We have been led cautiously step by step to this result, and, whether the problem raised by it be capable of solution or not, it is important that it should be fairly stated and considered. Even if the Kentish freeman’s wergeld was only 100 Kentish scillings, it would more nearly correspond with the six-hyndeman’s wergeld than with that of the Wessex ceorl. On the other hand, the wergelds of the Kentish læts are very fairly on a level with that of the Wessex ceorl. Taking an average between the second and third class of læts the correspondence would be exact.[319] [Sidenote: Kentish læt and the twy-hyndeman = the Continental _freedman_.] If, therefore, the wergeld of the Kentish freeman may be regarded as practically equivalent to that of the Continental _liber_ or _ingenuus_ on the one hand, and to that of the twelve-hyndeman of the Anglo-Saxon laws on the other hand, and if that of the Kentish læt was like that of the Norse leysing and of the twy-hyndeman, then once more it becomes natural and right, and in accordance with ancient custom, that in the Compact between Alfred and Guthrum the twelve-hyndeman should be made ‘equally dear’ with the Norse hauld, and so with the _liber_ or _ingenuus_ of the Continental laws, while the twy-hyndeman should be held ‘equally dear’ with the Danish leysing. [Illustration] CHAPTER XV. _GENERAL CONCLUSIONS._ [Sidenote: Bearing of the results upon the division of classes and the character of holdings.] Before concluding this Essay it may be well in a final chapter to consider its results in their bearing upon the conditions of early Anglo-Saxon society, and especially with regard to the division of classes and the character of the holdings. The object has been to approach these difficult questions from the point of view of tribal custom. [Sidenote: The amount of wergelds the main clue.] The main clue to an understanding of the division of classes has been the amount of the wergelds. [Sidenote: The general correspondence in wergelds throughout Western Europe.] The trouble taken to arrive at a correct knowledge of the currencies in which the wergelds were paid, tedious as it may have seemed to the reader, will not have been thrown away if it has led to the recognition of the fact that there was a very general correspondence in the amount of the wergelds tenaciously adhered to by the tribes of Western Europe, whether remaining in their old homes or settled in newly conquered countries. The amount of the wergelds was not seemingly a matter of race. Cymric and German customs were singularly similar. If the Irish eric fine formed an exception, Irish tribal custom nevertheless had many things in common with Cymric and German custom in other respects. [Sidenote: The solidarity of the kindred connected with family holdings.]