Historical memoir of the family of Eglinton and Winton

98 BRANCHES OF THE
BRANCHES OF THE FAMILY OF
EGLINTON.
A LEADING characteristic of the feudal system
of government lay in its unhappy sectioniz-
ing tendency, and segregation of the people into
particular septs and family names, under purely des-
potic baronial chiefs and leaders ; ultimately pro-
ducing consequences but little, if at all, more toler-
able than that of the savage tribes and clans which
preceded it. For centuries the executive power
was rendered utterly impotent to the preservation of
law and order amidst the implacable eonfiictions of
feudal chiefs, each invested with the power of life
and death within his own little territory, and every-
where, with the most rancorous strife, arrayed
against each other in " deadly feud." The kingly
authority was often entirely superseded, and the per-
son of the sovereign imprisoned by the leaders of the
more powerful factions. To overcome so adverse
a state of affairs as this, seemed altogether beyond
the resources of the constituted authorities, and
through long dreary centuries of barbarous confu-
sion the nation languished in hopeless despair.
The germination of the seeds of civilization amidst
the darkness and helplessness of primitive humanity