CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



the forms, solemnities, and obligations of con- 

 tracts ; the rules and directions for the expos- 

 ition of wills, deeds, and acts of parliament ; 

 the process, proceedings, judgments, and execu- 

 tions of the king's ordinary courts of justice ; the 

 limits, bounds, and extent of courts, and their 

 jurisdictions ; the several kind of temporal offences 

 and punishments at common law, and the manner 

 of the application of the several kinds of punish- 

 ments ; and infinite more particulars, which ex- 

 tend themselves as large as the many exigences 

 in the distribution of the king's ordinary justice 

 require.' 



The origin of this system is involved in ob- 

 scurity. Its progress subsequently to the reign 

 of Edward I. called the English Justinian, is 

 well known ; but when we read those portions 

 of English law-books which attempt to carry 

 the history to an earlier period, we cannot help 

 feeling disappointed at the result. The more 

 marked features of the system were, doubtless, 

 the customs of the Anglo-Saxons. A collection 

 of the laws of England during the heptarchy, 

 or laws of the Anglo-Saxons, was published by an 

 eminent antiquary, David Wilkins, in 1731, but 

 they may be best studied in the translation of Mr B. 

 Thorpe, or, so far as they relate to constitutional 

 history, in the extracts given by Professor Stubbs 

 of Oxford in his Select Charters and other Illus- 

 trations of English Constitutional History. The 

 fragments of Anglo-Saxon legislation which they 

 contain refer chiefly to : (i) Criminal law, which 

 included a variety of practices then common to 

 all Teutonic races, but now unknown, such as 

 ' wergeld,' or compensation in money or kind paid 

 for murder or assault ; ordeals by fire, iron, or 

 water, supposed to be infallible tests for the 

 detection of the guilty ; compurgation, or the oath 

 of a certain number of persons, according to the 

 rank of the accused, in his favour, which was held 

 conclusive proof of his innocence ; (2) Ecclesi- 

 astical law, which included such subjects as the 

 immunity of the persons and estates of the clergy 

 from the ordinary courts, and the sanctity of holy 

 places, persons, and things ; and (3) Constitutional 

 law, relating to the public assemblies and courts 

 of the ivitan, or wise men, for the whole kingdom, 

 and of the shire, hundred, or township for smaller 

 districts, to the rank of persons, and to taxation. 

 Concerning private rights, there is scarcely any- 

 thing, except what relates to the tenure of land. 

 The reason of this is partly, that much was regu- 

 lated by unwritten customs, and still more, that 

 private rights were less complex than in modern 

 times. Several of the Anglo-Saxon kings, as 

 Ethelbert, Tna, Edward the Elder, Athelstane, and 

 Edgar, did no more than modify existing customs ; 

 Alfred, Canute, and Edward the Confessor, aimed 

 at framing codes. The laws of the last are the 

 most famous, but we have them only as written 

 down in the reign of William the Conqueror. 



The Conquest first firmly settled the feudal 

 system, and the connection between vassal and 

 superior became one of the most important 

 features of the common law. The Saxons could 

 not escape the influence of a system which had 

 deeply rooted itself among the kindred nations of j 

 the continent ; and many feudal institutions are 

 to be found existing under the Saxon kings. The 

 increase of the spirit of feudalism under William 

 the Conqueror was, however, so great, that many 



56 



authors have attributed its origin in England to 

 this era. The Conqueror brought with him the 

 system of his own province, for which he was 

 a vassal to the king of France, and could not 

 admit the possession of landed property in Eng- 

 land, except as held from himself in the capacity 

 of lord-paramount. The greater nobles natur- 

 ally held the lands he liberally bestowed on 

 them of him as superior, and they compelled 

 all who lived upon their lands, or even in their 

 neighbourhood, to acknowledge them as liege 

 lords. Several of the Norman monarchs cleared 

 large tracts of country of inhabitants, that they 

 might enjoy the regal pleasures of the chase in 

 undisturbed tranquillity. The Saxons had their 

 own county courts, but the greater part of the 

 causes were, after the Conquest, removed from 

 them, to be pleaded in the court of the monarch, 

 which attended on his own person. Legal pro- 

 ceedings were conducted in the Norman dialect of 

 the French, which was afterwards changed into 

 Latin. The use of a tongue unknown to the 

 people at large continued down to the days of 

 Oliver Cromwell, and at the Restoration was 

 restored. It was finally abolished in 1731, by 10 

 Geo. IV. c. 26. 



The charters that were so often granted by 

 the earlier kings to the importunity of their 

 subjects, were restrictions of the tyranny of the 

 feudal law, and promises to adhere to the old 

 Saxon customs promises which would not have 

 been so often exacted if they had not been con- 

 tinually broken. The most celebrated of these 

 is that conceded by King John, called Magna 

 Charta, or the Great Charter. Its privileges are 

 in a great measure constitutional, and it has often 

 been said that it was procured for the advantage 

 of the aristocracy, and not of the people ; but it 

 is not without stipulations in favour of the latter, 

 protecting them both from the crown and from 

 the nobility. It restricts the tyrannical forest 

 laws, and the arbitrary exactions by feudal lords 

 from their vassals. The clause which has attracted 

 chief interest is that which says that no freeman 

 shall be affected in his person or property save 

 by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law 

 of the land. The judgment by peers refers to jury 

 trial, and the whole clause strikes against arbitrary 

 imprisonment, and involves the principle of the 

 habeas corpus a form of procedure first intro- 

 duced under that name in the reign of Charles II. 

 by which every man, whose liberty is restricted, 

 may demand to be brought before some competent 

 court, in order that he may be either convicted or 

 liberated. 



The progress of civil liberty in England has 

 been in a great measure attributed to the divi- 

 sion of interests in the country. The crown had 

 an interest in checking the power of the great 

 nobility, and the nobility that of the crown. 

 That the exercise of this power was essential 

 to the liberty that has existed in England, must 

 be apparent to those who contemplate the state 

 of France and Germany, where the aristocracy 

 made themselves either quite or nearly inde- 

 pendent of the crown, and often acted as tyrants 

 to the people. A very important blow to the power 

 of the aristocracy was accomplished by Edward I. 

 in 1290, by the abolition of the system of sub-feu- 

 ing. From that date, no vassal of the English 

 crown could grant lands to be held of himself, as 



