The EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 37 



tdrms for diftinguiming the fuperior ranks of perfons. And 

 accordingly, we have full evidence, that even the terms expref- 

 five of free birth and noble defcent continued to be ufed indif- 

 criminately, low down in the feudal times *. 



THIS laft circumftance, I apprehend, while it proves there 

 was no patrician order among the conquerors, indicates alfo the 

 origin of the genuine nobility of Europe. That nobility, as it 

 is deftitute of all titles of office or honour, exhibits no trace of 

 owing any part of its luftre to the favour of kings, or to ufur- 

 pations of magiftracy. But its numbers, its prerogatives, the 

 documents of its hiftory, and its character, concur to prove, 

 that it is the remains of nations of freemen, and derives its ho- 

 nours from having preferved, uncontaminated by fervile or ig- 

 noble occupations, that high fpirit which, as independent war- 

 riors, and as equals, the conquerors of Europe received pure 

 and unadulterated from the bounty of nature. 



THE (late of perfons in thofe European nations which have 

 been fartheft removed from innovation is entirely agreeable to 

 this opinion. In A. D. 1480, about 300,000 nobles aflembled 

 in the diet of Poland. The Polifh polpolite, or comitia paluda- 

 ta, is, in truth, an aflembly of the freemen and warriors of 



the nation f. The fimple burgefles can hardly be faid to be 



as 



* MONTESQJJIEU quotes the term optimates, in the Burgundian laws, as evidence of a 

 hereditary nobility. But it might exprefs magiftrates, or antrufttons, or men of wealth. 

 Nothing c^n be more loofe than the manner in which terms of this kind were employed. 

 GREGORY of Tours often applies the term valde ingenuus to perfons; and he Teems to have 

 nowordforcharadterifingthe defcendents of the priores regni,orfeniorescivitatum. Again, 

 he fays of one of his predeceflbrs, " Civis Turonicus de inferioribus popnli ingenuus ta- 

 " men." In a charter of Carloman, it is faid, " Et congruum obfequium ficut homines in- 

 " genui exhibeant, ne eorum ingenuitas, vel nobilitas vilefcat." See alfoHEiNEC. Antiq. 

 Germ. v. ii. p. 52. etfeq. Abrege" de Renault, ad ann. 1270. The terms patentes, po- 

 tcntiores, boni generis, nobilioris generis, de nobilioribus, are the only means even the laws 

 have for defcribing perfbns of more confequeuce than others. BALUZ. p. 2/8. 334. <b?c. 

 L L. Vifig. lib. 6. t. I. c. 2. Mention is often made of the ingenuitas regni aflembling. 

 HOODY, p. 188. Francs homines was, even in feudal times, a term fynonimous with 

 gentlemen or noblefle. THAUMASSIERE Notes on Aflifes de Jeruf. p. 270. 



f CROMER, bifliop of Warne, fays, " Eft par! dignatione Polonica nobilitas, nee eft 

 *' ulla ia ea patritiorum comitumve difcrimen." And PROCHNIEK.EGO fays, in his de- 



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