it was HILE the varying fituation of fiefs and chivalry was to produce the moft important confequences in polity and government, to be no lefs powerful in changing the general picture of fociety; and the manners, which were to figure in their state of con. fufion and diforder, are a contraft to those which attended their elevation and greatnefs. The romantic grandeur and virtue which grew out of the feudal affociation, in its age of cordiality and happiness, could not exist when that cordiality and happines were decayed. The diforders of fiefs had operated on chivalry; and the deviations of both from perfection, affecting ftrongly the commerce of life, and the condition of the female fex, were to terminate in new modes of thinking, and new fyftems of action. The difaftrous ftate of fiefs, difuniting the interefts of the lord and the vaffal, gave rife to oppreffions and grievances: thefe produced a proneness to venality and corruption. All ranks of men, from the fovereign to the flave, feemed at variance. Rapacity and infolence were to characterife the fuperior and the mafter; chicane and difaffection, the vaffal and the fervant. A relaxation of morals, total and violent, was to prevail. Chivalry, lofing its renown, the purity of the knightly virtues, was to be tarnished. When it fell as a military eftablishment, its generous manners were not to remain in vigour. The women were to lofe their value and their pride. their pride. The propenfity to vice, foftered by political diforder, and the paffion for gallantry, driven to extremity by the romantic admiration which had been paid to the fex, were to engender a voluptuoufnefs, and a luxury which, in the circle of human affairs, are ufually to distinguish and to haften the decline and the fall of nations. Manners, too ftately and pure for humanity, are not to flourish long. In the ruined ftate of fiefs and chivalry there prevailed not, in the one fex, the fcrupulous honour, the punctilious behaviour, and the diftant adoration of beauty, which had illuftrated the æra of their greatnefs; nor, in the other, were there to be remarked the cold and unconquerable chastity, the majestic air, and the ceremonious dignity which had lifted them above Nature. A gallantry, lefs magnificent, and more tender, took place: the faftidiousness and delicacies of former ages wore away. The women ceafed to be idols of worship, and became objects of love. In an unreferved intercourse their attractions were more alluring. The times, prone to corruption, were not to refift their vivacity, their graces, their paffion to pleafe. Love feemed to become the fole bufinefs of life. The ingenious and the fentimental found a lasting intereft, and a bewitching occupation, in the affiduities, the anxieties, and the tenderness of intrigue. The coarfe and intemperate, indulging their indolence and appetite, fought the haunts, and threw themfelves into the arms, of proftituted beauty. The talents which, of old, recorded the deeds of valour, and the M 3 atchieve atchievements of war, were now devoted to the fair. In every country of Europe, the poet, or the Troubadour, was to confecrate to them his homage and his fongs; and to the fafhions of gallantry the rife of literature is to be afcribed. Men of genius, and men who fancied they poffeffed it, reforted to the courts of princes, and to the palaces of the noble; and the praife which they knew how to lavish got them attention and patronage. To make verses was the road to preferment. No lady was without her poet. Nor was poetry the exercise only of thofe who wished to better their fortunes: while it was to give riches and refpect to the obfcure, by the connexions it was to gain them, it was to be an ornament and an honour to the great. Princes and barons, as well as knights and gentlemen, found it the fureft recommendation to their miftreffes. They fung their charms, their difdain, and their rigours. Even the artificial tenderness of the poet often grew into reality; and the fair one, who, at first, only liftened to praife, was to yield to paffion. The adulation paid to beauty difpofed it to approve; complaints led to pity; pity to love. The enchantment of perpetual flatteries, of proftrations refpectful and paffionate, of vows repeated with ardour, of fighs ever meant to allure, corrupted a fex, of which the fenfibilities are fo exquifite. The rite of marriage, formerly fo fanctimonious, was only courted to be abufed. The pride of condition, more powerful than modefty, was, indeed, a check to the virgin; but fhe was to wait reluctantly the moment, when her coynefs and ti midities, instead of rebuking the paffions, were to be a zest to them. All the fopperies of fancy were exhibited; all the labyrinths of love were explored. A licentioufnefs, which knew no reftraint from principle, was rendered more feducing by the decorums and decorations of a fantastic gallantry. Religion, which must ever mix in human affairs, is oftener to debafe than to enlighten: it is, for the most part, a mass of fuperstitions, which encourage the weaknefs of mankind. This was the cafe with chriftianity in the darknefs of the middle times. The votaries of beauty did not fcruple to addrefs the Deity to foften its obftinacy. In the heat of intrigue they invoked the Trinity and the Saints for fuccefs. Religion was employed to give a poignancy to the diforders of proftitution and luft. The rich were to have houfes of debauch in the form of monafteries, confifting of many cells or apartments, and under the government of abbeffes. The profanenefs of gallantry disturbed and deformed even the meditations of the moft pious. The devotee was to feek a mistress in heaven: he was to look up to the virgin with the eyes of a lover, and to contem, plate the beauties of her perfon, and the graces of her carriage. What is more extravagant, the felicities of futurity feemed a triffe unworthy of acceptance, without the contacts and the vanities of an irreverent courtefy. I would not,' faid a Troubadour, be in Paradife, but on the condition of making love to her whom I adore." The vices and example of the clergy added to the general conta His character, his exam ple, and his precautions, were. restraints, ineffectual and fruit. less. gion. They were to exceed not tent. only in fuperb living, and in the luxuries of the table, but in the paftimes and the gratifications of illicit love. It was in vain that laws were made to prohibit them from entertaining, in their houfes, any virgins dedicated to God.' The arts of the popes to tear them from their women would fill volumes. No ecclefiaftic was without his concubines. The fins of the faint were grofs and comfortable. In contempt of all decency, they were even to educate publicly the fruits of their amours. Rampant and diffolute, they preached religion, and were a difgrace to it; virtue and they were in hafte to contemn it; another world and they were immersed in the enjoyments of the prefent. An univerfal corruption diffused itself. To be deep in debauch, and fuccessful with the ladies, were certain marks of worth. They were parts of the eminence to which the deferving were to afpire. To be amorous and deceitful were not lefs meritorious than to be brave and witty. There was exhibited a ftrange picture of fiercenefs and effeminacy, oppreffion and politenefs, impiety and devotion. The age, in which fo many armies, inflamed with zeal, were to fight for the recovery and poffeffion of the holy fepulchre, was remarkable for the most criminal depravity. The pilgrims and crufaders exported the vices of Europe, and imported those of Afia. Saint Louis, during his pious and memorable expedition, could not prevent the moft open licentioufnefs and disorder. He found houfes of proftitution at the doors of his While the ladies of rank were to be befieged in form, to be pursued in all the windings of affectation and caprice, and to oppofe to their impatient lovers all the obftacles of a delicacy, pretended or 'real, the women of inferior condition were to be approached with familiarity. It even appears to have been common for husbands to make a traffic of the chastity of their wives, though fevere regulations were enacted to reprefs this practice. The offices of the laundrefs and the milliner being yet no particular profeffions, there were in the habitations, and the palaces of the rich, apartments for women, who, while they performed the fervices peculiar to thefe, were alfo debauched to impurity, and fubfervient to luft. Jurifdiction, being yet ambulatory, and kings making frequent progreffes through their dominions, it was ufual for prostitutes to follow the court; and officers were appointed to keep them in fubjec tion and order. To be marfbal of the king's whores, in particular places and diftricts, was an honour and a dignity. To this degeneracy and profanenefs I am inclined to trace the law, which, in the declining condition of fiefs, made it a forfeiture of the eftate for the vaffal to debauch the fifter, the daughter, or the wife of his fuperior. In the greater towns, there were women who lived openly by proftitution, exercifing it as a profeffion. There were even whole streets which were inhabited by them. In Paris and in London the number by the Tartars, before the Irruption of the Goths into the Roman States. From Richardfon's Preface to his Arabic and Perfian Didionary. of public brothels was incredible. fanctioned by the authority of go⚫vernment in every country of Europe. To twelve of thefe Henry VII. gave his licence; and figns painted on their walls diftinguifhed them, and invited the paffenger. So general was the licentioufnefs which fpread itself, that the proprietors of houfes found it neceffary to let them out under the exprefs condition, that the leffee fhonld keep and harbour no common women. Henry VIII. who approved not love in any form but that of matrimony, fuppreffed many ftew-houfes in Southwark, and ordained, that proftitutes should not receive the rites of the church while they lived, nor have a christian burial when they were dead. Such were the manners which were produced by the oppreffions and diforders of fiefs and chivalry. And, thus, notwithflanding what many writers have afferted, I am entitled to conclude, that the fpirit of chivariry was not uniform any more than that of fiefs; and that, at different periods, its manners were oppofite and contradictory. On the Prevalence of the Feudal Syf. tem in the Eaft in early Times. Traces of it in Perfia; in Arabia; in Hindoftan; in Turkey; in Tartary. Apparently introduced inio Germany and Scandinavia, THE HE feudal fyftem, which was introduced and diffused over Europe by the conquerors of the Roman power, produced, in a civil light, an alteration in laws, government, and habits, no lefs important than the difmember. ment of the empire by their arms. Our greateft lawyers, hiftorians, and antiquarians, whofe object has been lefs to trace its origin than to mark its influence, have uniformly attributed this great foundation of the jurifprudence of modern Europe to the military policy of the northern nations; and feem in general rather to have confidered it as a confequence of their fituation, after their conquefts, than as exifting previous to their irruptions. It appears not only to have formed, however, their great fyftem of polity before the grand invafion, but to have flourished in the Eaft with much vigour in very early times. In Perfia, Tartary, Índia, and other eaftern countries, the whole detail of government, from the moft ancient accounts down to the prefent hour, can hardly be defined by any other description. We obferve, in general, one Great King, to whom a number of fubordinate princes pay homage and tribute: all deviation from this fyftem feeming merely temporary and accidental. Poffeffed of every effential power of royalty, the degree of dependence of thefe fecondary kings, we find, has ever been proportioned to the vigour or imbecility of the paramount fovereign; for for where no folid code of conftitu- their influence. But when circum. tional laws prevails, the brilliant or difgraceful periods in the hiftory of a people will generally depend upon the genius of one man. A great monarch will give to the component parts the appearance of one defpotic whole; whilft the approaches to difobedience will ever be proportioned to the weakness of administration. Conftantly recurring, however, to firft principles, every variation of oriental rule prefents only, to our alternate view, an overgrown empire, feebly governed, crumbling into independent kingdoms; and independent kingdoms again uniting, to form the empire of fome more fortunate and enterprifing fovereign. A general view of the hiftories of eaftern nations would, perhaps, fufficiently fupport the above pofitions; but I fhall venture to offer a few particular authorities. The more ancient facts, it may be obferved, like every remote event, will not admit of pofitive proof; but in tracing manners or modes of government, abfolute hiftorical or chronological precifion is by no means requifite. The actions of one prince may be imputed to another; anacronifms and mifnomers may abound; and the atchievements of twenty warriors may fwell the renown of one hero: but no writer will attribute to his nation cuftoms and ideas of government, to which they or their anceitors were ftrangers; and against which the opinions of his fellowfubjects must inftantly and loudly revolt. When uncommon and great innovations happen in the cuftoms of a country, writers are careful to trace their origin, to fix their introduction, and to obferve ftances, however interesting, are fimply mentioned, without particular obfervation or commentary, we may rationally conclude, that fuch cuftoms are of high antiquity; and no more deferving of fpecial animadverfion than the general complexion, configuration, or temperament of their countrymen. The rife and progrefs of the feudal fyftem in Europe is marked: it was an exotic plant; and it has, of confequence, engaged the attention of our ableft antiquaries. But in the Eaft it is indigenous, univerfal, and immemorial: and the eaftern hiftorians have never dreamed of investigating its fource, any more than the origin of regal government. Both have long been to them equally familiar; and the first extenfive monarchy gave, probably, a beginning to the first de pendence of feudal chiefs. It may be thought, too, that examples of this, or any other custom, brought from events fubfequent to their introduction into Europe, can be no corroborative proof of their fub, fifting in the Eaft previous to their appearance in the weft. But the leaft attention to oriental manners will clearly fhew, that the characteristic habits of thofe people, even at this hour, are, in every respect, fimilar to the most remote accounts: nor have we ground to believe, that (the Mohammedan religion, and fire-arms excepted) there is one fingle cuftom peculiar to the Perfians, the Arabians, or the Tartars, of the prefent day, which did not prevail amongst their ancestors at a period too remote for human research, With a wonderful predilection for their own ancient manners, they |