services to his baron, as the
baron himself did for his land to the crown. The vassal was obliged to
defend his baron in war; and the baron, at the head of his vassal, was
bound to fight in defence of the king and kingdom. But besides these
military services, which were casual, there were others imposed of a
civil nature, which were more constant and durable.

[* The ideas of the feudal government were so
rooted, that even lawyers in those ages could not form a
notion of any either constitution. Regnum (says Braeton,
lib. ii. cap. 34) quod ex comitatibus et baronibus dicitur
esse constitutum.]

[** Coke, Comm. on Lit. p. 1, 2, ad sect. 1.]

[*** Somner of Gavelk. p. 109, Smith de Rep. lib.
iii. cap. 10.]

The northern nations had no idea that any man trained up to honor and
inured to arms, was ever to be governed, without his own consent, by the
absolute will of another; or that the administration of justice was ever
to be exercised by the private opinion of any one magistrate, without
the concurrence of some other persons, whose interest might induce them
to check his arbitrary and iniquitous decisions. The king, therefore,
when he found it necessary to demand any service of his barons or chief
tenants, beyond what was due by their tenures, was obliged to assemble
them, in order to obtain their consent; and when it was necessary to
determine any controversy which might arise among the barons themselves,
the question must be discussed in their presence, and be decided
according to their opinion or advice. In these two circumstances of
consent and advice, consisted chiefly the civil services of the ancient
barons; and these implied all the considerable incidents of government.
In one view, the barons regarded this attendance as their principal
privilege; in another, as a grievous burden. That no momentous affairs
could be transacted without their consent and advice, was in general
esteemed the great security of their possessions and dignities; but as
they reaped no immediate profit from their attendance at court, and were
exposed to great inconvenience and charge by an absence from their
own estates, every one was glad to exempt himself liom each particular
exertion of this power; and was pleased both that the call for that duty
should seldom return upon him, and that others should undergo the burden
in his stead. The king, on the other hand, was usually anxious, for
several