, were the property of
their masters who entitled themselves the nobility. The major part of
men in Europe were at that time what they are to this day in several
parts of the world--they were villains or bondsmen of lords--that is, a
kind of cattle bought and sold with the land. Many ages passed away
before justice could be done to human nature--before mankind were
conscious that it was abominable for many to sow, and but few reap. And
was not France very happy, when the power and authority of those petty
robbers was abolished by the lawful authority of kings and of the people?

Happily, in the violent shocks which the divisions between kings and the
nobles gave to empires, the chains of nations were more or less heavy.
Liberty in England sprang from the quarrels of tyrants. The barons
forced King John and King Henry III. to grant the famous Magna Charta,
the chief design of which was indeed to make kings dependent on the
Lords; but then the rest of the nation were a little favoured in it, in
order that they might join on proper occasions with their pretended
masters. This great Charter, which is considered as the sacred origin of
the English liberties, shows in itself how little liberty was known.

The title alone proves that the king thought he had a just right to be
absolute; and that the barons, and even the clergy, forced him to give up
the pretended right, for no other reason but because they were the most
powerful.

Magna Charta begins in this style: "We grant, of our own free will, the
following privileges to the archbishops, bishops, priors, and barons of
our kingdom," etc.

The House of Commons is not once mentioned in the articles of this
Charter--a proof that it did not yet exist, or that it existed without
power. Mention is therein made, by name, of the freemen of England--a
melancholy proof that some were not so. It appears, by Article XXXII.,
that these pretended freemen owed service to their lords. Such a liberty
as this was not many removes from slavery.

By Article XXI., the king ordains that his officers shall not
henceforward seize upon, unless they pay for them, the horses and carts
of freemen. The people considered this ordinance as a real liberty,
though it was a greater tyranny. Henry VII., that happy usurper and
great politician, who pretended to love the barons, though he in reality
hated and feared them, got their lands alienated. By this means the
villains, afterwards acquirin