bailler means to guard, the modern sense is to intrust, to dispatch, to order. The early bailiffs were trusty commissioners, each of whom presided over a given district, and observed how justice was administered. The seneschal had the same office, but he should be of the rank of knight. The name is supposed to be extracted from senior and chevalier. The difference between bailiff and senschal was this-The first had jurisdiction over districts which were governed by peculiar traditional laws (coustumes), the other ruled where the modification of the written Roman laws was in force. The seneschal could not select a deputy from among the men of the long robe to do his duty at any time. No one but a knight was allowed to fill that office. It is scarcely necessary to observe that the title count is identical with the Latin comes, a companion, at first given to officers about the monarch's person. When governments of districts were granted to these familiars, they still retained their titles, and their little kingdoms were called counties.

HOW THE MONEY WAS RAISED.

But the great machine of Government could not move without much money being expended on the repairs of its several parts according as they received damage, and on the application of the oil, and the oil itself. This money was eventually supplied by the tillers of the land and by the trades folk, and when enforced in a rough mode occasionally produced partial revolts, in which tax-collectors and sometimes tax-imposers lost their lives. Wise and considerate princes averted such unwelcome proceedings on the part of the commons by giving members selected by them a place in the national assemblies under the title of the Third Estate. These deputies, well pleased to find themselves in the company of their betters, could not find it in their hearts to refuse subsidies when a fluent nobleman chose to entertain the house with a touching discourse on the necessity of such an expedition or such a public work, and the need in which the king stood of needful funds, and the confidence which he had in his faithful commons for needful help. How could Jacques Bonhomme give a surly reception to

the taxman on his next call, being aware that his representative had promised so many sols and deniers in his name to his sovereign lord the king?

The early French kings having divided most of the kingdom, the royal domains excepted, among their great feudatories would have been sometimes puzzled to keep up their state, if they were not aided by their lieges. When making their progresses, every archbishop, bishop, and abbot was expected to show hospitality to his majesty and suite for one night, or contribute a certain sum of money instead. The cash equivalent which paid this droit de giste (right of lodging) was moderate. Little bourgs and villages furnished horses and cars for the convenience of the journey for a day, or had the option of paying a certain sum for this droit de chevauchée (right of horse use).

Tailles or taxes on the commons were frequently the causes as we have hinted, of serious disturbances, and sometimes of slaughter. Philip the Fair, anticipating the political wisdom of the nineteenth century, levied an income tax equivalent to our 2d. per pound. Having succeeded without much grumbling, he next ventured as far as 5d., but the additional two pence half-penny broke the back of the people's patience. They rose in Paris, Rouen, and Orleans, and killed the collectors.

The king returning from one of his excursions, and being taught prudence by the late failure, had a large platform erected in one of the public places, and Enguerrand de Marigny, minister of finances ascending this stage, spoke to the people with good effect on the difficulty in which the king was placed by his Flemish wars. He reminded them that Philip was a Parisian by birth, that his people and he had the same interest in bringing the war to a happy conclusion, &c. The eloquence, well seasoned with flattery, had such success that funds more than sufficient were immediately raised.

Taxes raised by the consent of the three estates were called aids and subsidies. At first they were granted for one year, being levied chiefly on the sale of harvest produce. After some time the impost extended to two years, and at last became permanent,

Besides the lands which were granted to the early Frankish nobles as fiefs or benefices, and for which they were bound to render military service, estates remained in the possession of the native Gauls, for which they paid a certain consideration to the king. These were allodial holdings, the word meaning "to the people" (Leute). If a noble at his decease left his affairs in such a state that no one of his blood could lead his contingent of knights and fighting men to battle, his fief reverted to the use of the king. This, however, could only have happened in the earlier times of the Frank rule. It became a matter of too much difficulty to dislodge the people in possession of a lordship, even though direct heirs had failed. The widow or daughter of the late noble would easily find a needy but able knight to be her mate, and to don the armour of the defunct chief. The king would still be served in his wars, and perhaps with greater zeal by the new successor, and no disturbance would ensue.

The nobles in time feeling themselves absolute masters of their estates, began to let portions of them to knights in consideration of military services, or to roturiers (all below the rank of knights) at certain rents and civil services; and in course of time it came to pass that owing to the poverty of nobles and the rich condition of some leuds, fiefs were purchased and held by men neither knights nor nobles. These men, therefore, not rendering service by arms, were subjected by the sovereign to the taille, the tax imposed on the common people, while knights who held lands from them were exempt.

When the early kings were served much to their satisfaction in this or that warlike enterprise by men of courage and ability, but had no lands to confer on them, they wisely bestowed on them public honour as an incentive to perseverance in their good career. On solemn occasions and in large assemblies they complimented them and gave them the accolade, i.e., a loving embrace. This was in time changed for the slight stroke on the shoulder with the flat of the sword, which became an essential feature of the conferring of knighthood.

During seasons of peace the nobles and knights distinguished themselves from the rich roturiers by avoiding the cities, abiding on their estates, and cultivating their land. They would not soil their escutcheons by having anything to do with trade or manufactures, but, with the example of Cincinnatus before their eyes, they looked on the plough as next in dignity to the sword. M. Pasquier hints that they were accustomed to call the roturiers villains, as men who affected to lead an inglorious luxurious life in cities (villes), and hence the disreputable sense in which the word is used. But so keen-sighted and diligent a scholar ought to have known that the word villanus, a domestic in a farmhouse, villa, is as old as the days of Augustus. In the Anglo-Saxon times the domestic duties were done by free people, among whom the pages (future knights) bore a share, while the farm labour, fishing (chiefly for eels), and hunting, fell to the lot of the thralls, called from their farm labours, vileins.

THE SWORD INSTEAD OF THE SCALES.

Valour and its exhibitions forming the moral atmosphere in which the souls of the ancient Teutons breathed, it was but natural that where knotty points in morality, or social questions, orjurisprudence presented themselves the spear and sword were the favourite instruments resorted to for their solution. It was long before the mild spirit of the Gospel could exert an effectual influence over the stubborn dispositions of Scandinavians or Franks. Mrs. Hardcastle found it expedient to put off her darling Tony's education till after his marriage, and it is to be feared that a knowledge of Christian doctrine followed with but slow strides the open profession of the Christian faith, with such neophites as Clovis's soldiers, who had no other inducement than his example to change their belief.

By degrees the gentle influence of Christianity made itself be felt, but the fierce pagan spirit still held sway over the minds and the deeds of men, nor is it yet dead. As long as two men feel themselves justified in putting some idle punctilio to the arbitrament of deadly weapons, so long will the old Scandinavian deities re

ceive worship from those who are Christians only in name.

Judicial combats were denounced in a council held at Valence in 855, under King Lothaire. It was decided on in that assembly that the victor should be excommunicated, and the body of the vanquished refused Christian burial.

This did not dismay Lothaire himself from endeavouring to find out whether his queen was faithful to him or no, not by the sieve and sheers, but by the swords and shields of two picked champions. He had separated from his wife Totberge on suspicion of her virtue, and was satisfied to restore her to her place if her champion turned out the better man. Pope Nicholas warmly expostulated with him on the sinfulness and silliness of the institution, but apparently with little effect.

Not only were personal questions amenable to this sharp mode of settlement. There is one instance, at least, on record of the decision of an abstract point of jurisprudence by cold steel.

The Monk Sigebert relates that a question concerning succession was presented before Otho, first emperor of the name. The doctors, finding themselves puzzled, it was determined to refer the decision of the obscure question to arms. So two valiant champions were chosen to maintain the pro and the contra of the proposition. The encounter took place, and victory declared itself for him who maintained the affirmative. So the Emperor decreed that grandsons and granddaughters should succeed to grandfathers and grandmothers, as well as uncles and aunts, even as their fathers and mothers would, if still alive.

St. Louis was the first monarch who decidedly set his face against trial by battle. His grandson, Philip the Fair, endeavoured also to abolish the

custom.

Nevertheless he was not able to establish such good order in the matter as he wished, and was obliged to allow some relaxation. Such influence has a custom which for a long time has taken root among people. Being given to understand that many murders were committed in secret, for the verification of which no witnesses could be found, and that the perpetrators promised themselves entire

immunity by reason of the late edict, he allowed trial by battle where there was a combination of the following circumstance, the following of death on the act, treachery in the committal, difficulty in procuring witnesses, strong presumption of guilt against the accused, and a certainty that the crime had been committed. Fearing that provincial governors might lightly allow the trial by battle, he gave orders, especially to the Seneschal of Tholouse, that all cases of the kind should be sent to Paris to be adjudged.

The people of Normandy, from a very early time, have borne a very litigious character; and we possess accurate information from Norman sources on the whole procedure from the moment the first accusation was made till the body of the defeated champion was ignominiously dragged out of the lists. One circumstance of the regulation of the fight was rather remarkable. The accused was held innocent if he maintained the fight till the stars began to appear.

THE OLD MOORES AND ZADKIELS OF PAST TIMES.

Purgation by touching hot iron, or thrusting the hand into boiling water without damage, was another of the diabolical legacies left to the very imperfect Christians of those early ages by their pagan forefathers. So many escaped uninjured from the terrible trials, that it is supposed they owed their safety to the merciful feelings of the religious, who had charge of them during the preparations for the trial. Chemical secrets were in the possession of these monks and friars, and if they used them to avert the burning or scalding of the limbs of the poor creatures, we are not disposed to visit their memory with severity. Ives, Bishop of Chartres, in the reign of Philip I. wrote and spoke vigorously against this tempting of God. The custom was denounced by the Popes Stephen, Sylvester, and Alexander III., and was finally suppressed in the Council of Lateran, held under the last-named pontiff, a short time before the reign of St. Louis. It can hardly be doubted that if it was for the spiritual welfare of an innocent party accused that his champion should be successful God would allow it to be so. But the spirit of the time was not content with that moderate

Innocence should be triumphant in the eyes of men in every case. In the majority of these combats, if the champions were pretty evenly matched, it was probably so, the consciousness of being in the right strengthening the arms of those who battled for it.

People seeking such means to ascertain the merits or demerits of their neighbours, would naturally have no objection to "cast caintrips" to foresee future events, a practice derived from the pagans, of whose religion it formed part and parcel. A propensity to peep into the dark chamber of the future was powerful and far-spreading in the days of Augustus; it was strong in the reign of St. Louis, it has lost little of its strength under Napoleon III., and will send sundry folk to consult oraculums and the prophetic pages of the old Moores and Zadkiels in the year 3000, unless Dr. Cumming gets his will of the world in the interim.

When men were turned from the worship of false divinities they gradually invested them with a demoniacal character, and the great pagan poet, Virgil, who certainly was partial to prophetic subjects, and probably felt some impulses of the VATES within him, became a powerful magician. Hence the reputation of the Sortes Virgiliana with the later heathens and some pagan-tinctured Christians, who succeeded them. And as some would-be seers in our own times do not scruple to use the Bible in conjunction with a string and a key, in order to get premature knowledge of impending troubles, great folk of the middle ages would resort to a triple inspection of portions of the sacred volume for the same undesirable information.

St. Gregory of Tours, one of the earliest French historians, for whom see D. U. MAGAZINE, July, 1868, relates two notable instances of this abuse of holy things which took place, one in his own day, the other shortly before. Cran, son of Clothaire I., having taken up arms against his father, besought Tetrique, bishop of Chalons, to find out for him what would be the issue of the enterprise. The bishop took a volume of the Prophets, volume of the Gospels, and a volume of the Epistles of St. Paul and laid

a

them on the altar, and then solemnly prayed along with his clergy that God would please to manifest the result of the ill-advised prince's enterprise. He opened the book of the prophets, and the first sentence that met his eye was, "With desolation I will remove thee from the earth." On the opening of the Epistles he found these words, "For yourselves, know perfectly that the day of the Lord shall so come as a thief in the night. For when they shall say 'peace and security,' then shall sudden destruction come upon them." Thess. i. 5, 2. The words found in the Gospel were these, "Everyone that heareth these my words, and doeth them not, shall be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand and the rain fell, and the floods came, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof." Matth. vii. 26, 27.

Merovee, son of Chilperie, furnished the other example. Having attempted to deprive his father of the crown, and being disappointed, he took sanctuary in the church of St. Martin of Tours. To relieve his ennui he entered on a sortes of the same kind, and placed the Books of Kings, the Psalter, and the Gospels on the shrine of the saint; and having fasted and prayed three days proceeded to consult them. In the Books of Kings he came on this passage,-"Inasmuch as you have forgotten the true God to adore strange gods, giving yourselves up to wicked and perverse things, for this cause the Lord your God has delivered you into the hands of your enemies." The Psalter and the Gospel gave him even less consolation. Shortly after their forbidden researches both princes died miserably. The practice having continued during the reigns of all the princes of the line of Clovis, was expressly denounced and interdicted by Louis le Débonnaire in these words:

"Let none presume to practise divination by the Psalter, nor the Gospels, nor any other thing."

How SATURN WAS WORSHIPPED IN THE MIDDLE

AGES.

Among things of some importance handed down to us by our heathen ancestors, are others, which being now mere matters of custom and without significance in the state of society in which we live, might naturally be ex

pected to be completely laid aside at any time. These are, however, the customs most tenaciously observed by the ordinary class of people. Under pagan rule there were, as might be expected from the number of their divinities, many days of quasi-devotion to these worthies, most of them concluding with very unedifying scenes. The newly-converted (many of them influenced by mere example) could not afford to miss their days of enjoyment, and many days were still lost through the year from the ordinary business of life. The church authorities, after vainly striving to do away with these periodical abuses, devoted such days of active idleness to devotion under the invocation of this or that saint. So, at all events, the commencement of dissipation was removed to as late an hour in the day as might be. Such was St. John's day, which replaced a festival in honour of the sun; and such was the festival of All-Saints, replacing one held for joy that the harvest labours were happily accomplished. Our festivals of Christmas, New Year's Day, and the Epiphany were certainly not instituted to displace the old saturnalia; they merely occurred at the same season, and it was providential that it should have so happened.

New-Year's Day in France is better known by the name Le Jour des Estrennes (Day of presents) than by that of the circumcision. The word Estrennes is taken from the Latin adjective Strenuus (strong, vigorous earnest), because among the Pagans, with whom the custom originated it was understood that these presents were only made to estimable people (Viris Strenuis dabantur). So at least said Symmachus in the sixth of his epistles. The word also occurs in Suetonius's life of Tiberius, qui prohibuit Strenarum usum ne ultra Calendarias Januarias exercentur (who forbade that they should keep up the custom of the Strence beyond the kalends (the first) of January). That gentlemanly emperor, Julian the Apostate, made a distinction between his Christian and Pagan soldiers by distributing strenge to these latter, and accepting things from them in return, among which it was well understood that incense should

not be omitted. This circumstance is to be found in Theodoret's Ecclesiastical History. The flavour of idolatry which hovered about these New-Year's gifts, rendered them obnoxious to the acute senses of the first Christian converts: hence they were denounced by Tertullian and other earnest writers. After a mere toleration, they got again into public favour when all fears of relapses had passed, and the last imperial champion of paganism had flung up his blood in impotent rage and despair against Christ's kingdom.

The traditions of Saturn's kindly reign over a free, and equal, and happy people, kept up the Saturnalia in the end of December and the beginning of January, when to exhibit in the most striking form the spirit of the golden age, the slaves became masters for the nonce. This free and easy phase of society was well illustrated on the evening corresponding to that of our Epiphany. A large cake inclosing a bean, was got ready and cut up into as many parts as there were guests. A child to whom the names of the company were known was placed under the table. He represented Apollo, and thus the king of the feast was appointed. The guardian of the cake, taking one of the pieces in his hand, cried out, "Phoebe," the child answered, "Domine"; the manager then asked,"To whom shall I give this piece?" He mentioned at random anyone in company, and the questions and answers continued till all were provided. Whoever found the bean in his portion of cake was proclaimed king whatever might be his social condition, and the proceedings of himself and his subjects for the rest of the night were very saturnalian in character.

The solemnity of the Nativity was of too engrossing an interest to allow of being debased by any leaven of paganism. The ancient French knew of no more cheerful, or enlivening, or triumphant exclamation on public, joyful occasions than NOEL! the name which designated the festival. Noel is probably a modification of nouvelle (news), Our Lord's birth being emphatically the world's good tidings, and the angels making use of the word in their address to the shepherds.