ns and
nobles of the land, and also the _notables_, as they were called, or
principal officers and municipal authorities of the _towns_. The main
point of interest for the consideration of this assembly was, whether
the country would submit to the necessary taxation for raising the
necessary funds. William had ample power, as duke, to decide upon the
invasion and to undertake it. He could also, without much difficulty,
raise the necessary number of men; for every baron in his realm was
bound, by the feudal conditions on which he held his land, to furnish
his quota of men for any military enterprise in which his sovereign
might see fit to engage. But for so distant and vast an undertaking as
this, William needed a much larger supply of _funds_ than were usually
required in the wars of those days. For raising such large supplies, the
political institutions of the Middle Ages had not made any adequate
provision. Governments then had no power of taxation, like that so
freely exercised in modern times; and even now, taxes in France and
England take the form of _grants_ from the people to the kings. And as
to the contrivance, so exceedingly ingenious, by which inexhaustible
resources are opened to governments at the present day--that is, the
plan of borrowing the money, and leaving posterity to pay or repudiate
the debt, as they please, no minister of finance had, in William's day,
been brilliant enough to discover it. Thus each ruler had to rely, then,
mainly on the rents and income from his own lands, and other private
resources, for the comparatively small amount of money that he needed in
his brief campaigns. But now William perceived that ships must be built
and equipped, and great stores of provisions accumulated, and arms and
munitions of war provided, all which would require a considerable
outlay; and how was this money to be obtained?

The general assembly which he convened were greatly distracted by the
discussion of the question. The quiet and peaceful citizens who
inhabited the towns, the artisans and tradesmen, who wished for nothing
but to be allowed to go on in their industrial pursuits in peace, were
opposed to the whole project. They thought it unreasonable and absurd
that they should be required to contribute from their earnings to enable
their lord and master to go off on so distant and desperate an
undertaking, from which, even if successful, they could derive no
benefit whatever. Many of the barons, too,