A. D. 1216. 381 



ately Jo^^i"^ ^'^"^ f^on after (19"' Odober 121C), and lingland was ref- 

 cued from becoming a province of France. 



The charader of John has been drawn in the blackefl: colours by 

 moft of the contemporary hiilorians. But, though few of his adions 

 appear to have fprung from laudable motives, we mufl; remember, that 

 throughout the whole of his reign he was on bad terras with the clergy, 

 the only clafs of people w-ho were capable of tranfmitting his adlons to 

 poflerity. It is, however, certain, that the over-ruling providence of 

 God, which often brings good out of evil, rendered his vices and mif- 

 conduft more beneficial to the community than the bell: adtions of his 

 predeceflors. His infulting treatment of the barons, and his violation 

 of their wives and daughters, with his general mifcondud, may be faid 

 to have produced the great charter, which, though it was not fiivour- 

 able to the great body of the people, and produced no advantages even 

 to the clergy and barons, as it was immediately broken, has in all fuc- 

 ceeding ages been looked up to as the foundation of Liberty in this 

 country. His quarrels with the nobles, who, by the feudal conftitution, 

 were the hereditary commanders of the national army, obliged him to 

 court the good will of the inhabitants of the towns (a clafs of people 

 hitherto held in contempt both by kings and nobles) and chiefly of 

 the maritime ones *. This policy, though didated only by his own in- 

 tereft, and very convenient for him, turned out much more extenfively 

 beneficial to the fubjeds. To the king it gave not only an addition of 

 power, by creating a new fpecies of militia, and by drawing off the vaf- 

 falsof the feudal lords f, but alfo an additional revenue, payable by the 

 corporations, and flipulated in their charters. To the people it gave a 

 degree of freedom formerly unknown ; r,nd it gradually raifed them to 

 opulence and importance by the commerce which came in time to 

 be carried on in the towns, in confequence of the liberty the inhabit- 

 ants poffefled of purfuing their own interefts free from any refl:raint, 

 and exempted from the jurifdidion of any fuperior except the fovereign 

 and the law. And thus the emerfion of the great body of the Englifh 

 nation from the fervitude, into which they were plunged by the jealous 

 tyranny of the two Williams, may be juftly afcribed t.o the vices and 

 fears of John. 



Lubeck is faid to be the firft city in Europe, which adopted the valu- 

 able domeftic accommodation, hitherto known only in the Oriental re- 

 gions, of conveying water to the houfes by pipes, which, as it has fince 

 been improved, has become a mofl important and efficient preferver of 



* King Jolin appeirs to liave conferred on the founder of the privileges claimed by the Cinqce 



Cinque ports an amph'fication of their piivileges, ports.] 



in confiJeration of their being bound to dnA rigi/y f S:e above [p. 30"] tlie temptation held out 



fcncible Ihips at their own cxpenfe for forty days, to the feudal villeins to delert th? e'":ate3 of their 



and after that time on the king's pay. \_Knyghton, lords and become burgelTes. 



coi. 24-2^, who ciToneoufly calls John t'<e orisrinal 4 



