POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



of freemen for offensive or defensive purposes. Hence la 

 course of time come decreased calls on them. The ancient 

 Suevi divided themselves so as alternately to share war- 

 duties and farm- work : each season the active warriors re 

 turned to till the land, while their places were &quot; supplied by 

 the husbandmen of the previous *y ear.&quot; Alfred established 

 in England a kindred alternation between military service 

 and cultivation of the soil. In feudal times, again, the same 

 tendency was shown by restrictions on the duration and 

 amount of the armed aid which a feudal tenant and his re 

 tainers had to give now for sixty, for forty, for twenty days, 

 down even to four ; now alone, and again with specified num 

 bers of followers ; here without limit of distance, and there 

 within the bounds of a county. Doubtless, insubordination 

 often caused resistances to service, and consequent limitations 

 of this kind. But manifestly, absorption of the energies in 

 industry, directly and indirectly antagonized militant action ; 

 with the result that separation of the fighting body from the 

 general body of citizens was accompanied by a decrease in its 

 relative mass. 



There are two cooperating causes for this decrease of its 

 relative mass, which are of much significance. One is the 

 increasing costliness of the soldier, and of war appliances, 

 which goes along with that social progress made possible by 

 industrial growth. In the savage state each warrior provides 

 his own weapons ; and, on war-excursions, depends on himself 

 for sustenance. At a higher stage this ceases to be the case. 

 When chariots of war, and armour, and siege-implements 

 come to be used, there are presupposed sundry specialized and 

 skilled artizan-classes ; implying a higher ratio of the industrial 

 part of the community to the militant part. And when, 

 later on, there are introduced fire-arms, artillery, ironclads, 

 torpedoes, and the like, we see that there must co-exist 

 a large and highly-organized body of producers and dis 

 tributors ; alike to furnish the required powers and bear the 

 entailed cost. That is to say, the war-machinery, both living 



