ard III. cap. 8, 9, 10, etc.

****** 10 Edward III., 36 Edward III. cap. 15.

******* Rymer, vol. vii. p. 526. This paper, by the style,
seems to have been drawn by the Scots, and was signed by the
wardens of the marches only.

There are Spanish papers in that collection of more ancient date:[*]
and the use of the Latin and French still continued. We may judge of
the ignorance of this age in geography, from a story told by Robert of
Avesbury. Pope Clement VI having, in 1344, created Lewis of Spain prince
of the Fortunate Islands, meaning the Canaries, then newly discovered,
the English ambassador at Rome and his retinue were seized with an
alarm, that Lewis had been created king of England; and they immediately
hurried home, in order to convey this important intelligence. Yet
such was the ardor for study at this time, that Speed in his Chronicle
informs us, there were then thirty thousand students in the university
of Oxford alone. What was the occupation of all these young men? To
learn very bad Latin, and still worse logic.

In 1364, the commons petitioned, that, in consideration of the preceding
pestilence, such persons as possessed manors holding of the king in
chief, and had let different leases without obtaining licenses, might
continue to exercise the same power, till the country were become
more populous.[**] The commons were sensible, that this security of
possession was a good means for rendering the kingdom prosperous and
flourishing; yet durst not apply, all at once, for a greater relaxation
of their chains.

* Rymer, vol. vi. p. 654.

** Cotton, p. 97.

There is not a reign among those of the ancient English monarchs, which
deserves more to be studied than that of Edward III., nor one where the
domestic transactions will better discover the true genius of that
kind of mixed government, which was then established in England. The
struggles with regard to the validity and authority of the Great Charter
were now over: the king was acknowledged to lie under some limitations:
Edward himself was a prince of great capacity, not governed by
favorites, nor led astray by any unruly passion, sensible that nothing
could be more essential to his interests than to keep on good terms with
his people: yet, on the whole, it appears that the government at best
was only a barbarous monarchy, not regulated by any fixed maxims,
or bounded by any certain undisputed rights, which in practice w