hat if he beat out his slave's eye or teeth, he gained
his liberty; and if he killed him, he paid a fine to the King. Yet,
notwithstanding this protection, and although the slaves were confined to
races vanquished in battle, yet the practice formed a dark stain on the
Saxon institutions.

The government of the Ancient Britons, or Cymri, corresponded much with
the Anglo-Saxon, except that their King was hereditary, and that they
were always free from the odious institution of slavery. Sovereign power
was inherited among the Cymri, according to the present rules of descent
in England, from whom it was probably derived. The chief people were the
Princes or large land-proprietors, who dwelt in magnificent style, and
exercised unbounded hospitality in their halls upon their estates. Here
they received their retainers and tenants, to whom they dispensed the
greatest liberality: here also dwelt the Bards, Priests, and Literati of
the period--the Taliesins, Aneurins, and Dafydd ap Gwilyms--in the
enjoyment of the most profuse favors and protection from their munificent
patrons. Hence also the spontaneous and faithful attachment of the whole
to their Princes,--as exemplified in the poems of the Bards, and the
warlike records of the Cymric nation. Besides the Princes, were a large
number of independent landowners or Esquires distributed over the whole
island. The great mass of the people, as in every community, labored on
the land, or were employed in domestic and mercantile occupations.
Slavery or even abject servitude was unknown among them: every class
enjoyed the rights and exercised the privileges of freemen, and seldom
failed in obtaining redress for any crime or wrong. In their freedom
from slavery, and their full enjoyment of civil rights and immunities,
the Cymri of ancient times formed a striking contrast with all the
European nations.

The effects of the Norman Conquest varied altogether as it respected the
Anglo-Saxons and the Cymri. The former were entirely subjected to the
feudal system, and their lands forfeited and parcelled out among the
Norman chiefs. The forest laws and other odious parts of the feudal
system were executed in all their rigor against the vanquished Saxon:
hence the sanguinary feuds and mortal enmity which for several centuries
existed between the Saxon and Norman race. The former, repelled by the
feudal system from open war, retaliated by private and secret murders and
injuries upon