freedom and equality, drove out the bishop and the nobles, and
began a memorable struggle which lasted full two hundred years.
In 1260, the townspeople of Flanders appealed to the king of
France against the decrees of their count, who ended the quarrel
by the loss of his county. In 1303, Mechlin and Louvain, the chief
towns of Brabant, expelled the patrician families. A coincidence
like this cannot be attributed to trifling or partial causes,
such as the misconduct of a single count, or other local evil;
but to a great general movement in the popular mind, the progress
of agriculture and industry in the whole country, superinducing
an increase of wealth and intelligence, which, when unrestrained
by the influence of a corrupt government, must naturally lead
to the liberty and the happiness of a people.

The weaving of woollen and linen cloths was one of the chief
sources of this growing prosperity. A prodigious quantity of
cloth and linen was manufactured in all parts of the Netherlands.
The maritime prosperity acquired an equal increase by the carrying
trade, both in imports and exports. Whole fleets of Dutch and
Flemish merchant ships repaired regularly to the coasts of Spain
and Languedoc. Flanders was already become the great market for
England and all the north of Europe. The great increase of population
forced all parts of the country into cultivation; so much so,
that lands were in those times sold at a high price, which are
to-day left waste from imputed sterility.

Legislation naturally followed the movements of those positive
and material interests. The earliest of the towns, after the
invasion of the Normans, were in some degree but places of refuge.
It was soon however, established that the regular inhabitants