But wanting to enforce obedience? There is an ancient Polish maxim, "That no slave can carry on any process against his master;" and hence the law regarding the inheritance of property was rendered nugatory. Nor could the fine for murder be often levied, by reason of the accumulation of evidence required for the conviction of a noble. Yet these were the only attempts to better the condition of the boors, till the year 1768, when a decree passed by which the murder of a peasant was rendered a capital crime. even this enactment was a mere mockery of justice: for to prove the fact of murder, a concurrence of circumstances was made necessary, which could rarely have been found. to co-exist. The murderer was not only to be taken in the fact but that fact was required to be proved by the testimony of two gentlemen, or four peasants! These insignificant edicts, rendered inefficient by the power of custom, were not the only obstacles to the elevation of the peasantry to the rank of men. There existed, in the Polish laws, numerous and positive ordinances, as though expressly designed to perpetuate slavery. Among these, the most oppressive seems to have been that which empowered the nobles to erect summary tribunals, subject to no appeals, by which they inflicted whatever penalties they thought proper on delinquents, or those whom they chose to consider as delinquents. The penalties for elopement from their villages were peculiarly severe; which proves at once the grievousness of their oppression, and the existence of frequent attempts to escape. eye Ibib. p. 110.- Whoever casts his but for a moment on the miserable boors of Poland, will instantly feel, that ages must elapse before they can be raised to the rank of civilized beings. If met in the winter's snow, they appear like herds of savage beasts rather than companies of men; but with the melancholy difference of being totally destitute of that wild activity which characterises savage nature. Their coarse mantles; their shrunk and squalid forms; their dirty, matted hair; their dull, moping looks, and lifeless movements; all combine to form an image which sickens humanity, and makes the heart recoil even from its own horrid sympathy! Ibid. p. 105.-Some endeavours have been likewise made by individuals to abolish the slavery of the boors. In the year 1760, the Chancellor Zamoyski enfranchised six villages in the palatinate of Masovia. This experiment has been much vaunted by Mr. Coxe as having been attended with all the good effects desired; and he asserts that the Chancellor had, in consequence, enfranchised the peasants on all his estates. Both of these assertions are false. I enquired particularly of the son, the present Count Zamoyski, respecting those six villages, and was grieved to learn, that the experiment had completely failed. The Count said, that within a few years he had sold the estate, as it was situated in the Prussian division, with which he had now no concern. He added, I was also glad to get rid of it, from the trouble the peasants gave me. These degraded beings, on receiving their freedom, were overjoyed, it seems, at they knew not what. Having Having no distinct comprehension of what freedom meant, but merely a rude notion that they may now do what they liked, they ran into every species of excess and extravagance which their circumstances admitted. Drunkenness, instead of being occasional, became almost perpetual; riot and disorder usurped the place of quietness and industry; the necessary labour suspended, the lands were worse cultivated than before; and the small rents required of them they were often unable to pay. Yet what does all this prove? that slavery is better than freedom for a large portion of mankind? horrible inference! But it proves decisively, what has been often proved before, that we may be too precipitate in our plans of reform; and that misguided benevolence may frequently do mischief, while it seeks only to diffuse good. In all instances of failure relative to the proposed benefit of human beings, the great danger is, lest we should relax in our efforts, and conclude that to be impossible, which, in fact, our deficient wisdom only had prevented us from effecting. Ibid. p. 109. The present Count Zamoyski, son of the late Chancellor, in no wise disheartened by his father's miscarriage, continues to meditate extensive plans of improvement relative to his own peasantry. But he is now aware that he must proceed with caution, and not by attempting too much, end in doing nothing. He designs to emancipate the whole of his vassals gradually; to give them slight privileges at first, and to encourage them with the hope of more, on condition of proper conduct. In short, his principle is to retain the power of reward and punishment completely in his own hands, that he may be able to stimulate to industry by the hope of new favours, and to restrain from misconduct by the threatened forfeiture of those already conceded; till their state, gradually ameliorated, shall render it safe to give them entire freedom, and to leave their conduct to be regulated by the general operation of the laws. Ibid. p. 121. The cultivation of the soil in Poland, in the manner it is there conducted, is attended with little trouble and expence; indeed, far less than it ought to be. We no where see more than a ploughman with his plough and a single pair of small bullocks, not bigger than English steers, to produce a fallow. There is scarcely such a thing as manure to be seen, and the produce is proportionally small. Ibid. p. 124. The territory of a nobleman, the extent of which I had an opportunity of ascertaining with some exactness, is about five thousand square miles; which produces an income of about 100,000 ducats, or £50,000. sterling this gives only £50. a year for every twenty square miles. b V. Page 40. State of the Poor from the Conquest to the Reformation, by Sir F. M. Eden, Bart. Vol. 1. Of the domestic comforts enjoyed by the great body of the people, in the periods immediately subsequent to the Conquest, we may form a tolerable estimate, notwithstanding the great deficiency of evidence to mark the manners of private life, from considering the information afforded us by historians concerning their political situation. If we except the baronial proprietors of land, and their vassals the free tenants and socmen, the rest of the nation, for a long time after this era, seems to have been involved in a state of servitude, which, though qualified as to its effects, was uniform in its principle, that none who had unhappily been born in, or had fallen into, bondage, could acquire an absolute right to any species of property1. The condition, however, of the people, who were thus debarred from tasting the first of social blessings, was not, in other respects, equally abject and miserable: those, denominated villeins in gross, were at the absolute disposal of their lord; and were transferable by deed, sale, or conveyance, from one owner to another. They were principally employed in menial services about the house, and were so numerous as to form a considerable branch of English commerce. An author, who lived in the reign of Henry the Second, informs us, that such a number of them was exported to Ireland, that the market there was absolutely glutted; and another declares, that from the reign of King William the First to that of King John, 1 Litt. §. 177. This was also the case in Scotland: "Na bondman may buy or purches his libertie with his awin proper gudes or geir"because all the cattell and gudes of all bond-men are understand to be "in the power and dominion of the maister: swa that without consent "of his maister, he may not redeme himself out of bondage with his awin proper denires or money."-See the Regiam Majestatem; or the Auld Lawes of Scotland, Buke II. Chap. 12. there was scarcely a cottage in Scotland that did not possess an English slave. These were probably the captives taken in the predatory inroads on the borders: there can be little doubt but that the English retaliated on their neighbours, and made slaves of such of their Scotch prisoners as could not pay for their ransom. In the various accounts of the marauding expeditions of the moss-troopers of Cumberland, men are often mentioned as the principal part of the booty they brought back. Villeins regardant were those who were annexed to manors, and bound to perform the most servile offices of agricultural labour, which was originally unlimited, both with regard to its quality and its duration. They however were sometimes permitted to occupy small portions of land to sustain themselves and their families, but were removable at the lord's pleasure, and were liable to be sold, with the soil to which they belonged; from which they might also at any time be severed. I have made this distinction between villeins in gross, and villeins regardant, as it is laid down by our lawyers and historians. It may, however, I think, be doubted, whether the difference in their condition was more than nominal. The villein regardant seems to have been occasionally employed as a domestic, as well as an agricultural slave: and although he was generally indulged by his lord in the use of a few acres of land, he was liable to be called upon to perform every species of work, however painful or degrading. Other ranks of men, equally servile and dependent, are noticed in ancient records; particularly the Bordarii, who, in consideration of their being permitted to occupy a small cottage, were bound to provide poultry, eggs, and other articles of diet for the lord's table: and the Cottarii, or Coterelli, who appear to have been much on the same footing with villeins regardant, being employed in the trades of smith, carpenter, and other handicraft arts necessary in the country; in which they had been instructed at the expence of their |