The History Of England (V. 2)

Excerpt from book: 72 APPENDIX II. THE FEUDAL AND ANGLO-NORMAN GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS- Origin of the feudal law Its progress Feudal government of England The feudal parliament The commons Judicial pawer Revenue of the crown Commerce The church Civil laws??Manners. The feudal law is the chief foundation, both of the political government and of the jurisprudence established by the Normans in England. Our subject therefore requires that we should form a just idea of this law, in order to explain the state as well of that kingdom, as of all other kingdoms of Europe, which during those ages were governed by similar institutions. And though I am sensible that I must here repeat many observations and reflections which have been communicated by others ; yet, as every book, agreeably to the observation of a great historian, should be a) complete as possible within itself, and should never refer for any thing material to other books, it will be necessary in this place to deliver a short plan of that prodigious fabric which for several centuries preserved such a mixture of liberty and oppression, order and anarchy, stability and revolution, as was never experienced in any other age, or any other part of the world. After the northern nations had subdued the provinces of the Roman empire, they were obliged to establish a system of government which might secure their conquests, as well against the revolt of their numerous subjects who remained in the provinces, as from the inroads of other tribes, who might be tempted to ravish from them their new acquisitions. The great change of circumstances made them here depart from those institutions which prevailed among them while they remained in the forests of Germany : yet it was still natural for them to retain, in their present settlement, as muc...