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by the payment of a mulct or fine-great or less, according to to the "quality" of the person killed-was, after the Heptarchy, to be atoned for only by the death of the murderer. Treason and robbery were made capital offences, and Alfred the Great struck a decisive blow at the practice of corruptly administering the law by hanging in one year no less than forty-four unjust judges (see Mirroir des Fustices, ch. 2). This fact, if it be really a fact, is eloquent as to the upright character of Alfred. His comprehensive mind saw that if the conduit pipes of the fountain of justice were foul-no matter how clear so ever the stream might be at its source-those who came to drink thereof would be defrauded of their right to enjoy the current in its original purity; and further, that the law would be brought into contempt and abhorrence. It was part of the subsequent policy of William the Conqueror-although in the event he actually confirmed them-to destroy the spirit of the excellent Saxon laws which he found in England. That he succeeded in altering the tenures of land is well-known, and also that he partially carried out his designs concerning the eradication of the Saxon system of judicature. Yet some of the criminal courts which he despised, but which helped to bring in an addition to the king's revenue by the fines and forfeitures exacted in them, were allowed to remain, their constitution and practice alone being changed, not the laws administered therein. In order the more effectually to destroy the Saxon system of jurisprudence-if we may so designate the body of rules observed by our ancestorsWilliam caused that distinction to be made between the clergy and the laity in this country, which the Popes of Rome had contrived to introduce into France. Clerks in holy orders were at this period of history about the only persons who knew the laws; indeed, almost the only persons who could read and write; and they accordingly were accustomed some of them to exercise judicial functions while others took upon themselves the duties of practitioners in the various courts. Such being the case, William perceived that their removal from these respective positions would be the necessary result of their separation from the general body of the people, and

might insure the annihilation of that simple mode of administering the law which had obtained among the Saxons, a mode which was utterly distasteful to the Conqueror and his followers, who better loved the complicated system of the Norman method of legal procedure.

This policy of prohibiting the clergy from practising in the courts was not, however, quite successfully carried out, for the tonsured advocates, unwilling to give up their old and lucrative occupation, managed very often to evade the papal canon which had been published on the subject, by appearing in court in the garb of simple laymen; and it is singular that the chief implement of disguise employed by these gentlemen to conceal their true calling, is one that has descended to the present generation-the last, however of its long career-as a mark of high distinction amongst lawyers, and enjoyed only by judges and serjeants-at-law.* The reader will probably have observed in Westminster Hall, a black patch on the top of the wigs of the learned judges, and also on those of certain grave-looking members of the long robe in the courts there. This ornament (?) is called the coif, and it is one of the traditions of the law that the badge in question originated in the attempts made by the crafty ecclesiastics to hide their shaven crowns when they went into court to conduct their clients' cases. In consequence of this and, no doubt, other transparent devices being winked at by those in authority, the former style of doing business would often crop up-the old law and practice would be, and was, as a matter of fact-frequently alluded to and quoted before the Norman judges by whom William had replaced the clerical presidents. Thus it came to pass that the old laws were not destroyed; on the contrary, many of its provisions were retained, and became the pivot of that system "upon which every subsequent alteration was to operate." The Conqueror's youngest son, afterwards Henry I., however, almost restored the Saxon laws, which, from their excellence, were welcomed back, not only by the English, but also by the Norman

* The order of Serjeants-at-law became virtually extinct on the passing of the Judicature Act of 1873, and actually so after the sale of their Inn in Chancery Lane about three years ago.

subjects of the king; and since the period indicated, their principles, except as to the descent, devolution, purchase and sale, &c., of lands, have been the acknowledged basis on which nearly all legislation has been founded. But the Common Law had to struggle against two very powerful opposing forces namely, the Civil Law of Rome and the Canon Law of the Romish Church; and these two systems were upheld by the clergy. The laity, on the other hand, noble and plebeian, maintaining their regard for the Common Law, we find in the reign of King Stephen a proclamation issued by that sovereign interdicting the study of the two systems of jurisprudence just mentioned. The clergy, feeling themselves unable to establish in England the civil and the canon law, which, unlike the Saxon, were deemed, and rightly, too, to militate against the full liberties of the people-in short, quite unsuited to their genius in every way, after a time abandoned the attempt, and by the reign of Henry III. had from inclination, and also from opposition to their scheme, retired from the secular courts, both as judges and practitioners.

In the reign of this sovereign we find that, although trial by jury, both in civil and criminal causes, was in full operation, yet, in certain cases, it was open to a defendant to defend himself either by jury or by duel. This latter was called the wager of battle-a mode of trial then common in the country since the Conquest. The duel was fought in open court, and if the defendant could go on "until the stars appeared," he won the day. The institution of trial by assize put a stop to this extraordinary practice, but it was not finally abolished by the legislature until the reign of George III. In the reign of Henry III., the judges went their circuits for the purpose of administering criminal justice, as they do now, and were then styled justices itinerant, or in eyre. The grand and petty jury also took part in the proceedings, and challenges were allowed, as now, to accused persons-that is, they were permitted to object to any of the jurors who were to determine their guilt or innocence.

In this reign also the old Saxon mode of trial by ordeal was abolished; but another mode, the wager of law-that is, by the oath of the accused, confirmed by those of his neighbours,

called compurgators, was allowed to remain. We find trials by wager of law employed in the time of Lord Coke; and even as recently as the year 1824, an application was made to the Court of King's Bench to assign compurgators to a defendant, "with whom he should come to perfect his law." The word law, as used here, signifies oath, and wagers of law simply meant acquitting oneself of an obligation by an oath, backed up by other oaths. In the above case, King v. Williams, reported in vol. ii. of Barnewall and Cresswell's Reports, Chief Justice Abbott (afterwards Lord Tenterden) refused to grant the application, observing that the defendant must act according to his judgment. brought eleven compurgators; but the plaintiff abandoned his action. Wager by law, one of the most ancient features in the practice of the English law, no longer exists, having been abolished by the Statute 3 & 4 William IV., c. 42.

He

The Englishmen of yore always seemed to think a great deal of keeping the peace, as they termed it. By the word peace, they meant, as we do at present, an abstinence from force in the prosecution of a right, and in any other cases; or, as an old writer explains it, "that amitie, confidence, and quiet, which is betweene men." To preserve this quiet in the country, Justices, or Justiciars, of the Peace were first instituted, and were sometimes called Commissioners of the Peace, a term, it would seem, of a more appropriate character than the former. Some of the old rules of law on this subject are highly amusing, but a great many of them remain at this day part and parcel of the law of England. Thus, a wife could always demand a surety of the peace from her husband, just as at the present day. We cannot, however, quite see the force of the following statements, made in a work published in 1626 :—

The law hath conceived such an opinion of the peaceable disposition of noblemen, that it hath been thought enough to take one of their promises vpon his honour that he would not break the peace against any

man.

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Our forefathers had a long list of what they considered justifiable assaults, the commission of which was not deemed a breach of the peace. Thus, we find it laid down in the reign of Edward IV., that

It is lawful for the parents, kinsmen, or other friends of a man that is mad, or frantike, who, being at libertie, attempteth to burne an house, or to do some other mischief, or to hurt himselfe, or others, to take and put him into an house, to bind or chaine him, and to beat him with rods, and to doe any other forcible act to reclaime him, or to keepe him so as he shall doe no hurt.

Thus did the law of free England directly sanction those proceedings against insane persons which for ages formed a standing disgrace to the country, and which, even in these days, we find resorted to by inhuman persons, apparently the exponents of the more repul

sive features in the manners and customs of

barbarous times. It was also quite justifiable for "a gaolor, or his servant, by his commandment, to chastise his unruly prisoners;" a rule which gave facilities for the most detestable brutality and extortion on the part of those in authority-opportunities, of which we well know, these persons at one time freely

availed themselves.

"of

In addition to the surety of the peace, our ancestors had another kind of surety, great affinitie with that of the peace," called surety for the good behaviour, and which exists at the present day. It was provided chiefly for the preservation of the peace; but there was, and is, of course, more difficulty in performing the surety for good behaviour than that of the peace, it being obviously a question what is meant by "good behaviour." An old work on the law, Dalton's Fustice, enumerates the offences for which surety for the good behaviour of the party committing them might have been had. A few will suffice to show the state of morals in England about the time of Charles I., the period of this work's publication.

For the following, among other causes, surety for a person's good behaviour was granted :

Against such as be generally feared to bee robbers by the high-way.

Against such as by night shall evesdrop mens houses.

Against night-walkers that shall cast mens gates or carts, &c., into ponds, &c.

Against common haunters of Ale-houses,

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Taverns; but more specially if they have not whereon to live.

Against common drunkards.

Against all such as goe on message of theeves. Against the putative father or mother of a bastard child.

Disturbers of preachers

Popish recusants absenting themselves from Church twelve moneths.

Although some of the offences above indicated did not necessarily involve an actual breach of the peace in their commission, yet as "the Common Law of England hath alwayes

abhorred force as the capital enemy thereto,' so it seems that acts at all likely to lead to force were carefully watched and severely dealt with by our ancestors.

In the time of Charles I., we find the law concerning witches and their craft thus stated:

feed or reward any evill spirit, to or for any intent or purpose, is felonie in such offenders, their aides and counsellors.

To consult, covenant with, entertaine, imploy,

To practise witchcraft for the purpose of finding lost goods, to destroy property, or "to the intent to provoke any person to love," was felony.

The writer of these passages, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, proceeds thus :

Now against these witches, being the most cruell,

revengefull and bloudie of all the rest, the justices of peace may not alwais expect direct evidence, seeing all their workes are the workes of darknesse, and no witnesses with them to accuse them; and therefore

for their better discoverie, I thought good here to coverie of the witches that were arrained at Lancaster, A.D. 1612, before the judges of assize there.

insert certaine instructions out of the book of dis

1. These witches have ordinarily a familiar or spirit, which appeareth to them.

2. This said familiar hath some bigg, or other marke, upon their bodie, when he sucketh them. 3. They have often pictures of clay or wax like a man, &c., found in their house.

4. Witches may be known if a dead bodie bleede upon them.

5. By their own voluntaire confession, which exceeds all other evidence.

The difference between conjuration, witchcraft, and inchantment is this:- conjurers and witches have personall conference with the devill or evill spirit to effect the purpose. The conjurers beleeve by certaine terrible words, that they can raise the devill, and make him to tremble; and by impaling themselves in a circle, which as one saith, cannot keep out a mouse, they beleeve that they are therein insconced, and safe from the devill whom they are about to

raise.

The witch dealeth rather by a friendly and volun

tary conference, or agreement between him and her, and the devill or familiar, to have his or her turne served, and in liew thereof, the witch giveth or offereth their soule, bloud, or other gift unto the devill.

Also the conjurer compacts for curiositie, to know secrets, or worke miracles: and the witch of meere malice to doe mischiefe, and to be revenged.

The inchanter, charmer, or sorcerer, these have no personal conference with the devill, but without any apparition work and performe some things, seemingly at the least, by certaine superstitions and ceremoniall formes of words called charmes, by them pronounced: or by medicines, hearbs, or other things applied above the course of nature, and by the devill's helpe and covenants made with him.

Of this last sort, likewise, are soothsayers, or wizards, which divine and foretell things to come, by the flying, singing, or feeding of birds, and unto such questions as be demanded of them, they doe answere by the devill, or by his helpe- that is, they do answere by voyce, or else do set before their eyes in glasses, christall stones or rings, the pictures or images of the persons or things sought for. Such were the provisions of a solemn Act of the English Parliament, passed in the reign. of "the most high and mighty prince,' James I.; and it was not until that of George II. that the Statute was repealed by another, called the Vagrant Act, which, although more sensible in tone, is by no means deficient in quaintness.

J. H. FLOOD.

(To be continued.) ទោ Reviews.

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A Catalogue of Rare, Curious, and Valuable Old Books. On sale by ALFRED RUSSELL SMITH, 36, Soho Square. (London: 1882.) 8vo, pp. 528.

UR readers will be glad to know of the issue of this really valuable catalogue. To many, a booksellers' catalogue is of great interest, even when carelessly arranged and badly printed, as is too often the case; but we get here a totally different kind of thing. These are some of the heads under which it is classified :-Agriculture, Ana, Angling, Anglo-Saxon, Bibliography, Manners, Brewing, Chap Books, Dramatic History, Finance, Fine Arts, Heraldry, Jest Books, Mythology, Numismatics, Pedigrees, Philology, Folk-lore, Prehistoric Archæology, Records, and County publications. We cannot pick out any special books for notice, but referring, for instance, to the collection of versions and editions of Reynard the Fox, it will be at once seen that this catalogue, irrespective of its value to book purchasers, is of great interest to students of archaeology. It contains no less than six thousand books for sale.

Transactions of the Essex Archæological Society. Vol. ii., pt. iii. new series. (Colchester: 1882.) 8vo, pp. 223-310.

The papers here presented to the members of the Society are all of great interest. They are "Inventories of Church Goods" 6th Edward VI., by H. W. King, "Liber Scholæ Colcestriensis," being entries concerning sons of the clergy admitted into the Royal Grammar School, Colchester, during the headship of Dr. Dugard, 1637-1642; "History of Hatfield Forest"; "Notes on an inscribed Roman altar found at Colchester," by J. E. Price; and "Notes on an Ancient Cemetery at Saffron Walden," by H. Ecroyd Smith.

The most important of these are undoubtedly Mr. Price's, Mr. Smith's, and Mr. King's. Mr. Price gives some very interesting information on the Roman inscribed altar. It reads :

MATRIBVS
SVLEVIS

SIMILIS ATTIF

CI CANT
V. L. S.

and may be translated as a dedication to the Mothers the Suleva, by Similis, the son of Attus or Attius, a citizen attached to the civitas Cantiorum. The Suleva were the tutelary divinities of rivers, fountains, hills, roads, villages, and other localities against whom the anathemas of the Christian councils were hurled, and this new inscription of Mr. Price's clearly places them among the important deities "mother goddesses," whose worship was so wide spread.

Every one should support the efforts of the county Archæological Societies to gather together the antiquities of our country, and we gladly bear testimony to the important work the Essex Society is accomplishing. Not only in publishing, but in the case of their museum and the prosecution of excavations, this Society is furthering the cause of antiquarian study. We cannot speak too highly of the labours in respect of the museums, and we trust the Society will not again have to speak of want of support, for these local museums are national in importance and value.

The Court of the Honour of Peverel, in the Counties of Nottingham and Derby. By JOHN C. GODFREY. (Nottingham: 1882.) 8vo, pp. 32.

Local courts of jurisdiction have been so much pushed on one side (if we may so put it) by the more progressive machinery of government, that a history of one, even in the abridged form of that before us, is always very acceptable. Mr. Godfrey has not given much more than was already known of the Court of the Honour of Peverel, but then he has collected this into a handy and convenient compass; and we are indebted to him for it. We trust he may make this little brochure the nucleus round which to collect more information.

The Level of Hatfield Chace and Parts Adjacent.

By JOHN TOMLINSON. (Doncaster: John Tomlinson. London: Wyman & Sons.) 4to, pp. vii.-322.

Mr. Tomlinson has taken up a work foreshadowed by Abraham de la Pryme in 1698, that curious gossiping antiquary, whose diary is equal, in its way, to anything else of the kind that exists. His collection of MSS., together with the labours of later workers in the same field, have been laid under contribution by the indefatigable industry of Mr. Tomlinson, and we may congratulate that gentleman upon the production of a much-needed history of a very important locality.

and sometimes boating, carried in his train a man who had other views than those who were content to let things be as they were. That man was Vermuyden, a Dutchman, who planned and carried out a scheme for draining and embanking this great level in 1628. Of the 170,000 acres comprising Hatfield Chace, there were, in the reign of James I., at least 60,000 acres of no value, except for hunting, fowling, and fishing. Queen Elizabeth had attempted to obtain a plan for draining these lands, but failed; and a commission, issued by James I., reported that the work was impossible. But Vermuyden thought differently; his own native land told him differently. Accordingly, in the words of Abraham de la Pryme, he "entered

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The extensive tract known as Hatfield Chace was, in the times of the early Stuarts, little more than a vast swamp, with now and then patches of hard surface, upon which had dwelt the earliest inhabitants of our land, as is shown by the discoveries of barrows, remains of buildings, household utensils, celts, flint axes, arrow-heads, &c. But these little islets in the surrounding swamp were not compatible with the requirements of advancing progress, and it is recorded how Prince Henry of Wales, son of James I., proceeding through these great fens, sometimes wading

into Articles with his Majesty [Charles I.] upon y 24th May, in y 2nd year of his Reign for y Draining thereof, which after a few years labour he happily effected to ye great benefit and ease of ye country." For the events attending this great labour, for the settlement of a great body of Walloon emigrants here (whose biography our author justly observes would be highly interesting), for the methods of bringing the land into cultivation, for the great and beneficial results, we must refer our readers to the book itself. In place of swamps there arose the signs of English

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