ractice of granting leases to the peasant began
to prevail, which entirely broke the bonds of servitude, already much
relaxed from the former practices. After this manner villenage went
gradually into disuse throughout the more civilized parts of Europe: the
interest of the master, as well as that of the slave, concurred in this
alteration. The latest laws which we find in England for enforcing or
regulating this species of servitude, were enacted in the reign of
Henry VII. And though the ancient statutes on this subject remain still
unrepealed by parliament, it appears that before the end of Elizabeth,
the distinction of villain and freeman was totally, though insensibly
abolished, and that no person remained in the state, to whom the former
laws could be applied.

Thus personal freedom became almost general in Europe; an advantage
which paved the way for the increase of political or civil liberty, and
which, even where it was not attended with this salutary effect, served
to give the members of the community some of the most considerable
advantages of it.

The constitution of the English government, ever since the invasion of
this island by the Saxons, may boast of this pre-eminence, that in no
age the will of the monarch was ever entirely absolute and uncontrolled;
but in other respects the balance of power has extremely shifted among
the several orders of the state; and this fabric has experienced the
same mutability that has attended all human institutions.

The ancient Saxons, like the other German nations, where each individual
was inured to arms, and where the independence of men was secured by
a great equality of possessions, seem to have admitted a considerable
mixture of democracy into their form of government, and to have been one
of the freest nations of which there remains any account in the records
of history. After this tribe was settled in England, especially after
the dissolution of the heptarchy, the great extent of the kingdom
produced a great inequality in property; and the balance seems to have
inclined to the side of aristocracy. The Norman conquest threw more
authority into the hands of the sovereign, which, however, admitted
of great control; though derived less from the general forms of the
constitution, which were inaccurate and irregular, than from the
independent power enjoyed by each baron in his particular district or
province. The establishment of the Great Charter exalted still higher