^be anglo*»Sayon period 



CHAPTER y. 



THE CONNECTION OF THE EOMAN, BRITISH, AND TEUTONIC SYSTEMS 

 WITH ANGLO-SAXON LAND TENURE. 



If we conld determine tliat the curious systera of land tenure 

 just described was a peculiarity of the Teutonic race, we might 

 perhaps have a firmer foundation for the theory that its intro- 

 duction into this country was the result of the Anglo-Saxon 

 invasion. Sir Robert Morier^ has pointed out that agrarian 

 legislation has been very similar in all the States of Teutonic 

 origin. That is certainly true ; but if, on the other hand, we 

 can point to a corresponding institution in nationalities of 

 absolutely non-Teutonic origin, we are reduced to the inference 

 either, as Sir Henry Maine- contends, that there was some 

 common race-stem like the Ar^^an whence sprang this peculiar 

 polity, or that wherever land was superabundant and popula- 

 tion limited it was the natural tendency of the human race 

 to develop such a system. 



Mr. Coote^ has laid stress on its similarities to the Ager 

 Vectigalis of Italian land tenure, with its distinction between 

 Ager Privatus, classed by the jurists among res mancipi^ and 

 answering to the Folcland of the Anglo-Saxon, and Ager 

 Publicus, classed among 7'es nee mancipl and answering to the 

 latter's Bocland. Herr Faucher * has traced the village com- 



' Prussian Land Tenure (Cobden Club Essays). 



^ Maine, Village Community. 



^ Coote, Bomans in Britain. 



* In Systems of Land Tenure (Cobden Club Essays). 



