A short history of Anglo-Saxon freedom. The polity of the English-speaking race. Outlined in its inception, development, diffusion and present condition

Front matter

xviii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Future of Anglo-Saxon Freedom.

Appendix

A. Magna Chakta. 1215

B. Petition of Right. 1628 ....

C. Bill of Rights. 1688

D. Constitution of the United States. 1787

E. Constitution of Canada, 1867 .

371 383 386 394 399

INDEX 403

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

A Short history of Anglo-Saxon freedom.

olin

3 1924 030 467 074

JF

Cornell University Library

The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.

A SHORT HISTORY OF ANGLO-SAXON FREEDOM

A SHORT HISTORY

THE POLITY OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING EACE

OUTLINED IN ITS INCEPTION, DEVELOPMENT, DIFFUSION, AND PRESENT CONDITION

BY

JAMES K. HOSMEE

Professor in Washington University; Author or "A Life of Samuel Adams," "A Life of Young Sir Henry Vane," etc.

NEW YORK

CHAELES .^CEIBNEE'S gONS

COPYRIGHT, 1890, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.

. PREFACE.

In this book an effort has been made to compress a sketch of constitutional history for a period of nearly two thousand years, — from the time of the Teutons of Csesar and Tacitus to the British Empire and the United States of 1890. It is not the polity of any single people that is outlined, but that of the English-speaking race, that body to-day perhaps one hundred and twenty millions strong, scattered in several nationalities actual or incipient, which upon all the continents and all the great islands of the world, stands now so in the foreground of attention. It is a polity one and the same in its essence in England, in the United States, in Australia, in Canada : one and the same in its essence, moreover, as viewed in the institutions of to-day and in those of the North Germans of the time of Christ. As Sir Francis Palgrave says : " The new building has been raised upon the old groundwork ; the institutions of one age have always been modelled and formed from those of the preceding, and the lineal descent has never been interrupted or disturbed." Anglo-Saxon freedom is most simply and comprehensively stated in the phrase of Abraham Lincoln, " government of the people, by the people, and for the people." In its long history vi PREFACE.

there have been periods of temporary submergence, adaptation to the needs of ever vaster multitudes and higher civilizations, manifold development and elaboration : one spirit, however, has survived through all, apparent in the deliberations of a modern Congress or Parliament, as also it was apparent in the ancient folk-moots, where the free ceorls chose their army leaders and regulated the life in their marks.

While works upon the constitutional history, both of England and America, abound, they for the most part appeal, both as to style and size, rather to the scholar and the statesman, than to the general reader and the youthful student. Moreover, in such works it has too seldom happened, that the constitutional history of the English-speaking race has been regarded en soUdarite: but in this way it is both proper and expedient to regard that history. England and America are mother and child; the polity of the latter in its origin is a mere outflow from that of the former, the two constitutional streams since the divergence flowing constantly parallel and mutually reacting. Our frequent complaint is that Englishmen fail to understand us ; just so, we fail to understand them. Says the Westminster Review, for March, 1889: "England's sternest, coldest, most critical censors, I have found among descendants of the old settlers ; surely they retain something of ancient Puritan bitterness. The source of estrangement I am inclined to trace largely to the fact that the average American reads no history but United States history, and he can hardly be said to study that." Certainly, to set right the "average American," and also the average Englishman, is a task worth essaying. There ought to be

PREFACE. Til

room for a book succinct and simple in its terms, which should tell to busy men and to youth in the cla«s-room, the story of Anglo-Saxon freedom ; for as James Bryce has said: " It is a matter of the first consequence that the relation to one another of the two branches of the English-speaking race should be more fully understood and realized."

In the execution of such a task the difficulties are not small. How to preserve a proper historical perspective while viewing upon so reduced a scale such a multitude of events and figures ? What guides to select in threading one's way through the long ages ? There is no period through which one must not proceed with care, and the embarrassments are perhaps as great with respect to times close at hand as with respect to times remote. While this book was in preparation, the establishment of the County Councils has restored to the English shires their ancient local self-government ; since it was ready for the printer six Commonwealths have been added to the American Union ; as it awaits its publication, an Anglo-Saxon protectorate extends itself more and more widely over Africa, and the federation of Australia may become any month an accomplished fact. These are all events noteworthy in the history of Anglo-Saxon freedom, as are still others of which the newspapers weekly give report. How to catch them accurately and in due proportion? — As to remote ages, the darkness due to the remoteness is further deepened by the controversies of scholars. The employment of representation has commonly been held to be characteristic of Anglo-Saxon societies in the most distant epochs ; but this honor is now denied to them by authorities yiii PREFACE.

deserving of high respect, who find no good evidence of the existence of a representative system until after the Norman conquest. Mr. Frederic Seebohm, in his " English Village Communities," fails to see that the Anglo-Saxon invaders brought with them any freedom at all, as they set up their tuns and scires in their new home : in the settlements that were established a lord ruled as master, with a society under him in a condition of villenage ; the free village community was by no means the type, but from the first a marked feudalism in which the mass of men were sei'fs.

Still more sweepingly, Mr. H. C. Coote, in his "Romans of Britain," will have it that the Anglo- Saxons transmitted to us not only no freedom, but nothing else. They were simply a horde of invading savages, exercising for a time dominion over a people they had conquered, who much surpassed them in civilization, — a horde which was at length annihilated by the Danes, leaving no trace of itself or its influence; for, thinks Mr. Coote, all that we have called Anglo-Saxon, in blood, tongue, or institutions, ought to be ascribed to a different stock, and has received the name only through mistake. — While at the two extremes of the subject embarrassments thus abound, certain intermediate periods are scarcely more free. In the English colonization of America, for instance, the extent to which the new country followed the precedents of the old is not a matter upon which all are agreed. The "new historical school," of which E. A. Freeman may be regarded as the founde'r, and of which the most characteristic publications in America are the historical and politi-.

PREFACE. IX

cal tracts of Johns Hopkins University, edited by- Prof. Herbert B. Adams, is inclined to trace in minute detail in American societies the usages of the old world, — a course for which it has been sharply censured, sometimes by scholars of reputation.

Under these circumstances, if a time were ever likely to arrive when doubtful questions will be any less in doubt, it would be prudent to defer the execution of such a task as the present one until that tim'e. "What probability is there, however, that the mighty march of Anglo-Saxondom will in these ages, ever press less confusingly upon the contemporaneous chronicler; or that as regards the past, the discord of authorities will ever be harmonized ? The task is worth executing ; the time as propitious as any that is likely to arise. The present writer, fortifying his judgment as he could, has written his book, following the lead of the scholars most accepted. The numerous footnotes will show, he trusts, that he has not been negligent in his reading. However open to question his conclusions may sometimes appear, they are not, at any rate, hap-hazard, but referable to respectable sources.

The writer desires to express his obligation to a number of helpers. He is indebted to Mr. Goldwin Smith and to Mr. James Bryce for letters expressing sympathy with the main idea he has had at heart, — to illustrate, namely, the substantial identity of the great English-speaking nations, in stock, and in the spirit of . their social and political institutions, as well as in tongue; and the expediency that these nations should, in John Bright's phrase, become one

X PREFACE.

people. The writer has received such a letter also from the venerable Sir George Grey of Auckland ,at different times formerly, governor-general of New Zealand, of an Australian province, and of South Africa, and in those high positions so honorably identified with the rise of an English-speaking world in the South Pacific. Dr. W. G. Hammond, Dean of the St. Louis Law School, Hon. Mellen Chamberlain, late librarian of the Boston Public Library, and Prof. W. W. FolweU. of the University of Minnesota, have given the writer the benefit of their criticisms upon several of his chapters, and helped him to important books which he could not otherwise have obtained. To Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., owners of the copyright of the "Life of Samuel Adams" and "Life of Young Sir Henry Vane," the writer is under obligation, for permission to quote from earlier work of his own bearing upon the present subject. Finally, it must be mentioned that this History of Anglo- Saxon Freedom has been written at the instance of Mrs. Mary Hemenway, of Boston, and is to be regarded as an outgrowth of the work undertaken by her to promote good citizenship and love of freedom, known as the Old South work.

JAMES K. HOSMER.

St. Louis, September 21st, 1890.

CHAPTER I. The Peimitivb Saxons

PAQB

The polity of the United States to some extent a revival of something most ancient. — The plains at the mouths of the Elbe and Weser. — Social and legal aspects of the civilization of the Anglo-Saxons. — Divisions of rank. — Political forms. — Comparison of the Anglo-Saxon polity with that of other primitive Aryan peoples; with that of modern America. — Freeman and J. R. Green on the retention of Anglo-Saxon elements in the constitutions of England and America 1

CHAPTER II. The Anglo-Saxon Conqtobst of Bkitain

Inquiry into the value cf Anglo-Saxon freedom. — Views of John Stuart Mill and J. Toulmin Smith. — Saxon conquest of Britain. — Transferrence of the continental civilization to the new home. — Appearance of kingship. — How the King was appointed. — Origin of the thegns. — Conversion of the Saxons to Christianity. — The Heptarchy. — The supremacy of Wessex. — Moots of tun, hundred, and shire. — The witenagemote. — Conservative spirit of Alfred. — Influence of the Danes. — The ceorls sink toward villeinage. — Incipient feudalism. — Edward the Confessor 11

CHAPTER III. The Battle op Hastings

Appearance to-day of the field of Senlac. — Importance of the battle. — The beach at Hastings. — Landing of the Normans in 1066. — Appearance of Duke William. — His pres-

Xll

Contents

ence of mind. — Difficult situation of Harold. — Battle Abbey. —The " Koman de Eou." — The two armies opposed.

The minstrel Taillefer. — Dangerous situation of the

Normans. — The wounding of Harold. — The rout of the Saxons. — A walk to-day over the battle-field .

CHAPTER IV. Magna Chakta and the Rise of Parliament

Submergence of popular government under feudalism. — Ultimate good effect of the Norman conquest. — Character of the rule of William I. — Domesday Book. — Persistence of ancient institutions in tun, hundred, and shire. — Character of the King's title. — Limitation of feudalism in England. — Work of Henry II in depressing the great vassals.

— The Curia Regis. — Serfdom. — Trial by jury. — Accession of John. — Runnymede. — Analysis of Magna Charta.

— The work of Langton. — The origin of Parliament. — Value of the representative system. — Conditions of its success. — Simon de Montfort and his achievement. — Edward I and the establishment of the House of Commons . 38

CHAPTER V. The Coming tip of the Serfs

Condition of freedom in Europe in the thirteenth century. — Constitution of the early Parliaments. — Importance of the knights-of-the-shire. — The yeomen. — Unfortunate state of the boroughs. — The Chapter House at Westminster. — Division of Parliament into two Houses. — Growth of the power of Parliament. — Its imperfect character as a representative body. — Rise of the farmers and the free laborers. — The Statute of Laborers. — Peasant rebellion.

— John Ball in Kent. — Bearing of Richard II. — Wat Tyler of Essex. — His death. — Treachery of the King. — William Grindecobbe. — Aristocratic temper of Parliament . 62

CHAPTER VI. The Times of the Lancastrians

Deposition of Richard II. — Power of Parliament under Henry IV. — Popularity of Henry V. — Eortescue on the English constitution. — Sudden decay of the power of Par-

CONTENTS. xiii

PAGE

liament. — Misfortunes to representation in the shires and the boroughs. — Jack: Cade's rebellion. — Justice of his cause. — The Wars of the Roses. — Extinction of the power of the nobles. — Accession of the Tudor line ... 80

CHAPTER VII. Depression of the Power of Parliament

Great increase of the power of the Crown. — Effect of the Reformation in producing this. — Position and character of Henry VIII. — Good points of his reign. — Catholic reaction under Mary. — Wyatt's rebellion. — Parliament grows more spirited under Elizabeth. — Sir Thomas Smith's description. — Tact of the Queen — Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. — Star Chamber and High Commission Courts. — Absolutism restrained under the Tudors. — Its triumph everywhere upon the continent. — Growth of the doctrine of the jus divinum. — Cowell's " Interpreter."

— Subserviency of Convocation and the University of Oxford. — Claims of James I. — Opposition of Parliament. — Accession of Charles I. — The Petition of Right.

— Laud, Strafford, and the policy of " Thorough." — Ship-money 94

CHAPTER VIII. Settlement of America

Charters of the East India and Virginia Companies. — Settlement of Jamestown; of Plymouth. — Revival of ancient Anglo-Saxon polity in New England. — Submergence in England of the popular moots. — Methods of Puritan settlement in New England. — The town-meeting. — Reproduction of contemporary England in Virginia. — The parish, the county, the court of Quarter Sessions. — Scene at the county court. — Reasons for the contrast between New England and Virginia. — The yeoman settlers of the former. — The great planters, the slaves, the poor whites of the South. — Disrepute of labor. — Virtues of The Virginia society. — Spirit of the House of Burgesses.

— Condition of South Carolina ; of Maryland. — Feudalism in NewYorls and Pennsylvania. — The popular moot the xiv CONTENTS.

PAGE

primordial cell of Anglo-Saxon freedom. — Its condition in the Thirteen Colonies, its spirit in New England, its feebleness in the South 110

CHAPTER IX. The England oi' Chaklbs I

Effort of Charles to rule without a Parliament. — The Short Parliament. — Assembling of the Long Parliament. — Its idea to establish the equilibrium between King, Lords, and Commons. — Arrest of Laud and Strafford. — The Grand Remonstrance. — Attempt to arrest the Pive Members. — Outbreak of the Civil War. — Constitution of the two parties. — Edgehill. — Low estate of the Parliament. — The Solemn League and Covenant and Marston Moor. — Naseby. — The rank and file of the Ironsides. — Their manifestoes. — Reluctance of the leaders to subscribe to them. — The prayer-meeting of December 22, 1647 . . 130

CHAPTER X. The Enclish Commonwealth

Civil war of 1648. — Siege of Colchester and battle of Preston. — The Grand Army Remonstrance. — Resistance of Parliament. — Pride's Purge. — Ireton's declarations. — The Agreement of the People. — Its anticipation of the Reform Bill of 1832. — Abolishment of the kingship and the House of Peers. — Execution of the King. — Republican ideas of the party in power. — Temporary government of the Rump and the Council of State. — Embarrassments of the Independents. — Cromwell in Ireland. — The campaigns of Dunbar and Worcester. — The ocean war with Holland. • — Schism among the Independents. — The dissolution of the Rump. — The autocracy of Cromwell. — Panegyric of Milton. — The Restoration. — Benefits secured by the English Revolution 14g

CHAPTER XL

The Revoltjtion of 1688.

Enthusiasm for Charles II. — Reaction from the ideas of the Commonwealth. — Benefits flowing from the bad char-

CONTENTS. XV

PAGE

acters of Charles II and James II.— The nation forced into resistance. — The BiU of Eights and the Eevolution.

— William and Mary. — Extinction of liberty elsewhere. — Whigs and Tories. — Important part played by the non-conformists and commercial classes. — The Huguenots and other refugees. — Doubtful struggle between Whigs and Tories. — Establishment of modern forms in the polity. — Rise of the Cabinet. — Unsatisfactory condition of Parliament. — Power of the nobles and men of wealth . . 163

Chapter XII

Equal responsibility of Whigs and Tories for parliamentary corruption. — Stooping of honest men to bribery. — Degeneracy of the county representation. — Decline of yeomen.

— Assumptions of the great land-holders. — Bad condition of the boroughs. — Destruction of the popular franchise. — Rotten boroughs. — • Their growth under the Tudors and Stuarts. — Large towns unrepresented. — Cases of Buckingham, Bewdley, Oxford, Salisbury, Bath, New Shoreham, Sudbury. — Condition of Scotland. — Case of the shire of Bute. — Price of seats in Parliament. — The " nabobs." — Testimony of Sir Samuel Romilly. — The people unrepresented. — Case of Wilkes. — Mass-meetings. — Rise of the great newspapers. — Dangers to freedom . 177

CHAPTER XIII. The Coming on of the American Revolution

Condition of the Thirteen Colonies in the first half of eighteenth century. — The approach of the American Revolution. — The title to the colonies in the Crown, not in the Parliament. — Inconsistency of Kings and colonists. — The ecclesiastical grievance. — The commercial grievance.

— Selfishness of the trading-spirit. — The Sugar Act. — The rights and privileges of Englishmen. — Effect of the destruction of French power. — Enforcement of customs regulations. — The Writs of Assistance. — The Stamp Act.

— Debate in Parliament. — Burke, Chatham, Camden, Mansfield. — The question summed up. — Superior appre-

-^^i CONTENTS.

PAOB

elation by American statesmen of Anglo-Saxon freedom.

— Leadership of Massachusetts 192

Chapter XIV

The Ameeicak Revolution a Struggle of Parties, NOT Countries.

Character of George III. — Sympathy of Englishmen with the American struggle. — A strife on both sides of the ocean. — Ability and number of pro- American advocates.

— Pear for English liberty if America was conquered. — Position of Burke. — The masses pro-American. — Strength of Tories in America. — Their wealth and position. — Their expatriation. — Pathetic circumstances of their story.

— Victory of the popular party on both sides of the Atlantic 218

CHAPTER XV. The Constitution of the United States

The written Constitution a unique feature of the American polity. — In England Parliament completely unfettered. — Importance of the written Constitution. — History of the idea. — A germ of it in Magna Charta, in guilds of Middle Ages. — Charters of trading-companies. — Social compact of the "Mayflower." — Connecticut precedent. — Vane's " Healing Question." — Convention of 1787. — It proceeds upon English lines. — Careful retention of Anglo-Saxon forms. — Contrast between constitution-makers in America and elsewhere. — Local forms unchanged. — The President the English King of the eighteenth century. — The Electoral College borrowed from Holy Roman Empire. — The House of Representatives compared with the Commons, the Senate with the House of Lords. — The Supreme Court. — Influence of Montesquieu's " Esprit des Lois." — Sir Henry Maine's admiration of the Constitution .... 232

CHAPTER XVL

The New Colonial Empire and the Reform Bill OF 1832.

French anticipations of England's ruin at close of American Revolution. — How they were frustrated. — Why Canada

CONTENTS. xvii

PAGE

did not join the United States. — Voyages of Cook. — Distinctions to be made in the present colonial empire of Britain. — India, the West Indies, Canada, South Africa, Australia. — Pitt's agitation of parliamentary reform. — The "Friends of the People." — General sympathy with French Revolution in its early stages. — Reaction on account of the RelgQ of Terror. — Cessation of the reaction at Waterloo. — Agitation for reform. — Passage of the Reform Bill of 1832. — Good effects of passage of the bill.

— Present shape of English polity. — England practically a republic. — Adequacy of the people to their responsibilities, — County Councils of 1888. — Henry George's scheme of reform. — Flexible and rigid constitutions. — Pitt's colonial bill of 1791. — Freedom of Greater Britain.

— Colonial Exhibition of 1886. — Extension of Anglo-Saxon freedom to other countries. — It must be administered by Anglo-Saxon men 245

CHAPTER XVII. Present Condition or the American Polity

Permanence of the Federal Constitution. — Distrust of legislatures as Indicated by the State constitutions. — Condition of the primordial cell of an Anglo-Saxon polity, the popular moot. — Examination of rural America. — Local self-government in New England. — Influences which Impair the character of the town-meeting. — Picture of it thirty years since. — Tributes to its value. — Settlement of the West. — Ordinance of 1787. — Local self-government in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois. — The Township-County system of the Northwest. — The County system of the South. — Virginia continues to be typical of the South, — The Township-County system the perfect type. — Examination of urban America. — Growth and mnltipllcatlon of cities. — Their government the most conspicuous failure of the United States. — Eagerness to remedy the abuses. — Views of Hon, Seth Low. — No reason for discouragement 274 xviii CONTENTS.

PAGB

CHAPTER XVIII. The Future op Anglo-Saxon Freedom

Predictions of its wide dominance. — Views of J. E. Green, F. B. Zincke, Gladstone. — Tlie blood of the Englisli-speaking i-ace still pure, though enriched by foreign admixture. — Views of E. A. Freeman, Matthew Arnold, R. A. Proctor, J. Bryce, Sir Edwin Arnold. — Identity of English-speaking men as illustrated at the Colonial Exhibition of 1886. — The stock never stronger or better than now. — The troubles that beset it. — Dangers from intemperance, licentiousness, neglect of public education. — The French question in Canada ; fear of the Chinese in Australia ; Home Rule in England ; in America the negro question, excessive immigration. — The embarrassments not especially formidable as compared with those of other times . . . 308

CHAPTER XIX. Do WE RESPECT OUR FREEDOM?

The celebration of April 30th, 1889. — The people's love of Anglo-Saxon freedom. — Testimony of Andrew Carnegie; of J. Toulmin Smith. — The American and the German. — Value in politics of the instinct of the plain people. — View of J. Bryce, of Lecky, of Addison, of Motley, of President C. W. Eliot of Harvard. — General confidence of high and low in our freedom 327

CHAPTER XX. A Fraternity or BNGMSH-spBAioNGr Men

The idea of an Anglo-Saxon brotherhood. — Views of J. E. Seeley, of John Bright, of Sir Henry Parkes, of Sir George Grey, of J. C. Firth, of the Westminster Review, of the New Zealand Herald. — Australians especially cordial to the idea. — IndifiTerence of Americans. — Reasons for cultivating fraternal feelings among English-speaking lands. —English readiness to admit and make good past mistakes. — Sir Edwin Arnold's plan of an International Council. — Necessity of doing something to prevent Anglo- Saxon traditions from becoming obscured. — Need to the

CONTENTS. xix

PAGE

world of Anglo-Saxon leadership. — Possible perils from China; from Russia. — Sketch of Russia. — Threatening character of her vast development. — Lessing and Goethe on the virtue of patriotism. — Love for humanity higher than love of country. — Blessings of unification. — For the abrogation of national distinctions like must first seek like. — An Anglo-Saxon fraternity a step toward the " federation of the world " 343

APPENDIX.

A. Magna Charta. 1215

B. Petition op Right. 1628 ....

C. Bill of Rights. 1688

D. Constitution op the United States. 1787

E. Constitution op Canada, 1867 .

371 383 386 394 399

INDEX 403

" It is a matter of the first consequence that the relation to one (mother of the two hranches of the English-speaking race should he more fully understood and realized,"

James Brtce.

' " Tlie new'building has been raised upon tlie old groundwork; the institutions of one age have always been modelled and formed from those of the preceding^ and the lineal descent has never been interrupted or disturbed."

Sir Francis Palgrave : English ConiraonweaUh, I, 6.

ANGLO-SAXON FREEDOM.

Chapter I. The Primitive Saxons

On the 30th of April, 1789, Washington, as the first President of the United States, took a solemn oath to maintain the Federal Constitution. The Declaration of Independence had been made fourteen years before ; the Revolutionary War had been fought through ; the Constitution painfully formulated, and after the most anxious fears, ratified. The first elections had been held in due form. The ship of state had beeif bmlt and launched. One last anxious moment remained, when, for the first time, steam was turned into the new machinery. Would the contrivance work that had been set in order with such pains? As Washington took the oath, the pulsations began of the mighty engine whose accomplishment through the hundred years need not here be rehearsed. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people, went into operation, — a thing at that time unknown elsewhere among 9ivilized nations.

Unknown elsewhere; but had the world never before seen anything like it? As a polity, it was no ^^ ,., , original device, but a revival of something

The polity of S ' j j-i, "NT ^+1.

America to most ancieut. I once crossed tne iNortn

some extent , , «, i t,j.

of somethiug '-^'^"') o j- _

most ancient. q£ gtorm, f ound the ship entering a great river, out from which rolled masses of ice. From the deck a monotonous, far-extending landscape could be seen, dotted here and there with compact red-roofed villages. Once landed, it was a journey of many leagues before the broad plains were left behind, and we reached a country more picturesque. If, however, the plains near the mouths of the rivers Weser and Elbe offer little attraction to the eye, no land is more interesting through its associations to the mind; for here lay the primeval home of the Angles and Saxons, with their kindred, the Jutes, just north, the remote forefathers of the imperial race which, now one hundred and twenty millions strong, retains substantially the language, institutions, and blood of those ancestors after the lapse of nearly two thousand years. In the ancient villages we can see distinctly a life proceeding, in some of its features, Similar to that of English-speaking men at the present hour.^

The forefathers were not utter savages. Although fierce fighters, they were at the same time busy fishermen and farmers. Though hard drinkers, legal aspects the sccues within their homes were often

of the civiliza- . , . t n.

tion of the not Without a Simple dignity, as the earl's

Anglo-Saxons. • c • i ,. o J '

Wife with a troop of maidens bore the bowl

1 Tacitns : Germanla, XI. Constitutional Histories of Stubbs, Freeman, Gneist, Taswell-Langmead, Hannis Taylor, etc. Von Maurer: Mark-verfassuug. Waitz : Deutsche Verfassungsgesohiclxte, Band I, 4.

PRIMITIVE SAXONS. 3

of ale or mead about the liall while the minstrels sang.^ They possessed the runic alphabet, and showed in dress and arms an appreciation of the beautiful. The freeman in times that soon follow wore a smockfrock of coarse linen or wool falling to his knees, identical almost with that of the modern English ploughman. While it was the common garb of all classes, it was among those of good station handsomely embroidered : about feet and legs were wound linen bands, parti-colored. In winter, a hood covered the head, and over the shoulders was thrown a blue cloak, sometimes fastened by a costly clasp. For their constant warfare, the coats of ringed mail that were necessary, the swords scored with mystic runes while the hilts were finely wrought in silver and bronze, the helmets with heads of boars, wolves, or falcons for crests, — all made plain the skill of the smiths. In the society all the ceorls, or land-owning freemen, stood equal ; they were bound together in families in such a way that if one underwent an injury, all his kin lay under obligation to exact reparation ; as also they lay under obligation to afford reparation, if one of their number had inflicted the injury. Each clan occupied its own mark, or village, a tract held by the occupiers in common. The homesteads within the tun (the stockade, quickset hedge, or protecting circle of earth) were held in severalty,

Phillips : Geschichte des Angelsachsisohen Reohts. J. Toulmin Smith : Local Self-Governmeut and Centralization, p. 29, etc. Johns Hopkins University Studies, 1st Series, I, II. J. E. Green : History oi the English People, Vol. I, Chap. I. Howard : Introduction to the Local Constitutional History of United States.

1 See J. E. Green's graphic picture at the beginning of the History of the English People, modified, however, by a reservation of public rights ; but the pasture and forest, stretching far, since wealth lay largely in flocks and herds, and since a good provision of wood was necessary for the winter, were free to all inhabitants. Between the homesteads, on the one hand, and the pasture and forest, on the other, was land the tenure of which was intermediate in its character. Such was the plough-land upon which each ceorl raised food for his household and cattle, but was under restrictions imposed by the community; such, too, was the meadow, which individuals owned from early spring to the time of the hay-harvest, but which through fall and winter was common feeding-ground for the swine and kine of all.