food? "The poor committeth himself to Thee, for Thou art the helper of the friendless."

May He who openeth his hand, and filleth all things living with plenteousness, He who maketh the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing, permit us yet again to see the fields beautiful with the varied blossoms of white and pink, and purple, drooping flowers adorning the rich deep green of the potato-plant!

How far I have wandered away from Youghal! and yet I thought to have lingered there a little longer, and taken a memory-walk through the pleasure-ground adjoining the garden where the first potato grew in Ireland. Here, no padlocked doors refused us entrance. I will retrace my steps with the same kind companions to whom I have alluded. I fancy myself again on the wide gravel-walk, beneath the shadow of majestic forest-trees: then we ascended terrace after terrace between the deep grass: the Spanish chestnut-tree planted near one path on which we walked; reaching a higher path, we found ourselves on a level with its highest branches; we looked down on the expanse of water, and the new bridge, a mile in length; and, far away, the distant hills. In these delightful grounds, many kinds of forest-trees, sycamore, oak, the beech, just showing the purple hue of early autumn; and a graceful tree, just the growth of the birch, but with berries like those of the mountain ash; a ridge of rocks with mantling ivy, lichens, and other beauteous wild things; and there, a well of water, where an infant son of the first Earl of Cork was drowned: thus earth's fairest scenes tell us tales of woe.

A kind welcome awaited us in the mansion-house, with its wide stair-case, so cool, so clean; the ample, lofty rooms, the stuccoed ceiling, and carved mantel-piece of dark oak, all wrought in the days of Queen Elizabeth. Dublin, February, 1847. LUCY CROGGON.

ASCENT OF ARARAT.

AFTER great toil, the snowy limits were reached. For an instant we halted at the foot of the pyramid of snow, 14,240 feet above the level of the sea, which before our eyes was projected with wondrous grandeur on the clear blue sky we chose out such articles as could be dispensed with, and left them behind a rock; then serious and in silence, and not without a devout shuddering, we set foot upon that region which certainly since Noah's time no human being had ever trodden. At first the progress was easy, because the acclivity was not very steep, and, besides, it was covered with a layer of fresh snow on which it was easy to walk; the few cracks in the ice, also, which occurred, were of no great breadth, and could be easily stepped over. But this joy did not last long; for, after we had advanced about two hundred paces, the steepness increased to such a degree, that we were no longer able to tread securely on the snow; but, in order to save ourselves from sliding down on the ice beneath it, we were obliged to have recourse to that measure, for the employment of which I had taken care to equip myself and my companions, namely, the cutting of steps. Although that which is called ice on such mountains, is in reality snow converted into a glacier,—that is to say, permeated with water, and again frozen,-in which state it is far from possessing the solidity of true ice; yet, like this, it does not yield to the pressure of the foot, and requires, where the slope is very rapid, the cutting of steps. For this purpose some of us had brought little axes, some bill-hooks, while others again made use

VOL. III.-FOURTH SERIES.

U

of the ice-staff. The general rule in the ascent was, that the leader should only cut the ice just enough to allow himself to mount, and that each as he followed should enlarge the step; and thus, while the labour of the foremost was lightened, a good path was prepared for the descent, wherein much firmer footing is required than in ascending.

At the first dawn we roused ourselves up, and at about half-past six proceeded on our march. The last tracks of rocky fragments were crossed in about half an hour, and we once more trod on the limits of perpetual snow nearly in the same place as before, having first lightened ourselves by depositing near some heaps of stones such articles as we could dispense with. But the snowy region had undergone a great, and for us by no means favourable, change. The newly-fallen snow, which had been of some use to us in our former attempt, had since melted, from the increased heat of the weather, and was now changed into glacier ice; so that, notwithstanding the moderate steepness of the acclivity, it would be necessary to cut steps from below. This made our progress a laborious affair, and demanded the full exertion of our strength from the first starting. We were obliged to leave one of the peasants behind at the place where we spent the night, as he complained of illness; two others, tired in ascending the glacier, stopped at first only to rest, but afterwards went back to the same station. The rest of us, without allowing ourselves to be detained an instant by these accidents, pushed on unremittingly to our object, rather excited than discouraged by the difficulties in our way. We soon after came again to the great crack which marks the upper edge of the icy slope just ascended, and about ten o'clock we found ourselves exactly in the place where we had arrived on the former occasion at noon; that is to say, on the great plain of snow, which forms the first step downward from the icy head of Ararat. We saw from a distance of about half a mile the cross erected on the 19th of September; but it looked so uncommonly small, perhaps owing to its black colour, that I could not help doubting whether I should be able to make it out, and to recognise it with an ordinary telescope, from the plain of the Araxes. In the direction of the summit we had before us an acclivity shorter but steeper than that just passed over; and between it and the farthest pinnacle there seemed to intervene only a gentle swelling of the ground. After a short rest, we ascended with the aid of hewn steps the next slope, (the steepest of all,) and then another elevation ; but now, instead of seeing immediately in front of us the grand object of all our exertions, a whole row of hills had developed itself to our eyes, and completely intercepted the view of the summit. At this our spirits, which had never fluctuated so long as we supposed that we had a view of all the difficulties to be surmounted, sank not a little, and our strength, exhausted by the hard work of cutting steps in the ice, seemed hardly adequate to the attainment of the now invisible goal. Yet, on calculating what was already done, and what remained to be done, on considering the proximity of the succeeding row of heights, and casting a glance at my hearty followers, care fled, and, "Boldly onwards!" resounded in my bosom. We passed without stopping over a couple of hills; there we felt the mountain wind. I pressed forward round a projecting mound of snow; and, behold, before my eyes, now intoxicated with joy, lay the extreme cone, the highest pinnacle of Ararat! Still, a last effort was required of us to ascend a track of ice by means of steps, and, that accomplished, about a quarter past three on the 27th of September, (9th of October,) 1829, we stood on the top of Ararat.-Parrot's Journey to Ararat.

275

ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE WITENAGEMOT.

(FROM THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.)

It has been an interesting disquisition amongst antiquaries, whether the large body of Anglo-Saxon proprietors, well known by the name of medeme thegns, were possessed of legislatorial functions at any period preceding the Norman Conquest. Though the subject is itself obscure, as might be naturally expected, considerably more obscurity has been cast upon it by the efforts of the disquisitors themselves, contrary opinions having been entertained and advocated by men of learning and research.

In treating the question, the accomplished and penetrating Hallam only expresses a doubt, and leaves still sub judice the fact of the admission or exclusion of the thegns. He says, "Whether the lesser thanes or inferior proprietors of lands were entitled to a place in the national council, as they certainly were in the shire-gemot, or county-court, is not easily to be decided.......................If, however, all the body of thanes or freeholders were admissible to the witenagemot, it is unlikely that the privilege should have been fully exercised.”*

At the time when Mr. Hallam wrote these passages the facilities which are now enjoyed for a better comprehension of Anglo-Saxon institutions did not exist. The publication of a large amount of original remains in the Anglo-Saxon dialect, and the more accurate and critical recension of much which was previously edited, have taken place since the composition of that gentleman's great work. It is, therefore, not an improbable or a rash assertion that, with the means which we now possess of extending and substantiating our researches in the direction of our ante-Norman antiquities, the point I allude to would not have been left by him unravelled, but would have received such a correct solution as would have silenced all the doubts which have perplexed, and all errors which have misled, on the subject.

From the hesitation of Mr. Hallam we pass to the absolute and categorical positions of Mr. Sharon Turner; but, as his opinions are so well known through the popularity of his History of the Anglo-Saxons, a quotation of them is unnecessary; and I will only observe, that he extends the political franchise during the period which preceded the Norman Conquest to thegns generally, and even beyond them. Dr. Lappenberg, the most modern writer on the same subject, upholds a similar hypothesis to that of Mr. Turner.† He says, "There is no reason extant for doubting that every thane had the right of appearing and voting in the witenagemot not only of his shire, but of the whole kingdom, whenever any weighty matters of general interest were in agitation, without, however, being bound to personal attendance, the absent being considered as tacitly assenting to the resolutions of those who were present."

The German doctor obviously assumes as the basis of his proof an analogy which never existed between the two witenagemots, for they were undoubtedly derived from different Germanic councils, which on the occupation of Britain were introduced by the invaders, and were by them

* View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. ii., p. 69.

+ History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. Translated by B. Thorpe, Esq., vol. ii., p. 317.

applied in their new country to the distinct purposes for which these institutes had been originally ordained. The one retained its ancient Teutonic officer, the ealdorman, while the other submitted to the more energetic presidency and participation of the King, the fountain as well as the pinnacle of feodality, considered as a system. Dr. Lappenberg would appear to restrict the presence of his thegns to those councils only where weighty matters of general interest were in agitation; but what other subjects than these could claim the attention of an assemblage of witan? Or, if the quotation can bear the meaning, that the medeme thegn, although he was not summoned or expected to attend the customary half-yearly meetings of the witan, could and did attend those of an unusual nature,* I will ask, not what proof can be produced for this assertion, (and our author produces none,) but whether it is probable that the man who had not the ordinary and limited right could possess and exercise the extraordinary and unlimited privilege?

I have made these preliminary remarks in order merely to point out the insufficiency of the information which the references contain, to elucidate satisfactorily the point under consideration. Unless freedom of inquiry, unbiassed by any other regard than that which is due to truth and evidence, were the boast as it is the right of literature, it might be held presumptuous to offer an opinion formed without dependence upon the authorities I have quoted; but I believe that, from the collective information now made accessible to all by publication, it will not be difficult to strike out a speculation which shall have a fairer semblance of truth than the opinions of the authors I have referred to.

In the first place it may be laid down as a secure position that in the father-land of the Anglo-Saxon conquerors every freeman enjoyed the right of assisting at the councils of the nation of which he was a member. But the Anglo-Saxon, in the possession of the new country which he had won, was a different person from the Anglo-Saxon in the country which he had relinquished. The comparative position of the individual in the one or the other land, and the influence of that position upon his character, are not adverted to, or, perhaps, understood, by the before-mentioned authors. This neglect of a fact which is the primal condition under which all that relates to men and matters in the Anglo-Saxon period is explicable, could not fail of causing their speculations to fall wide of the mark to which they were directed.

Out of this changed position of the Anglo-Saxon there arose a development, one of those superficially surprising, but to the reflective inquirer strictly logical, modifications which most institutions of any importance undergo,—one of those silent revolutions which few perceive until they are complete, which, even when it may be impossible to place them in the rank of social ameliorations, are at least free from the horror and injustice that hasty and crude subversions of existing institutions, though disguised by a fair name, and distinguished by a flattering appeal to human hopes, have invariably carried in their train. What this development was, and in

It is no proof of this assertion of Dr. Lappenberg that the ordinary thegns appear to have assisted at certain witenagemots, which assembled during the interregnum which intervened between the death of one King and the inauguration of another, for the sole and specific purpose of electing a successor, as these meetings were evidently tumultuary, and summoned by no other authority than the vox populi, or what was considered to be such. See post.

what manner it acted upon the political constitution, it is for us now to

trace.

On fixing our regards upon the general social position which was assigned to the German invaders by the operation of the Conquest, we find that, on the first violence of the latter passing away, the steadier and more permanent condition of political mastery over the subject natives succeeded, producing in the result an important modification of the Germanic constitution.*

*

After the Anglo-Saxon occupation of Britain, the same Germanic institutions became aristocratic in that country by the accident of their importation, not because their essential nature was either limited or unpopular, but through the fact that the conquerors were comparatively few in number, and had no alternative but to retain the power which they had acquired. Their philosophy did not extend to the surrender of the fruits of their martial labour to those very persons whom their victories had enslaved. They were free people; but they had the wisdom befitting their position, and kept their freedom for their own exclusive use. The popular element is entirely absent from the general constitution, and perfect freedom belongs to the conquerors alone. But out of this immediate and obvious consequence of the subjugation there grew another consequence which could not have been easily contemplated at the time. When a limitation of civil rights was familiarized to the superior caste in the persons of their subjects, it is consonant with the great mental principle of association that such a circumstance should re-act upon the ideas and habits of the descendants of the conquerors themselves, and thus reduce the alien privileges into a narrower and more exclusive circle.

We are thus led to consider the question which here arises, namely, how a minute section of the aristoi of Anglo-Saxon England attained the exclusive political rule of the country. In considering the truth or probability of this point, it is of the chiefest importance, first, to give the attention to the fact that, besides the general circumstance before alluded to, which regarded all the institutions imported into Britain by the Germans, there was another one also which must have materially affected the constitution of the witenagemot; a new and permanent power had arisen in the state, when royalty established itself, and this revolution soon brought forth the mighty changes which it carried in its bosom.t

The King was not merely the highest military commander, but he became a Legislator also. His consent was given to the enactment of a law, as his authority was afforded to its practical enforcement. A consequence of the influence of royalty in this assembly was the introduction of the feudal element into its fabric. When this element had strengthened itself into a

* I consider it an indubitable fact, that the Anglo-Saxons (properly so called) subdued, without exterminating, the Belgic or Teutonic race, then as now, through their descendants, the inhabitants of the greatest part of Britain. The Cymry had been expelled from their seats by these Belgæ. Vide some papers headed, "Some Remarks on a neglected Fact in British History," which have appeared at various times in the Gentleman's Magazine.

+ Vide a paper inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine, (vol. xxi., p. 473,) headed, "On the Development of the Ealdordom."

Vide the Preamble to Edgar's Laws: This is seo geradnysse the Eadgar cyng mid his witenagetheahte gerad. Also,

Cnut's laws in the chapter De harum legum violatore,-and se the thas laga wyrde the se cyning hæfth nu tha ealon mannan forgefen, &c.