It was not so in the Greek and Italian commonwealths.

In those the property of the land was in all respects similar to that of goods, and had nothing of jurisdiction annexed to it; the government there was a merely political institution.

Amongst such a people the custom of distribution could be of no ill consequence, because it only affected property.

But gavelkind amongst the Saxons was very prejudicial; for, as government was annexed to a certain possession in land, this possession, which was continually changing, kept the government in a very fluctuating state: so that their civil polity had in it an essential evil, which contributed to the sickly condition in which the Anglo-Saxon state always remained, as well as to its final dissolution.
FOOTNOTES: [49] They had no other nobility; yet several families amongst them were considered as noble.
[50] Arma sumere non ante cuiquam moris, quam civitas suffecturum probaverit .-- Tacitus de Mor.Germ.

13.
[51] Nihil autem neque publicae neque privatae rei nisi armati agunt .-- Tacitus de Mor.Germ.