individual reaped no benefit from the public union; on the
contrary, he seems to have lost his wild liberty in the subjugation; he
in a short time was compelled to suffer from his chieftain; and the
curiosity of the philosopher is excited by contemplating in the feudal
customs a barbarous people carrying into their first social institutions
their original ferocity. The institution of forming cities into
communities at length gradually diminished this military and
aristocratic tyranny; and the freedom of cities, originating in the
pursuits of commerce, shook off the yoke of insolent lordships. A famous
ecclesiastical writer of that day, who had imbibed the feudal
prejudices, calls these communities, which were distinguished by the
name of _libertates_ (hence probably our municipal term the
_liberties_), as "execrable inventions, by which, contrary to law and
justice, slaves withdrew themselves from that obedience which they owed
to their masters." Such was the expiring voice of aristocratic tyranny!
This subject has been ingeniously discussed by Robertson in his
preliminary volume to Charles V.; but the following facts constitute the
picture which the historian leaves to be gleaned by the minuter
inquirer.

The feudal government introduced a species of servitude which till that
time was unknown, and which was called the servitude of the land. The
bondmen or serfs, and the villains or country servants, did not reside
in the house of the lord: but they entirely depended on his caprice; and
he sold them, as he did the animals, with the field where they lived,
and which they cultivated.

It is difficult to conceive with what insolence the petty lords of those
times tyrannized over their villains: they not only oppressed their
slaves with unremitted labour, instigated by a vile cupidity, but their
whim and caprice led them to inflict miseries without even any motive of
interest.

In Scotland they had a shameful institution of maiden-rights; and
Malcolm the Third only abolished it, by ordering that they might be
redeemed by a quit-rent. The truth of this circumstance Dalrymple has
attempted, with excusable patriotism, to render doubtful. There seems,
however, to be no doubt of the existence of this custom; since it also
spread through Germany, and various parts of Europe; and the French
barons extended their domestic tyranny to three nights of involuntary
prostitution. Montesquieu is infinitely French, when he could turn t