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I.

CHAP. latter. So early in the history of the two countries were their popular commotions marked by the character which has ever since distinguished them, and so strongly has the force of external circumstances impressed the same stamp upon the efforts of the people in the most remote ages. Various circumstances conspired, after this period, to check the growth of public freedom, and to preserve those high powers of the aristocracy in France which ultimately induced the Revolution.1

1 Bar. i. 74,

295.

53.

Great feutheir per

datories:

nicious effect.

I. The French monarchy, during the feudal ages, was rather a confederacy of separate states than a single government. The great vassals exercised all the real powers of sovereignty independent of any foreign control, those of coining money, waging private war, and judging exclusively in civil causes. They were exempt from public tribute, except the feudal aids, and subject to no general legislative control. The consequences of this independence were in the highest degree important. No general necessity, the dread of no national enemy, compelled the great vassals to court the popular assistance, or arm their tenantry against the throne. The vast power which the Conquest gave to the crown in England at once curbed the turbulence of the barons, established one general law throughout the realm, and induced the nobles, for their own support, to arm the yeomanry. The weakness of the throne in France enabled the chief feudatories to usurp the powers of sovereignty, broke down into separate and provincial customs the general law of the country, and confined the use of arms to the landed gentlemen and their military retainers. Separate interests, endless contentions, and domestic warfare, occupied the whole attention of the nobility. No common concerns, the preservation of no common privileges, no general danger, cemented the disunited body. The * Hallam, i. monarchy grew gray with years, without its subjects having experienced the feelings, or been actuated by the interests, or wielded the power, of a united people.2

227. Hume, ii. 115.

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54. Effect of the

wars.

II. The long and bloody wars with England, which lasted, with hardly any intermission, for one hundred and twenty years, were fatal to the growth of commercial or manufacturing industry in France, and to the independent English spirit which naturally arises from it. The influence of war was chiefly felt in England by the increased demand for domestic industry, the prospects of plunder which Continental expeditions afforded, and the high wages which were offered to rouse the energy of the yeomanry.* The English invasions were contemplated in France with very different feelings as bringing defeat and disgrace to the nobles—plunder and devastation to the burghers-misery and starvation to the peasantry. After the feudal nobility were destroyed in the field of Azincourt, the whole bonds of society were loosened; every castle or stronghold was fortified, and became the residence of a partisan, generally as formidable to his countrymen as his enemies; warfare and rapine universally prevailed; and the miserable peasants, driven into walled towns for protection, could only venture into the fields to cultivate the ground with scouts stationed on the tops of the steeples to warn them of the approach of danger. The consequences of this insecurity may still be seen in the total absence of cottages in all the north and east of France, as contrasted with the humble but comfortable dwellings which every where rise among the green fields and wooded landscape of England. Commercial opulence, the best nursery of freedom in civilised times, was extinguished during these disastrous contests; industry annihilated by the destruction of its produce, and the total insecurity of its reward: violence became universal, because it alone led to distinction. It was by high pecuniary sacrifices that mercenaries were obtained from foreign states; it was the Scottish

It appears from Rymer that the Earl of Salisbury gave a shilling a-day for every man-at-arms, and sixpence for each archer; sums equivalent to fifteen shillings, and seven and sixpence of our money.-RYMER, i. 10, 392; MONSTRELET, i. 303.

VOL. I.

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HARLEM BRANCH

CIRCULATING LIBRAN

CHAP. auxiliaries who stemmed the progress of disaster at CreI. vant and Verneuil; and the great military monarchy of France was compelled to seek protection from the arms of a barbarous people. During such public calamities the growth of freedom was effectually stopped; and the wretched inhabitants, driven to struggle for their exis108. Vil- tence, year after year, with foreign and domestic enemies, 302. Sism. had neither leisure to contemplate the blessings of liberty, nor means to acquire the wealth which could render it of value.1

1 Hallam, i.

laret, xiv.

France, x. 543, 548.

55.

the crown on public freedom.

III. When the enthusiasm of the Maid of Orleans, the Effect of the valour of the nobles, and the domestic dissensions of Engstanding land, had driven these hated invaders from their shores, the numerous bands of armed men in every part of the kingdom exposed the people to incessant depredations, and imperiously called for some vigorous exercise of the royal authority. From this necessity arose the Companies of Ordonnance of Charles VII., the first example in modern Europe of a STANDING ARMY. These companies, which at first consisted only of sixteen thousand infantry, and nine thousand cavalry, soon gave the crown a decisive superiority over the feudal militia; and being always embodied and ready for action, proved more than a match in the end for the slow and desultory armaments of the nobles. From this period the influence of the crown in France steadily increased: a series of fortunate accidents united the principal fiefs to the monarchy; and neither among the feudal barons, nor the burgher forces, could any counterpoise be found to its authority. The tumultuary array of feudal power, which is only occasionally called out, and very imperfectly disciplined, can never maintain a contest of any duration with a small force of regular soldiers who are constantly kept embodied, have acquired skill in the use of arms, and adhere to their colours equally in adverse as in prosperous fortune. But to this inherent weakness in the feudal forces was superadded in France the total want of any popular support to the

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1 Robert.

i.

nobles. The burghers, depressed and insulted by the CHAP. privileged classes, could not be expected to join in their support; the peasants, unaccustomed to the use of arms, and galled by the recollection of rapine and injury, were both unable to combine against the throne, and unwilling Charles V. to humble a power from which they themselves stood in Monstrelet, need of protection. Hence, in a short time, the crown parti, :$139. acquired despotic authority; and Louis XI., with a 118. Philip regular force of only twenty-four thousand infantry and i. 384. fifteen thousand cavalry, became nearly absolute master of his dominions.1

Hall, i. 117,

de Comines,

56.

spirit of the

IV. The peculiar situation of France, in the midst of the great military monarchies of Europe, led to the con- Military stant maintenance of a large standing army, and per- nation." petuated the preponderance thus acquired by the throne. Upon the decay of feudal manners, consequent on the progress of luxury, and the destruction of the influence of the nobles which resulted from the introduction of firearms, no power remained in the state capable of withstanding the regular forces of the monarchy. The nobles flocked to Paris to share in the splendour of the court, or join in the pleasures of the metropolis; the peasantry, undisciplined and depressed by their superiors, and buried in ignorance, lost even the remembrance of the name of freedom. The wars with England, however, had revived the military spirit, not only among the nobles, but among the common people; the political events which followed gave this spirit its natural direction; the physical resources of the country aided its development; and France speedily appeared as a conquering power. courage and energy of the nation rapidly followed out this new line of ambition; the sovereign was permitted to increase the forces, which led the van in so brilliant a career; and the people, intoxicated by the conquests of Charles VIII. and Francis I., forgot both the disasters which followed their transient success, and the decisive ascendency which they gave to the government.

The

The

59853)

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CHAP. desire of military glory, fed by repeated triumphs, became the prevailing passion of the nation; the States-general, which, for half a century, had nearly acquired the authority of the English parliaments, gradually fell into desuetude, and were abandoned, after their last assembly in 1614, not so much from the encroachments of the crown as the neglect of the people. For nearly two hundred years before the commencement of the Revolution, they 256. Mably; had never once been assembled; and the nation, dazzled 128. by the pageant of military success, silently resigned to the crown the whole real powers of government.1

1 Hallam, i.

Villiers, ii.

57.

Their per

fect.

V. From the earliest times the distinction between Privileges of patrician and plebeian, between noble and base-born, had the nobility. been established in France; and, by an unhappy custom, nicious ef- this privilege descended to all the children, instead of being confined, as in England, to the eldest son. The consequence was a complete separation of the higher and lower orders, and the establishment of a line of demarcation, which neither talent, enterprise, nor success, was able to pass. "It is a terrible thing," says Pascal, "to reflect on the effect of rank: it gives to a child, newly born, a degree of consideration which half a century of labour and virtue could not procure." Of all the circumstances in the early history of France, there was none which had a more powerful effect than this, in determining the character of the Revolution. It unavoidably created a privileged class at variance with, and an object of jealousy to, the whole remainder of the community. What was still more fatal, it deprived this class, when the contest commenced, of all sympathy or support, save in a peculiar district, from the rest of the community. But the influence of despotism in modern times cannot permanently extinguish the light of reason. The press has provided in the end an antidote to the worst species of government, except, perhaps, that which arises from its own abuse; its influence on every other oppression may be slow, but it is progressive, and ultimately irresistible.

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