202 strictures on manners. -^^'g- 14* 



tamed to submifsion under law and government, 

 addicted to intemperance, riot, and disorder. Their 

 best quality was their military courage, which was 

 not yet supported by di-cipline or conduct. Their 

 want of fidelity to the prince, or to any trust re- 

 posed in them, appears strongly in many parts of 

 their lii-tory, and their want of humanity in all. 

 Even the Norman historians, notwithstanding the 

 low state of the arts in their own country, speak of 

 them as barbarians, when they mention the invasi- 

 on of the duke of Normandy. The conquest put 

 the people in a situation of receiving slowly from 

 abroad the rudiments of science and cultivation, 

 and of correcting their rough and licentious man- 

 ners. 



But certainly this state of slavery and barbarism 

 was not peculiar to England, but reigned alike in e- 

 very country of Europe. Mezeray gives this ac- 

 count of the state ot France : (anno 1108^ " Vio- 

 lence universally prevailed, and justice was tramp- 

 led under foot. The clergy, merchants, widows, , 

 and orphans, as well as all the rest of the people^ \ 

 were exposed to rapine and plunder, from the lords ' 

 and gentry, who had all of them castles, from 

 whence they were used' ha sally out to rob on the 

 highways, and on rivers, in the defencelefs coun- 

 tries. The cities of France, to defend themselves , 

 had formed communities and created popular magis- 

 trates, with power to afsemble and arm the peopk- 

 against these dreaded attacks""." 



" These poor and rapacious natior.s," says Vol- 

 taire, talking of the nations on the continent, a- 



