27 * HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

Appendix all the counties of England, the far greater partx. of the land was occupied by them, and that thehusbandmen, and still more the soemen, whowere tenant' that .could not be removed atpleasure, were very few in comparison. Thiswas not the cafe with the German nations, as faras we can collect from the account given us byTacitus The perpetual wars in the Heptarchy,and the depredations of the Danes, seem to havebeen the cause of this great alteration with theAnglo - Saxons. Prisoners taken in battle , orcarried off in the frequent inroads, were thenreduced to slavery ; and became, by right ofwar 13 , entirely at the disposal of their lords.Great property in the nobles, especially if joinedto an irregular administration of justice naturallyfavours the power of the aristocracy ; but stillmore so , if the practice of slavery be admitted,and has become very common. 1 he nobilitynot. only possess the influence which alwaysattends riches , but also the power which thelaws give them over their staves and villains.It then becomes difficult, and almost impossible,for a private man to remain altogether free andindependent.

There were two kinds of slaves among theAnglo-Saxons; household slaves, after the mannerof the ancients, and pmedial or rustic, after themanner of the Germans These latter resembled

13 LL. Edg. § 14. apud Spellm. Cone, vol. I. p. 471.

*’ Spellm. Gloss, in verb. Servus.