been separated by a wide chasm of personal aggrandisement from the study of human nature. In this, modern philosophy has fallen short of its own boast that positive law should go hand in hand with the law of God as tested by the strict utilitarianism of analytical jurists, and it has fallen short of a current idea of the ancient world, expressed so well in the language of Plato-the knowledge of the natures and habits of men's souls will be of the greatest use in that art which has the management of them, and that art is politics. The first example that comes naturally to our minds from the domain of history is that of the great City Liveries: and what do we find? They can trace their origin up to the combination of ten families entering into an association for the protection of kin." From these guilds, too, about the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, began to emanate the first specimens of Friendly Societies, now forming so important an element among the influences directing the actions of the working classes.† But, to come directly to an era in the history of our subject, at the very time when positive law assumed its first importance in England the old natural formations of society were beginning to show the decay that had commenced long before. The barons had broken the sacredness of feudalism by the gain of Magna Charta, and from this time did great variations take place in the relation of Englishmen to one another. The English Justinian began the long list of combination laws which continued, with little or no interruption, to the present century when the necessity of reckoning with the fact of family interdependency, became so pressing that they were not only altogether repealed (by 6 Geo. IV. c. 129), but enactments made to regulate combinations, which ever since have multiplied unceasingly. We could gather some idea of the extent of these little groupings, as they now exist, if they were capable of being mapped out into geographic outlines over the surface of England. But territory is not their combining influence any more than it was that of their ancestors. True it is that kinship in race has ceased to exercise its power; but kinship in cause, whether social or political, has efficiently risen on the ruins of its predecessor. The ten families of guilds have grown into ninety-one London com. panies, and we have only to glance at the classification adopted by vii. * "Herbert's History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of London." + Vide Friendly Societies' Commission, Fourth Report, Part I., page The analogy of friendly societies to the guilds has often been pointed out, but most thoroughly in Mr. Toulmin Smith's work on English Guilds,” compiled from original MSS. of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.-Early English Text Society, Trübner, 1870. the Friendly Societies' Commission and turn over the introductory pages of their report, to easily understand the alarm felt by Parliament when the statutes against combination were repealed and the secret societies at once came to light.* Again, the Poor Law sprang to life under the crushing innovations made by the destruction of monachism. And what was the work of the poor law? It brought into a society a mass of incongruous, unconnected individuals who before found their existence within the pale of their own family or village community; and it stands a blot on the historic page of England, as evidence that no artificial means will supply the place of a regularly-developed socialism. Domestic history exhibits the same tendency of the fondness of mankind for grouping themselves into little societies of larger compass than a single household. Though the genius of John Timbs led him to quote from our elegant essayist, it did not indicate to him the real importance of the words: "all celebrated clubs are founded upon eating and drinking." We know the importance attached by Plato to "common tables" as being one of the sacred linkholds of the Grecian family. Modern society shows its adherence to this principle; for what club or association exists without its annual gathering together at the "common table," where differences are forgotten or forgiven, friendships more closely tied. Among the working classes of the community a man will hardly join a society unless it has the attraction of a feast, for if there is "no beer, no feast, no fire" it is too hard for human nature to bear. § Eating together is essentially a sacred emblem from the early life of man, and the practice of cutting the marriage-cake has descended * The affiliated societies alone number 12,752lodges in England (Fourth Report, Part I., pages xxiv., v.), and this is exclusive of those numbering less than 1000 members. The whole body of amalgamated societies number over 32,000. In England and Wales alone there are over four millions of MEN belonging to these societies. (Appendix iv., Fourth Report, Part I.) The hero-chieftain who did so much for the early tribes of primitive Asia is fully represented in these groupings of the modern world. There is always a strong temptation in the prospect of founding a new order; for "founders" are highly honoured in the old societies (page xxxv.) Throughout the whole of these reports there is much valuable information. Mr. Hume, in the debate on 12th Feb., 1824, on combination laws, stated his conviction that "combinations would be found to be more widely extended than was generally supposed ;" and the repeal showed the justness of his remark. (Vide also "Labour Law Commission," Appendix to Second Report.) In the South of England there are not many villages without a club.-Sir G. Young's report, page 16. + Timbs' "Clubs and Club Life," page 1. Laws, book vi.; "Aristotle," Pol. II., 2, 10; Müller's Dorians, II., pp. 197, 199. § Vide Sir George Young's Report on Friendly Societies. through regular channels from its primitive origin as the commencement of a family tie too sacred to be broken. Addison supplies us with an admirable summary to the evidence that domestic history gives. "Man," he says, "is said to be a sociable animal and as an instance of it we may observe that we take all occasions and pretences of forming ourselves into those little nocturnal assemblies which are commonly called clubs. When a set of men find themselves agree in any particular, though never so trivial, they establish themselves into a kind of fraternity upon the account of such a fantastic resemblance."* Looking back upon the life of man, look. ing back upon the archaic rules of conduct, and the modern codes of barbaric life, is it too much to say that this fantastic resemblance once took the form of kinship, was once the resemblance of brother to brother, kinsman to kinsman ? Perhaps this brief outline will suffice for the present. A larger and more ambitious attempt would lead us into fields of research not capable of being restricted to the space of a single article. We should have to look on all sides for examples of the family influence. The archives of law, of commerce, of literature, and of religion would have to be searched and brought into use, and an intrusion across the threshold of the family hearth (i. e. the family as we Englishmen know it) would have to be submitted to. We should meet, in the course of such investigation, with ancient families or law schools, of the existence of which "there is ample evidence in ancient Ireland,"† as an heirloom of the once undivided Indo-European stock; and we should compare them with our own Inns of Court, the earliest of which was founded when it was felt as a necessity that law should be an influence in England (1185). We should meet with guilds in the earliest times of Saxon England, when commerce had not begun its innovations into Saxon history, and these, as we have shewn before, are still living under the name of the City companies, the earliest of which received its charter from Edward III., who found them the "mainspring of the trade of his kingdom." We should meet with the worshippers of Homerthose who perceived that the hero-influence of his poetry was des tined to affect the course of much national history-binding themselves into their political fraternity or gens in the Ionic island of Chios, under their title of Homerids; and with us our Shakespeare, our Johnson, our Addison, have been the pioneers of small circles of family hero-worshippers, who have helped the cause of literature and poetry among themselves, and consequently among the nation. We should see the small bands who gathered round * "Spectator," No. 9. + "Early Institutions," page 16. the founders of new creeds-Brahma, Zoroaster, Buddha, and lastly Christ himself—from the midst of which issued forth the doctrines that now crystallise into families the congregations of temples and mosques, monasteries and churches. And lastly, may we penetrate within the circle of every homestead in England and perceive there either unity and brotherhood, or, perhaps, the members of this small family unit-the only one left on the page of history to tell of that which formed the people into a nation-separated from their natural stem to become members of the artificial families growing up around them-the trade-unions or communism, the club or the beershop. Pope has expressed what may be applied to the present age as much as to that gone by, to the natural union in the primitive family as to the artificial union in the modern club: "Heaven, forming each on other to depend, Bids each on other for assistance call Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all." THE WILD HUNTSMAN. Translated from the German of Bürger, BY JULIA GODDARD. THE Rhenish Wildgrave blew his horn- Now clattering joins the crowded course. The Sabbath morning's rays betimes Call to high-mass the young and old, O'er fence and field they take their flight, One steed a fiery form uprearing, Who are those riders left and right? "Well met, fair sir!" the Wildgrave cried; In heaven above, on earth so wide, |