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assault!
CHAPTER II.
IMPARTIALITY.
The creation of an equality with the king, called Peerage, was, in
barbarous epochs, a useful fiction. This rudimentary political expedient
produced in France and England different results. In France, the peer
was a mock king; in England, a real prince--less grand than in France,
but more genuine: we might say less, but worse.
Peerage was born in France; the date is uncertain--under Charlemagne,
says the legend; under Robert le Sage, says history, and history is not
more to be relied on than legend. Favin writes: "The King of France
wished to attach to himself the great of his kingdom, by the magnificent
title of peers, as if they were his equals."
Peerage soon thrust forth branches, and from France passed over to
England.
The English peerage has been a great fact, and almost a mighty
institution. It had for precedent the Saxon wittenagemote. The Danish
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