[Sidenote: Gavelkind.]

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, quàm civitas suffecturum
probaverit.--Tacitus de Mor. Germ. 13.

[51] Nihil autem neque publicæ neque privatæ rei nisi armati
agunt.--Tacitus de Mor. Germ. 13.