Landholding In England | Page 7

the reign of Henry VII. It was not the aboriginal or communistic system, but one of its many successors.
The various systems may have run one into the other, but I think there are sufficiently distinct features to place them in the following order:
1st. The Aboriginal.
2d. The Roman, Population about 1,500,000.
3d. The Scandinavian under the ANGLO-SAXON and Danish kings--A.D. 450 to A.D. 1066. The population in 1066 was 2,150,000.
4th. The Norman, from A.D. 1066 to A.D. 1154. The population in the latter year was 3,350,000.
5th. The Plantagenet, from 1154 to 1485; in the latter the population was 4,000,000.
6th. The Tudor, 1485 to 1603, when the population was 5,000,000.
7th. The Stuarts, 1603 to 1714, the population having risen to 5,750,000.
8th. The Present, from 1714. Down to 1820 the soil supported the population; now about one half lives upon food produced in other countries. In 1874 the population was 23,648,607.
Each of these periods has its own characteristic, but as I must compress my remarks, you must excuse my passing rapidly from one to the other.

I. THE ABORIGINES.
The aboriginal period is wrapped in darkness, and I cannot with certainty say whether the system that prevailed was Celtic and Tribal. An old French customary, in a MS. treating upon the antiquity of tenures, says: "The first English king divided the land into four parts. He gave one part to the ARCH FLAMENS to pray for him and his posterity. A second part he gave to the earls and nobility, to do him knight's service. A third part he divided among husbandmen, to hold of him in socage. The fourth he gave to mechanical persons to hold in burgage." The terms used apply to a much more recent period and more modern ideas.
Caesar tells us "that the island of Britain abounds in cattle, and the greatest part of those within the country never sow their land, but live on flesh and milk. The sea-coasts are inhabited by colonies from Belgium, which, having established themselves in Britain, began to cultivate the soil."
Diodorus Siculus says, "The Britons, when they have reaped their corn, by cutting the ears from the stubble, lay them up for preservation in subterranean caves or granaries. From thence, they say, in very ancient times, they used to take a certain quantity of ears out every day, and having dried and bruised the grains, made a kind of food for their immediate use."
Jeffrey of Monmouth relates that one of the laws of Dunwalls Molnutus, who is said to have reigned B.C. 500, enacted that the ploughs of the husbandmen, as well as the temples of the gods, should be sanctuaries to such criminals as fled to them for protection.
Tacitus states that the Britons were not a free people, but were under subjection to many different kings.
Dr. Henry, quoting Tacitus, says, "In the ancient German and British nation the whole riches of the people consisted in their flocks and herds; the laws of succession were few and simple: a man's cattle, at death, were equally divided among his sons; or, if he had no sons, his daughters; or if he had no children, among his nearest relations. These nations seem to have had no idea of the rights of primogeniture, or that the eldest son had any title to a larger share of his father's effects than the youngest."
The population of England was scanty, and did not probably exceed a million of inhabitants. They were split up into a vast number of petty chieftainries or kingdoms; there was no cohesion, no means of communication between them; there was no sovereign power which could call out and combine the whole strength of the nation. No single chieftain could oppose to the Romans a greater force than that of one of its legions, and when a footing was obtained in the island, the war became one of detail; it was a provincial rather that a national contest. The brave, though untrained and ill- disciplined warriors, fell before the Romans, just as the Red Man of North America was vanquished by the English settlers.

II. THE ROMAN.
The Romans acted with regard to all conquered nations upon the maxim, "To the victors the spoils." Britain was no exception. The Romans were the first to discover or create an ESTATE OF USES in land, as distinct from an estate of possession. The more ancient nations, the Jews and the Greeks, never recognized THE ESTATE OF USES, though there is some indication of it in the relation established by Joseph in Egypt, when, during the years of famine, he purchased for Pharaoh the lands of the people. The Romans having seized upon lands in Italy belonging to conquered nations, considered them public lands, and rented them to the soldiery, thus retaining for the state the estate in the lands, but giving the occupier