CHAP. VI.

BY

ANCIENT RIGHT TO LANDED PROPERTY.

Y ascertaining the nature of our right to property, we shall be able to know who are those freemen who had the privilege of attending, either in perfon or by representative, the Wittenagemote or parliament of the kingdom. By this enquiry, we shall, therefore, distinguish the encroachment of power and corruption on our ancient liberties and poffeffions, and then discover how we are to renovate the fpirit, without deftroying the conftitutional principles of our go

vernment.

THE property of the land was certainly the unalienable right of that whole collective body of freemen which compofed the armies of our Saxon conquerors. Each foldier was not only a voluntary affociate--but a co-partner in the ha zard of their lives, and confequently the reward in attending their victories. Although under a general commander, they were equally free and independent

independent with himself; and had as just a claim to their portion of the conquered lands as their leader. For their wars were not undertaken, like those of modern date, at the caprice or ambition of one man, or rather monster, who, thus, facrifices for a whim, and sometimes even for the extension of tyranny, millions of lives and treasure, before his fanguinary thirft is fated. Enured to toil, hardship, and neceffity, war was their profeffion, which ftimulated them to the conqueft of countries where nature, more bounteous than in their own, invited their fettlement; thus all had one common danger and interest. Engaged in the fame enterprize, they claimed and fhared the fame emoluments as their generals, except the latter having a greater portion according to their respective ranks. The general, affifted by the princes and chief-officers, divided, therefore, the conquered land into as many portions as there were corps of different provinces among the victors. Thefe portions were fubdivided amongst the several families and individuals compofing each corps, according to their merit, dignity, and neceffity. Thus every tribe held his poffeffion independent of the reft, except being fubject to the fame civil government which they

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had

had brought with them from Germany. The larger divifions conftituted the pagi or counties, and the leffer formed fo many trythings, hundreds, and tythings, each under its own caldorman, or proper officer, from the regiments being compofed of fuch proportionate diftinct numbers, as tens, hundreds, and thousands. For, in their military expeditions, the forces of every province always marched and fought by themselves. And each tribe, or provincial force, is defcribed to have been regularly divided into distinct corps of ten, a hundred, and a thoufand men. To this conftitution of their armies, and the confequent fubdivifion of the lands, they acquired by conquefts, may be attributed the. origin of dividing our fhires and counties into thofe divifions which feem to have been falfely attributed to the regulation of Alfred. That it was a German inftitution, appears from the fame divifion of lands being made in other countries, where those northern warriors established themfelves. For tythings and hundreds were not only known in Italy, but are recorded to have been there long before the days of Alfred *.

• Muratori, Antiq. Ital. Med. Avi. Diff. X. 519. VOL. I.

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AND Clotharius the Second, is faid to have thus divided his dominions fo early as A. D. 595In the reign of king Offa, A. D. 794, and 80 years before the reign of Alfred, fhires are mentioned as being then in England. According to Muratori, they practifed the fame jurifdiction in those rural divifions in Italy, as we find was established by the Saxons in England. The deacons, or tythingmen, presided over ten families, and the centenarii over one hundred families; and both administered justice in all petty causes that were not prefentable to the county courts. In fupport of this hiftorical fact, he quotes the following paffage, among others, from Walafridus Strabo. Quibus ex verbis inferri poffe videtur populum in agro, five in caftellis, ac pagis habitantem, divifum olim fuiffe in centenas, five centurias familiarum; has autem rurfus divifas in decenas, five decanias; illis centenarii, iftis decani præerant; utrique jus populo fuo in minoribus caufis dicebant. From which words, it may be inferred, that the people inhabiting the country, castles, or villages, were formerly divided into hundreds, or a hundred families; and these again into tythings or ten families.

centenary prefided, and

Over the hundreds the over the tythings the deacon

deacon or tythingmen, and both administered justice in petty causes to their people*. This being written by an Italian writer on the state of Italy, in its middle age, proves that the civil government was chiefly formed on the military establishments of our ancestors. To their being free, and not mercenary foldiers, modern Europe undoubtedly owes the few liberties it now posfeffes. For, had they been merely hired troops, the countries they vanquished would have been either defolated, or have become tributary to their tyrant-masters.

INDEED, the freedom they established in every country they vanquished, demonftrates their own native independency. Rollo, the ancestor of William the first, allowed the fame right and independency to his foldiers. He divided Normandy by the most exact measurement among the troops he led to its conqueft. And the foilowing is a remarkable inftance, how far this principle prevailed even among such as may be termed

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* See a moft judicious and learned enquiry into this subject, entitled, An Account of the Ancient Divifion of the English Nation into Hundreds and Tithings, by that zealous friend to the constitution, Mr. Grenville Sharpe.