secure the obedience of the vassal to the sovereign, has never failed in any instance of preserving a vanquished people in obedience to the conquerors. The English lords built strong castles on their demesnes; they put themselves at the head of the tribes, whose chiefs they had slain; they assumed the Irish garb and manners; and thus partly by force, partly by policy, the first English families took a firm root in Ireland. It was indeed long before they were able entirely to subdue the island to the laws of England; but the continual efforts of the Irish, for more than four hundred years, proved insufficient to dislodge them. 70.-THE DEATH OF ROSAMOND. [From 'Henry II.' by THOMAS MAY.] [The following poem, by one of our early poets, is founded upon the most commonly received tradition. The real history of Rosamond de Clifford is very obscure: we extract the following brief account from the Pictorial History of England : “The history of the 'Fair Rosamond,' has been enveloped in romantic traditions which have scarcely any foundation in truth, but which have taken so firm a hold on the popular mind, and have been identified with so much poetry, that it is neither an easy nor a pleasant task to dissipate the fanciful illusion, and unpeople the 'bower' in the sylvan shades of Woodstock. Rosamond de Clifford was the daughter of a baron of Herefordshire, the beautiful site of whose antique castle, in the valley of the Wye, is pointed out to the traveller between the town of the Welsh Hay and the city of Hereford, at a point where the most romantic of rivers, after foaming through its rocky, narrow bed in Wales, sweeps freely and tranquilly through an open English valley of surpassing loveliness. Henry became enamoured of her in his youth, before he was a king, and the connexion continued for many years; but long before his death, and even long before his quarrel with his wife and legitimate sons (with which it appears she had nothing to do), Rosamond retired to lead a religious and penitent life, into the 'little nunnery' of Godestow, in the 'rich meadows of Evenlod, near unto Oxford."" "As Henry still preserved gentle and generous feelings towards the object of his youthful and ardent passion, he made many donations to the 'little nunnery,' on her account; and when she died (some time at least, before the first rebellion) the nuns, in gratitude to one who had been both directly and indirectly their benefactress, buried her in their choir, hung a silken pall over her tomb, and kept tapers constantly burning around it. These few lines, we believe, comprise all that is really known of the fair Rosamond. The legend, so familiar to the childhood of all of us, was of later and gradual growth, not being the product of one imagination. The chronicler Brompton, who wrote in the time of Edward III., or more than a century and a half after the event, gave the first description we possess of the secret bower of Rosamond. He says, that in order that she might not be easily taken unawares by the queen' (ne forsan a regina facile deprehenderetur) Henry constructed, near Wodestocke,' a bower for this most sightly maiden,' (puellæ spectatissima), of wonderful contrivance, and not unlike the Dædalean labyrinth ; but he speaks only of a device against surprise, and intimates in clear terms, that Rosamond died a natural death. The clue of silk, and the poison-bowl forced on her fair and gentle rival, by the jealous and revengeful Eleanor, were additions of a still more modern date." Fair Rosamond within her bower of late, (While these sad storms had shaken Henry's state And he from England last had absent been) For pleasure walk'd; and like the Huntress Queen, The strength and safeguard of the place alone : Now came that fatal day, ordain'd to see But most of all, while pearly drops distain'd When that unblemish'd form, so much admir'd, And might have mov'd a monarch's lawful flame. From meanest birth, the honour of a throne; There, when she found her crime, she check'd again Of royal lustre had misled her sight; O! then she wish'd her beauties ne'er had been For with her train the wrathful queen was there; Of life and motion reft; had she been so Even she herself did seem to entertain Some ruth, but straight revenge return'd again, By what strong arts I was at first betray'd, Or tell how many subtle snares were laid To catch mine honour. These, though ne'er so true, Nor just excuse to my abhorred crime. Which shall be styl'd no time of life but death, And you be forc'd to see, when I am dead, And what I suffer as a sacrifice For that offence, 't will grieve his soul to be The cause of such a double tragedy." "No more (reply'd the furious queen); have done; Delay no longer, lest thy chance be gone, And that a sterner death for thee remain." Had doubly wrought. "Forgive, oh Lord," said she, And couch'd their shafts, whose structure did delight 71.-ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAWS. From the 'Pictorial History of England.' G. L. CRAIK. Among the things that most strike us on first looking at this period of our legai and judicial history are the substitution of general and central for local judicatures, and the appointment of judges regularly trained to a knowledge of the law, to preside in the several courts. Soon after the conquest great inconveniences appear to have been felt from the adminstration of justice in the county courts, hundred courts, and courts baron. These inconveniences arose from various causes, of which the principal, according to Sir Mathew Hale, were the three following:-1st. The IGNORANCE of the judges, who were the freeholders of the county. "For," says Hale, “although the aldermian or chief constable of every hundred was always to be a man learned in the laws, and although not only the freeholders, but the bishops, barons and great men, were, by the laws of king Henry I., appointed to attend the county court, yet they seldom attended there, or, if they did, in process of time they neglected to study the English laws, as great men usually do." 2ndly. The GREAT VARIETY of laws, the effect of several independent jurisdictions. Glanville says, "The customs of the lords' courts are so numerous and various that it is scarcely possible to reduce them into writing." 3rdly. The corruption and intimidation practised; for all the business of any moment was carried by parties and factions. It is probable, however, that we are to seek for the main causes of the subversion of the ancient system in certain changes which the very principle of that system was itself producing, and which we shall now proceed to consider. Of these changes the most important and fundamental was the establishment of the trial by jury. The essential principle of the original Saxon mode of trial was the submission of the matter in dispute, in some form or other, to what was held to be the arbitration of Heaven. There was no interference of the human judgment, no attempt to arrive at the truth by weighing and comparing the adverse probabilities; the question was not held to be a question of probabilities at all; it was conceived to be capable of a solution as certain as any question in arithmetic. |