tted to his
charge; and his decisions were the most likely to meet with a prompt and
ready obedience, from men who respected his person, and were accustomed
to act under his command. The profit arising from punishments, Which
were then chiefly pecuniary, was another reason for his desiring to
retain the judicial power; and when his fief became hereditary, this
authority, which was essential to it, was also transmitted to his
posterity. The counts and other magistrates, whose power was merely
official, were tempted, in imitation of the feudal lords, whom they
resembled in so many particulars, to render their dignity perpetual
and hereditary; and in the decline of the regal power, they found no
difficulty in making good their pretentions. After this manner the vast
fabric of feudal subordination became quite solid and comprehensive; it
formed every where an essential part of the political constitution; and
the Norman and other barons, who followed the fortunes of William, were
so accustomed to it, that they could scarcely form an idea of any other
species of civil government.[*]

The Saxons who conquered England, as they exterminated the ancient
inhabitants, and thought themselves secured by the sea against new
invaders, found it less requisite to maintain themselves in a military
posture: the quantity of land which they annexed to offices seems to
have been of small value; and for that reason continued the longer in
its original situation, and was always possessed during pleasure by
those who were intrusted with the command. These conditions were too
precarious to satisfy the Norman barons, who enjoyed more independent
possessions and jurisdictions in their own country; and William was
obliged, in the new distribution of land, to copy the tenures which
were now become universal on the continent. England of a sudden became a
feudal kingdom,[**] and received all the advantages, and was exposed to
all the inconveniences, incident to that species of civil polity.

According to the principles of the feudal law, the king wa the supreme
lord of the landed property: all possessors, who enjoyed the fruits or
revenue of any part of it, held those privileges, either mediately or
immediately, of him; and their property was conceived to be, in some
degree, conditional.[***] The land was still apprehended to be a species
of benefice, which was the original conception of a feudal property; and
the vassal owed, in return for it, stated