190
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book i.
of the folemðt, and forgotten that self-government
is the inherent right and dignity of man, in the
convenience of having others to defend and rule
them. Moreover the territorial subjection was not
necessarily a juridical one : indeed some of the Teu-
tonic conquerors recognized as positive law, the
right of even the dependent Romans and Provin-
cials to be judged and taxed according to the rules
and maxims of Roman, not Salic or Langobardic,
jurisprudence : and this, when carried out in the
fullest detail with respect to the various tribes at
any time united under one supreme head, consti-
tutes what is now called the system of Personal
Right, whereby each man enjoyed the law and forms
of law to which he was born, without the least
reference to the peculiar district in which he might
happen to live ; in other words, 'that he carried his
own law about, whithersoever he went, as a quality
attached to his own person, and not in the slightest
degree connected with or dependent upon any par-
ticular locality. In this way Alamanni, Baiowari,
Saxons, Frisians, Langobards, Romans, Gallic pro-
vincials and Slavonic populations, were all united
under the empire of the Salic and Ripuarian Franks1.
The peculiar circumstances under which the con-
quest took place must, of course, have defined the
relations under which the subject stood to the ruling
state. It is conceivable that the conquerors might
not want land, but be contented with glory and
1 This led by degrees to the vast power and influence of all the
elergɔ, who were originally Roman, and who, whatever their nation
might be, Iived under the Roman law, “per clericalem honorem
CH. VIII.]
THE UNFREE. THE SERF.
191
pillage ; or they might not be able to seize and
retain the conquered territory : or again they may
have required new settlements for themselves and
their allies, to obtain which they waged a war of
extermination. Thus the Suevi, although unable
to expel the Ubii altogether from their territory,
yet succeeded in rendering them tributary1 ; while
in Thuringia, the Franks and their Saxon allies
seized all the land, slaying, expelling or completely
reducing the indigenous inhabitants to slavery.
Another and curious instance may be cited from a
comparatively late period, when the little island of
Man was invaded, conquered and colonized by the
Norwegian Godred. “ Godrcdus sequenti die opti-
onem exercitui sub dedit, ut si mallent Manniam
inter se dividere et in ea habitare, vol cunctam
Substantiam terrae accipere et ad propria remeare.
Hiis autem magis placuit totam insulam vastare,
et de bonis illius ditari, et sic ad propria reverti.
Godredus autem paucis qui secum reɪnanserunt
de insulanis australem partem insulae, et reliquiis
Mannensium aquilonarem tali pacto concessit, ut
nemo eorum aliquando auderet iure haereditario
sibi aliquam partem terrae usurpare. Unde accidit
ut usque in hodiernum diem tota insula solius régis
sit, et omnes redditus eius ad ipsum pertineant2.”
The not being able to dispose of property heredi-
tarily is the true badge and proof of slavery.
1 Caesar, Bell. Gall. iv. 3. The Franks imposed a tribute of hides
upon the Frisians : we hear also of tribute paid them by the Thurin-
gians, Saλons and Slavic races.
a.d. 1ÜÔ6. Chron. Manniae. MS. Cott., Jul. ʌ. VIL, fol. 32.