DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0312
296 INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL HISTORY.
Matthew Paris tells a characteristic story of the robbers of
Alton, of how they made raids on the Flemish merchants, who,
landing their goods at Southampton, made their way through the
Hampshire forests, of the international troubles which were fore-
seen, if these practices went unpunished, of the entire sympathy
of the population with these ossenders, of the refusal of juries to
give evidence, notwithstanding the king's rage and the bishop's
excommunication, of how the proof was extorted by imprison-
ment in the lowest dungeon, and of the discovery at last that the
chief of the gang were found to be servants in the king's house-
hold, whose wages were indisferently paid, and who thereupon
adopted this alternative of highway robbery, in order to supple-
ment the inadequacy of their resources. Henry III. was, I
believe, on the whole an amiable personage, who had, as amiable
people sometimes have, an over-sanguine estimate of his own
abilities, and who had, as many amiable people have, a habit of
unduly procrastinating the payment of his debts. Now I do not
doubt that much of this kind of freebooting went on. It did to
a far larger extent, and with greater impartiality in the time of
the Georges, as any one can see if one glances at the newspapers
of the period. The convictions of highwaymen too were very
frequent, but we may be sure that the convictions were not so
numerous as to make the calling desperate. Smollett's hero,
Mat. Bramble, whom he intended, and I think successfully, to
represent as the type of a well-bred, honest, and kind-hearted
English gentleman, takes compassion on a highwayman, who
seems disposed to abandon his calling owing to his coming into
some money, assists him with his credit, points out a way how he
may escape justice, and assures him of his countenance and re-
commendations, if he can contrive to escape to one of the British
plantations. I very much doubt whether the king's highway
during the epoch of the Plantagenets was more unsafe than it
was in those brave times when George III. was king.
But with all this, there was much internal trade. Common
carriers, from a very early date, traversed the roads between
Oxford and Southampton, even between Oxford and Newcastle-
on-Tyne. They undertook to deliver money, of course under
a special contract, and they who employ their services pay
Matthew Paris tells a characteristic story of the robbers of
Alton, of how they made raids on the Flemish merchants, who,
landing their goods at Southampton, made their way through the
Hampshire forests, of the international troubles which were fore-
seen, if these practices went unpunished, of the entire sympathy
of the population with these ossenders, of the refusal of juries to
give evidence, notwithstanding the king's rage and the bishop's
excommunication, of how the proof was extorted by imprison-
ment in the lowest dungeon, and of the discovery at last that the
chief of the gang were found to be servants in the king's house-
hold, whose wages were indisferently paid, and who thereupon
adopted this alternative of highway robbery, in order to supple-
ment the inadequacy of their resources. Henry III. was, I
believe, on the whole an amiable personage, who had, as amiable
people sometimes have, an over-sanguine estimate of his own
abilities, and who had, as many amiable people have, a habit of
unduly procrastinating the payment of his debts. Now I do not
doubt that much of this kind of freebooting went on. It did to
a far larger extent, and with greater impartiality in the time of
the Georges, as any one can see if one glances at the newspapers
of the period. The convictions of highwaymen too were very
frequent, but we may be sure that the convictions were not so
numerous as to make the calling desperate. Smollett's hero,
Mat. Bramble, whom he intended, and I think successfully, to
represent as the type of a well-bred, honest, and kind-hearted
English gentleman, takes compassion on a highwayman, who
seems disposed to abandon his calling owing to his coming into
some money, assists him with his credit, points out a way how he
may escape justice, and assures him of his countenance and re-
commendations, if he can contrive to escape to one of the British
plantations. I very much doubt whether the king's highway
during the epoch of the Plantagenets was more unsafe than it
was in those brave times when George III. was king.
But with all this, there was much internal trade. Common
carriers, from a very early date, traversed the roads between
Oxford and Southampton, even between Oxford and Newcastle-
on-Tyne. They undertook to deliver money, of course under
a special contract, and they who employ their services pay