of their conduct with regard to
money is visible in their sensible encouragement of "business" in all
the forms which it then knew. "Annual Mercantile Fairs," says Sir F.
Palgrave, "were accustomed in Normandy. Established by usage and
utility, ere recognized by the law, their origin bespake a healthy
energy. Foreign manufacturers were welcomed as settlers in the
Burghs,--the richer the better. No grudge was entertained against the
Fleming; and the material prosperity of the country and the briskness of
commerce carried on in all the great towns, proves that the pack-horses
could tramp along the old Roman roads with facility. Indeed, amongst the
Normans the commercial spirit was indigenous. The Danes and the folk of
Danish blood were diligent traders. The greed of gain unites readily
with desperate bravery. When occasion served, Drake would deal like a
Dutchman. Any mode of making money enters into facile combination with
the bold rapacity of the Flibustier." There was much material prosperity
in Normandy at the close of the tenth century, or less than a hundred
years after Rollo had established himself and his followers on French
soil. The burgher class throve amazingly, and were the envy of all who
knew their condition; and their military skill and valor were as famous
as their success in the industrial arts, and their wealth, which was its
consequence. Free they were, or they would have been neither rich nor
valiant. The peasantry, too, were a superior people, who enjoyed much
freedom, and who exhibited their bravery whenever there was call for its
exhibition,--facts which show that they must have been well governed,
and which tend to elevate our conception of the merits of their rulers.

There was no such thing as a caste of nobles in Normandy for very many
years after that country passed into the hands of the Northmen. About
two generations after the death of Rollo, Richard le Bon, one of the
most popular of his descendants, set up the standard of exclusion, and
created that Norman nobility of which the world has heard so much for
eight hundred years. The clergy were too powerful in those days to be
much affected by his action, and the burghers were too rich to be put
down by a newly created nobility; but the peasantry were greatly injured
by the change, as it created an order who were interested in oppressing
them. They conspired, and their course bears some resemblance to that of
the Fenians of our day. The "Commu