queror; but to have been confented to by the great council of the nation long after his title was established. Indeed from the prodigious flaughter of the English nobility at the battle of Haftings, and the fruitlefs infurrections of those who furvived, fuch numerous forfeitures had accrued, that he was able to reward his Norman followers with very large and extenfive poffeffions which gave a handle to the monkish hiftorians, and fuch as have implicitly followed them, to represent him as having, by the right of the fword, feized on all the lands of England, and dealt them out again to his own favourites. A fuppofition, grounded upon a mistaken fenie of the word conqueft; which, in its feodal acceptation, fignifies no more than acquifition and this has led many hafty writers into a strange hiftorical mistake, and one which, upon the flighteft examination, will be found to be moft untrue. However, certain it is, that the Normans now began to gain very large poffeffions in England: and their regard for their feodal law, under which they had long lived, together with the king's recommendation of this policy to the English, as the best way to put themfelves on a military footing, and thereby to prevent any future attempts from the continent, were probably the reafons that prevailed to effect his establishment here. And perhaps we may be able to ascertain the time of this great revolution in our landed property, with a tolerable degree of exactnefs. For we learn from the Saxon Chronicle, that in the nineteenth year of king William's reign, an invafion was apprehended from Denmark; and the military conftitution of the Saxons being then laid afide, and no other introduced in its ftead, the kingdom was wholly defencelefs: which occafioned the king to bring over a large army of Normans and Bretons, who were quartered upon every landholder, and greatly oppreffed the people. This apparent weakness, together with the grievances occafioned by a foreign force, might co-operate with the king's remonttrances, and the better incline the nobility to liften to his prpofals for putting them in a pofture of defence. For as foon as the danger was over, the king held a great council to enquire into the ftate of the nation; the immediate confequence of which was, the compiling of the great furvey called Domesday-book, which was finished in the next year: and in the latter end of that

very year the king was attended by all his nobility at Sarum; where all the principal landholders fubmitted their lands to the yoke of military tenure, became the king's vaffals, and did homage and fealty to his perfon. This feems to have been the æra of formally introducing the feodal tenures by law; and probably the very law, thus made at the council of Sarum, is that which is ftill extant, and couched in thefe remarkable words: " ftatuimus, ut omnes liberi homines fædere & facramento affirment, quod intra & extra univerfum regnum Anglia Wilhelmo regi domino fuo fideles effe volunt; terras & honores illius omni fidelitate ubique fervare cum eo, et contra inimicos et alienigenas defendere." The terms of this law (as Sir Martin Wright has obferved) are plainly feodal: for, first, it requires the oath of fealty, which made, in the fenfe of the feudifts, every man that took it a tenant or vaffal; and, fecondly, the tenants obliged themselves to defend their lords territories and titles againft all enemies foreign and domeftic. But what puts the matter out of difpute, is another law of the fame collection, which exacts the performance of the military feodal fervices, as ordained by the general council: Omnes comites, & barones, & milites, & fervientes, & univerfi liberi homines, totius regni noftri prædicti, babeant & teneant fe femper bene in armis & in equis, ut decet & oportet: & fint femper prompti & bene parati ad fervitium fuum integrum nobis explendum & peragendum cum opus fuerit; jecundum quod nobis debent de fœdis & tenementis fuis de jure facere; ficut illis ftatuimus per commune concilium totius regni noftri præditi."

This new polity therefore feems not to have been impofed by the conqueror, but nationally and freely adopted by the general affembly of the whole realm, in the fame manner as other nations of Europe had before adopted it, upon the fame principle of felf-fecurity. And, in parti cular, they had the recent example of the French nation before their eyes, which had gradually furrendered up all its allodial or free lands into the king's hands, who reftored them to the owners as a bene ficium or feud, to be held to them and fuch of their heirs as they previously nominated to the king: and thus, by degrees, all the allodial eftates of France were converted into feuds, and the freemen became the vafials of the crown. The only difference between this change of tenures in France,

and

and that in England, was, that the former was effected gradually, by the confent of private perfons; the latter was done at once, all over England, by the common confent of the nation.

In confequence of this change, it became a fundamental maxim and neceffary principle (though in reality a mere fiction) of our English tenures, "that the king is the universal lord and original proprietor of all the lands in his kingdom; and that no man doth or can poffefs any part of it, but what has mediately or immediately been derived as a gift from him, to be held upon feodal fervices." For, this being the real cafe in pure, original, proper feuds, other nations who adopted this fyftem were obliged to act upon the fame fuppofition, as a fubftruction and foundation of their new polity, though the fact was indeed far otherwife. And, indeed, by thus confenting to the introduction of feodal tenures, our English ancestors probably meant no more than to put the kingdom in a state of defence by a military fyftem: and to oblige themselves (in refpect of their lands) to maintain the king's title and territories, with equal vigour and fealty, as if they had received their lands from his bounty upon thefe exprefs conditions, as pure, proper, beneficiary feudatories. But, whatever their meaning was, the Norman interpreters, skilled in all the niceties of the feodal conftitutions, and well understanding the import and extent of the feodal terms, gave a very different conftruction to this proceeding; and thereupon took a handle to introduce, not only the rigorous doctrines which prevailed in the duchy of Normandy, but alfo fuch fruits and dependencies, fuch hardships and fervices, as were never known to other nations; as if the English had in fact, as well as theory, owed every thing they had to the bounty of their fovereign lord.

Our ancestors, therefore, who were by no means beneficiaries, but had barely confented to this fiction of tenure from the crown, as the basis of a military difcipline, with reafon looked upon those deductions as grievous impofitions, and arbitrary conclufions from principles that, as to them, had no foundation in truth. However, this king, and his fon William Rufus, kept up with a high hand all the rigours of the feodal doctrines; but their fucceffor, Henry I. found it expedient, when he fet up his pretenfions to the crown, to promife

a reftitution of the laws of king Edward the Confeffor, or ancient Saxon fyltem; and accordingly, in the first year of his reign, granted a charter, whereby he gave up the greater grievances, but ftill referved the fiction of feodal tenure, for the fame military purposes which engaged his father to introduce it. But this charter was gradually broke through, and the former grievances were revived and aggravated, by himfelf and fucceeding princes; till, in the reign of king John, they became fo intolerable, that they occafioned his barons, or principal feudatories, to rise up in arms against him: which at length produced the famous great charter at Running-mead, which, with fome alterations, was confirmed by his fon Henry III. And though its immunities (efpecially as altered on its laft edition by his fon) are very greatly short of thofe granted by Henry I. it was juftly esteemed at the time a vaft acquifition to English liberty. Indeed, by the further alteration of tenures, that has fince happened, many of these immunities may now appear, to a common obferver, of much leis confequence than they really were when granted: but this, properly confidered, will fhew, not that the acquifitions under John were fmall, but that thofe under Charles were greater. And from hence alfo arifes another inference; that the liberties of Englishmen are not (as fome arbitrary writers would represent them) mere infringements of the king's prerogative, extorted from our princes by taking advantage of their weakness; but a restoration of that ancient constitution, of which cur ancestors had been defrauded by the art and fineffe of the Norman lawyers, rather than deprived by the force of the Norman arms.

Blackflone's Commentaries.

$61. Of British Juries.

The method of trials by juries, is generally looked upon as one of the most excellent branches of our conftitution. In theory it certainly appears in that light. According to the original establishment, the jurors are to be men of competent fortunes in the neighbourhood; and are to be fo avowedly indifferent between the parties concerned, that no reasonable exception can be made to them on either fide. In treafon, the perfon accufed has a right to challenge five-and-thirty, and in felony, twenty, without fhewing caufe of challenge. Nothing can be more equitable.

No

No prifoner can defire a fairer field. But the misfortune is, that our juries are often compofed of men of mean eftates and low understandings, and many difficult points of law are brought before them, and fubmitted to their verdict, when perhaps they are not capable of determining, properly and judiciously, fuch nice matters of juftice, although the judges of the court explain the nature of the cafe, and the law which arifes upon it. But if they are not defective in knowledge, they are fometimes, I fear, from their station and indigence, liable to corruption. This, indeed, is an objection more to the privilege lodged with juries, than to the inftitution itfelf. The point moft liable to objection, is the power which any one or more of the twelve have, to ftarve the reft into a compliance with their opinion; fo that the verdict may poffibly be given by ftrength. of conftitution, not by conviction of confcience; and wretches hang that jurymen may dine.'

Orrery.

Mankind, in general, are not fufficiently acquainted with the import of the word juice: it is commonly believed to confift only in a performance of thofe duties to which the laws of fociety can oblige us. This, I allow, is fometimes the import of the word, and in this fenfe juftice is diftinguifhed from equity; but there is a juftice fill more extenfive, and which can be fhewn to embrace all the virtues united.

Juftice may be defined, that virtue which impels us to give to every perfon what is his due. In this extended fente of the word, it comprehends the practice of every virtue which reafon prefcribes, or fociety thould expect. Our duty to our Maker, to each other, and to ourselves, are fully answered, if we give them what we owe them. Thus juftice, properly speaking, is the only virtue, and all the reft have their origin in it.

The qualities of candour, fortitude, charity, and generofity, for inftance, are not in their own nature virtues; and, if ever they deferve the title, it is owing only to justice, which impels and directs them. Without fuch a moderator, candour might become indifcretion, fortitude obftinacy, charity imprudence, and generofity miftaken profufion.

A difinterested action, if it be not conducted by justice, is, at beft, indifferent in

its nature, and not unfrequently even turns to vice. The expences of fociety, of prefents, of entertainments, and the other helps to chearfulness, are actions merely indifferent, when not repugnant to a better method of difpofing of our fuperfluities; but they become vicious, when they obstruct or exhauft our abilities from a more virtuous difpofition of our circumstances.

True generofity is a duty as indifpenfably neceflary as thofe impofed on us by law. It is a rule impofed on us by reafon, which fhould be the fovereign law of a rational being. But this generofity does not confift in obeying every impulfe of humanity, in following blind paffion for our guide, and impairing our circumstances by prefent benefactions, fo as to render us incapable of future ones.

Goldsmith's Effays.

$63. Habit, the Difficulty of conquering.

There is nothing which we eftimate fo fallaciously as the force of our own refolutions, nor any fallacy which we fo unwillingly and tardily detect. He that has refolved a thousand times, and a thousand times deferted his own purpose, yet fuffers no abatement of his confidence, but ftill believes himfelf his own master, and able, by innate vigour of foul, to prefs forward to his end, through all the obftructions that inconveniences or delights can put in his

way.

That this mistake fhould prevail for a time is very natural. When conviction is. prefent, and temptation out of fight, we do hot eafily conceive how any reasonable being can deviate from his true interest. What ought to be done while it yet hangs only in fpeculation, is fo plain and certain, that there is no place for doubt; the whole foul yields itself to the predominance of truth, and readily determines to do what, when the time of action comes, will be at laft omitted.

I believe most men may review all the lives that have paffed within their obfervation, without remembering one efficacious refolution, or being able to tell a fingle inftance of a courte of practice fuddenly changed in confequence of a change of opinion, or an establishment of determination. Many indeed alter their conduct, and are not at fifty what they were at thirty, but they commonly varied imperceptibly from themfelves, followed the train of external caules, and rather fuffered reformation than made it.