54 History of the English Landed Interest. 



points out, in so wholesale a manner as to have left their old 

 homes without an inhabitant ; and though their original leaders 

 may have possessed no creative genius, their peculiar stage of 

 the Mark polity budded forth eventually into the monarchical 

 system of the Heptarchy. 



Whatever were the former systems of land tenure in this 

 country-, a fresh start must more or less be made when room 

 was required for these new peoples. 



The invasion of a race is very different to that of an army. 

 Even that of the latter varies according to the objects it has in 

 view. 



When, for example, the Greeks or Carthaginians conquered 

 a nationality, being republican themselves, they established 

 republican colonies with republican ideas of land equalisation. 

 When Asiatic nations with despotic forms of government went 

 forth to war, their conquests were undertaken for one man's 

 pleasure, who had therefore to keep up a standing army dis- 

 tributed as garrisons in those cities of the conquered lands 

 which were strategical centres. When the Romans conquered 

 a country, they did so for glory ; and, save for the purposes of 

 frontier defence, they interfered as little as possible with the 

 land question outside their municipia. When modern warlike 

 expeditions leave these shores, to open up some fresh market, 

 the very instincts of commerce induce us to foster, not crush, 

 native manners and customs. When the Hebrews occupied a 

 conquered country', they required it as a home ; and as the land 

 was only just large enough to hold them, a war of extermina- 

 tion ensued. Like the last-mentioned people, the Germans, in 

 conquering fresh districts, had habitation in view. They sought 

 neither glory nor commerce, but security and a livelihood. 

 Being a nation of independent tribes with no centralised gov- 

 ernment, they invaded foreign lands in small and detached 

 parties. To obtain freedom from molestation, they introduced 

 military service purely as a defensive measure; and, to procure 

 a livelihood, they enacted laws establishing fixity of tenure. 

 They were a strange mixture of savagery and tameness. 

 Savage enough when over-population drove them to bucca- 

 neering, or molestation threatened to disturb their domestic 



