POLITICAL DIFFERENTIATION. 303 



chiefs of the second rank, when, by conquest, a kingship of 

 the whole group was established. Other societies in kindred 

 stages show us kindred divisions, similarly to be accounted 

 for. Among the New Zealanders there are six grades ; there 

 are six among the Ashantees ; there are five among the 

 Abyssinians ; and other more or less compounded African 

 States present analogous divisions. Perhaps ancient Peru 

 furnishes as cleai a case as any of the superposition of ranks 

 resulting from subjugation. The petty kingdoms which were 

 massed together by the conquering Yncas, were severally left 

 with the rulers and their subordinates undisturbed ; but over 

 the whole empire there was a superior organization of Ynca 

 rulers of various grades. That kindred causes produced 

 kindred effects in early Egyptian times, is inferable from 

 traditions and remains which tell us both of local struggles 

 which ended in consolidation, and of conquests by invading 

 races ; whence would naturally result the numerous divisions 

 and sub-divisions which Egyptian society presented : an in 

 ference justified by the fact that under Roman dominion, 

 there was a re-complication caused by the superposing of 

 Eoman governing agencies upon native governing agencies. 

 Passing over other ancient instances, and coming to the 

 familiar case of our own country, we may note how, from the 

 followers of the conquering Norman, there arose the two 

 ?anks of the greater and lesser barons, holding their land 

 directly from the king, while the old English thanes were 

 reduced to the rank of sub-feudatories. Of course where 

 perpetual wars produce, first, small aggregations, and then 

 larger ones, and then dissolutions, arid then re-aggregations, 

 and then unions of them, various in their extents, as happened 

 in mediaeval Europe, there result very numerous divisions. 

 In the Merovingian kingdoms there were slaves having seven 

 different origins ; there were serfs of more than one grade ; 

 there were freedmen men who, though emancipated, did not 

 rank with the fully free ; and there were two other classes 

 less than free the liten and the coloni. Of the free there 

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