The advocates for a state of society so constituted urge, with some degree of justice, that a feudal lord, surrounded by his vassals, resembled the father of a numerous family, each reciprocally be nefitting the other; and this was certain ly the fact in some particular cases, when the lord happened to be of a benevolent disposition, and dispensed his favours li berally; such a man deserved, and, per haps, received, gratitude equivalent, and hence originated feodal incidents. The expectants of fiefs, before they were hereditary, and the heirs afterwards, educated under his immediate inspec tion, were attached to him as if they had been his own offspring, and receiv ed their lands when of age, with a deter mination to defend his interest to the ut most of their ability, in return for his careful and paternal wardship, which they further demonstrated by a grateful present, on taking possession. The for mer was called the incident of wardship, and the latter the incident of relief.
There was also an incident of mar riage, which was founded upon the same principle as that of reliefs; this operat ed to prevent alliances with the family or vassals of inimical chiefs, and induced the lord to find such persons for his wards as would promote his own future advantage.
The incident of aid is explained by the term; in this case all vassals were compelled to assist their lord, whether his misfortunes were caused by extrava gance, or losses by war.
The incident of escheat has been al ready noticed, and took place upon the default of the vassal in his customary ser vice.
It will be observed, that this system depended solely on high conceptions of honour; while the chief made it apparent that he gloried in the fidelity and happi ness of his vassals, they felt equal pride in supporting his splendour, and in en deavouring to elevate his consequence beyond that of his neighbour; but when the lord ceased to value the lives and property of his vassals, and made both subservient to purposes of mere ambi tion and avarice, the feodal system began to tremble to its base ; wardship, instead of being as before mutually advantage ous, was then rendered the means of filling the coffers of the lord, and the ward was sometimes ransomed, to pre vent worse consequences : the result is obvious ; the vassals received their inhe ritance almost exhausted, and viewed the incidents as so many lawless exac tions, by which they might be stripped of large sums in reliefs, married to whom the lord pleased, purchase the freedom of marrying, or• lose his land if Ile did neither. The aid which had been given
as a tribute of gratitude on the marriage of the eldest daughter of the chief; when his heir received the distinction of knighthood; or when the lord was made prisoner; was demanded as a tax on the most trivial pretences : nor were escheats I Confined to real causes of forfeiture; on the contrary, every venial offence, en tirely out of contemplation in the origi nal compact, was converted into a crime, and pronounced just reasons for seizure. In this wretched situation, disheartened by oppression, and unable to resist, with out virtually resigning the whole of their property by that single act, the vassals shrunk from the firm attitude they had assumed in battle, when fighting by the side of a generous chief, into the inert ness of slaves, who, burning with secret hatred, often committed military errors purposely, equally involving their sove reign's and their own safety; from this cause knight's service had its origin. See