ENGLAND 



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this purpose is not far from 8 million pounds, and about 1,200,000 people, in a population 

 of 1 1 millions, receive assistance from it, though it is by no means shared by all who are 

 miserably poor. Some accounts make the poor one third of the whole. Southey says, 

 " There is no liberty for the poor in England ; they are no longer sold with the soil, it is true, 

 but they cannot quit the soil, if there is any probability that age or infirmity will disable them. 

 If they remove from a crowded parish, to find a more profitable residence elsewhere, the par- 

 ish to which they go may often send them back, to avoid the remote liability of burying them. 

 Sometimes they die upon the road. The overseers are not men chosen to the office, because 

 they show the indications of benevolence, nor is it common to see parish aid offered in such a 

 manner, that the favor is increased by the manner of bestowing it. Great are the miseries of 

 the poor, and hardly one third of their offspring is reared. A hfe of labor is closed in the 

 almshouse, among rogues and lunatics. To this," says Southey, " the poor look as their last 

 resting-place on this side of the grave." 



The execution of the laws in England being much milder than the spirit of them, the good 

 sense of the community is in advance of the humanity of the laws. Two persons, who at- 

 tempted the life of the king, after a fair trial, were confined as lunatics. Notwithstanding the 

 penalty of treason, no traitors are dismembered till after they are dead. Some offences are 

 visited, besides other penalties, with attainder and corruption of blood ; so that the estate is 

 forfeited, and the children incapable of inheriting. The law of primogeniture, by which the 

 eldest inherits the estate, is a necessary part of the system of aristocracy, and it keeps togeth- 

 er, for ages, the immense territorial possessions of the nobility and others. The law is still 

 in force, that inflicts the punishment of ducking on scolds, though it is never enforced. In 

 China, this offence is a sufficient reason for divorce. In fact, there is but too much resem- 

 blance in spirit, if not in letter, between parts of the English law and the code of China. In 

 England, a monarch would be at once deposed, who should inflict, arbitrarily and wantonly, a 

 tenth part of the cruelty prescribed by the laws. 



The elections in England may be said to be pure, that is, the voters are overawed by no 

 force, or threats ; but there is another species of influence, to which they are pecuharly liable 

 in a country where both wealth and poverty are in extremes. This is bribery ; and though 

 there are heavy penalties against it, as well as against entertainments, it is practised with scarce 

 a shadow of concealment. In some places, where the votes are few, the price of one is £50. 

 No stranger can see an election in England, with a favorable opinion of a voter's estimate of 

 the elective franchise. The elections are sometimes continued for weeks, and are scenes of 

 riot, and drunkenness. The candidates, like Coriolanus, have to interfere and advance their 

 own election, when they are found at the polls, adapting themselves to the popular humor, and 

 haranguing the electors. There can hardly be too severe a description of an English election. 



23. Antiquities. The antiquities of England are chiefly architectural, and those that are 

 referred to the Druids are such as men would erect in the infancy of art, though they imply 

 t!ie power of moving large masses. The most simple of the druidical monuments are single 

 upright stones, together with cairns or heaps of stones, some of which contain 100 cart loads. 

 The cromlechs are huge flat stones, laid upon supporters like a table ; and the rocking stones, 

 which may have been somewhat indebted to art for their facility of motion, were probably 

 used in the rites of the Druids, as near many of them basins or baths are dug in the rock. 

 Near Penzance there is a rocking stone, called Logan Rock, of 320 tons, so poised that a 

 man may move it like a cradle by applying his shoulder, and this could formerly be done 

 with the force of one hand ; it moves only in one direction. But the great monuments are 

 the circles of stones, of which there are many ; one at Abury, in Wiltshire, had 652 stones. 

 Stonehenge, however, on Salisbury plain, is the most frequently visited. The whole is 

 inclosed by a broad ditch, forming an exact circle. The structure was composed of different 

 circles, or rather of 2 circles and 2 ovals, all concentric. The outward range of columns 

 formed a circle, 310 feet in circumference, and consisted of 30 upright stones, 4 feet apart ; 

 each of these was about 17 feet above the ground, 6 feet in width, and 3 feet in thickness. 

 These pillars had horizontal stones laid on their top, and were connected as in a ring or fence. 

 They were secured by mortices and tenons, and their whol« height was 30 feet. Of this 

 outward circle, there are now standing 14 perpendicular stones, with 6 horizontal ones ; 11 

 of the 14 are contiguous, and 5 of the 6. The next circle is 9 feet within the last; the 

 stones are much smaller, being but 6 feet high, and 1 foot in thickness. They had no hori- 

 zontal caps ; only S or 10 of these now remain. The next inner range was an ellipse, in 



