30 On tie ORIGIN and STRUCTURE of 



the predominancy of the feus, actually fublifted in the woods 

 of Germany *. Accordingly, this opinion has been urged in 

 behalf of the fyflem which exhibits the European governments 

 as originally ariflocratical, and is indeed fo obvioufly allied 

 with it, that it is certainly here neceflary to confider a little the 

 evidence on which it refls. 



I. THE arguments for this extreme antiquity of the feus are 

 founded, either on particular facls with refpecl to the peculiar 

 manners of the Germanic nations, or on a general theory of the 

 powers of the chiefs of rude tribes. The arguments of the 

 former clafs, I muft confefs, appear to me to reft on very infuf- 

 ficient grounds. M. DE MONTESQUIEU traced the feudal te- 

 nures, in the prefents of the war-horfe, or of the bloody fpear, 

 and in the feafts which the German chiefs gave to their retain- 

 ers in return for military fervice. But the Abbe de MABLY 

 has juftly pbferved, that, in the fame way, the prefent Europe- 

 an armies might be termed feudal vaffals, holding their pay as 

 a fief on condition of their fervice. 



Dr STUART f, after very properly remarking, that territories 

 are appropriated by communities, long before feparate eftates in 

 land are acquired by individuals, lays it down, that the feudal re- 

 lation of lands commenced in the fubordination of the domains 

 of the weaker communities to thofe of the ftronger. He ac- 

 cordingly traces the origin of fiefs, in the dependent ftate of cer- 

 tain of the German and Gaulic tribes on others j and he con- 

 firms his hypothefis by the Cimbri, in the times of MARIUS, 

 having demanded lands from the Romans, and offering, in re- 

 turn, 



* I OUGHT likewife, perhaps, to take notice of the abfolute fovereignty which has been 

 attributed to the German kings, and of a reprefentation, like that of the commons, fup- 

 pofed to have been known to the German tribes. But, I believe, thefe notions have ne- 

 ver obtained much credit with the learned world, nor have been thought by it to reft on 

 any thing more folid than the delufion of fyflem. 



$ Diflertation on the Englitti conftitution, View of fociety in Europe, and other works. 



