Ie we consider the ancient state of Europe, we shall CHAP. find that the far greater part of the society were every

XXIII, where bereaved of their personal liberty, and lived entirely at the will of their masters. Every one that was not noble was a slave: The peasants were sold along with the land: The few inhabitants of cities were not in a better condition : Even the gentry themselves were sub jected to a long train of subordination under the greater barons or chief vassals of the crown; who, though seems ingly placed in a high state of splendour, yet, having but a slender protection from law, were exposed to every tempest of the state, and, by the precarious condition in which they lived, paid dearly for the power of oppressing and tyrannising over their inferiors. The first incident which broke in upon this violent system of government, was the practice begun in Italy, and imitated in France, of erect. ing communities and corporations, endowed with privi. leges and a separate municipal government, which gave them protection against the tyranny of the barons, and which the prince himself deemed it prudent to respect." The relaxation of the feudal tenures, and an execution somewhat stricter, of the public law, bestowed an independence on vassals which was unknown to their fore: fathers. And even the peasants themselves, though later than other orders of the state, made their escape from those bonds of villanage or slavery in which they had formerly been retained.

It may appear strange, that the progress of the arts, which seems, among the Greeks and Romans, to have daily increased the number of slaves, should in later times, have proved so general a source of liberty ; but this difference in the events proceeded from a great difference in the circumstances which attended those institutions. The ancient barons, obliged to maintain themselves

u There appear early symptoms of the jealousy entertained by the barong against the progress of the arts as destructive of their licentious power. A law was enacted, 7 Henry IV. chap. 17. prohibiting any one who did not possess twenty shillings a year in land, from binding his song apprentices to any trade. They found

already that the cities began to drain the coantry of their labourers and husbandmen ; and did not foresee how much the increase of commerce would increase the value of their estates. Sec farther, Cotton, p. 179. The "kings, to encourage the boroughs, granted them this privilege, that any villain who had lived a twelvemonth in any corporation, and had been of the gaild, should be thenceforth regarded as free. VOL. III.

P

XXIII.

CHAP. continually in a military posture, and little emulous of

elegance or splendour, employed not their villains as
domestic servants, much less as manufacturers; but
composed their retinue of freemen, whose military spirit
rendered the chieftain formidable to his neighbours, and
who were ready to attend him in every warlike enterprise.
The villains were entirely occupied in the cultivation of
their master's land, and paid their rents either in corn
and cattle and other produce of the farm, or in servile
offices, which they performed about the baron's family,
and upon the farms which he retained in his own posses-
sion. In proportion as agriculture improved and money
increased, it was found that these services, though
extremely burdensome to the villain, were of little advan-
tage to the master; and that the produce of a large estate
could be much more conveniently disposed of by the
peasants themselves who raised it, than by the landlord
or his bailiff, who were formerly accustomed to receive
it. A commutation was therefore made of rents for
services, and of money rents for those in kind; and as
men in a subsequent age discovered that farms were
better cultivated where the farmer enjoyed a security in
his possession, the practice of granting leases to the
peasant began to prevail, which entirely broke the bonds
of servitude, already much relaxed from the former
practices. . After this manner villanage went gradually
into disuse throughout the more civilized parts of Europe :
The interests of the master as well as that of the slave
concurred in this alteration. The latest laws which we
find in England for enforcing or regulating this species of
servitude were enacted in the reign of Henry VII. And
though the ancient statutes on this subject remain still
-unrepealed by parliament, it appears that, before the end
of Elizabeth, the distinction of villain and freeman was
totally, though insensibly abolished, and that no person
remained in the state to whom the former laws could be
applied.

Thus personal freedom became almost general in
Europe; an advantage which paved the way for the
increase of political or civil liberty, and which, even
where it was not attended with this salutary effect, served

XXIII.

to give the members of the community -some of the most CHAP. considerable advantages of it.

The constitution of the English government, ever since the invasion of this island by the Saxons, may boast of this preeminence, that in no age the will of the monarch was ever entirely absolute and uncontrolled; But in other respects the balance of the power

has extremely shifted among the several orders of the state : and this fabric has experienced the same mutability that has attended all human institutions.

THE ancient Saxons, like the other German nations, where each individual was inured to arms, and where the independence of men was secured by a great equality of possessions, seem to have admitted a considerable mix. ture of democracy into their form of government, and to have been one of the freest nations of which there remains any account in the records of history. After this tribe was settled in England, especially after the dissolution of the Heptarchy, the great extent of the kingdom produced a great inequality in property; and the balance seems to have inclined to the side of aristocracy. The Norman conquest threw more authority into the hands of the sovereign, which however admitted of great control; though derived less from the general forms of the constitution, which were inaccurate and irregular, than from the independent power enjoyed by each baron in his particular district or province. The establishment of the great charter exalted still higher the aristocracy, imposed regular limits on royal power, and gradually introduced some mixture of democracy into the constitution. But even during this period, from the accession of Edward I, to the death of Richard III. the condition of the commons was nowise eligible; a kind of Polish aristocracy prevailed; and though the kings were limited, the people were as yet far from being free. It required the authority almost absolute of the sovereigns, which took place in the subsequent period, to pull down those disorderly and licentious tyrants, who were equally averse from peace and from freedom, and to establish that regular execution of the laws, which in a following age enabled the people to erect a regular and equitable plan of liberty.

CHAP.

In each of these successive alterations, the only rule XXIH. of government which is intelligible or carries any authori- .

ty with it, is the established practice of the age, and the maxims of administration which are at that time prevalent and universally assented to. Those who, from a pretended respect to antiquity, appeal at every turn to an original plan of the constitution, only cover their turbulent spirit and their private ambition under the appearance of venerable forms: and whatever period they pitch on for their model, they may still be carried back to a more ancient period, where they will find the measures of power entirely different, and where every circumstance, by reason of the greater barbarity of the times, will appear still less worthy of imitation. Above all, a civilized nation, like the English, who have happily established the most perfect and most accurate system of liberty that ever was found compatible with government, ought to be cautious in appealing to the practice of their ancestors, or regarding the maxims of uncultivated ages as certain rules for their present conduct. An acquaintance with the ancient periods of their government is chiefly useful, by instructing them to cherish their present constitution, from a comparison or contrast with the condition of those distant times. And it is also curious, by showing them the remote and commonly faint and disfigured originals of the most finished and most noble institutions, and by instructing them in the great mixture of accident which commonly concurs with a small ingredient of wisdom and foresight in erecting the complicated fabric of the most perfect government.

Accession of Henry VII.His title to the crown--Kingor's

prejudice against the house of York--His joyful' recep-
tion in London-His coronation-Sweating sickness
A parliament-Entail of the crown--King's marriage
-An insurrection-Discontents of the people-Lambert
Simnel-Revolt of Ireland Intrigues of the dutchess of
Burgundy-Lambert Simnel invades England-Battle
of Stoke.

XXIV.

1485.

THE victory which the earl of Richmond gained CHAP. at Bosworth was entirely decisive; being attended as well with the total rout and dispersion of the royal army, as with the death of the king himself. Joy for this great August 22. success suddenly prompted the soldiers in the field of battle to bestow on their victorious general the appellation of king, which he had not hitherto assumed; and the acclamations of Long live Henry the Seventh! by a natu- Accession ral and unpremeditated movement, resounded from all of Hemy

. quarters. To bestow some appearance of formality on this species of military election, sir William Stanley brought a crown of ornament which Richard wore in battle, and which had been found among the spoils; and he put it on the head of the victor. Henry himself, remained not in suspense ; but immediately without hesitation accepted of the magnificent present which was tendered him. He was come to the crisis of his fortune : and being obliged suddenly to determine himself, amidst great difficulties which he must have frequently revolved in his mind, he chose that part which his ambition suggested to him, and to which he seemed to be invited by his present success. THERE were many

titles on which Henry could found His title tr his right to the crown; but no one of them free from