It is a strange error to conceive that English monasteries, before the
dissolution, fed the indigent part of the nation, and gave that
general relief which the poor laws are intended to afford.
_Hallam._
* * * * *
PIRACY.
Mr. Hallam makes the following excellent observations upon the
frequency of piracy in the middle ages:--"A pirate, in a well-armed,
quick-sailing vessel, must feel, I suppose, the enjoyments of his
exemption from control more exquisitely than any other free-booter;
and, darting along the bosom of the ocean, under the impartial
radiance of the heavens, may deride the dark concealments and hurried
nights of the forest robber. His occupation is indeed extinguished by
the civilization of later ages, or confined to distant climates. But
in the 13th or 14th centuries, a rich vessel was never secure from
attack; and neither restitution nor punishment of the criminals was to
be obtained from governments, who sometimes feared the plunderer, and
sometimes connived at the offence."
* * * * *
GOOD EFFECTS OF SALT.
Salt appears to be a necessary and universal stimulus to animated
beings; and its effects upon the vegetable as well as animal kingdom
have furnished objects of the most interesting inquiry to the
physiologist, the chemist, the physician, and the agriculturist. It
appears to be a natural stimulant to the digestive organs of all
warm-blooded animals, and that they are instinctively led to immense
distances in pursuit of it.
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