Druids pretended to be mediators between God and man. They enacted laws, they fulminated their excommunications, and fentenc'd to death. The Bishops fucceeded, by infenfible degrees, to their temporal authority in the Goth and Vandal government. The Popes fet themselves at their head, and arm'd with their Briefs, their Bulls, and reinforc'd by Monks, they made even Kings tremble; depos'd and affaffinated them at pleasure, and employ'd every artifice to draw into their own purfes monies from all parts of Europe. The weak Ina, one of the tyrants of the Saxon Heptarchy in England, was the firit Monarch that fubmitted, in his pilgrimage to Rome, to pay St. Peter's penny (equivalent very near to a French crown) for every house in his dominions. The whole island foon followed his example; England became infenfibly one of the Pope's provinces, and the holy Father us'd to fend from time to time his Legates thither to levy exorbitant At laft King John deliver'd up, by a public inftrument, the Kingdom of England to the Pope, who had excommunicated him; but the Barons, not finding their account in this refignation,, dethroned the wretched King John, and feated Lewis, father to St. Lewis King of France in his place. However they were foon weary of their

taxes.

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new Monarch, and accordingly obliged him to return back to French.

WHILST that the Barons, the Bishops and the Popes, all laid wafte Englend, where all were for ruling; the most numerous, the moft ufeful, even the most virtuous, and confequently the most venerable part of mankind, consisting of those who study the laws and the fciences; of traders, of artificers; in a word, of all who were not tyrants; that is, those who are called the people; thefe, I fay, were by them look'd upon as fo many animals. beneath the dignity of the human fpecies. The Commons in thofe ages were far from fharing in the government, they being Villains or Peafants, whofe labour, whofe blood were the property of their Masters, who entitled themfelves the Nobility. The major part of men in Europe were at that tine what they are to this day in feveral parts of the world; they were Villains or Bondsmen of Lords, that is, a kind of cattle bought and fold with the land. Many ages paft away before juftice cou'd be done to human nature; before mankind were confcious, that it was abominable numbers fhould fow, and but few reap. and was not France very happy, when the power and authority of thofe petty Robbers was abolish'd by the lawful authority of Kings and of the people?

HAPPILY in the violent fhocks which the divifions between Kings and the Nobles gave to empires, the chains of Nations were more or lefs heavy. Liberty, in England, sprung from the quarrels of Tyrants. The Barons forced King John and. King Henry the third, to grant the famous Magna Charta, the chief defign of which was indeed to make Kings dependent on the Lords; but then the rest of the nation were a little favour'd in it, in order that they might join, on proper occafions, with their pretended Mafters. This great Charter, which is confider'd as the facred origin of the English Liberties, fhews in it felf how little Liberty was known.

THE Title alone proves, that the King thought he had a just right to be absolute; and that the Barons, and even the Clergy forc'd him to give up the pretended right, for no other reafon but because they were the most powerful.

MAGNA CHARTA begins in this ftile, We grant, of our own free will, the following Privileges to the Archbishops, Bishops, Priors and Barons of our Kingdom, &c.

THE Houfe of Commons is not once mention'd in the Articles of this Charter, a proof that it did not yet exift, or that it exifted without Power. Mention is therein made, by name, of the freemen of England, a melancholy proof that fome were

not

not fo. It appears by the thirty-fecond Article, that thefe pretended Freemen ow'd service to their Lords. Such a Liberty as this was not many removes from Slavery.

By article XXI, the King ordains that his Officers fhall not henceforward feize upon, unless they pay for them, the Horfes and Carts of Freemen. The people confider'd this ordinance as a real liberty, tho' it was a greater tyranny. Henry the feventh, that happy ufurper and great politician, who pretended to love the Barons, tho' he in reality hated and feared them, got their lands alienated. By this means the Villains, afterwards acquiring riches by their industry, purchas'd the eftates and country-feats of the illuftrious Peers, who had ruin'd themfelves by their folly and extravagance, and all the lands got by infenfible degrees into other hands.

THE Power of the Houfe of Commons increas'd every day. The families of the ancient Peers were at laft extinct; and as Peers only are properly noble in England, there would be no fuch thing in ftrictness of law, as nobility in that Ifland, had not the Kings created new Barons from time to time, and preferv'd the body of Peers, once a terror to them, to oppose them to the Commons fince become fo formidable.

ALL these new Peers who compose the higher house, receive nothing but their Titles from the King, and very few of them have eftates in thofe places whence they take their titles. One fhall be Duke of D, tho' he has not a foot of land in Dorfetfire; and another is Earl of a village, tho' he fcarce knows where it is fituated. The Peers have power, but it is only in the Parliament House.

THERE is no fuch thing here, as * baute, moyenne, &. basse justice, that is, a power to judge in' all matters civil and criminal; nor a right or privilege of hunting in the grounds of a citizen, who at the fame time is not permitted to fire a gun in his own field.

No one is exempted in this country from paying certain taxes, because he is a nobleman or a priest. All duties and taxes are fettled by the Houfe of Commons, whofe power is greater than that of the Peers, tho' inferior to it in dignity. The fpiritual as well as temporal Lords have the

* La haute juftice, is that of a lord, who has power to fentence capitally, and to judge of all caufes civil and criminal, thofe of the crown excepted. La moyenne juftice, is empower'd to judge of actions relating to guardianfhips and offences. La baffe juftice takes cognizance of the fees due to the lord, of the havock of beafts, and of offences. The moyenne juftice is imagimary, and there is perhaps no inftance of its ever being put in execution.

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