- 
“of poffefiion: liberty, inthis ftate, is not 
‘an inheritance; it is’ little better than an 
‘alms from an indulgent or a cautious ad- 
‘miniftration. It remains, therefore, to 
thew by what fteps the people of England, 
“without being ‘drawn forth into perfonal 
action, were enabled to act with more 
“than perfonal force; in what manner they 
“acquired a political feale, in which they 
could depofit the privileges thus bravely 
-and fortunately acquired, and into which 
every future accumulation of power flow- 
ing from the increafe of property and the 
thriving arts of peace might filently and 
‘ imperceptibly fail, brmging down the 
fcale without convulfing the balance. 
And here thofe hiftorians mutt be fol- 
lowed with caution, who ‘have made this 
new order of the ftate to ftart up st the 
nod of Montfort or of Edward; neglect- 
ing the operations of the feodal fyftem, as 
thinking them, perhaps, more the province, 
ot the lawyer than the hiftorian, they 
have miftaken the effect for the caurfe, and 
have afcribed this memorable event to aé 
fudden political neceflity, which was in 
reality prepared and ripened By a flow 
and uniform progrefhon. This truth 
may be eafily illuitrated. 
The law * of Edward I. ftill. remains 
on the records of parliament, by which 
the crown and the barons, in order to 
preferve for ever their fond feodal rights, 
reftrained the creation cf any new fupe- 
riorities. ‘By this at, the people were 
0 eT a ob 7 CES 9 a 
* The ftatute of the 18th Edward I. chap, 
i. commgnly called quia emptores terrarum, 
The great barons were very prefling to haye 
this law paffed, that the lands they had fold 
before the a€t might not be fybinfeud, but 
might retyrn to themfelves by efcheats, on 
failure of heirs, or by farfeiture in cafe of 
felony: but they did not forefee that the 
multiplication of their own body would, in 
the end, annihilate its confequence, and 
raife up a new ordér in the ftate: indeed the 
tenancies in capite were multiplying faft before 
this a&; for when a large barony efcheated,. 
er was forfeited to the crown, it was generally 
divided, and granted to more than one; and 
frequently thefe baronies defcended to feveral 
females, who inherited as co-parteners; it 
was in confequence of this multiplication of 
, tenures im capite that the {maller barons were 
4 
fummoned per vicecomites, and not like the 
greater ones, as early as the reign of King 
ohn; their numbers being too great to addrefs 
writs to them all: but this multiplication 
would probably never have produced a genu- 
‘jne houte of commons, without the operation. 
of this act, as will appear by and by, from 
the comparifon between the Englifh and 
Scotch parliaments.” 
Mr. ErfRine on the Houfe of Commons. 
249 
allowed to difpofe of their eftates, but 
the original tenure was made to follow 
the land through ail its alienations ; ‘con- 
fequently, when the King’s vaffal divided 
his property, by fale, into {maller baro. 
nies, the purchafer had from thenceforth 
no feodal connexion with the feller, but 
held immediately of the king, according 
to the ancient tenure of the land ; ‘and if | 
thefe purchafers alienated to others ‘the 
lands fo purchafed, {till the tenure’ con- 
tinued and remained in the crown. 
Now, when we reflect that every tenant 
of a barony holden of the Kirstin capite 
had a feat in parliament, we fee at once 
the ftriking operation of this law; we fee 
how little the wifelt politicians forefee 
the diftant confequences of ambition: 
Edward and his barons, by this device, 
monopolized, it is true, the feodal fove- 
reignties, and prevented their vaffals 
from becoming lords like themfelvés, ‘but 
they knew not what they were doing ; 
they Knew not that, in the very act of 
abridging the property of the people, they 
were giving them a legiflative exiftence, 
which at a future day would enable them 
to overthrow whatever ftood inthe way 
of their power, and to level that ‘very feo- 
dal fyftem which they were thus attempt- 
ing to perpetuate: for the tenants in'capite 
who had aright tc be fummened to par- 
liament, foon became fo numerous by the 
alienation of the king’s vaflals (whofe 
immenie territories were divifible into 
many leffer baronies), that they neither 
could, nor indeed wifhed any longer to 
affemble in their own rights; the feodal 
peers were, in fact, become the people * ; 
and 

* The Houfe of Commons,’ andthe fpi- 
ritual Lords (who ftill fit in parliament as 
tenants in capite) are the only remains of the 
genuine feodal territorial peerage; for, when 
the tenants in capite became numerous and 
poor, fuch an alloy was mixed with. the an- 
cient original, nobility, that it would have 
been abfurd to ‘have. allowed tenure in chief 
to convey any longer a perfonal honour and 
privilege: the peerage, therefore, no longer 
patied with the fief, but from being territo- 
rial and official, became perfonal ‘and hono- 
rary; but as tenure in chief was -ftill from 
the very nature of the foedal fy ftem a. legif- 
lative title, although’ its ‘exercife was no 
longer perfonally pra€ticable from the multi- 
plication of royal holdings; -a reprefentation 
was naturally adopted, ' 
The  feodal, ariftocracy., thus expanded, 
changed by. degrees into. a demécracy, and 
the ariftecratical part. of the government 
would have been utterly extinguifhed (on 
failure of the peers by prefcription) if the 
Kka2 78 crown 





