Luther politely called Henry the Eighth, robbed the church of her fair acres, and bestowed them upon his sycophant courtiers? Why, in the first place, the peasantry fell under the yoke of men who had every interest in accumulating riches of men who had wives and children, and nephews, and creditors, and concubines, hungry for moneyof men, who immediately began to raise their rents, and to ruin their tenantry. The abbot, as landlord, had no interest except that the estate, during his life, should be flourishing and well-conditioned. The noble cared not for the condition of the estate, where, frequently, he never resided; but wanted money for the gaming table, his favorites,

and other matters which were out of the reach of his predecessor. The abbot spent his income upon the estate; the noble, in too many instances, wasted his means in the metropolis, or in foreign parts. The Abbot instructed the young and ignorant; the noble allowed them to grow up as wild as the weeds by the hedge-side. The abbot lodged the stranger, and distributed alms to the poor; the noble refused hospitality to the former, and evicted the latter from his domain. The abbot considered his tenants as children, whose interests it was his duty to overlook and protect; the noble regarded them as machines for raising so many crops, which he might sell, and grow rich. But there was yet another reason for the general pauperism which ensued upon the transfer of church lands to the laity. While the land belonged to the church, ecclesiastical buildings, and the ministers of religion, were supported by the rent of the land; but when the layman seized the property of the church, and drove out the ancient clergy to starve or beg, his natural piety would not permit him to leave the inhabitants of the district destitute of spiritual comfort, and he, therefore, took care to provide ministers of the reformed creed-adding only the trifling stipulation that the new ministers should be supported by the farmers and peasants benefited by their presence. The layman, being conscientiously convinced that the old religion was false and idolatrous, expelled from their

abodes the ministers of this false religion, and seized for his own personal use and benefit, its goods and chattels, and revenues. But it was necessary to implant among the people true religion, in place of that false one, whose priests he had ejected, and whose revenues he had appropriated—and in order to plant and promote true religion, funds were desirable; but he had no funds that is to say, none to spare, for he wanted the revenues of the false religion for other purposes; for his wife and his children, and his pleasure. He desired to keep the gold and silver and jewels of the candlesticks shrines, that he might melt the former down into family plate, or present the latter to my ford the king's last new mistress, that she might whisper into the king's ear a favorable word, when occasion served. In short, no matter for what the money was wanted, it could not be spared for the service of religion. The funds must be raised in a different manner, and what manner of raising funds could be more natural than to take rates from the substance of the persons who were to imbibe from the lips of the new preachers the eternal truths of salvation? And so it was managed. With one hand, the nobles plundered the old church of her inherited property; and with the other, they plundered the people to found and support a new church. Bold, impudent, unscrupulous rapacity, characterised every one implicated in the transaction.

This was the commencement of the deterioration of the English peasantry. Transferred en masse from the protection of their beloved masters, to the crushing yoke of, in many cases, arrogant, merciless, absentee lords, who recognised no reciprocal duties between themselves and their dependents; they fell into a state of chronic pauperism, disgraceful to the country: and from that time to this, matters have continued much the same. The modern proprietors of the soil esteem the children of the soil an encumbrance which is only to be tolerated as long as it pays a decent rent, and does not too much obstruct the improvements which they intend to carry out. Landlords hold the children born upon the land to be as

much strangers and intruders, as the inhabitants of the Dog-star might be considered, were they to alight in myriads upon this planet. The proprietors of land regard the land as unconditionally their own, and the men and women, who are born and grow up upon it, are like the trees and herbage, convenient and useful at times, but at times also noxious and unpleasant; and when they are convenient and useful, they are suffered to abide, but when they become noxious and unpleasant, they are driven off. A tree, that stands in the way of a beautiful prospect, is cut down and sold to the carpenter; and a man or woman, who is, from some cause or other, displeasing to the proprietor, gets notice to quit. No idea of mutual obligation is entertained. The tenant is bound to pay his rent, but has no right to expect anything whatever in return. If the proprietor choose to do something for the tenant, it is very kind and charitable of him ; but it is a virtue of supererogation on his part, and if he neglect to do anything for the tenant, no one can legitimately blame him; for he has a right to do what he likes with his own. Now what comes of this doctrine? Why the peasantry is practically left to itself. By continuous unremitting toil the laborer scrapes together just sufficient to purchase the bread and tea upon which he subsists, and to pay the rent of the filthy hovel in which he and his wife and children herd. From year to year the wheel of Ixion revolves; from year to year the laborer drags on his dreary existence: fair weather or foul, rain or sunshine, fast or festival, makes no difference. There is no relaxation, no rest, no season of enjoyment for him. The crust that he eats in the evening must be earned in the morning, and the rent must be accumulated by a penurious hoarding from day to day of farthings and halfpence. But as time wears on, his bones get stiffened with toil, his muscles lose their elasticity, rheumatisms gather about him. The privations which he has so long undergone, the unwholesome air of his damp and mildewed cottage, and the drink, with which probably he has solaced his hard existence, sap his constitution, and sow the seeds of various chronic

and acute maladies. Weakly and suffering himself, he begets weakly and suffering children, and gradually the stout old breed languishes down to a puny race of invalids. Who is to blame for these results ?

Were the owners of land to remember that God has placed these people under their care, and that every soul is sent direct by Him, perhaps they might entertain different sentiments, perhaps they might feel some responsibility. But many landholders appear to think that souls are sent into the world by Satan, and that their presence in this fair scene majesty and beauty is a blot upon creation. If landholders do entertain this belief, they have grounds for disclaiming any duty towards these impish fiends', except that of turning them to their own advantage, and that in the most But those who are summary manner.

of

of opinion that God is the author of every human being, and that God, by sending children into the world, allots them, of his Divine will, a place and position in the world, will be unapt to admit that any men, or body of men, have the right to divide the earth among themselves, exclude the poor from all participation in its benefits, and disclaim any other duty towards the poor than that of letting them live if they can live, and letting them die if they cannot.

The sickly degenerate condition of the class of agricultural laborers is owing to the neglect which they experience at the hands of their natural protectors. Were these latter to interest themselves in promoting the welfare of the former; were they to take heed that the cottages on their estate were kept in a correct sanitary condition; were they to pay the laborer his fair wage, and not force him to work beyond the limits which health prescribes; were they to put him in the way of enjoying, at proper intervals, wholesome recreation; were they to look to the education, physical and mental of his children; then we should again see a robust, and vigorous and happy population, and should acknowledge that the proprietors of the soil were fulfilling, well and manfully, the duties of their station. But until something of this nature is commenced, we can only repeat that

those, in whom are concentrated the wealth and intelligence of the country, are shamefully violating the trust which Almighty God has confided to them, and are worthy of every reproach which language can frame.

The clergy of the rural deanery of Leeds have recently issued a report on the physical education of children in National Schools, and the views which they have therein propounded, deserve the most serious consideration. Some portions of this report are so relevant to the subject which we are now discussing, that we shall make no apology for quoting them here in extenso. After setting forth the importance of a proper development of the physical frame, to those who are likely in future years to be obliged to earn their livelihood by the sweat of their brow, the document proceeds as follows:

'Whether we look at the homes of the children of the poor, in too many instances badly located, ill-drained and ill-ventilatedor to their school discipline, which requires their attendance in a crowded room during from five to seven hours daily-or to the meagre opportunities afforded them for healthy recreation and athletic games-we shall be led to the conclusion that such physical strength and development can hardly be expected or reasonably hoped for. It will follow, therefore, that the system at present adopted is not, on the whole, the most judicious, nor one that will best ensure the future comfort and usefulness of the majority of our scholars. On the contrary, by giving a too exclusive attention to their mental progress, we may be, to a certain degree, unfitting many for those laborious occupations in which they must hereafter expect to be engaged; while in the next generation, when those who are now children shall be filling their respective stations, it may possibly be found that the men of this day have given place to a less hardy, less capable, and physically degenerate race. To obviate such an undesirable result, it is suggested that some effort should now be made, which will both effect a wholesome change in the present system, and establish the importance of physical education.'

They suggest an effort to raise funds for the establishment of a gymnasiumwhich should include a swimming-bath -for all the schools in the town, and to provide a regular training-master in gymnastic exercises-with some other

suggestions. The advantages that would at once accrue to the children of the poor, and ultimately to themselves and to those who shall hereafter need their services, if these suggestions-or others having the same object-be carried out, are summed up as follows:

1st. A more hardy and robust generation would be growing up about us.

'2nd. National School children would not be, to the same extent as at present, rough, awkward, and unmannered.

3rd. The relaxation secured to them would make them return with more cheerfulness and more vigorous application to their necessary mental tasks.

4th. Their minds would be elevated, as well as their bodily frames strengthened.

5th. Self-respect would be induced. 6th. A more kindly feeling would spring up between the teachers and the taught.

7th. The next generation will reap the fruits of our present exertions in the improved physical character of its poor, and will thank us for making efficient workmen, as well as clever scholars. And even if these expectations be only in part fulfilled, we shall have done somewhat to roll away a reproach from our present school system, and to secure, as far as in us lays, the future temporal comfort and well-being of every child committed to

our care.'

Now there can be no doubt of the desirability of carrying into effect the propositions made by the clergy of Leeds. As part of a great movement it is admirable; and we would impress upon the wealthy landlords of England, that they are imperatively called upon to do as much, nay more for their own tenantry. It is not enough to educate the child; the man also has claims. The old sports and pastimes are no more. The morris dance and the maypole are extinct, and we need not attempt to revive them: but it would be easy to institute a variety of athletic games, which, recurring at stated intervals, would soften to the agricultural laborer the hardship of his life, and make him better contented to plod along his allotted path.

It would be easy to build baths and swimming pools, and it would, in short, to the unselfish, conscientious landlord, be a task as facile as agreeable, to raise the sickly helots of his estate into robust, happy, grateful, and independent

men.