e state of the labouring classes has really taken
place; yet it cannot, I think, appear extraordinary to those who
reflect, that the whole population of England in the year 1377 did not
much exceed 2,300,000 souls, about one-fifth of the results upon the
last enumeration, an increase with which that of the fruits of the earth
cannot be supposed to have kept an even pace.[734]

[Sidenote: Improvement in the moral character of Europe.]

The second head to which I referred, the improvements of European
society in the latter period of the middle ages, comprehends several
changes, not always connected, with each other, which contributed to
inspire a more elevated tone of moral sentiment, or at least to restrain
the commission of crimes. But the general effect of these upon the human
character is neither so distinctly to be traced, nor can it be arranged
with so much attention to chronology, as the progress of commercial
wealth or of the arts that depend upon it. We cannot from any past
experience indulge the pleasing vision of a constant and parallel
relation between the moral and intellectual energies, the virtues and
the civilization of mankind. Nor is any problem connected with
philosophical history more difficult than to compare the relative
characters of different generations, especially if we include a large
geographical surface in our estimate. Refinement has its evils as well
as barbarism; the virtues that elevate a nation in one century pass in
the next to a different region; vice changes its form without losing its
essence; the marked features of individual character stand out in relief
from the surface of history, and mislead our judgment as to the general
course of manners; while political revolutions and a bad constitution of
government may always undermine or subvert the improvements to which
more favourable circumstances have contributed. In comparing, therefore,
the fifteenth with the twelfth century, no one would deny the vast
increase of navigation and manufactures, the superior refinement of
manners, the greater diffusion of literature. But should I assert that
man had raised himself in the latter period above the moral degradation
of a more barbarous age, I might be met by the question whether history
bears witness to any greater excesses of rapine and inhumanity than in
the wars of France and England under Charles VII., or whether the rough
patriotism and fervid passions of the Lombards in the twelfth ce