HORACE GREELEY. GREELEY, HORACE, an American journalist and historian; born at Amherst, N. H., February 3, 1811; died at Pleasantville, Westchester County, N. Y., November 29, 1872. He was the son of a farmer. When fourteen years of age he was apprenticed as a printer in the office of the "Northern Spectator," Poultney, Vt. In 1831 he made his way to New York, worked for ten years as a journeyman printer, became a contributor to the papers on which he was a compositor, the "Spirit of the Times" and "The Constitutionalist." In 1834 he assisted in establishing the "New Yorker." He also wrote for the "Jeffersonian" and "The LogCabin," campaign papers. In 1841 he established "The Tribune," in which the "New Yorker" and "The Log-Cabin" were soon merged. To this paper he gave the best efforts of his life. In 1848 he was elected to Congress. In 1871 he was the Democratic candidate for the Presidency of the United States. The excitement of the political campaign and a long illness induced inflammation of the brain, of which he died in November, 1872. Besides a great number of editorials and other articles he published "Hints Toward Reforms" (1850); "Glances at Europe" (1851); "History of the Struggle for Slavery Extension" (1856); "Overland Journey to San Francisco" (1860); "The American Conflict" (1864–66); "Recollections of a Busy Life" (1868); "Essays on Political Economy" (1870); and "What I Know of Farming" (1871). THE PRESS. LONG Slumbered the world in the darkness of error, To the sceptre and crown men abased them in terror, And o'er hill-top and glen floated liberty's banner, 'Twas the voice of the Press, on the startled ear breaking, 'Twas the flash of intelligence, gloriously waking Then hail to the Press! chosen guardian of Freedom! Or bigot to fetter her flight with his chain, But no! to the day-dawn of knowledge and glory, While millions shall listen to honor and bless, Till there bursts a response from the heart's strong emotion, And the earth echoes deep with "Long Life to the Press!" JOHN RICHARD GREEN. GREEN, JOHN RICHARD, an English historian; born at Oxford, December 12 (?), 1837; died at Mentone, France, March 9, 1883. He studied mainly under private tutors until the age of eighteen, when he obtained a scholarship at Jesus College, Oxford. While an undergraduate, he contributed to the "Oxford Chronicle" a series of papers upon "Oxford in the Eighteenth Century." Mr. Green took Holy Orders in 1860, and was appointed curate of St. Barnabas's, a populous but poor parish in London. In 1866 he was presented to the vicarage of Stepney, a position which he held until 1869, when he resigned, and was appointed Librarian at Lambeth, where he had ample opportunity for prosecuting historical labors. His first work was a "Short History of the English People" (1874), which was expanded into the "History of the English People " (1877-80.) This work, completed before the author had passed his forty-second year, is in many respects the best complete history which has been produced of England, from the earliest times to the battle of Waterloo. He then began the composition of historical works involving more minute details. These are "The Making of England," being the history of the period of the Saxon Heptarchy (1881), and "The Conquest of England" by the Normans (1883), the last pages of which were written while he was in daily expectation of death, which occurred before the work was published. Besides the important historical works already enumerated, Mr. Green put forth "Readings from English History" (1876); "Stray Studies from England and Italy" (1876); and edited a series of " History and Literature Primers," written by several eminent English scholars. THE ENGLAND OF ELIZABETH. (From "The History of the English People.") "I HAVE desired," Elizabeth said proudly to her Parliament, "to have the obedience of my subjects by love, and not by compulsion." It was a love fairly won by justice and good gov ernment. Buried as she seemed in foreign negotiations and intrigues, Elizabeth was above all an English sovereign. She devoted herself ably and energetically to the task of civil administration. She had hardly mounted the throne, indeed, when she faced the problem of social discontent. Time, and the natural development of new branches of industry, were working quietly for the relief of the glutted labor-market; but, as we have seen under the Protectorate, a vast mass of disorder still existed in England, which found a constant ground of resentment in the enclosures and evictions which accompanied the progress of agricultural change. It was on this host of "broken men" that every rebellion could count for support; their mere existence indeed was an encouragement to civil war, while in peace their presence was felt in the insecurity of life and property, in gangs of marauders which held whole counties in terror, and in "sturdy beggars" who stripped travellers on the road. Under Elizabeth, as under her predecessors, the terrible measures of repression, whose uselessness More had in vain pointed out, went pitilessly on: we find the magistrates of Somersetshire capturing a gang of a hundred at a stroke, hanging fifty at once on the gallows, and complaining bitterly to the Council of the necessity for waiting till the assizes before they could enjoy the spectacle of the fifty others hanging beside them. But the issue of a royal commission to inquire into the whole matter enabled the Government to deal with the difficulty in a wiser and more effectual way. The old powers to enforce labor on the idle, and settlement on the vagrant class, were continued; but a distinction was for the first time drawn between these and the impotent and destitute persons who had been confounded with them; and each town and parish was held responsible for the relief of its indigent and disabled poor, as it had long been responsible for the employment of able-bodied mendicants. When voluntary contributions proved insufficient for this purpose, the justices in sessions were enabled by statute to assess all persons in town or parish who refused to contribute in proportion to their ability. The principles embodied in these measures, the principle of local responsibility for local distress, and that of a distinction between. the pauper and the vagabond, were more clearly defined in a statute which marked the middle period of Elizabeth's reign. By this act houses of correction were ordered to be established for the punishment and amendment of the vagabond class by means of compulsory labor; while the power to levy and assess a general rate in each parish for the relief of the poor was trans ferred from the justices to its church-wardens. The well-known act which matured and finally established this system, the 43d of Elizabeth, remained the base of our system of pauper-administration until a time within the recollection of living men. Whatever flaws a later experience has found in these measures, their wise and humane character formed a striking contrast to the legislation which had degraded our statute-book from the date of the Statute of Laborers; and their efficacy at the time was proved by the entire cessation of the great social danger against which they were intended to provide. Its cessation, however, was owing not merely to law but to the natural growth of wealth and industry throughout the country. The change in the mode of cultivation, whatever social embarrassment it might bring about, undoubtedly favored production. Not only was a larger capital brought to bear upon the land, but the mere change in the system brought about a taste for new and better modes of agriculture; the breed of horses and of cattle was improved, and a far greater use made of manure and dressings. One acre under the new system produced, it was said, as much as two under the old. As a more careful and constant cultivation was introduced, a greater number of hands were required on every farm; and much of the surplus labor which had been flung off the land in the commencement of the new system was thus recalled to it. But a far more efficient agency in absorbing the unemployed was found in the development of manufactures. The linen trade was as yet of small value, and that of silk-weaving was only just introduced. But the woollen manufacture had become an important element in the national wealth. England no longer sent her fleeces to be woven in Flanders and to be dyed at Florence. The spinning of yarn, the weaving, fulling, and dyeing of cloth, were spreading rapidly from the towns over the country-side. The worsted trade, of which Norwich was the centre, extended over the whole of the Eastern counties. The farmers' wives began everywhere to spin their wool from their own sheeps' backs into a coarse "homespun." The South and the West still remained the great seats of industry and of wealth, the great homes of mining and manufacturing activity. The iron manufacturers were limited to Kent and Sussex, though their prosperity in this quarter was already threatened by the growing scarcity of the wood which fed their furnaces, and by the exhaustion of the forests of the weald. Cornwall was then, as now, the sole ex |