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Authors: David Hume

The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (174 page)

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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, villenage went gradually into disuse throughout the more civilized parts of Europe: The interest 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 encrease of
political
or
civil
liberty, and which, even where it was not attended with this salutary effect, served to give the members of the community some of the most 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 uncontrouled: But in other respects the balance of 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 enured to arms, and where the independance of men was secured by a great equality of possessions, seem to have admitted a considerable mixture 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 in[chequality 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 controul; though derived less from the general forms of the consitution, which were inaccurate and irregular, than from the independant 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.

In each of these successive alterations, the only rule of government, which is intelligible or carries any authority with it, is the established practice of the age, and the maxims of administration, which are at that time prevalent, and universally PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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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 was ever 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 shewing 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.

[a]M. Paris, p. 623.

[b]M. Paris, p. 200. Hist. Croys. Cont. p. 474. W. Heming. p. 562. Trivet, p. 168.

[c]M. Paris, p. 200.

[d]Rymer, vol. i. p. 215.

[e]Rymer, vol. i. p. 215. Brady’s App. Nº. 143.

[f]M. Paris, p. 200, 202.

[g]Ibid. p. 200. M. West. p. 277.

[h]Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 79. M. West. p. 277.

[i]M. Paris, p. 203.

[k]Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 81.

[l]M. Paris, p. 204, 205. Chron de Mullr. p. 195.

[m]M. Paris, p. 206. Ann. Waverl. p. 183. W. Heming. p. 563. Trivet, p. 169. M.

West. p. 277. Knyghton, p. 2428.

[n]Rymer, vol. i. p. 221. M. Paris, p. 207. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 83. M. West. p. 278.

Knyghton, p. 2429.

[o]M. Paris, p. 256. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 82.

[p]Brady’s App. Nº. 144. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 83.

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[q]M. Paris, p. 210.

[r]Trivet, p. 174.

[s]Rymer, vol. i. p. 276.

[t]Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 102.

[u]Rymer, vol. i. p. 198. M. Paris, p. 221, 224. Ann. Waverl. p. 188. Chron. Dunst.

vol. i. p. 141, 146. M. West. p. 283.

[w]M. Paris, p. 217, 218, 259. Ann. Waverl. p. 187. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 129.

[x]M. West. p. 282.

[y]Clause 9. H. 3. m. 9. and m. 6. d.

[z]M. Paris, p. 220.

[a]Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 137.

[b]M. Paris, p. 221. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 138.

[c]Coke’s Comment. on Magna Charta, chap. 17.

[d]Rymer, vol. i. p. 269. Trivet, p. 179.

[e]M. Paris, p. 233.

[f]Ibid.

[g]Ibid.

[h]Ypod. Neustriae, p. 464.

[i]P. 252. M. West. p. 216. ascribes this counsel to Peter Bishop of Winchester.

[k]M. Paris, p. 259.

[l]Ibid. p. 259, 260, 261, 266. Chron. T. Wykes, p. 41, 42. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p.

220, 221. M. West. p. 291, 301.

[m]M. Paris, p. 263.

[n]Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 151.

[o]M. Paris, p. 258.

[p]Ibid. p. 265.

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[q]Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 219.

[r]M. Paris, p. 265.

[s]Ibid. p. 609.

[t]M. Paris, p. 271, 272.

[u]Rymer, vol. i. p. 448. M. Paris, p. 286.

[w]M. Paris, p. 236, 301, 305, 316, 541. M. West. p. 302, 304.

[x]M. Paris, p. 484. M. West. p. 338.

[y]M. Paris, p. 295, 301.

[z]Rymer, vol. i. p. 383.

[a]Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 150.

[b]Trivet, p. 174.

[c]M. Paris, p. 491. M. West. p. 338. Knyghton, p. 2436.

[d]M. Paris, p. 566, 666. Ann. Waverl. p. 214. Chron. Dunst. vol i. p. 335.

[e]M. Paris, p. 301.

[f]M. Paris, p. 406.

[g]M. Paris, p. 507.

[h]M. Paris, p. 393, 394, 398, 399, 405. W. Heming. p. 574. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p.

153.

[i]M. Paris, p. 614.

[k]M. Paris, p. 501.

[l]M. Paris, p. 501, 507, 518, 578, 606, 625, 648.

[m]M. Paris, p. 244.

[n]Ibid. p. 254.

[o]Rymer, vol. i. p. 323. M. Paris, p. 255, 257.

[p]Innocent’s bull in Rymer, vol. i. p. 471, says only 50,000 marks a year.

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[q]M. Paris, p. 451. The customs were part of Henry’s revenue, and amounted to 6000

pounds a year: They were at first small sums paid by the merchants for the use of the king’s warehouses, measures, weights, &c. See Gilbert’s history of the Exch. p. 214.

[r]M. Paris, p. 460.

[s]M. Paris, p. 480. Ann. Burt. p. 305, 373.

[t]M. Paris, p. 474.

[u]M. Paris, p. 476.

[w]M. Paris, p. 650.

[x]Rymer, vol. i. p. 502, 512, 530. M. Paris, p. 599, 613.

[y]Rymer, vol. i. p. 587. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 319.

[z]M. Paris, p. 614.

[a]Rymer, vol. i. p. 547, 548, &c.

[b]Rymer, vol. i. p. 597, 598.

[c]M. Paris, p. 612, 628. Chron. T. Wykes, p. 54.

[d]M. Paris, p. 614.

[e]M. Paris, p. 619.

[f]Rymer, vol. i. p. 624. M. Paris. p. 648.

[g]Rymer, vol. i. p. 630.

[h]M. Paris, p. 638. The same author, a few pages before, makes Richard’s treasures

amount to little more than half the sum, p. 634. The king’s dissipations and expences, throughout his whole reign, according to the same author, had amounted only to about 940,000 marks, p. 638.

[i]The sums mentioned by ancient authors, who were almost all monks, are often

improbable, and never consistent. But we know from an infallible authority, the public remonstrance to the council of Lyons, that the king’s revenues were below 60,000 marks a year: His brother therefore could never have been master of 700,000

marks; especially as he did not sell his estates in England, as we learn from the same author: And we hear afterwards of his ordering all his woods to be cut, in order to satisfy the rapacity of the German princes: His son succeeded to the earldom of Cornwal and his other revenues.

[k]M. Paris, p. 432.

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[l]M. Paris, p. 498. See farther, p. 578. M. West. p. 348.

[m]M. Paris, p. 518, 558, 568. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 293.

[n]M. Paris, p. 568.

[o]M. Paris, p. 579.

[p]M. Paris, p. 580. Ann. Burt. p. 323. Ann. Waverl. p. 210. W. Heming. p. 571. M.

West. p. 353.

[q]M. Paris, p. 597, 608.