WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, 369

equally ambitious os show and parade in his cle-mency and in his severity. 7 he maxims of hisadministration were austere; but might have beenuseful , had they been solely employed to preserveorder in an established government’ 4 : They were illcalculated for softening the rigors, which , underthe most gentle management, are inseparable fromconquest. His attempt against England was the lastgreat enterprise of the bind, which, during thecourse of seven hundred years, has fully succeed-ed in Europe; and the force of his genius brokethrough those limits, which first the feudal institu-tions, then the refined policy of princes, have fixeto the several states of Christendom. Though herendered himself infinitely odious to his Englishsubjects, he transmitted his power to his posterity ,and the throne is still filled by his descendants:A proof, that the foundations which he laidwere firm and solid, and that, amidst all hisviolence, while he seemed only to gratify thepresent passion , he had still an eye towards futu-ri ty.

Some writers have been desirous of refusingto this prince the title of Conqueror, in thesense which that term commonly bears; and onpretence , that the word is sometimes in oldbooks applied to such as make an acquisition ofterritory by any means , they are willing toreject William’s title, by right of war, to thecrown of England. It is needless to enter into

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CHAP

IV.

10S7.

M, West, p. 230. Anglia Sacra, vol. 1. p. 258.Vol. I. B 1 »