divided into a number of petty states, both secular and ecclesiastical as those of the Bishop of Basle, the Abbé of St Gall, the counts of Hapsburg, Toggenburg, Savoy, Neufchatel, &c. The towns of Zurich, Soleure, Basle, Berne, and others, had the rank of free and imperial cities. A part of the inhabitants of Schwitz, Uri, and Underwald, held immediately of the empire, and were governed by their own magistrates, under the title of Cantons. These were placed by the emperor under the jurisdiction of governors, who exercised in his name and that of the empire, the power of the sword in all these countries. Such was the constitution of Switzerland, when the emperor Albert, the son and successor of Rodolph of Hapsburg, a tyrannical prince, formed the design of annexing the whole of the provinces to his dominion, and erecting them into a principality for one of his sons. The cantons of Schwitz, Uri, and Underwald, which had always resisted the authority of Austria, combined to assert their freedom in 1308. The governors were expelled, and their castles razed to the ground.* Deputies from the three cantons then assembled, and entered into a league for the maintenance of their liberties and privileges; reserving, however, to the empire its proper rights, as also of the superiors, whether lay or ecclesiastical. The assassination of the emperor Albert in the year of the revolt (1308) and the election of the emperor Henry VII. of Luxemburg, who was jealous of the Austrian family, and not displeased at proceedings which had been accompanied with so little violence or disrespect to the empire, gave the Swiss leisure to consolidate their union. But Leopold, duke of Austria, resolved to humble the peasants who had renounced the authority of his father, led a considerable force into the country. The Swiss determined to perish rather than again submit to the yoke. They kept to the rocky and inaccessible parts of the country, and with a force of 1300 infantry defeated 20,000 Austrian cavalry in the pass of Morgarten, on the borders of the canton of Schwitz, 1315. This great victory, the first modern instance of the superiority of infantry over cavalry, confirmed the independence of the three original cantons.] The rest of the cantons by degrees joined the association, and with invincible perseverance, after fighting sixty pitched battles with their enemies, they won and secured their dear-bought liberty, 1318.

*The governors, in accordance with their instructions, are said to have made gradual encroachments on the privileges of the people, to accustom them to submit to their authority, and at last to have plundered, taxed, fined, imprisoned, and even put to death without form of law. The governor of Uri fixed his hat upon a pole in the market-place, with a strict injunction that all who passed should render obeisance to this symbol of dignity. The celebrated William Tell, for refusing to pay homage to the hat, was condemned to be hanged; but was promised a pardon on condition that he hit with an arrow an apple placed upon his son's head. He for. tunately struck off the apple; but had reserved a second arrow for the governor, in case he had killed his son. This inhuman act of tyranny was the immediate cause of the insurrection of the people, and the demolition of all the fortresses in the province. It is important to remark that there is no instance in history of a general insurrection of the people against their governors without long endured op pression and provocation.

2. [The Swiss acted with great moderation towards the nobles whom they overcame, admitting them to the franchises of their community as co-burghers, uniformly respecting the rights of property, and obtaining from the owners many feudal superiorities through purchase or mortgage. But their situation, however, could not fail to be embarrassing so long as the Austrian dukes retained their vast possessions in the very centre of the country. The proscription or outlawry, which the emperor Sigismund and the council of Constance issued against Frederick duke of Austria, in 1415, as an adherent of pope John XXIII., at length furnished the Swiss with a favourable occasion for depriving the house of Austria of all its possessions.]

3. Constitution of Switzerland.-The thirteen cantons were united by a solemn treaty, which stipulated the proportional succours to be furnished by each in the case of foreign hostility, and the measures to be followed for securing the union of the states and accommodating domestic differences. With respect to its internal government and economy, each canton was independent. Of some, the constitution was monarchical, and of others republican. All matters touching the general league were transacted either by letters sent to Zurich, and thence officially circulated to all the cantons, or by conferences. The general diet, where two deputies attended from each canton, was held once a year, the first deputy of Zurich presiding. The Catholic and Protestant cantons likewise held their separate diets on occasional emergencies.

4. The Swiss, when at peace, employed their troops for hire in foreign service, judging it a wise policy to keep alive the military spirit of the nation; and the armies thus employed have been equally distinguished for their courage and fidelity. The industry and economy of the Swiss are proverbial; and their country supports a most abundant population, from the zealous promotion of agriculture and manufactures, [and by imposing no restriction on the import or export of commodities-free trade being the policy of its government.]

SECTION XXI.

STATE OF EUROPE (CONTINUED) IN THE THIRTEENTH, FOURTEENTH, AND PART OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURIES.

1. THE rival claims of superiority between the Popes and Emperors still continued. Henry VII. of Luxemburg, 1308—13, the successor of 'Albert, vindicated his right by the sword, triumphantly fought his way to Rome, where he was solemnly crowned, and imposed a tribute on all the states of Italy. His sudden death in Tuscany was suspected to be the consequence of papal resentment. It was in his time that the seat of the popedom was transferred by Clement V. from Rome to Avignon,

1309, where it remained till 1377. The factions of Italy were the cause of this removal. Louis IV. of Bavaria, the successor of Henry, deprived and excommunicated by John XXII., revenged himself by deposing the pope. This pontiff, who had originally been a cobbler, surpassed most of his predecessors in pride and tyranny. He kept his seat on the papal chair, and left at his death an immense treasure, accumulated by the sale of benefices, 1334. [To prevent the indignity of these contentions for the future, a diet of the princes of the empire, held at Frankfort in 1338, decreed that the pope had no temporal power within the empire-that the imperial dignity depended on God alone, and that whoever should be chosen by a majority of the electors became immediately both king and emperor with all the prerogatives of that station, and did not require the approbation of the pope.They also decreed that all persons who maintained the contrary should be guilty of high treason. This law, confirmed as it was by subsequent usage, emancipated the German empire, and encouraged inquiry into the spiritual and temporal claims of the popes.]

2. Louis's successor in the empire, Charles IV., king of Bohemia, published, in 1355, the imperial constitution termed The Golden Bull, the fundamental law of the Germanic body, which reduced the number of electors to seven, whereas, before, all possessors of fiefs, and all the prelates, claimed a right to vote in the election of an emperor. The seven electors were the archbishops of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne; the king of Bohemia, the Count Palatine, the duke of Saxony, and the margrave of Brandenburg. These exemplified their new rights, by deposing his son Wenceslaus for incapacity in 1400. Three separate factions of the French and Italian cardinals having elected three separate popes, the emperor Sigismund judged this division of the church to be a fit opportunity for his interference, to reconcile all differences, and establish his own supremacy. He summoned a general council at Constance in 1414, and ended the dispute by degrading all the three pontiffs and naming a fourth,

Martin V. (Colonna), 1417. This division of the papacy is

termed the Great Schism of the West.

3. The spiritual business of the council of Constance was no less important than its temporal. John Huss, a disciple of Wickliff, was tried for heresy, in denying the hierarchy, and satirizing the immoralities of the popes and bishops. He did not deny the charge; and refusing to confess his errors, was burned alive. A similar fate was the portion of his friend and disciple, Jerome of Prague, who displayed at his execution the eloquence of an apostle and the constancy of a martyr (1416). Sigismund felt the consequence of these horrible proceedings; for the Bohemians opposed his succession to their vacant crown, and it cost him a war of sixteen years to attain it.

4. Whatever was the imperial power at this time, it derived

but small consequence from its actual revenues. The wealth of the Germanic states was exclusively possessed by their separate sovereigns, and the emperor had little more than what he drew from Bohemia and Hungary. The sovereignty of Italy was an empty title. The interest of the emperor in that country furnished only a source of faction to its princes, and embroiled the states in perpetual quarrels. A series of conspiracies and civil tumults form, for above 200 years, the annals of the principal cities. Naples and Sicily were ruined by the weak and disorderly government of the two Joannas (1342-82; 1414-35). A passion which the younger of these conceived for Sforza, [a distinguished soldier, who was afterwards] raised to the sovereignty of Milan; and her adoption, first of Alphonso of Arragon, and afterwards of Louis of Anjou, laid the foundation of those contests between Spain and France for the sovereignty of the two Sicilies which afterwards agitated all Europe.

SECTION XXII.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

1. HENRY III., who, at nine years of age, succeeded to the crown of England on the death of his father John in 1216, was a prince of amiable dispositions, but of weak understanding. His preference for foreign favourites disgusted his nobles; and the want of economy in his government, and oppressive exactions, deprived him of the affection of his people. Montfort, earl of Leicester, son of the leader of the crusade against the Albigenses, and brother-in-law of the king, conceived a plan for usurping the government; and forming a league with the barons, on the pretext of reforming abuses, compelled Henry to delegate the regal power to twenty-four prelates and barons, twelve being nominated by the king, and twelve by the parliament, held for that purpose at Oxford on the 11th June, 1258. These appointed fifteen persons to form a council of state, at the head of which was Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury, a partizan of the barons. Leicester's triumph was now complete; the principal offices of government, and the custody of the King's castles, were given to his adherents. His ambitious views, however, soon alarmed his associates and produced disunion among them. Henry, who had been for two years the king, merely in name, took advantage of this disunion to resume the government, and to gain over many of the barons, when an apparent pacification followed. Leicester withdrew to the continent, but returned soon after to regain his power. Both parties now prepared for war, the royalists calling on prince Edward,

a youth of intrepid spirit, to avenge his father's wrongs, and save the kingdom.

2. Leicester raised a formidable force, and in a successful engagement, at Lewes in Sussex, defeated the royal army, and made both the king and prince his prisoners, 1264. He now compelled the impotent Henry to ratify his authority by a solemn treaty; and assuming the character of regent, he called a parliament, summoning two knights from each of the counties, two deputies from each city, and two from each of the principal boroughs, the first regular plan of the English House of Commons, 1265. This assembly exercising its just rights, and asserting with firmness the re-establishment of the ancient government of the kingdom, Leicester judged it prudent to release the prince from his confinement; and Edward was no sooner at liberty, than he took the field against the usurper, who, in the battle of Evesham, 4th of August, 1265, was defeated and slain. Henry was now restored to his throne by the arms of his gallant son, who, after establishing domestic tranquillity, embarked in the eighth and last crusade with Louis IX., in 1270, and signalized his prowess by many valorous exploits in Palestine. He had the

honour of concluding an advantageous truce for ten years with the sultan of Babylon, and was on his return to England when he received intelligence of his accession to the crown by the death of his father, in 1272. He arrived in England in 1274.

3. Edward I., in the beginning of his reign, projected the conquest of Wales. The Welsh, the descendants of the ancient Britons who had escaped the Roman and Saxon conquests, preserved their liberty, their laws, their manners, and their language. Their prince, Llewellyn, refusing his customary homage, Edward invaded Wales, and surrounding the army of the prince, who retreated to the mountains, cut off all his supplies, and compelled him to an unqualified submission. The terms demanded were, the surrender of the country between Cheshire and the river Conway, a large sum of money, and an obligation of perpetual fealty to the crown of England. The Welsh, provoked by the insolence of the English borderers, infringed this treaty; and Edward marched his army iuto the heart of the country, where the troops of Llewellyn made a most desperate but ineffectual resistance. In a decisive engagement, in 1283, the prince was slain. His brother David, betrayed into the hand of the conqueror, was inhumanly executed on a gibbet; and Wales, completely subdued, was annexed to the crown of England. With a policy equally absurd and cruel, Edward ordered the Welsh bards to be put to death wherever found; thereby ensuring the

This is the epoch (49 Henry III.) at which the representation of the commons becomes indisputable. No public instrument previous to this time names the citizens and burgesses as constituent parts of parliament. It is not certain that they were summoned uniformly at first, but certainly without any long intermission. There is a presumption that they sat in the parliament of 1269 and in the first parliament of Edward I., 1271, and not long after regularly.