The commencement of the twelfth century saw the enfranchisement of the communes in France. Louis le Gros was the first monarch who granted royal charters to free cities, if he was not the first to found them. Kings began by granting privileges of freedom to towns, in order to use them in bridling the power of the nobility; but, contrary to human designs, the towns ended by exercising their newly developed rights in restricting the power of both kings and nobility. The old forms of dependencies dissolved, and the breaking up of the system of servitude caused the whole frame of society to be better adjusted than it was ever before. At this time, too, commenced the true nationality of Italy, which was signalized by the rise of a splendid literature in the vernacular tongue, and which, though it was different from that produced by the cotemporary spirit of the North, was equally prophetic of great improvement to the world. One common impulse for the attainment of a higher civilization reigned throughout the western world, and was now approaching the highest type of perfection. At this epoch commenced the ballad poetry, which was the foundation of all the best literature of modern times. Then was written those invaluable chronicles, which have preserved the living picture, the very form and pressure of society as it existed in the early centuries of chivalry and romance. Thus that feudal system, which was introduced into Italy by the Lombard kings, and proved fatal to its institutors, ended by snatching the sceptre from their hands. Democracy rose against feudalism with the same success with which feudalism had overthrown monarchy, and on the same eastern edge of empire, rose a new tide of yet more ennobling might which swept gloriously westward over the field so providentially prepared. As we ascend the stream of time, successive generations and their achievements vanish like bubbles from the surface; but they nevertheless swell the precious undercurrent of civilization which, with perpetually augmented wealth and momentum, flows onward to its goal.