the method of perpetuating it,—­sometimes filling the vacant throne by election, without regard to, but more frequently regarding, the blood of the deceased prince; but it was late before they fell into any regular plan of succession, if ever the Anglo-Saxons attained it.  Thus their polity was formed slowly; the prospect clears up by little and little; and this species of an irregular republic we see turned into a monarchy as irregular.  It is no wonder that the advocates for the several parties among us find something to favor their several notions in the Saxon government, which was never supported by any fixed or uniform principle.  To comprehend the other parts of the government of our ancestors, we must take notice of the orders into winch they were classed.  As well as we can judge in so obscure a matter, they were divided into nobles or gentlemen, freeholders, freemen that were not freeholders, and slaves.  Of these last we have little to say, as they were nothing in the state.  The nobles were called Thanes, or servants.  It must be remembered that the German chiefs were raised to that honorable rank by those qualifications which drew after them a numerous train of followers and dependants.[55] If it was honorable to be followed by a numerous train, so it was honorable in a secondary degree to be a follower of a man of consideration; and this honor was the greater in proportion to the quality of the chief, and to the nearness of the attendance on his person.  When a monarchy was formed, the splendor of the crown naturally drowned all the inferior honors; and the attendants on the person of the king were considered as the first in rank, and derived their dignity from their service.  Yet as the Saxon government had still a large mixture of the popular, it was likewise requisite, in order to raise a man to the first rank of thanes, that he should have a suitable attendance and sway amongst the people.  To support him in both of these, it was necessary that he should have a competent estate.  Therefore in this service of the king, this attendance on himself, and this estate to support both, the dignity of a thane consisted.  I understand here a thane of the first order.

[Sidenote:  Hallmote, or Court-Baron.]

Every thane, in the distribution of his lands, had two objects in view:  the support of his family, and the maintenance of his dignity.  He therefore retained in his own hands a parcel of land near his house, which in the Saxon times was called inland, and afterwards his demesne, which served to keep up his hospitality:  and this land was cultivated either by slaves, or by the poorer sort of people, who held lands of him by the performance of this service.  The other portion of his estate he either gave for life or lives to his followers, men of a liberal condition, who served the greater thane, as he himself served the king.  They were called Under Thanes, or, according to the language of that time, Theoden.[56] They served their lord in all public business; they