liberty of huntingi; and though this liberty is somewhat limited by his Constitutions of the Forest, these are reasonable ordinances compared with the forest laws of the Norman kings.

Edward the Confessor is often said to have remodelled the laws of Canute, but no mention is made of the circumstance in the Saxon Chronicle, and what have come down to us as the "laws of Saint Edward" are merely a compilation, made, as stated in the document itself, four years after the Norman invasion, of the laws and customs of the land, which had been approved by Canute, and, it is alleged, derived their origin from Edgar, though many of their provisions are the same as those of the Jaws of Alfred and Ina.

It is apparent from these various codes that the people were the source of power, and that the kings were only their ministers, not their masters; all the land was considered originally theirs, and hence termed folkland, being ordinarily granted out on lease for brief periods to the freemen of each district; but power was conceded to rulers to assign permanently portions by charter in certain cases (often to the Church, but more frequently for military service), which then became bookland, and was devisable by will.

The possession of land, indeed, was essential to dignity and freedom, and the various classes of freemen were mainly distinguished by the amount of their landed pro

i "And I will that every man be entitled to his hunting, in wood and in field, on his own possession. And let every one forego my hunting; take notice where I will have it untrespassed on, under penalty of the full wite,"

* See p. 135.

perty. If a churl possessed "a helm, and a coat of mail, and a sword ornamented with gold," and had not five hides of land, he remained of churlish degree, but in he had the land also, he was thane-worthy, and capable of office. With the increase of his property his privileges and his value in the eye of the law increased also; for one main feature of Anglo-Saxon legislation was inequality before the law, in consequence of which, not only damage to a man's person or property, but his protection to others (mund), his oath, and even his life, was estimated according to his rank.

It was imperative on every man who desired to be accounted "lawful and true," to give borh (or surety) for his good behaviour and obedience to the laws, and this was accomplished by associations of small numbers of freemen, of which each member was pecuniarily responsible for the acts of all the rest1. To regulate these matters, an assembly, termed hundred-gemot, was held monthly of all the freemen of each district, and from the king having a claim for wite for every offence, his reeve attended it twice in the year, a custom which prevailed long after Saxon times, and was called the sheriff's tourn, or view of frank pledge.

Other meetings were held at stated periods, which seem to have had full power to do justice between man and man. Such was the folk-mote, or general assembly of the people, sometimes of a shire, sometimes of a

The wite and the bote (or fine and damages) seem usually to have been divided into three parts, one payable by the kin of the offender, one part by his guild brethren, and the remainder by himself.

town, held annually in May; the shire-mote, or county court, which met twice, and the burgh-mote, which assembled thrice in the year; and assemblies with more limited powers, called hall-motes and ward-motes, were apparently very frequentm.

Very great importance was attached to the holding of these assemblies. No man was allowed to resort to the king for justice until he had applied first to the hundred, and then to the shire-mote, and it was the bounden duty of every freeman to attend them; neglect entailed imprisonment, and, if he could not give suitable security, a forfeiture of all his property. The king's special protection was extended to every man going to or returning from the mote, "except he was a notorious thief.”

These laws, however, only relate to a portion of the community, for it is unquestionable that a very considerable section was in bondage; but in this state there were many distinctions, arising from the different circumstances that had placed them in this position. We may clearly discern slaves by right of conquest, slaves by sale effected either by themselves or their parents", thieves sold into slavery, and slaves rendered such by nonpayment of penalties for infraction of the laws (witetheow).

m After the settlement of the Northmen, the husting (an assembly within a house, as distinguished from the open air meetings of the Anglo-Saxons) is mentioned, but this, unlike its Northern original, (see p. 124,) seems rather to have been one of the king's courts than a popular assembly.

The laws authorize the sale of a child of seven years by its parents, and the sale of himself by one of thirteen; the consequence, probably, of the grievous famines which are often recorded in the Saxon Chronicle.

Of these, the first class, called " Wealh" or foreigners, is mentioned in the laws of Ina; they were the descendants of Britons who had preferred submission to a retreat to the mountain fastnesses of the west, and their state seems to have been rather that of the villeins of the middle ages than of absolute bondage. A class termed Læt is also noticed, who are supposed to have been slaves who accompanied the early Saxon invaders, and who, as thus standing in an exceptional position, were treated with more consideration than the Wealh; an indulgence probably in some degree shared by those whose necessities had induced them to barter their freedom; but the wite-theow, and the thief sold into slavery, seem to have been slaves in the full meaning of the word. Whilst the other classes are in some cases ordered to make compensation for injuries done by them, which shews that they must have enjoyed some rights of property, these are condemned to scourging, or mutilation, or death; and all injuries done to them are to be paid for, not to themselves or their kindred, but to their master.

The jealousy and conflict of jurisdiction between the Church and State which so unhappily marked succeeding ages seems to have been unknown to the Saxon commonwealth. The archbishops and bishops appear prominently in the record of the proceedings of every great council which has been preserved to us, and both ecclesiastical and secular laws were commonly propounded in the same assembly. The witenagemot, or great council

• Ecclesiastical censures were employed to assist the civil power. The "wed," or pledge to abide trial or perform any lawful obliga

M

of the nation, does not appear to have had any definite organization, at least there are no traces of such in the laws before us, although its powers were manifestly more extended than those of our modern parliament; the names recorded shew that the clergy of every degree: from the archbishop to the deacon, with the ealdormen, the great landowners, and men learned in the law, met together under the presidency of the king, but whether at his command, or according to custom, at given times and places, cannot be satisfactorily determined. Easter and Christmas are the times, and London, Gloucester and Oxford the places, most frequently named in the Saxon Chronicle in connexion with the meetings of the witan.

The Church, its property and its ministers, were amply cared for by the Anglo-Saxon lawgivers. Ethelbert ordained that property stolen from the Church should be replaced twelve-fold, whilst for that of the king a retribution of nine-fold sufficed; and Alfred added the penalty of the loss of the hand for sacrilege, unless the offender redeemed it by a heavy payment. The word of the archbishop, like that of the king, was sufficient without an oath, and a priest could clear himself of a charge by his own oath, whilst laymen of the highest rank were obliged in addition to find a number of compurgators P.

tion, being always accompanied by an oath, its breach was perjury, which by Alfred's law subjected the offender to forty days' imprisonment in the king's tower, "and there to suffer whatever the bishop might prescribe for him :" to resist this arrest, endangered life; "if he be slain, let him lie uncompensated;" and to flee from it was to incur outlawry and excommunication.

› See p. 169.