uld not
legally be produced, till they received the same sanction: and none of
his ministers or barons, whatever offences they were guilty of, could
be subjected to spiritual censures till he himself had given his
consent to their excommunication [m]. These regulations were worthy
of a sovereign, and kept united the civil and ecclesiastical powers,
which the principles introduced by this prince himself had an
immediate tendency to separate.
[FN [m] Eadmer, p. 6.]

But the English had the cruel mortification to find that their king's
authority, however acquired or however extended, was all employed in
their oppression; and that the scheme of their subjection, attended
with every circumstance of insult and indignity [n], was deliberately
formed by the prince, and wantonly prosecuted by his followers [o].
William had even entertained the difficult project of totally
abolishing the English language; and, for that purpose, he ordered,
that in all schools throughout the kingdom, the youth should be
instructed in the French tongue; a practice which was continued from
custom till after the reign of Edward III., and was never indeed
totally discontinued in England. The pleadings in the supreme courts
of judicature were in French [p]: the deeds were often drawn in the
same language: the laws were composed in that idiom [q]: no other
tongue was used at court: it became the language of all fashionable
company; and the English themselves, ashamed of their own country,
affected to excel in that foreign dialect. From this attention of
William, and from the extensive foreign dominions long annexed to the
crown of England, proceeded that mixture of French which is at present
to be found in the English tongue, and which composes the greatest and
best part of our language. But amidst those endeavours to depress the
English nation, the king, moved by the remonstrances of some of his
prelates, and by the earnest desires of the people, restored a few of
the laws of King Edward [r]; which, though seemingly of no great
importance towards the protection of general liberty, gave them
extreme satisfaction, as a memorial of their ancient government, and
an unusual mark of complaisance in their imperious conquerors [s].
[FN [n] Order. Vital. p. 523. H. Hunt. p. 370. [o] Ingulph. p. 71.
[p] 36 Edw. III. cap. 15. Selden Spicileg. ad Eadmer, p. 189.
Fortescue de laud leg. Angl. cap. 48. [q] Chron. Rothom. A. D. 1066.
[r] Ingulph. p. 88. Br