COMMUNITY. 



367 



ns veil as to their individual members, as widely as 

 they do in their principles in regard to the state, and 

 the claims of citizens upon it. History shows that 

 the establishment of communities has been one of 

 the greatest advances in human improvement ; and 

 they have proved, in different ages, the cradle and 

 the support of freedom. By the formation of com- 

 munities, the patriarchal or family government was 

 broken, which arose from the natural connexion of 

 families, but had terminated in most unnatural re- 

 straints and inequalities. In the family, individual 

 interest predominated; and even when increasing 

 numbers gave rise to tribes, the same motives still 

 prevailed. The head of the tribe, the patriarch, was 

 elevated to unrestrained authority. In after years 

 all employments were distributed among the branch- 

 es of the family by inheritance: then arose fixed 

 castes the grave of all human improvement ; for 

 their influence palsies individual effort ; every man 

 is shut up in one fixed circle, be his talents and ac- 

 complishments what they may. That the branch of 

 the tribe which was originally predominant, viz. , the 

 caste of priests, or the priesthood, should, in the end, 

 give way. and become inferior in influence to the 

 second order (the military caste or rank), is so natu- 

 ral a consequence, that it has occurred in almost 

 every instance of society constituted in the way which 

 we have described, and is shown, with great proba- 

 bility, to have occurred, not only in Egypt and among 

 the Hindoos, but in all the islands of the Indian 

 ocean, in Japan, in the early ages of Greece and 

 Rome, and among all people of Gaelic origin. Some 

 writers, such as Eichhorn, for example, have thought, 

 and with much reason, that they found traces or an 

 original and hereditary superiority of the priesthood, 

 in the relations of the ancient German priests to the 

 military and other orders of society. This constitu- 

 tion of society, derived from family ties, with the in- 

 stitutions belonging to it, a patriarchal government, 

 a hereditary priesthood, and a fixed arrangement of 

 castes, existed among the earliest nations, and was 

 probably the first form of government which went 

 into operation upon the earth. With it was usually 

 connected a common right of the whole tribe to the 

 ground which they occupied. This was transferred 

 to the head of the tribe, first as the common repre- 

 sentative of the members, and for the purposes of 

 fair distribution, but finally became the individual 

 property of the chief. This is found to have been 

 the case not only in Egypt and among the Hindoos, 

 but also in the islands of the Indian ocean, and among 

 the Scottish Highlanders, among whom, more especi- 

 ally, the old Gaelic constitution of tribes and family 

 races has been preserved in their clans, even till a 

 very late period. It will be easily perceived, that 

 such a state of society must have been very oppres- 

 sive to men of energetic, ambitious spirits, and, there- 

 fore, tliat emigrations would frequently occur ; and, 

 as bold adventurers from all castes would join the 

 leaders of these expeditions, it is evident that the 

 original divisions of the castes could as little be kept 

 up among themselves, as they could be forced upon 

 the foreign nations among whom the wanderers, by 

 reason of their higher civilization or superior force, 

 might obtain an influence. In the domestic history 

 of Greece and Rome, we can discover a long-continu- 

 ed contest between the old family constitution of 

 government, which gave particular races particular 

 claims to sovereignty, and the rights of the commu- 

 nity in general, which terminated, after many liard- 

 fought battles, with the entire overthrow of the for- 

 mer. The first shock given to the old system took 

 place almost contemporaneously, in Athens and 

 Rome, by the substitution of divisions founded on 

 property, in the room of the old divisions according 



to tribes and families. The removal from landed 

 property of all restrictions in favour of families, and 

 the equal inheritance of women, were among the 

 most important consequences of this change in 

 Rome. 



Among the Germans, the system of communities, 

 which was, from the beginning, the foundation of 

 their political constitution, has remained essentially 

 the same to the present time. The common people 

 (Gefolge), who had voluntarily joined a certain lead- 

 er, acknowledged him as their commander in war, but 

 not as their sovereign in time of peace ; as the de- 

 fender of the laws, but not as their superior. All 

 affairs of general interest, even to the determination 

 upon a new campaign, were decided by the people 

 themselves ; and this custom was retained in all the 

 states which they established, in which all the free 

 members enjoyed equal rights. A hereditary dis- 

 tinction of ranks, in the earlier periods of these in- 

 stitutions, is neither certain nor probable. It is only 

 possible, at the most, that some tribes, who had al- 

 ready possessed institutions recognizing these distinc- 

 tions, may have transferred them to their new seats. 

 The military associations were again subdivided into 

 smaller portions, which were perhaps divided in the 

 common military form, as the divisions into tens and 

 hundreds were the only ones strictly observed ; and, 

 as new possessions were acquired, the new geogra- 

 phical and political divisions naturally took the form 

 and title of tithings, hundreds, and counties. The 

 free inhabitants of these societies were so far con- 

 nected, that they were responsible one for the other. 

 They had courts, and chose their own judges. This 

 form of society continued nowhere so long as in 

 England, although it is not entirely given up in any 

 of the states of Germanic origin. The freemen of 

 the county formed in England a particular commu- 

 nity, whose head the olaestealdorman, comes, count 

 or governor was appointed by the king; but the 

 second in command, the receiver of the royal taxes 

 (s/iire-gere/a, grave, graf, sheriff", equivalent to the 

 German Schultheis, exactor), was for some time elect- 

 ed by the people. The royal boroughs, which were 

 scattered through the counties, were occupied by 

 burgesses, who formed communities distinct from the 

 tithings, consisted of freemen (nobles), and, like the 

 counties, were represented at the assemblies convok- 

 ed by the king. The lands which did not belong to 

 the king, or were not given to his followers, seem 

 originally to have been the property of the county, 

 a part or lot in which belonged only to those capa- 

 ble of doing military duty, and constituted the com- 

 mon property ; (he folk-land, allodial, or reeveland of 

 the Anglo-Saxons ; the salland of the Franks ; while 

 the lords' property, or thane-land, or book-land of the 

 Anglo-Saxons, was conferred only upon the followers 

 of the king, or of the great territorial lords, upon 

 condition of the performance of personal service. 

 This last union of the king and the great lords with 

 their vassals threatened the overthrow of the freedom 

 of the communities, as all who were not thus depen- 

 dent on the great were left without protection from 

 violence ; but, after the tenth century, the commons 

 rose again, in consequence of the influence of several 

 causes, partly from the wealth accumulated by the 

 practice of arts and trades, partly from the growth of 

 towns around the castles of the knights. In these 

 towns, which had obtained their freedom, artisans of 

 various sorts were collected, who were distinguished 

 for spirit and boldness. It frequently happened, that, 

 in the course of time, the knights the original pro- 

 tectors of these communities were expelled. ITI 

 some cases, however, they became mingled in the 

 mass of citizens. Many traces of this state of society 

 are still to be found, especially in Britain, exhibit- 



