On
the contrary, many a people has gradually emerged from this
condition by the aid of a central authority, whose position has made
it the rival, and has ended by making it the master, of the local
despots, and which, above all, has been single. French history, from
Hugh Capet to Richelieu and Louis XIV., is a continued example of this
course of things. Even when the King was scarcely so powerful as
many of his chief feudatories, the great advantage which he derived
from being but one has been recognised by French historians. To him
the eyes of all the locally oppressed were turned; he was the object
of hope and reliance throughout the kingdom; while each local
potentate was only powerful within a more or less confined space. At
his hands, refuge and protection were sought from every part of the
country, against first one, then another, of the immediate oppressors.
His progress to ascendancy was slow; but it resulted from successively
taking advantage of opportunities which offered themselves only to
him. It was, therefore, sure; and, in proportion as it was
accomplished, it abated, in the oppressed portion of the community,
the habit of submitting to oppression. The king's interest lay in
encouraging all partial attempts on the part of the serfs to
emancipate themselves from their masters, and place themselves in
immediate subordination to himself.
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