confess it. The Monastics could possess no private property;
they could save no money; they could bequeath nothing. They
lived, received, and expended in common. The monastery too
was a proprietor that never died and never wasted. The farmer
had a deathless landlord then; not a harsh guardian, or a
grinding mortgagee, or a dilatory master in chancery, all was
certain; the manor had not to dread a change of lords, or the
oaks to tremble at the axe of the squandering heir. How proud
we are still in England of an old family, though, God knows,
'tis rare to see one now. Yet the people like to say, We held
under him, and his father and his grandfather before him: they
know that such a tenure is a benefit. The abbot was ever the
same. The monks were in short in every district a point of
refuge for all who needed succour, counsel, and protection; a
body of individuals having no cares of their own, with wisdom
to guide the inexperienced, with wealth to relieve the
suffering, and often with power to protect the oppressed."

"You plead their cause with feeling," said Egremont, not
unmoved.

"It is my own; they were the sons of the People, like myself."

"I had thought rather these monasteries were the resort of the
younger branches of the aristocracy?" said Egremont.

"Instead of the pension list;" replied his companion, smiling,
but not with bitterness. "Well, if we must have an
aristocracy, I would sooner that its younger branches should
be monks and nuns, than colonels without regiments, or