THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



301 



military service. The cultivation of the soil was con- 

 ducted by the serfs or retainers of these chiefs, half of 

 them being alternately so employed, the other half having 

 to follow their lords to the battle. In those times of 

 turbulence and aggression the profession of warrior gave 

 a title to distinction in the state, and military prowess 

 was the certain road to nobility and wealth. A portion 

 of the land was generally reserved as the common pro- 

 perty of the people, and any one who chose might culti- 

 vate it without molestation from others; but if he left it 

 untilled, another was at liberty to appropriate it. In 

 some instances this common property was used as pas- 

 turage by the residents in its neighbourhood ; and from 

 these allodial lands, called in Saxon " folkland, or 

 reeveland," have arisen those institutions in England 

 called " commons," which of late years have been by 

 act of Parliament inclosed, appropriated, and cultivated. 



The desire for the possession of land has been an ab- 

 solute passion in most countries, both civilized and 

 barbarous, but was especially so in Germany. Whilst 

 the population was thin and scattered, there was loom 

 for all to possess a portion of the soil, whose industry, 

 economy, or good fortune, enabled them to accumulate 

 the means or secure the patronage to obtain it, and there 

 was no occasion to go beyond their own territory. But 

 when the increased numbers had caused an absorption of 

 the land, or the avarice of the chiefs had led them to 

 appropriate to themselves and families what belonged to 

 the community at large, it became necessary to seek by 

 conquest from their neighbours, or by colonization in 

 unappropriated countries, the means of supplying them- 

 selves with this description of property. It was to the 

 application of this principle of aggressive extension, that 

 the Roman Empire owed its destruction by the Goths 

 and Huns. These northern barbarians had outgrown in 

 numbers the extent of country they occupied, and they 

 fixed their eyes upon the Italian Peninsula as the most 

 favoured spot, and the most likely, from the wealth and 

 effeminacy of the people, to become an easy prey to 

 their arms. 



The advanced state of civilization and intelligence in 

 Western Europe has nearly put an end to the age of 

 conquest. It is found, that to extend the boundaries of 

 Estate in this way is not to increase its riches or security, 

 but rather, by exhausting its resources, and creating a 

 host of enemies, to make sure provision for its own 

 downfall. We find that all those nations which have 

 been most famous for military achievements, and most 

 successful in extending their territories by conquest, 

 have, in the end, themselves become a prey to the spoiler 

 and invader. The history of our own times prevents 

 the necessity of going far back into the past for illus- 

 trations of this remark. On the other hand, coloniza- 

 tion, if conducted on just and equitable principles in 

 respect to aborigines — whether civilized or barbarous, 

 does not affect the argument — is a fair and legitimate 

 means of disposing of a surplus, discontented, or enter- 

 prising population, when it becomes too dense to admit 

 of its procuring with facility the means of existence. 



It is to the adoption of this principle that the North 

 American continent and those of Australia and South i 



Africa owe their rapid transition from barren and track- 

 less wilds, appropriated as hunting grounds by barbarous 

 tribes, to countries inhabited by civilized and enter- 

 prising people, under whose untiring industry and per- 

 severance the vast wilderness has become a fertile field, 

 and the boundless expanse is yielding to the axe and the 

 plough. Nothing in ancient history can be compared 

 with it, in respect to the rapidity of the transformation, 

 or the amazing growth of the population ; and the 

 process is likely to go on for ages, there being extent of 

 country enough to absorb hundreds of millions of in- 

 habitants, without jostling each other, as in the countries 

 of the older continents. 



Amongst our Saxon ancestors the possession of land 

 was almost universal with the people. They did not 

 trouble themselves to build many towns or cities, but 

 every family had its tract of land, and built its cottage 

 by the wood-side or near the stream or sparkling spring. 

 They formed small societies amongst themselves for 

 mutual protection; and, according to Kemble,* citi- 

 zenship, as it existed in Athens and Rome, was unknown 

 amongst them, all their ideas of society being based 

 upon a property in land; and such holdings, whether 

 by purchase, grant, or an appropriation by what at the 

 present day is called '^ sqicatting'' (if this latter did 

 not encroach upon a neighbour's rights), was not dis- 

 puted. It is evident that such tenure of land was the 

 very opposite of feudalism, which recognizes the 

 Sovereign only as the supreme lord of the soil, under 

 whom all hold their lands as vassals, on condition of 

 " suit and service" constantly performed. This in- 

 cluded a variety of acts of homage, besides military 

 service. The system was first introduced into England 

 at the Norman ConqueS't : William, who claimed the 

 sovereignty of the country in virtue of the will of 

 Edward the Confessor, found it necessary, in order to 

 satisfy his Norman chiefs, to confiscate many of the 

 larger estates of the Saxon nobles, and to distribute 

 them as rewards amongst his favourites, on the feudal 

 principle of military service. These, again, let them 

 out to their retainers upon the same terms of " suit and 

 service." 



This feudal condition of holding land by " suit and 

 service," which was at first of a purely personal nature, 

 was, in due time, exchanged or commuted by returns in 

 produce, or, in other words, a rent in kind. Subse- 

 quently, when money became more plentiful, the pay- 

 ment of rent was made in that form. Previous to this 

 period, which was very gradually approached, almost all 

 commercial transactions were conducted by barter or 

 payments in kind. So scarce was money at the time 

 of, and before the Conquest, that, according to Mait- 

 land, land sold at one Is. per acre, a fat ox at 2s. Gd., a 

 cow at 2s., a sheep at Is., a fat hog at 8d. The state 

 of society at that early period, and even down to the 

 fifteenth century, was exceedingly rude and — what we 

 should call — barbarous. Glazed windows were unknown, 

 even in the baronial halls, the utmost luxury of this 

 kind being horn or parchment to the latticed openings. 



* Saxons in England, cliar.i. 



