ntance with
the prince; and added every day new force to his authority over the
vassals of the barony. They received from him education in all
military exercises: his hospitality invited them to live and enjoy
society in his hall: their leisure, which was great, made them
perpetual retainers on his person, and partakers of his country sports
and amusements: they had no means of gratifying their ambition but by
making a figure in his train: his favour and countenance was their
greatest honour: his displeasure exposed them to contempt and
ignominy: and they felt every moment the necessity of his protection,
both in the controversies which occurred with other vassals, and, what
was more material, in the daily inroads and injuries which were
committed by the neighbouring barons. During the time of general war,
the sovereign, who marched at the head of his armies, and was the
great protector of the state, always acquired some accession to his
authority, which he lost during the intervals of peace and
tranquillity: but the loose police, incident to the feudal
constitutions, maintained a perpetual, though secret hostility,
between the several members of the state; and the vassals found no
means of securing themselves against the injuries to which they were
continually exposed, but by closely adhering to their chief, and
falling into a submissive dependence upon him.

If the feudal government was so little favourable to the true liberty
even of the military vassal, it was still more destructive of the
independence and security of the other members of the state, or what,
in a proper sense, we call the people. A great part of them were
SERFS, and lived in a state of absolute slavery or villanage: the
other inhabitants of the country paid their rents in services, which
were in a great measure arbitrary; and they could expect no redress of
injuries, in a court of barony, from men who thought they had a right
to oppress and tyrannize over them. The towns were situated either
within the demesnes of the king, or the lands of the great barons, and
were almost entirely subjected to the absolute will of their master.
The languishing state of commerce kept the inhabitants poor and
contemptible; and the political institutions were calculated to render
that poverty perpetual. The barons and gentry, living in rustic
plenty and hospitality, gave no encouragement to the arts, and had no
demand for any of the more elaborate manufactures: