x Inaugural Address. 
Viscounts, Prevosts, Viguiers and Chastelahs.(1) But in all 
their Jurisdictions, an usage, which derived its origin from 
the forests of Germany, was continued. Neither the Dukes, 
the Counts nor the Seigneurs, nor any of their officers decid- 
ed alone : They assembled in their courts a kind of assize 
composed of their vassals, to the number of twelve,(2) who 
were, principally, the officers of their respective courts, and 
by those persons (who as vassals were the equals of the par- 
ties whose causes were there tried and thence called Peers) 
the judgment was pronounced according to the opinion of 
the majority, unless there was an equal division of voices, 
when, in criminal cases, it was given for the accused, and, in 
cases of Inheritance, in favour of the Defendant, subject 
always to anappeal to arms, and an ultimate decision by ju- 
dicial combat.(3) 
The feudal system is well calculated for defence, but not 
for the support of order.—In theory it is founded in subor- 
dination, but in practice it has been found universally to 
have diminished the power of the Sovereign, while it in- 
creased that of the greater vassals. This was particularly 
the case in France, where the Seigneurs, ata very early pe- 
riod of the monarchy, began to usurp the rights which had, 
till (hen been deemed the distinctions of Royalty, and with 
such advantage, in consequence of the weakness of the Kings 
of the second race, and the anarchy into which the Kingdom 
was thrown by the depredations of the Hungarians and Nor- 
mans(4), during the ninth and tenth centuries, that the very 
dependants of the Crown, the Dukes, the Counts, and even the 
inferior officers of the State, were induced, by their example, to 
adopt the same conduct ; they combined together, and, abou, 
the period at which Hugh Capet, the first of the third race, 
took 
(1) Loyseaude I’Abus de Justice des Villages, p.6. 
(2) Montesquieu, book 30, cap. 18. vol. 2. p. 381 & 382. 
(3) Montesquieu, Book 28, cap. 23, 24, 25, 26 § 27. 
(4) Fleury, p. 47. 
