48 ON THE INFLUENCE 01-' FEUDALISM. 



the bulk of the community may be, and doubtless are, perfectly in- 

 different to, independent of, and often opposed to the nobility ; but 

 in the civil relations of life the pride of personal distinction is an inci- 

 dent of human nature, and never is it more strongly developed than 

 in the respect tacitly paid to the aristocracy. The man who to day 

 in his humble sphere, unconnected with, careless of, and unknown 

 to the nobles of our land, perhaps may esteem a long deduced 

 pedigree as trash, titles of honour as useless and valueless, or a proof 

 of feudal descent as sheer nonsense ; but let him rise in his business 

 let him become gradually connected with a class superior to his own, 

 let his wealth rapidly increase, and let him retire from his occupation 

 a millionaire ; and his example may not with many others be want- 

 ing to prove with what avidity personal aggrandizement is sought as 

 a becoming adjunct to opulence — the college of heralds is troubled 

 to invent him a coat of arms, and puzzled to suggest its motto, 

 whereof he possibly knows not the origin, and on which the secret 

 influence of his new station and the lurking seeds of ambition may 

 suggest, that a noble's quartering would be the most prized embla- 

 zonry. This I believe to be the national spirit. We are under the 

 guidance of certain influences, or act according to certain usages 

 which have been interwoven with our civil constitution, and transmit- 

 ted (impaired and modified as they may now be) through each suc- 

 ceeding generation. We know not often how they arise ; we act 

 under their influence ; yet we may trace them, if we will, to that 

 complete spirit of feudalism which (as I have before said) has been 

 necessarily infused into most of our institutions. And nothing has 

 more contributed to effect this than the nature of our landed tenures. 

 I have already shewn that the greater part of the lands in this 

 country was held by the military tenure of knights' service, to which 

 certain incidents were annexed. These were entirely abolished at 

 the Restoration by the statute 12 Charles II., which enacts that the 

 courts of wards and liveries, and all wardships, liveries, primer seisins 

 and ousterlemains, values and forfeitures of man'iage, by reason 

 of any tenure of the king, be totally taken away; and that 

 all fines for alienations, tenures by homage, knightseiTice, and 

 escuage, and also aids for marrying the daughter or knighting the 



