34 On the ORIGIN and STRUCTURE of 



thofe various mackles, by which it feparated ranks, and rendered 

 governments at once feeble and indifToluble) appears to be pe- 

 culiar to Europe. I believe the nations of this continent alone 

 afford an example of the relation of patron and client being 

 made real; or, in other words, the patrimonial interefts of both 

 parties in a land eftate rendered dependent on their fidelity in 

 fulfilling its duties*. 



II. THE feudal nobility make fo confpicuous a figure in the 

 hiftory of the middle ages, that it is nowife furprifing authors 

 Ihould have judged, that the German conquerors were originally 

 fubjecl to an ariflocracy, which afterwards became the rulers of 

 their new eftablifhments. Accordingly, Mr HUME has held, 

 that the principal proprietors of land were, without any election, 

 the conflituent members of the legiflative affemblies of the Anglo- 

 faxons. Moft authors of eminence that treat of the feudal inftitu- 

 tions have reafoned on the fuppofition, that there was an order of 

 nobles which enjoyed the firft rank of fociety among the German 

 nations, at the period of their emigration. And M. DE MONTES- 

 QUIEU has fpecified the leudes or fidels (appellations which he 

 confiders as fynonimous) as forming this order, and enjoying 

 the exclufive capacity of being eligible to offices, and of receiv- 

 ing from the crown ufufructuary grants of land, (called fifes or 

 benefices) on condition of military fervice. And while he confi- 

 ders the leudes as the fame with thofe perforial friends and retain- 

 ers of the kings, termed comkes by TACITUS, (an opinion which 

 is now, I believe, univerfally admitted to be juft) he reprefents them 

 as a noblejje d" 1 origins or patrician order, in which the antruftions, 

 or thofe leudes who attended more particularly on the court, 

 formed the firft clafs. He quotes expreffions, employed in the 



codes 



* I AM befides apt, in the prefent cafe, to believe, that the historical fafts referred to 

 have been mifunderftood. Hiftoire ge'nerale des voyages, t. 6. p. 28. Ibid, p. 255. 

 ^63. 265. 264. 321. 318. The governments on the Gold Coaft are obvioufly the produc- 

 tion of conqueft and fuperftition, and the nobles appear to be very independent, and to 

 be proprietors of their eftates. 



