abled to fupport the expence of the government, or to provide for the defence of the kingdom, or carry on a foreign war; fince, if he was not furnished in that refpect, thefe high-founding prerogatives had been but empty names, and the ftate might have perifhed? and if he could at pleafure levy the neceffary fums, he being fole judge of the neceffity, both as to occafion and quantity, as Charles the First claimed in the cafe of fhip-money, the ftate of the fubject was precarious, and the king would have been as abfolute a monarch as the present king of France or Spain.

But abundant provifion was made on this head, and that without overburdening the subject, for fupporting the ordinary expences of the government. A vaft demefne was fet apart to the king, amounting, in England, to cne thousand four hundred and twenty-two manors, as alfo many other lands, which had not been erected into manors. Befides thefe, he had the profits of all his feudal tenures, his worships, marriages, and reliefs; the benefits of efcheats, either upon failure of heirs or forfeiture; the goods of felons and traitors; the profits of his courts of juftice; befides many other cafualties, which amounted to an immenfe revenue; infomuch, that, we are informed, that William the Conqueror had. 1061. ios. a day, that is, allowing for the comparative value of money, near four millions a-year; fo that Fortefcue might well fay, that, originally, the king of England was the richeft king in Europe. Such a fum was not only fufficient for the occafions of peace, but out of it he might fpare confiderably for the exigencies of war.

This revenue, however great, was not fufficient to fupport a war of any importance and continuance, befides the extraordinary expence of government. It remains, therefore, to fee what provifion this conftitution made, in addition to what the monarch might fpare, for the defence of England, as it might be attacked either by land or sea. For the latter, every feaport was, in proportion to its ability, obliged to find, in time of danger, at their own expence, one or more fhips properly furnished with men and arms; which, joined to fuch other fhips as the king hired, were, in general, an overmatch for the invaders. But if the enemy had got footing in the country, the defence at land was by the knights or military tenants, who were obliged to ferve on horfeback in any part of England: and by the focage tenants, or infantry, who, in cafe of invafion, were likewife obliged to ferve, but not out of their own country, unless they themselves pleafed, and then they were paid by the king.

With respect to carrying an of fenfive war into the enemy's country, the king of England had great. advantages over any other fendal monarch. In the other feudal kingdoms the military vaffals were not obliged to ferve in any offenfive war, unless it was juft, the determination of which point was in themselves; But William the Conqueror obliged all to whom he gave tenures to ferve him ubicunque; and though he had not above three hundred, if fo many, immediate military tenants under him, yet these were obliged, on all occafions, to furnish fixty thousand knights com-, pleatly equipped, and ready to ferve forty days at their own ex

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pence

pence. If he wanted their fervice longer, he was obliged to obtain it on what terms he could. There is, therefore, no reason to wonder that the King of England, though mafter of fo comparatively small a territory, was, in general, an overmatch, in thofe early times, for the power of France. As for infantry in his foreign wars, he had none obliged to attend him. Thofe he had were focage tenants, whofe fervices were certain; fo that he was obliged to engage, and pay them, as hired foldiers. As the focage tenants in his dominions had a good fhare of property, and enjoyed it without oppreffion, it is no wonder the English archers in those days had a gallant fpirit, and were as redoubtable as the English infantry is at prefent.

To fupport thefe military tenants, who ferved after the neceffary time, and likewife his infantry (as the furplus of his ordinary revenue would not fuffice) he had cuftoms and talliages, and aids and fubfidies granted by parliament. Thefe customs, or fo much paid by merchants on the exportation of goods, were of two kinds; as paid either by merchant strangers, or by merchant denizens.

The customs paid by merchant ftrangers were not originally fettled by act of parliament, but by a compact between the merchant ftrangers and king Edward the Firft. In the Saxon times the king had a power of excluding strangers from his kingdom, not merely with an intention of inducing their own people to traffick, but chiefly to keep out the Danes, who were the matters of the fea; left, under pretence of trade, they might get footing in, and become acquainted with the ftate of the

kingdom. They were, accordingly, admitted by the kings upon fuch terms as the latter were pleased to impofe; but Edward, who had. the fuccefs and prosperity of his kingdom at heart, came to a perpetual compofition with them; gave them feveral privileges, and they gave to him certain customs in return. What fhews they had their origin from confent is, that the king could not raise them without applying to parliament. The customs of natives or denizens were, certainly, firft given to the king by parliament; though this has been denied by fome, merely because no fuch act is to be found, as if many of the antient acts had not been loft; but there are acts and charters ftill extant, which exprefsly fay they were appointed and granted by parliament, without the power of which they could not be either altered or enlarged.

The difference between the cuftoms and the other aids I have mentioned, viz. talliages and subfidies, is, that the latter were occafional, granted only on particular emergencies, whereas the customs were for ever. If it be asked how they came to be granted in that manner, we must refer back to the original ftate of boroughs and their inhabitants, traders, in the feudal law. In France, the Roman towns were taken into protection, and had their antient privileges allowed them; but in the series of wars that happened in that country for ages, every one of them in their turns were formed, and reduced to vaffalage, either to the king or fome other great lord; and as, now, thefe lords had learned that the Roman emperor laid on taxes at his pleasure, it was but natural they should claim the fame right,

especially

efpecially over towns they had taken in war. The burgeffes, therefore, became in the nature of villains, not indeed of common villains, for that would abfolutely have destroyed trade, but with refpect to arbitrary taxation, which, however, if the lord was wife, was never exorbitant. In England, I apprehend, they became villains; for the Saxons were a murdering race, and extirpated the old inha bitants. However, wife kings, confidering the advantages of commerce, by degrees, bestowed privileges on certain places, in order to render them flourishing and wealthy; and at length, about the time of Magna Charta, or before, when every uncertain fervice was varying to a certainty, this privilege was obtained for merchant adventurers. But the other burgeffes, that did not import or export, and likewife villains, were fill talliageable at will. This was reftrained by Magna Charta, which declares all talliages unlawful, unlefs ordained by parliament.

To come to the latter head, whether taxes, aids, and fubfidies can be affeffed by the king, as fole judge of the occafion, and the quantum-or whether they must be granted by parliament, was the great and principal conteft between the two firft princes of the unfortunate houfe of Stuart and their people, and which, concurring with other caufes, coft the laft of them his life and throne, To fay nothing of the divine hereditary right urged on the king's behalf, and which, if examined into ftrictly, no royal family in Europe had lefs pretenfions to claim, both fides referred themfelves to the antient conftitution for the decifion of this

point. The king's friends urged that all lands were holden from him by fervices, and that this was one of his prerogatives, and a neceffary one to the defence of the ftate. They produced several instances of its having been done, and fubmitted to, not only in the times of the worst, but of fome of the best kings; and as to acts of parliament against it, they were extorted from the monarchs in particular exigencies, and could not bind their fucceffors, as their right was from God.

The advocates of the people, on the other hand, infifted, that, in England, as in all other feudal countries, the right of the king was founded on compact; that William the Conqueror was not mafter of all the lands in England, nor did he give them on these terms; that he claimed no right but what the Saxon kings had, and this they certainly had not; that he established and confirmed the Saxon laws, except fuch as were by parliament altered; that he gave away none but the forfeited lands, and gave them on the fame terms as they were generally given in feudal countries, where fuch a power was in thofe days unknown. They admitted, that, in fact, the kings of England had fometimes exercifed this power, and that, on fome occafions, the people fubmitted to it. But they infifted, that most of the kings that did it were oppreffors of the worst kind in all refpects; that the fubjects, even in fubmitting, infifted on their antient rights and freedom, and every one of thefe princes afterwards retracted, and confeffed they had done amifs. If one or two of the best and wifeft of their N 3

kings

kings had practifed this, they in fifted that their ancestors acquiefcence once or twice, in the meafures of a prince they had abfolete confidence in, and at times when the danger, perhaps, was fo imminent as to ftare every man in the face, (for it was fcarce ever done by a good prince) as when there was a fleet already affembled in the ports of France to waft over an army, fhould not be confidered as conveying a right to future kings indifcriminately, as a furrender of their important privileges of taxation. They infifted that these good and wife kings had acknowledged the rights of the people; that they excufed what they had done, as extorted by urgent neceffity, for the prefervation of the whole; that, by repeated acts of parliament, they had difavowed this power, and declared fuch proceedings fhould never be drawn into precedent. They obferved, that there was no occafion for the valt demefne of the king, if he had this extraordinary pre rogative to exert whenever he pleafed, They denied the king's divine right to the fucceffion of the crown, and that abfolute unlimited authority that was deduced from it. They infifted that he was a king by compact, that his fucceffion depended on that compact, though they allowed that a king intitled by that compact, and acting according to it, has a divine right of government, as every legal and righteous magiftrate hath. They inferred, therefore, that he was a limited monarch, and confequently that he and his fucceffors were bound by the legiflative, the fupreme authority.

The advocates of the king treated

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the original compact as a chimera, and defired them to produce it which the other fide thought an unreasonable demand, as it was, they alledged, tranfated when both king and people were utterly illiterate. They thought the utmost proof poffible was given by quoting the real acts of authority, which the Saxon kings had exercised; among which this was not to be found; that the Norman kings, though fome of them had occafionally practifed it, had, in general, both bad and good princes, afterwards difclaimed the right, and that it never had (though perhaps fubmitted to in one or two ftances) been given up by their anceltors, who always, and even to the face of their beft princes, infifted that it was an encroachment on thofe franchifes they were intitled to by their birthright.

in

Such, in general, were the principles on which the arguments were maintained on both fides: for to go into minutie, would not confit with the defign of this undertaking. I apprehend it will be evident from this detail of mine, though I proteft I defigned to reprefent both fides fairly, that I am inclined to the people in this queftion. I own I think that any one that confiders impartially the few monuments that remain of the old Saxon times, either in their laws or hiftories, the conftant courfe fince the conqueft, and the practice of nations abroad, who had the fame feudal policy, muft acknowledge, that though this right was claimed and exercifeɖ by John, Henry the Third, Edward the First, Second, and Third, Richard the Second, and Henry the Eighth, it was in the event

difclaimed by every one of them, by the greateft of our kings, Edward the Firft and Third, and Henry the Eighth, with fuch candour and free will, as inforced confidence in them; by the others, in truth, because they could not help it. I hope I fhall ftand excufed, if I add, that the majority of thofe who engaged in the civil war, cither for king Charles, or against him, were of the fame opinion. For, had he not given up this point, (and indeed he did it with all the appearances of the greateft fincerity) he would not have got three thousand men to appear for him in the field. But, unfortunately for his family, and us, (for we ftill feel the effects of it from the popish education his offspring got abroad) his conceffion came too late. He had loft the confidence of too many of his people, and a party of republicans were formed; ail reasonable fecurities were certainly given; but, upon pretence that he could not be depended upon, his enemies prevailed on too many to infift on fuch conditions, as would have left him but a king in name, and unhinged the whole frame of government. Thus did the partizans of abfolute monarchy on one fide, and the republicans, with a parcel of crafty ambitious men, who for their own private views affected that character, on the other, rend the kingdom between them, and obliged the honest, and the friends to the old conftitution, to take fide either with one party or other, and they were accordingly, for their moderation and defire of peace, and a legal fettlement, equally despised which ever they joined with.

I fhall make but one obfervation

more; that though it is very false reafoning to argue from events when referred to the decifion of God, as to the matter of right in question; I cannot help being ftruck with obferving, that though this has been a queftion of five hun dred years ftanding in England, the decifion of providence hath conftantly been in favour of the people. If it has not been fo in other countries for two hundred or two hundred and fifty years paft, which is the utmoft, let us investigate the caufes of the difference, and act accordingly. The ancients tell us it is impoffible that a brave and virtuous nation can ever be flaves, and, on the contrary, that no nation that is cowardly, or generally vitious, can be free. Let us blefs God, who hath for fo long a time favoured these realms. Let us act towards the family that reigns over us, as becomes free fubjects, to the guardians of liberty, and of the natural rights to mankind; but above all, let us train pofterity, fo as to be deferving of the continuance of these bleffings, that Montefquieu's prophecy may never appear to be justly founded.

England (fays he) in the courfe of things, muft lofe her liberties, and then he will be a greater flave than any of her neighbours."

The true. Enjoyments of Life. From Moral Tales, &c. by Dr. Percival.

MAY he furvive his relatives

and friends! was the imprecation of a Roman, on the perfon who should deftroy the monument