TION. 20. Separation thence in duced be tween the classes of society in modern times. INTRODUC- in all its provinces, rendered the people totally incapable of arresting this general spoliation. They submitted, almost without resistance, to every invader, and could hardly be induced to take up arms, even by the most incessant foreign and domestic aggressions. Hence arose a total separation of the higher and lower orders, and entire change in the habits, occupation, and character of the different ranks of society. From the free conquerors of the Roman provinces have sprung the noble and privileged classes of modern Europe; from their enslaved subjects, the numerous and degraded ranks of peasants and labourers. The equality and energy of pastoral life stamped a character of pride and independence on the descendants of the conquerors, which in many countries is yet unabated; the misery and degradation of the vanquished riveted chains about their necks, which were hardly loosened for a thousand years. In this original separation of the different ranks of society, consequent upon the irruption of the Franks into Gaul, is to be found the remote cause of the evils which induced the FRENCH REVOLUTION. But many ages were destined to elapse before the conflicting interests thus created came into collision; and it was by the gradual agency of several conThierry, curring causes that the energy was restored to the Sismondi's mass of the people, which had been lost amidst the tranquillity of Roman servitude and the violence of feudal oppression.1 Introd. i. 9. France, i. 74, 87. 21. tration of the van quished. When the lands of the vanquished people were at Entire pros- length generally divided, and the military followers of the victorious invaders had completely overspread the conquered territory, the nobles despised their subjects too much to court their assistance in periods of danger. The mode of warfare then universally practised, rendered the . baron independent of aid from his inferiors. Literally speaking, he held his possessions of God and his sword. Battles were decided by the gendarmerie alone, with little aid from the foot-soldiers. The steel-clad knights rode TION. through the unprotected infantry, as they would have INTRODUC done through thickets of broom; it was their brother knights alone who either attracted their notice, or were deemed worthy of their hostility. Shut up in castles, and surrounded by their own military retainers, they neither required the aid nor felt for the sufferings of their bondsmen. The ravages of the Normans, the cruelty of the Huns, excited but little compassion while it was wreaked only on the slaves of the country; and the baron, secure within his walls, beheld with indifference his villages in flames, and the long files of weeping captives who were carried off from beneath his ramparts by the desolating invaders. During these long ages of feudal anarchy, the lower orders neither improved in Thierry, courage nor rose in importance; the lapse of time served 96. only to increase their degradation, by extinguishing the remembrance of better times.1 The con 1 i. 162; ii. 22. sence of representative governments But the conquests of the northern nations led to one important consequence the establishment of represen- Total abtative governments in the provinces of the empire. liberty of antiquity, cradled in single towns, was fined to the citizens who were present on the spot, and in antiquity. could take an active part in the public deliberations; and though the Romans, with unexampled wisdom, extended the general rights of citizenship to the conquered provinces, yet the idea of admitting them to a share of the representation never occurred to their minds; and the more important privileges of a citizen could only be exercised by actually repairing to the metropolis. The unavoidable consequence of this was, that the populace of the capital, in all the free states of antiquity, exercised the principal powers of government; from their passions the public measures took their rise, and by their tumults revolutions in the state were effected. The immediate cause of the overthrow of the liberties of Rome, was the admission of all the citizens of Italy to the privileges of Roman citizens, coupled with the absence of any provision for their representation, VOL. I. B INTRODUC- and the consequent introduction of the armed force of TION. the provinces to decide in the streets of Rome, under the banners of the leading generals of the Republic, the constantly recurring contest for political supremacy. Hence the violence, the anarchy, and the inconstancy by which 1 Mitford's their history was so often distinguished, and which, though Greece, ix. concealed amid the blaze of ancient eloquence, the searching eye of modern history has so fully brought to light.1 68, 87. 23. northern nations on their first ment in Europe. The northern nations, on the other hand, who estabAnd in the lished themselves on the ruins of the Roman empire, were actuated by different feelings, and influenced by establish- opposite habits. The liberty which they brought with them from their woods, or which had sprung up amidst the solitude of the desert, knew no locality, and was confined to no district. It was the liberty of the steppe, not of the forum; their civilisation was that of the tribe, not of the city. The conqueror had been originally free; and that freedom was equally preserved and valued in the cultivated plain as in the desert wilds. Slavery, indeed, was general, but it was the conquered people who were so prostrated; and the whole dominant race were equally haughty towards their superiors, and tyrannical to their inferiors. When the military followers of a victorious chief were settled in a province they had subdued, they still regarded their leader with somewhat of their original independence; he was distinguished from them only by the pre-eminence of his rank in actual war, and the magnitude of his share of the vanquished lands. The sea-kings who so long desolated the maritime provinces of France and England, and the Anglo-Saxons who laid the foundation of the English empire, possessed hardly 321. Hume, any authority over their followers except during the period of actual service. The Franks who, under Clovis, estabSaxons, lished the French monarchy, acknowledged but a nominal France, i allegiance to their chief. Elevated on the shields of their lam, i. 153. followers, the leaders owed their dignity to the voluntary choice of their fellow-warriors:2 and even in moments 2 Thierry, ii. i.264. Tur ner's Anglo 97, Sism. TION. of triumph, the meanest soldiers were not afraid of re- INTRODUCminding them of the tenure by which they held their power. which led to represen vernments Europe. It was the settlement of brave and energetic nations. 24. in rich and highly cultivated provinces, which led to the Causes diffusion of the victors over the conquered districts, and the establishment of an independent aristocracy amidst tative go the decaying wealth of ancient servitude. Had the in modern country been less richly cultivated, the followers of the northern invaders would have been debased amidst the seductions of cities, or returned, after a predatory incursion, to the solitudes which protected them from pursuit. It was the discovery of opulent and fertile districts, tenanted by a skilful but unwarlike people, which encouraged the rural settlement of the conquerors, which rendered the protection of cities unnecessary, and provided a counterpoise to their allurements. By establishing the invaders in a permanent manner in the country, it long preserved their manners from corruption, and rendered the servitude of the Roman empire one remote cause of the liberty of modern Europe. On the first settlement of the victorious nations, the popular assemblies of the soldiers were an actual convocation of the military array of the kingdom. William the Conqueror summoned his whole military followers to assemble at Winchester; sixty thousand men obeyed the mandate, the poorest of whom held property adequate to the maintenance of a horseman and his attendants. The meetings of the Champs-de-Mai were less a deputation from the followers of Clovis, than an actual congregation of their numbers in one vast assembly. But in process of time, the burden. of travelling from a distance was severely felt, and the prevalence of sedentary habits rendered the landed proprietors unwilling to undertake the risk, or expense, of personal attendance on the great council of the state. Hence the introduction of PARLIAMENTS, or REPRESENTATIVE LEGISLATURES, the greatest addition to the cause TION. INTRODUC- of liberty which modern times has afforded; which combine the energy of democratic with the caution of aristocratic rule; which temper the turbulence and allay the fervour of cities, by the slowness and tenacity of country life; and which, where the balance is duly preserved in 286. sism. the composition of the assembly, provide, in the variety 231. of its interests and habits, a long enduring check upon the violence or injustice of a part of its members.1 1 Thierry, France, i. 25. They are borrowed from the assemblies of the church. It is doubtful, however, whether these causes, powerful as they are, would have led to the introduction of that great and hitherto unknown change in government which the representative system introduced, had not a model existed for imitation, in which, for a series of ages, the system had been fully established. The councils of the church had, so early as the sixth century, introduced over all Christendom the most perfect system of representation: delegates, from the most remote dioceses in Europe and Asia, had in them assembled to deliberate on the concerns of the faithful and every Christian priest, however humble his station, had some share in the formation of those great assemblies, by which the general affairs of the church were to be regulated. The formation of parliaments, under the representative system, took place in all the European states in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The industry of antiquaries may carry the Wittenagemot, or actual assembly of leading men, a few generations further back; but six centuries before the earliest periods assigned for such convocations, the councils of Nice and Antioch had exhibited perfect models of Hist. de la a universal system of representation, embracing a wider 105, 106. sphere than the whole extent of the Roman empire. Guizot, Es- There can be no doubt that it was this example, so 'Hist. de generally known, and of such powerful authority, which 177, 200. determined the imitation of the other members of the Thierry, * Salvandy, Pologne, i. sais sur France, Essais sur community, where they had any common concerns which France, 93. required deliberation ;2 and thus, to the other blessings l'Hist. de which civilisation owes to Christianity, are to be added |