almost of a different species from themselves.
The wealth of the burghers never failed to
provoke their envy and indignation, and they
plundered them upon every occasion without
mercy or remorse. The burghers naturally
hated and feared the lords. The king hated
and feared them too; but though, perhaps, he
might despise, he had no reason either to hate
or fear the burghers. Mutual interest, therefore,
disposed them to support the king, and
the king to support them against the lords.
They were the enemies of his enemies, and it
was his interest to render them as secure and
independent of those enemies as he could.
By granting them magistrates of their own,
the privilege of making bye-laws for their own
government, that of building walls for their own
defence, and that of reducing all their inhabitants
under a sort of military discipline, he
gave them all the means of security and independency
of the barons which it was in his
power to bestow. Without the establishment
of some regular government of this kind,
without some authority to compel their inhabitants
to act according to some certain plan
or system, no voluntary league of mutual defence
could either have afforded them any permanent
security, or have enabled them to give
the king any considerable support. By granting
them the farm of their own town in fee,
he took away from those whom he wished to
have for his friends, and, if one may say so, for
his allies, all ground of jealousy and suspicion,
that he was ever afterwards to oppress them,
either by raising the farm-rent of their town,
or by granting it to some other farmer.
The princes who lived upon the worst terms
with their barons, seem accordingly to have
been the most liberal in grants of this kind to
their burghs. King John of England, for
example, appears to have been a most munificent
benefactor to his towns.[34] Philip I. of
France lost all authority over his barons. Towards
the end of his reign, his son Lewis,
known afterwards by the name of Lewis the
Fat, consulted, according to Father Daniel,
with the bishops of the royal demesnes, concerning
the most proper means of restraining
the violence of the great lords. Their advice
consisted of two different proposals. One was
to erect a new order of jurisdiction, by establishing
magistrates and a town-council in every
considerable town of his demesnes. The other
was to form a new militia, by making the
inhabitants of those towns, under the command
of their own magistrates, march out upon
proper occasions to the assistance of the
king. It is from this period, according to
the French antiquarians, that we are to date
the institution of the magistrates and councils
of cities in France. It was during the unprosperous
reigns of the princes of the house
of Suabia, that the greater part of the free
towns of Germany received the first grants of
their privileges, and that the famous Hanseatic
league first became formidable.[35]
The militia of the cities seems, in those
times, not to have been inferior to that of the
country; and as they could be more readily
assembled upon any sudden occasion, they
frequently had the advantage in their disputes
with the neighbouring lords. In countries
such as Italy or Switzerland, in which, on account
either of their distance from the principal
seat of government, of the natural strength
of the country itself, or of some other reason,
the sovereign came to lose the whole of his
authority; the cities generally became independent
republics, and conquered all the nobility
in their neighbourhood; obliging them
to pull down their castles in the country, and
to live, like other peaceable inhabitants, in the
city. This is the short history of the republic
of Berne, as well as of several other cities in
Switzerland. If you except Venice, for of
that city the history is somewhat different, it
is the history of all the considerable Italian
republics, of which so great a number arose
and perished between the end of the twelfth
and the beginning of the sixteenth century.
In countries such as France and England,
where the authority of the sovereign, though
frequently very low, never was destroyed altogether,
the cities had no opportunity of becoming
entirely independent. They became,
however, so considerable, that the sovereign
could impose no tax upon them, besides the
stated farm-rent of the town, without their
own consent. They were, therefore, called
upon to send deputies to the general assembly
of the states of the kingdom, where they might
join with the clergy and the barons in granting,
upon urgent occasions, some extraordinary
aid to the king. Being generally, too,
more favourable to his power, their deputies
seem sometimes to have been employed by
him as a counterbalance in these assemblies
to the authority of the great lords. Hence
the origin of the representation of burghs in
the states-general of all great monarchies in
Europe.
Order and good government, and along
with them the liberty and security of individuals,
were in this manner established in cities,
at a time when the occupiers of land in the
country, were exposed to every sort of violence.
But men in this defenceless state naturally
content themselves with their necessary
subsistence; because, to acquire more, might
only tempt the injustice of their oppressors.
On the contrary, when they are secure of enjoying
the fruits of their industry, they naturally
exert it to better their condition, and to
acquire not only the necessaries, but the conveniencies
and elegancies of life. That industry,
therefore, which aims at something