In the strict Anglosaxon law there is no definite decision on these points: the codes of other German races, at the oldest period, are equally silent. In later times indeed we have determinations; but these, as we have observed, are contradictory. Perhaps we may take the doctrine of the Sachsenspiegel, coinciding as it does with the opinion of many, probably a majority, of our own law-sages, as the original one, especially as it is the only one in accordance with other details of family life, and with the supreme law of nature itself which leaves to the father the decision as to the life or death of the child, as to its liberty or slavery. In this sense then I agree with Sir John Fortescue and Sir Edward Coke[378]. It is to be remembered that we are dealing now with the condition of the offspring, not of the parent: the uncertainty that prevails with respect to the latter, in the Anglosaxon law, and the contradictory enactments of other German codes have been already noticed. But all that has been said applies solely to the case of children born in lawful wedlock; and almost all the apparent contradictions which have been noticed in our own law, arise from a want of clear distinction on this point. The child of a free father and unfree mother, if the parents were not married, remained to the lord of the neif, according to our expressive proverb, “Mine is the calf that is born of my cow[379].” In Fleta’s words[380] the distinction is drawn most clearly, and they may therefore stand here in place of my own: “Servi autem aut nascuntur aut fiunt; nascuntur quidem ex nativo et nativa solutis vel copulatis, et eius erit servus in cuius potestate nasci contigerit[381]; dum tamen de soluta nativa, domini loci, quia sequitur conditionem matris, a quocunque fuerit genitus, libero vel nativo[382]. Si autem copulati fuerint et genitus fuerit partus a libero, licet a nativa, partus erit liber; et si de servo et libera in matrimonio, servus erit.” Thus, here again the offspring follows the father, as soon as there is a marriage to determine that there is an offspring at all, in law; but if there be no marriage, the chattel thrown into the world, like any other waif or stray belongs _domino loci_; it has a value, can be worked or sold; it is treasure-trove of a sort, and as it belongs to nobody else, falls to the lord, as a compensation probably for the loss of his neif’s services during pregnancy and the nonage of the child[383]. ----- Footnote 378: Co. Litt. § 187, 188. Footnote 379: Take an instance, though with a wider application, from Shakspeare, King John, act i. sc. 2. Footnote 380: Lib. i. cap. 3. § 2. Footnote 381: That is, if the serfs of two different lords, then the child to follow the mother. Footnote 382: In the event of there being no marriage. The case of a marriage is very different, and provided for in the next sentence. Footnote 383: