fbe EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 9 



dually became indifibluble, hereditary and real. The family 

 of MARTEL endeavoured to avail itfelf of the feudal combina- 

 tions, in order to ftrengthen its own authority, and to intro- 

 duce fome firmnefs into the fubordination of the citizens. By 

 thefe means, they grew into the conftitution of the ftate, and 

 were enabled, during the convuHions which tore it in the fall of 

 that houfe, to reduce every political inflitution in the French 

 empire, under the forms of their arrangements. 



SPAIN, when advancing by fimilar fteps to Gaul, was over- 

 whelmed by the Saracens, in the beginning of the eighth cen- 

 tury. But as Catalonia foon after fell under the dominion of 

 CHARLEMAGNE, the feudal tenures naturally found their way 

 into that province, and were afterwards difrufed through the 

 reft of Spain, which was reconquered piece- meal, and chiefly by 

 combinations of adventurers, who had to defend a's well as con- 

 quer their acquifitions ; and who muft have found, that the feu- 

 dal tenures were inftitutions extremely well fuited to their 

 fituation. The Anglo-faxons, already accuftomed to the per- 

 fonal relation of vaflalage, and, through their connexions with 

 the continent, beginning to employ the feudal tenures, received 

 them, at the eftablifhment of the Normans, as the laws of their 

 conqueror. The other European nations were, however, in diffe- 

 rent circumftances. As they were pofleffed of little wealth, their 

 combinations for its protection were lefs general and lefs confoli- 

 dated ; and as they had efcaped conquefts by nations where the 

 feus obtained, they adopted them only by flow degrees, and in a 

 very partial manner. Among nations, as among individuals, the 

 practices of the more fkilfol are imitated by thofe who are lefs 

 accompliflied and informed. Hence the northern kingdoms im- 

 ported the feudal laws, becaufe they were the laws of their more 

 cultivated neighbours ; becaufe they were better calculated than 

 their own loofe cuftoms, to afcertain their rights ; and becaufe 

 it flattered the vanity of their grandees, to bear titles fimilar to 

 thofe of the dignified nobility of France and the German em- 



b pire. 



