546 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



of the ancient Teutonic mark a territory held &quot; by a primi 

 tive settlement of a family or kindred,&quot; each free male 

 member of which had &quot; a right to the enjoyment of the 

 woods, the pastures, the meadow, and the arable land of the 

 mark ;&quot; but whose right was &quot; of the nature of usufruct or 

 possession only,&quot; and whose allotted private division became 

 each season common grazing land after the crop had been 

 taken off, while his more permanent holding was limited to 

 his homestead and its immediate surroundings. And we may 

 perceive how the community s ownership might readily, as 

 circumstances and sentiments determined, result here in an 

 annual use of apportioned tracts, here in a periodic re-par 

 titioning, and here in tenures of more permanent kinds, still 

 subject to the supreme right of the whole public. 



539. Induction and deduction uniting to show, as they do. 

 that at first land is common property, there presents itself the 

 question How did possession of it become individualized ? 

 There can be little doubt as to the general nature of the 

 answer. Force, in one form or other, is the sole cause 

 adequate to make the members of a society yield up their 

 joint claim to the area they inhabit. Such force may be that 

 of an external aggressor or that of an internal aggressor ; but 

 in either case it implies militant activity. 



The first evidence of this which meets us is that the primi 

 tive system of land-ownership has lingered longest where 

 circumstances have been such as either to exclude war OP 

 to minimize it. Already I have referred to a still-extant 

 Teutonic mark existing in Drenthe, &quot; surrounded on all sides 

 by marsh and bog,&quot; forming &quot; a kind of island of sand and 

 heath ;&quot; and this example, before named as showing the sur 

 vival of free judicial institutions where free institutions at 

 large survive, simultaneously shows the communal land- 

 ownership which continues while men are unsubordinated. 

 After this typical case may be named one not far distant, 

 and somewhat akin that, namely, which occurs &quot;in the 



