voluntary benevolence in what the loyal courtesy of our
constitution styles concessions from the throne; and so little title
have these sovereigns, though we cannot refuse our admiration to the
generous virtues of Edward III. and Henry V., to claim the gratitude of
posterity as the benefactors of their people!

2. The relation established between a lord and his vassal by the feudal
tenure, far from containing principles of any servile and implicit
obedience, permitted the compact to be dissolved in case of its
violation by either party. This extended as much to the sovereign as to
inferior lords; the authority of the former in France, where the system
most flourished, being for several ages rather feudal than political. If
a vassal was aggrieved, and if justice was denied him, he sent a
defiance, that is, a renunciation of fealty to the king, and was
entitled to enforce redress at the point of his sword. It then became a
contest of strength as between two independent potentates, and was
terminated by treaty, advantageous or otherwise, according to the
fortune of war. This privilege, suited enough to the situation of
France, the great peers of which did not originally intend to admit more
than a nominal supremacy in the house of Capet, was evidently less
compatible with the regular monarchy of England. The stern natures of
William the Conqueror and his successors kept in control the mutinous
spirit of their nobles, and reaped the profit of feudal tenures without
submitting to their reciprocal obligations. They counteracted, if I may
so say, the centrifugal force of that system by the application of a
stronger power; by preserving order, administering justice, checking the
growth of baronial influence and riches, with habitual activity,
vigilance, and severity. Still, however, there remained the original
principle, that allegiance depended conditionally upon good treatment,
and that an appeal might be lawfully made to arms against an oppressive
government. Nor was this, we may be sure, left for extreme necessity, or
thought to require a long enduring forbearance. In modern times a king
compelled by his subjects' swords to abandon any pretension would be
supposed to have ceased to reign; and the express recognition of such a
right as that of insurrection has been justly deemed inconsistent with
the majesty of law. But ruder ages had ruder sentiments. Force was
necessary to repel force; and men accustomed to see the king's