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EFFECT OF THE CRUSADES C HAr. xm.

When the Crusaders had so far succeeded asto capture Jerusalem and to establish in that citya Christian kingdom, there is good ground toconclude that the revenues raised within it wereinsufficient to defray the expenditure of the go--vernment, but that sums were annually contri-buted by the several powers which had achievedthe conquest to maintain the throne they haderected.

The rude nations of western Europe musthave been powerfully impressed with the magni-ficent objects which the oriental world presentedto their view. The thousand luxuries of theeast would excite a desire to possess them, andto transfer them as well to ornament their owncountries as to serve as memorials of the adven-turous expeditions in which they had borne apart. A great portion of what had been acquiredas booty in the east would be expended in ob-jects which could not be supplied by the in-dustry of their own countries, but whose valuewhen they arrived there would be estimated asmuch from the danger and glory by which theyhad been acquired, as by their rarity, theirbeauty, or their utility.

It cannot be doubted but that the severalcrusades tended to soften the manners of thosewho were engaged in them ; that they advancedthe knowledge, the civilization, and the industryof Europe , and by these means increased the