text:  The powerful central government regular taxation and large standing armies of modern Europe have removed the chief _political_ evils which were at times felt with such dreadful severity during the middle ages; but have they not introduced _social_ evils of a still more pernicious and irretrievable character? Private wars have disappeared; we no longer hear of chateaux burnt fields ravaged or serfs massacred in pursuance of the deadly feuds of hostile barons