40

A VIEW OF SOCIETY

Holding by no tenure, and occupying no place in thefeudal arrangements, they could not draw observa-tion 1 heir pride was alarmed, and they wiflied forthe respect and the iecurity of vassals.

Princes bent on the extension of fiefs, discouragedthese proprietors. Their ambition , their abilities,and their prerogatives, furnished them with thegreatest influence ; and they employed it to giveuniversality to a system, which was calculated tosupport the royal dignity and the national import-ance. Compositions for offences inferior to thosewhich were allowed to a vassal, were deemed suf-ficient for the proprietors of allodiality. In the courtsof justice they felt the disadvantages of their condi-tion- Mortified with regal neglect, without sufficientprotection from the laws, exposed to the capriciousinsolence and the destructive ravages os the great,disgusted with rudeuess, contempt, and indignity,they were driven into the circle of fiefs. They courtedthe privileges and the protection which were enjoyedby vassals. They submitted their estates to tenure ,selecting to themselves a superior the most agreeable ,granting to him their lands, and receiving themback from him as a feudal donation (9).

In this direction of affairs the extension of thefeudal institutions was unavoidable. The landedproperty was every where changed into feudality.The empiry of fiefs was universal. Even land, thegreat source and medium of tenure, was to be in-sufficient for the multitude of those, who werepressed to be vassals, by their wants and feebleness,and who were invited to be so by the great, in thewildness of their contentions, and amidst the enor-