Fruges et Cererem ferunt,
Nec cultura placet longior annuâ.


[Sidenote: Estates for life.]

[Sidenote: Inheritance.]

[Sidenote: Book-land.]

[Sidenote: Folk-land.]

[Sidenote: Saxon fiefs.]

This custom of an annual property probably continued amongst the Germans
as long as they remained in their own country; but when their conquests
carried them into other parts, another object besides the possession of
the land arose, which obliged them to make a change in this particular.
In the distribution of the conquered lands, the ancient possessors of
them became an object of consideration, and the management of these
became one of the principal branches of their polity. It was expedient
towards holding them in perfect subjection, that they should be
habituated to obey one person, and that a kind of cliental relation
should be created between them; therefore the land, with the slaves, and
the people in a state next to slavery, annexed to it, was bestowed for
life in the general distribution. When life-estates were once granted,
it seemed a natural consequence that inheritances should immediately
supervene. When a durable connection is created between a certain man
and a certain portion of land by a possession for his whole life, and
when his children have grown up and have been supported on that land, it