Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

But when the Barons, whom their perfonal confequence had at firft caufed to be treated with caution and regard by the Sovereign, began to be no longer fo,-when the tyrannical laws of the Conqueror became ftill more tyrannically executed,-the confederacy, for which the general oppreffion had paved the way, inftantly took place. The Lord, the Vaffal, the inferior Vaffal, all united. They even implored the affistance of the peasants and cottagers; and that haughty averfion with which on the Continent the Nobility repaid the induftrious hands which fed them, was, in England, compelled to yield to the preffing neceffity of fetting bounds to the Royal authority.

The People, on the other hand, knew that the cause they were called upon to defend, was a caufe common to all; and they were fenfible, befides, that they were the neceffary fupporters of it. Inftructed by the example of their Leaders, they spoke and stipulated conditions for themselves: they infifted that, for the future, every individual should be entitled to the protection of the law; and thus did thofe rights with which the Lords had ftrengthened themselves, in order to oppose the tyranny of the Crown, become a bulwark which was in time to restrain their own.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

CHA P. II.

A fecond a dvantage England bad over France:-it formed one undivided State.

IT

T was in the reign of Henry the First, about forty years after the Conqueft, that we fee the above caufes begin to operate. This Prince having afcended the throne to the exclufion of his elder brother, was fenfible that he had no other means to maintain his power than by gaining the affection of his fubjects; but, at the fame time, he perceived that it must be the affection of the whole nation: he, therefore, not only mitigated the rigour of the feudal laws in favour of the Lords, but also annexed as a condition to the Charter he granted, that the Lords fhould allow the fame freedom to their refpective Vaffals. Care was even taken to abolish thofe laws of the Conqueror which lay heaviest on the lower claffes of the People *.

Under

* Amongst others, the law of the Curfu. It might be matter of curious difcuffion to inquire what the AngloSaxon Government would in procefs of time have become, and of course the Government of England be, at this pre- /

fens

[ocr errors]

Under Henry the Second, liberty took a farther ftride; and the ancient Trial by Jury, a mode of procedure which is at present one of the most valuable parts of the English law, made again, though imperfectly, its appearance.

But these causes, which had worked but filently and flowly under the two Henrys, who were Princes in fome degree juft, and of great capacity, manifefted themselves at once under the defpotic reign of King John The royal prerogative, and the foreft laws, having been exerted by this Prince to a degree of exceffive severity, he foon beheld a general confederacy formed against him:-and here we must obferve another circumftance, highly advantageous, as well as peculiar to England.

England was not, like France, an aggregation of a number of different Sovereignties:

fent time, if the event of the Conqueft had never taken place; which, by conferring an immenfe as well as unusual power on the head of the feudal System, compelled the Nobility to contract a lasting and fincere union with the People. It is very probable that the English Government would at this day be the fame as that which long prevailed in Scotland, where the King and Nobles engroffed, jointly or by turns, the whole power in the State, the fame as in Sweden, the fame as in Denmark,-countries whence the 1 Anglo-Saxons came,

The fame

it formed but one State, and acknowledged but one Master, one general title. laws, the fame kind of dependence, confequently the fame notions, the fame interefts, prevailed throughout the whole. The extremities of the kingdom could, at all times, unite to give a check to the exertions of an unjuft power. From the river Tweed to Portfmouth, from Yarmouth to the Land's End, all was in motion: the agitation increased from the distance like the rolling waves of an extenfive fea; and the Monarch, left to himself, and deftitute of resources, saw himself attacked on all fides by an univerfal combination of his fubjects.

No fooner was the ftandard fet up against John, than his very Courtiers forfook him. In this fituation, finding no part of his kingdom lefs irritated against him than another, having no detached province which he could engage in his defence by promifes of pardon, or of peculiar conceffions, the trivial though never-failing resources of Government, he was compelled, with feven of his attendants, all that remained with him, to fubmit himself to the difpofal of his fubjects,—and he figned at Runing Mead the Charter of the Foreft, together

* Anno 1215.

with that famous charter, which, from its fuperior and extenfive importance, is denominated Magna Charta.

By the former, the moft tyrannical part of the foreft laws was abolished; and by the latter, the rigour of the feudal laws was greatly mitigated in favour of the Lords. But this Charter did not stop there; conditions were alfo ftipulated in favour of the numerous body of the people who had concurred to obtain it, and who claimed, with fword in hand, a fhare in that fecurity it was meant to establish. It was hence instituted by the Great Charter, that the fame fervices which were remitted in favour of the Barons, fhould be in like manner remitted in favour of their Vaffals. This Charter moreover established an equality of weights and measures throughout England; it exempted the Merchants from arbitrary impofts, and gave them liberty to enter and depart the Kingdom at pleasure it even extended to the loweft orders of the State, fince it enacted, that the Villain, or Bondman, fhould not be fubject to the forfeiture of his implements of tillage. Lastly, by the twenty ninth article of the fame Charter, it was enacted, that no fubject should be exiled, or in any fhape whatever molested, either in his person or effects, otherwise than

by

« НазадПродовжити »