it would not be excusable to mention them, if they did not help to show
from how many minute sources this revenue was fed, and how the king's
power descended to the most inconsiderable actions of private life.[73]
It is not easy to penetrate into the true meaning of all these
particulars, but they equally suffice to show the character of
government in those times. A prince furnished with so many means of
distressing enemies and gratifying friends, and possessed of so ample a
revenue entirely independent of the affections of his subjects, must
have been very absolute in substance and effect, whatever might have
been the external forms of government.

For the regulation of all these revenues, and for determining all
questions which concerned them, a court was appointed, upon the model of
a court of the same nature, said to be of ancient use in Normandy, and
called the Exchequer.

There was nothing in the government of William conceived in a greater
manner, or more to be commended, than the general survey he took of his
conquest. An inquisition was made throughout the kingdom concerning the
quantity of land which was contained in each county,--the name of the
deprived and the present proprietor,--the stock of slaves, and cattle of
every kind, which it contained. All these were registered in a book,
each article beginning with the king's property, and proceeding
downward, according to the rank of the proprietors, in an excellent
order, by which might be known at one glance the true state of the royal
revenues, the wealth, consequence, and natural connections of every
person in the kingdom,--in order to ascertain the taxes that might be
imposed, and, to serve purposes in the state as well as in civil causes,
to be general and uncontrollable evidence of property. This book is
called Domesday or the Judgment Book, and still remains a grand monument