The manner of succeeding to lands in England at this period was, as we have observed, by Gavelkind,—­an equal distribution amongst the children, males and females.  The ancient Northern nations had but an imperfect notion of political power.  That the possessor of the land should be the governor of it was a simple idea; and their schemes extended but little further.  It was not so in the Greek and Italian commonwealths.  In those the property of the land was in all respects similar to that of goods, and had nothing of jurisdiction annexed to it; the government there was a merely political institution.  Amongst such a people the custom of distribution could be of no ill consequence, because it only affected property.  But gavelkind amongst the Saxons was very prejudicial; for, as government was annexed to a certain possession in land, this possession, which was continually changing, kept the government in a very fluctuating state:  so that their civil polity had in it an essential evil, which contributed to the sickly condition in which the Anglo-Saxon state always remained, as well as to its final dissolution.

FOOTNOTES: 

[49] They had no other nobility; yet several families amongst them were considered as noble.

[50] Arma sumere non ante cuiquam moris, quam civitas suffecturum probaverit.—­Tacitus de Mor.  Germ. 13.

[51] Nihil autem neque publicae neque privatae rei nisi armati agunt.—­Tacitus de Mor.  Germ. 13.

[52] Caeteri robustioribus ac jam pridem probatis aggregantur.—­Id. ibid.

[53] Illum defendere, tueri, sua quoque fortia facta gloriae ejus as signare, praecipuum sacramentum est.—­Id. 14.

[54] Deputed authority, guardianship, &c, not known to the Northern nations; they gained this idea by intercourse with the Romans.

[55] Jud.  Civ.  Lund. apud Wilk. post p. 68.

[56] Spelman of Feuds, ch. 5.

[57] Fuerunt etiam in conquestu liberi homines, qui libere tenuerunt tenementa sua per libera servitia vel per liberas consuetudines.—­For the original of copyholds, see Bracton, Lib.  I. fol. 7.

[58] Ibi debent populi omnes et gentes universae singulis annis, semel in anno scilicet, convenire, scilicet in capite Kal.  Maii, et se fide et sacramento non fracto ibi in unam et simul confoederare, et consolidare sicut conjurati fratres ad defendendum regnum contra alienigenas et contra inimicos, una cum domino suo rege, et terras et honores illius omni fidelitate cum eo servare, et quod illi ut domino suo regi intra et extra regnum universum Britanniae fideles esse volunt—­LL.  Ed. Conf. c. 35.—­Of Heretoches and their election, vide Id. eodem.

Probibitum erat etiam in eadem lege, ne quis emeret vivum animal vel pannum usatum sine plegiis et bonis testibus.—­Of other particulars of buying and selling, vide Leges Ed. Conf. 38.

[59] Sheriff in the Norman times was merely the king’s officer, not the earl’s.  The earl retained his ancient fee, without jurisdiction; the sheriff did all the business.  The elective sheriff must have disappeared on the Conquest; for then all land was the king’s, either immediately or mediately, and therefore his officer governed.