; the rent of the land
granted in knights' service virtually consisted of two separate
funds--one part went to the feudee, as officer or commmandant, the other
to the soldiery or vassals. The latter part belonged to the state. Had
Henry applied it to the reestablishment of the class of FREEMEN
(LIBERI HOMINES), as was recently done by the Emperor of Russia when he
abolished serfdom, he would have created a power on which the Crown and
the constitution could rely. This might have been done by converting the
holdings of the men-at-arms into allodial estates, held direct from
the Crown. Such an arrangement would have left the income of the feudee
unimpaired, as it would only have applied the fund that had been paid
to the men-at-arms to this purpose; and by creating out of that land
a number of small estates held direct from the Crown, the misery that
arose from the eviction and destruction of a most meritorious class,
would have been avoided. Vagrancy, with its great evils, would have been
prevented, and the passing of the Poor laws would have been unnecessary.
Unfortunately Henry and his counsellors did not appreciate the
consequence of the suppression of retainers and liveries. By the course
he adopted to secure the influence of the Crown, he compensated the
nobles, but destroyed the agricultural middle class.

This change had an important and, in some respects, a most injurious
effect upon the condition of the nation, and led to enactments of a very
extraordinary character, which I must submit in detail, inasmuch as I
prefer giving the ipsissima verba of the statute-book to any statement
of my own. To make the laws intelligible, I would remind you that the
successful efforts of the nobles had, during the three centuries of
Plantagenet rule, nearly obliterated the LIBERI HOMINES (whose rights
the Norman conqueror had sedulously guarded), and had reduced them to a
state of vassalage. They held the lands of their lord at his will, and
paid their rent by military service. When retainers were put down,
and rent or knights' service was no longer paid with armed men, their
occupation was gone. They were unfit for the mere routine of husbandry,
and unprovided with funds for working their farms. The policy of the
nobles was changed. It was no longer their object to maintain small
farmsteads, each supplying its quota of armed men to the retinue of the
lord; and it was their interest to obtain money rents. Then commenced a
strugg