so many petty Sovereigns, and a scourge to the King in after
ages, 'till Henry the Seventh sapped their power, and raised the third
estate, the Commons, which quickly eclipsed the other two.

The English gentry suffered great distress: Their complaints rung loud
in the royal ear, some of them therefore, who had been peaceable and
never opposed the Normans, were suffered to enjoy their estates in
dependance upon the great Barons.

This was the case with Richard, Lord of Birmingham, who held this manor
by knight's-service of William Fitz-Ausculf, Lord of Dudley castle, and
perhaps all the land between the two places.

Thus Birmingham, now rising towards the meridian of opulence, was a
dependant upon Dudley castle, now in ruins; and thus an honourable
family, who had enjoyed a valuable freehold, perhaps near 500 years,
were obliged to pay rent, homage, suit and service, attend the Lord's
court at Dudley every three weeks, be called into the field at pleasure,
and after all, possess a precarious tenure in villainage.

The blood of the ancient English was not only tainted with the breath of
that destructive age, but their lands also. The powerful blast destroyed
their ancient freehold tenures, reducing them into wretched copyholds:
and to the disgrace of succeeding ages, many of them retain this mark of
Norman slavery to the present day. How defective are those laws, which
give one man power over another in neutral cases? That tend to promote
quarrels, prevent cultivation, and which cannot draw the line between
property and property?

Though a spirit of bravery is certainly a part of the British character,
yet there are two or three periods in English history, when this noble
flame was totally extinguished. Every degree of resolution seems to have
been cut off at the battle of Hastings. The English acted contrary to
their usual manner:--Danger had often made them desperate, but now it
made them humble. This conquest is one of the most extraordinary held
forth in history; the flower of nobility was wholly nipped off; the
spirit of the English depressed, and having no head to direct, or hand
to cultivate the courage of the people and lead it into action, it
dwindled at the root, was trampled under the foot of tyranny, and,
according to _Smollet_, several generations elapsed before any one of
the old English stock blossomed into peerage.

It is curious to contemplate the revolution of things--Though the
conquering Romans