e, was always extremely free;
and those fierce people, accustomed to independence and inured to arms,
were more guided by persuasion than authority in the submission which
they paid to their princes. The military despotism which had taken place
in the Roman empire, and which, previously to the irruption of those
conquerors, had sunk the genius of men, and destroyed every noble
principle of science and virtue, was unable to resist the vigorous
efforts of a free people; and Europe, as from a new epoch, rekindled her
ancient spirit, and shook off the base servitude to arbitrary will and
authority under which she had so long labored. The free constitutions
then established, however impaired by the encroachments of succeeding
princes, still preserve an air of independence and legal administration,
which distinguished the European nations; and if that part of the globe
maintain sentiments of liberty, honor, equity, and valor superior to the
rest of mankind, it owes these advantages chiefly to the seeds implanted
by those generous barbarians.

The Saxons who subdued Britain, as they enjoyed great liberty in their
own country, obstinately retained that invaluable possession in their
new settlement; and they imported into this island the same principles
of independence which they had inherited from their ancestors. The
chieftains, (for such they were, more properly than kings or princes,)
who commanded them in those military expeditions, still possessed a very
limited authority; and as the Saxons exterminated, rather than subdued,
the ancient inhabitants, they were indeed transplanted into a new
territory, but preserved unaltered all their civil and military
institutions. The language was pure Saxon; even the names of places,
which often remain while the tongue entirely changes, were almost all
affixed by the conquerors; the manners and customs were wholly German;
and the same picture of a fierce and bold liberty, which is drawn by
the masterly pencil of Tacitus, will suit those founders of the English
government. The king, so far from being invested with arbitrary power,
was only considered as the first among the citizens; his authority
depended more on his personal qualities than on his station; he was even
so far on a level with the people, that a stated price was fixed for
his head, and a legal fine was levied upon his murderer, which, though
proportionate to his station, and superior to that paid for the life of
a subject,