162
CHAPTER VII.
THE NOBLE BY SERVICE.
I have called the right to entertain a Comitatusb
or body of household retainers, a very jewel in the
crown : it was so because it formed, in process of
time, the foundation of all the extended powers
which became the attributes of royalty, and finally
succeeded in establishing, upon the downfall of the
old dynasts or nobles by birth, a new order of nobles
by service, whose root was in the crown itself. A
close investigation of its gradual rise, progress and
ultimate development, will show that the natural
basis of the Comitatus is in the superior wealth and
large possessions of the prince.
In all ages of the world, and under all condi-
tions of society, one profound problem has pre-
sented itself for solution ; viz. how to reconcile the
established divisions of property with the necessities
of increasing population. Experience teaches us
that under almost any circumstances of social being,
a body of men possessed. of sufficient food and
clothing have been found to increase and multiply
with a rapidity far too great to be balanced by the
number of natural or violent deaths: and it follows
therefore that in every nation which has established
CH. VII.]
THE NOBLE BY SERVICE.
163
a settled number of households upon several estates,
each capable of supporting but one household in
comfort, the means of providing for a surplus po-
pulation must very soon become an object of gene-
ral difficulty. If the paternal estate be reserved for
the support of one son, if the paternal weapons
descend to him, to be used in the feuds of his house
or the service of the state, what is to become of the
other sons who are excluded from the benefits of
the succession 1 In a few instances we may ima-
gine natural affection to have induced a painful, and
ultimately unsuccessful, struggle to keep the family
together : here and there cases may have occurred
in which a community was fortunate enough from
its position, to possess the means of creating new
estates to suit the new demand : and conquest, or
the forcible partition of a neighbouring territory,
may have supplied a provision for the new gene-
ration. Tacitus indeed tells us1 that “ numerum
Iiberorum finire aut quemquam ex agnatis necare,
Aagitium habetur : ” yet tradition contradicts this,
and speaks of the exposure of children immediately
after birth, leaving it to the will of the father to
save the life of the child or not2. And similarly
the tales of the North record the solemn and vo-
luntary expatriation of a certain proportion of the
people, designated by lot, at certain intervals of
time3. However, in the natural course of things,
* Mor. Germ. xix. 3 Grimm, Rechtsalt. p. 455.
’ “ Cumque, ut dixi, sive parum Compluta humo, seu nimium torrida,
torpentibus satis, ac parce fructificantibus campis, inediae languor de-
ectam escis regionem attereret, nullumque, parum Buppetentibus ali-
M 2