justice and to liberty. Civil
employments and occupations soon became honorable among the English: the
situation of that people rendered not the perpetual attention to wars so
necessary as among their neighbors, and all regard was not confined to
the military profession: the gentry, and even the nobility, began to
deem an acquaintance with the law a necessary part of education: they
were less diverted than afterwards from studies of this kind by other
sciences; and in the age of Henry VI., as we are told by Fortescue,
there were in the inns of court about two thousand students, most of
them men of honorable birth, who gave application to this branch of
civil knowledge: a circumstance which proves, that a considerable
progress was already made in the science of government, and which
prognosticated a still greater.

One chief advantage which resulted from the introduction and progress
of the arts, was the introduction and progress of freedom; and this
consequence affected men both in their personal and civil capacities.

If we consider the ancient state of Europe, we shall find, that the far
greater part of the society were every where bereaved of their personal
liberty, and lived entirely at the will of their masters. Every one that
was not noble, was a slave: the peasants were sold along with the land:
the few inhabitants of cities were not in a better condition: even the
gentry themselves were subjected to a long train of subordination under
the greater barons or chief vassals of the crown; who, though seemingly
placed in a high state of splendor, yet, having but a slender protection
from law, were exposed to every tempest of the state, and, by the
precarious condition in which they lived, paid dearly for the power
of oppressing and tyrannizing over their inferiors. The first incident
which broke in upon this violent system of government, was the practice,
begun in Italy, and imitated in France, of erecting communities
and corporations, endowed with privileges and a separate municipal
government, which gave them protection against the tyranny of the
barons, and which the prince himself deemed it prudent to respect.[*]

* There appear early symptoms of the jealousy entertained by
the barons against the progress of the arts, as destructive
of their licentious power. A law was enacted, 7 Kenry IV.
chap. 17, prohibiting any one who did not possess twenty
shillings a year in land from binding his