respect towards the female sex. Speaking of the latter, Mr. Turner says, "Amongst the Anglo-Saxons, their safety, their liberty, and their property were protected by express laws; they possessed all that sweet influence which, while the human heart is responsive to the touch of love, they will ever retain in those countries which have the wisdom and urbanity to treat them as equal, intelligent, and independent beings.' We will now contrast the language of our Kentish Custumal, which breathes the pure essence of Saxon liberty, with that of Magna Carta, and we shall at once perceive how far more valuable is that liberty which we inherit from our Saxon ancestors, than that which was extorted by our Norman barons from the reluctant concession of a Norman tyrant. We will place them in parallel columns, and will then offer a few remarks upon the subject. CUSTUMAL OF Kent, A.D. 1293. Sec. III. Toutes les cors de Kenteys seyent fracz auxi come les autres frauz cors Dengleterre. MAGNA CARTA OF K. JOHN, A.D. 1215. As confirmed IX Hen. III, A.D. 1224. CAP. XXIX. Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, aut disseisiatur de libero tenemento suo vel libertatibus, vel liberis consuetudinibus suis, aut utlagetur, aut exulet, aut aliquo modo destruatur, nec super eum ibimus, nec super eum mittemus, nisi per legale judicium parium suorum, vel per legem terra.” 55 The celebrated charter of K. John is not a concession or grant of new liberties to his subjects, but is made in affirmance of the antient common law. It is for the most part compiled 55 The English translation of this passage of Magna Carta will be found, ante, p. 48. from the antient customs of the realm, or the laws of K. Edward the Confessor, by which is usually meant the old common law, which was established under our Saxon princes.5 Its history, therefore, is worthy of our serious attention. When William the Conqueror, after the defeat and destruction of K. Harold, at Hastings (A.D. 1066), seized upon the vacant throne, he solemnly swore at his coronation to govern according to the laws of England. The subsequent introduction of the feudal system, and the inroads upon their constitutional liberties, occasioned universal discontent among the people (as well Normans as English), and a general clamour arose for the restoration of the laws of K. Edward the Confessor. On the death of William Rufus (whose reign was a scene of unmitigated encroachment and oppression) his brother Henry, the youngest son of the Conqueror, seized the throne, to the exclusion of his elder brother, Robert Duke of Normandy, as Rufus had done before. The right of primogeniture at that period was not established, either with regard to the succession to the crown, or to that of private inheritances. The crown therefore continued elective, though the choice of the successor was confined by the Normans, as well as by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, to the family of the deceased monarch. To secure to himself the goodwill of his new subjects, and to appease their discontents, King Henry the First granted to them, on the day of his coronation, a charter of liberties, which (together with somewhat similar charters of his successors K. Stephen and K. Henry the Second) eventually became the bases and foundation of the Magna Carta of King John. These records, though of great historical interest, are but very imperfectly known: even Magna Carta itself is scarcely 56 Blackstone on the Great Charter. (Introd. p. xii. Oxford, 1762.) |