XII. ] THE BONDERS. . 239 



Without their consent the king could do nothing. On stated 

 occasions they met together, in solemn assembly, or Thing, 

 (i.e. Parliament,) as it was called, for the transaction of 

 public business, the administration of justice, the allotment 

 of the scatt, or taxes. 



Without a solemn induction at the Ore or Great Thing, 

 even the most legitimately-descended sovereign could not 

 mount the throne, and to that august assembly an appeal 

 might ever lie against his authority. 



To these Things, and to the Norse invasion that im- 

 planted them, and not to the Wittenagemotts of the 

 Latinised Saxons, must be referred the existence of those 

 Parliaments which are the boast of Englishmen. 



Noiselessly and gradually did a belief in liberty, and an 

 unconquerable love of independence, grow up among that 

 simple people. No feudal despots oppressed the unpro- 

 tected, for all were noble and udal born ; no standing 

 armies enabled the Crown to set popular opinion at defiance, 

 for the swords of the Bonders sufficed to guard the realm ; 

 no military barons usurped an illegitimate authority, for the 

 nature of the soil forbade the erection of feudal • fortresses. 

 Over the rest of Europe despotism rose up rank under the 

 tutelage of a corrupt religion j while, year after year, amid 

 the savage scenery of its Scandinavian nursery, that great 

 race was maturing whose genial heartiness was destined to 

 invigorate the sickly civilization of the Saxon with inexhaust- 

 ible energy, and preserve to the world, even in the nineteenth 

 century, one glorious example of a free European people. 



