The particular considerations which arise from the contemplation of these principles in their progressive development, will find their place in the several chapters of this Book: it deals with land held in community, and severalty; with the nature and accidents of tenure; with the distinction and privileges of the various classes of citizens, the free, the noble and the serf; and with the institutions by which a mutual guarantee of life, honour and peaceful possession was attempted to be secured among the Anglosaxons. These are the _incunabula_, first principles and rudiments of the English law[56]; and in these it approaches, and assimilates to, the system which the German conquerors introduced into every state which they founded upon the ruins of the Roman power. Footnote 56: “Incunabula et rudimenta virtutis.” Cic. de Off. As land may be held by many men in common, or by several households, under settled conditions it is expedient to examine separately the nature and character of these tenures: and first to enquire into the forms of possession in common; for upon this depends the political being of the state, its constitutional law, and its relative position towards other states. Among the Anglosaxons land so held in common was designated by the names Mark, and Gâ or Shire. The smallest and simplest of these common divisions is that which we technically call a Mark or March (mearc); a word less frequent in the Anglosaxon than the German muniments, only because the system founded upon what it represents yielded in England earlier than in Germany to extraneous influences. This is the first general division, the next in order to the private estates or alods of the Markmen: as its name denotes, it is something marked out or defined, having settled boundaries; something serving as a sign to others, and distinguished by signs. It is the plot of land on which a greater or lesser number of free men have settled for purposes of cultivation, and for the sake of mutual profit and protection; and it comprises a portion both of arable land and pasture, in proportion to the numbers that enjoy its produce[57].