2 Wi'iconsm Acadeimj of Sciences, ArtSj and Letters. 



society the results of an examination of such English documents of 

 this class as I had within reach, from which it appeared that the peas- 

 antry, down to the fourteenth century, fell into regular organized 

 classes, holding their lands in a precise manner and in uniform 

 parcels. As a modest contribution to the investigation, I propose 

 to present the results of a similar examination into such French 

 documents as have come within my reach. 



It should be remarked at the outset, that the probabilities are 

 against any such uniformity, whether in France or in any other of 

 the countries occupied by the so-called Latin nations. The Teu- 

 tonic and Slavonic nations are on the whole homogeneous in race, 

 and as a rule have occupied the territories where they are now 

 found from the very beginning of our historical knowledge of 

 them. The population of France, on the other hand, is not only 

 mixed, but has been subjected at several times to violent and 

 sweeping revolutions. It was, no doubt, practically a homogene- 

 ous people when conquered by the Romans 2,000 years ago. 

 The Grauls, a Celtic nation cognate to the Graels of Scotland, are 

 found in clans somewhat similar to those of Scotland — clans 

 which appear to rest upon a common origin, either real or as- 

 sumed, like the original subdivisions of most primitive peoples. 

 But this primitive and homogeneous people, with its primitive 

 and uniform institutions, has been at different times subdued by 

 at least two great conquests : first by the Romans, then by the 

 German tribes. It has changed its language, its religion and its 

 customs, and it is fair to assume that it has modified its internal 

 organization and its mode of holding land as well. Assuming, 

 as we are perhaps entitled to do, that the Gallic tribes in Caesar's 

 time held their land in common, it is still probable, first : that this 

 tenure of land was not held in village communities, like the Ger- 

 mans and Slavonians, but in clans, like the Celts of Britain ; and 

 secondly, that even this degree of community of tenure was 

 broken up in a large degree by the shock of successive conquests. 

 Wherever, on the soil of France, we find a Germanic colonization 

 on a large scale, we may expect to find village communities; else- 

 where, we may expect an irregular and unorganized peasantry, 

 the result of disturbing influences from without — precisely as 



