s of
France and Germany aimed at living independently on their fiefs, with no
further concern for the rest than as useful allies having a common
interest against the crown. But in England, as there was no prospect of
throwing off subjection, the barons endeavoured only to lighten its
burthen, fixing limits to prerogative by law, and securing their
observation by parliamentary remonstrances or by dint of arms. Hence,
as all rebellions in England were directed only to coerce the
government, or at the utmost to change the succession of the crown,
without the smallest tendency to separation, they did not impair the
national strength nor destroy the character of the constitution. In all
these contentions it is remarkable that the people and clergy sided with
the nobles against the throne. No individuals are so popular with the
monkish annalists, who speak the language of the populace, as Simon earl
of Leicester, Thomas earl of Lancaster, and Thomas duke of Gloucester,
all turbulent opposers of the royal authority, and probably little
deserving of their panegyrics. Very few English historians of the middle
ages are advocates of prerogative. This may be ascribed both to the
equality of our laws and to the interest which the aristocracy found in
courting popular favour, when committed against so formidable an
adversary as the king. And even now, when the stream that once was
hurried along gullies and dashed down precipices hardly betrays upon its
broad and tranquil bosom the motion that actuates it, it must still be
accounted a singular happiness of our constitution that, all ranks
graduating harmoniously into one another, the interests of peers and
commoners are radically interwoven; each in a certain sense
distinguishable, but not balanced like opposite weights, not separated
like discordant fluids, not to be secured by insolence or jealousy, but
by mutual adherence and reciprocal influences.

[Sidenote: Influence which the state of manners gave the nobility.]

From the time of Edward I. the feudal system and all the feelings
connected with it declined very rapidly. But what the nobility lost in
the number of their military tenants was in some degree compensated by
the state of manners. The higher class of them, who took the chief share
in public affairs, were exceedingly opulent; and their mode of life gave
wealth an incredibly greater efficacy than it possesses at present.
Gentlemen of large estates and good families who h