It

may be worth observing, perhaps, that our present language manifests its Saxon parentage, and evinces how slight the corruption is which it received from the Norman, not only by the multiplicity of derivatives from the former, and the comparatively few words of the latter tongue which can be detected in it; but also from its whole idiom and construction, which are Anglo-Saxon throughout.

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In the northern counties of

from Trevisa, (given by Dr. Hickes) and points out one great source of the improvement which had taken place in the vernacular tongue. "John Cornwaile, a master of grammar, changed the lore in grammar scole, and con"struction of Frenche into Englische; and Richard "Pincriche lerned the manere techynge of him, as other 66 men of Pencriche. So that now, the yere of our Lorde 66 a thousand three hundred and fourscore and five, and ❝of the seconde Kynge Richard, after the Conquest nyne, "and alle the gramere scoles of Engilond, children leveth "Frensche, and construeth and lerneth an Englische, and "haveth thereby advantage in oon side, and disadvan "tage, in another side. Here advantage is, that they "lerneth her gramer in lasse tyme than children were "wont to doo; disadvantage is, that now children of .66 gramer scole conneth not more Frensche, than can her "lift heele; and that is great harm for him, and they "schulle passe the see, and travaille in strange landes, "and in many other places. Also gentilmen havith now moche left for to teche here children Frensche."-Thesau. Præf. tom. i. page17.

England, indeed, many traces of the Danish may be detected, from the circumstance of great bodies of that people having made a settlement in those parts; while a little further to the northward, in the eastern lowlands of Scotland, the old Saxon is spoken in almost its original purity, having been imported and planted there by the fugitive Edgar Atheling, and the number of Saxon families, who, at the Conquest, were established in those remote parts.

RANKS IN SOCIETY.-When we take a view of the CONDITIONS of social life in the time of Richard the First, and compare them with those which at present subsist among us, the comparison will not only prove very flattering and satisfactory to Englishmen of modern times, but may probably suggest some feelings of gratitude to our ancestors, who, by their generous struggles, on various occasions, progressively emancipated the mass of the community from the shackles and privations,

which they endured six hundred years ago, and wrought out that reasonable and wholesome equalization in personal, political, and civil rights, which we all now enjoy, from the prince on his throne to the peasant in his cottage.

Liberal as the spirit of the Anglo-Saxon system of legislation might be with respect to the free or privileged classes, it recognized, notwithstanding, the principle of slavery,— considerable numbers of the population being condemned to bondage, and sold and transferred from one proprietor to another, together with the estates on which they laboured, with as much frequency and disregard as the other live stock on the alienated property. No amelioration in this respect was introduced by the Norman conquest. "On the

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contrary," as Dr. Henry remarks, " many "of the English, who had formerly been free, "having been taken prisoners at the battle of

Hastings, or in some of the subsequent "revolts, were reduced to slavery; and thought "themselves very happy, if they preserved their

lives, though they lost their freedom. The

"Norman conquerors, indeed, for some time "treated their slaves with so much severity, "that a cotemporary writer declines giving a description of it, 'because its inhuman cruelty "would appear incredible to posterity." "

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Under the Norman kings, therefore, (at least as far down as the epoch now under consideration,) the different conditions of social life, which England exhibited, may be enumerated as follows. "First, the Serfs or Slaves. "The condition of all these unhappy people, "in this period, was not equally abject and "wretched. There were different degrees of

servitude, and different kinds of slaves that "were called by different names, viz.-1. Vil"leins in gross, who were the personal property "of their masters, and performed the lowest " and most laborious offices about their masters' "houses. This class of slaves seems to have

been very numerous; for Roger Hoveden "tells us, that from the reign of William I. to "his own time in the reign of King John, "there was hardly a house or even cottage in "Scotland, in which there was not to be found

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an English slave. It is not to be imagined

"that their more opulent neighbours the "Normans and English were worse provided "than the Scots with domestic slaves. They "had, indeed, such great numbers of them' "that they exported and sold many of these "unhappy persons in foreign countries.

"2. Villains regardant, or predial slaves, who "lived in the country, and cultivated the "lands of their masters, to which they were "annexed. These were in a better condition "than domestic slaves, and had an imperfect "kind of property in their houses and furni"ture, and in the little gardens and small "pieces of pround which they were allowed "to cultivate, at leisure times, for their own "subsistence. But still their persons and "properties were so much in the power of "their masters, that they granted or sold them "to whom they pleased. These two formed " a very numerous class of slaves, by whom "the demesnes of all the earls, barons, bishops, "abbots, and great men of England, were cul"tivated. The villains belonging to some of "the richest abbeys amounted to two thousand.