very fiction on their believing audience.
These ideas of chivalry infected the writings, conversation, and
behavior of men, during some ages; and even after they were, in a great
measure, banished by the revival of learning, they left modern gallantry
and the point of honor, which still maintain their influence, and are
the genuine off-spring of those ancient affectations.

[* In all legal single combats, it was part of the
champion's oath, that he carried not about him any herb,
spell, or enchantment, by which he might procure victory.
Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 82.]

The concession of the Great Charter, or rather its full establishment,
(for there was a considerable interval of time between the one and
the other,) gave rise, by degrees, to a new species of government, and
introduced some order and justice into the administration. The ensuing
scenes of our history are therefore somewhat different from the
preceding. Yet the Great Charter contained no establishment of new
courts magistrates, or senates, nor abolition of the old. It introduced
no new distribution of the powers of the common-wealth, and no
innovation in the political or public law of the kingdom. It only
guarded, and that merely by verbal clauses, against such tyrannical
practices as are incompatible with civilized government, and, if
they become very frequent, are incompatible with all government.
The barbarous license of the kings, and perhaps of the nobles, was
thenceforth somewhat more restrained: men acquired some more security
for their properties and their liberties; and government approached a
little nearer to that end for which it was originally instituted--the
distribution of justice, and the equal protection of the citizens. Acts
of violence and iniquity in the crown, which before were only deemed
injurious to individuals, and were hazardous chiefly in proportion to
the number, power, and dignity of the persons affected by them, were now
regarded, in some degree, as public injuries, and as infringements of a
charter calculated for general security. And thus the establishment of
the Great Charter, without seeming anywise to innovate in the
distribution of political power, became a kind of epoch in the
constitution.

NOTES.

[Footnote 1: NOTE A, p. 9. This question has been disputed With as great
zeal, and even acrimony, between the Scotch and Irish antiquaries, as if
the honor of their respective countries were the mo