58 On the ORIGIN and STRUCTURE of 



as yet naturalized ; for they cannot, by law, hold property 

 in land without the liberties of their refpeclive towns. And as 

 to the hufbandmen, their fervile condition is well known. In 

 the fame manner, in Hungary, the nobles form the nation. 

 The maxim of the lawyers is, Nobilitas liberorum nomine intelligi- 

 tur *. The hufbandmen are fervi adfcriptitii. The inhabi- 

 tants of towns are flill confidered as emancipated flaves, whofe 

 teftimony is admiffible againft a noble only for a debt of a flo- 

 rin, or under, unlefs the cafe happens within the city to which 

 they belong. Hence the aflemblies of even the" fubdivifions of 

 their counties confift only of nobles ; and their decanus, or ti- 

 thing man, who was always accounted a fimple freeman in an- 

 cient times, in France, England, and Spain, and one, by no 

 means, of much confideration, is accordingly, at this day, in 

 Hungary, a noble and a magiftrate, exercifing the very func- 

 tions which the ancient laws of the weflern nations attributed 

 to their magiftrate of the fame name. 



THERE can be no doubt, likewife, that, in Sweden and Den- 

 mark, before the emancipation of adfcriptitii, freemen and no- 

 bls were precifely fynonimous terms. And, in truth, only the 

 emancipated adfcriptitii of the crown appear to have there ob- 

 tained the full right of citizenfhip. 



EVERY perfon acquainted with the documents extant of the 

 ancient ftate of Europe will find, that they fo clearly refer to a 

 diftribution of ranks, fimilar to what we have been obferving, 

 that they cannot be underftood on a different fxippofition. I 

 mall cite one example of this which appears to be extremely 

 decifive. In the fucceeding parts of this paper, there will be 

 occafion to found a great deal on the following general fa6l f, 

 viz. That, at the conqueft of the weftern empire, the for- 



nier 



fcription of Poland, " Sunt in regno titulo Ducali infigniti, fed qui cum reliquis nobih- 

 <' bus jure utuntur communi unde tanta omnium et par libertas." 



* WER.BEUCS, p. 10. 



| .Which almoft every monument of the names in queftion may be quoted in evidence o&, 



