Ki/io-'s Peace aiid English Peace-]\Iagistracy. g 



after a delay is not uniform.^ According to the Roman code 

 of the Twelve Tables, the " manifest " thief could be con- 

 demned to death, if a slave, and to servitude, if a freeman.^ 

 But the "non-manifest" thief had only to refund double the 

 amount stolen. 3 "The ancient law-giver doubtless considered 

 that the injured proprietor, if left to himself, would inflict a 

 very different punishment, when his blood was hot, from that 

 with which he would be satisfied when the thief was detected 

 after a considerable interval."* Only by slow degrees w^as 

 the principle established that the punishment should be pro- 

 portionate to the offence.^ It is extremely interesting, more- 

 over, to observe that this theory of the original standard of 

 the wergeld finds actual expression in the words of one of 

 the early German law-givers. In the code compiled about the 

 year 643, the Lombard king, Rothar, declares that he has 

 made the composition for each offence greater than it was 

 with his ancestors in order that it may be accepted instead of 

 the feud. 6 



The general introduction of the wergeld marks a significant 

 epoch in the development of the peace administration. This 

 stage has already been reached both by the Indie and Hel- 

 lenic races when they first come before us. In the earliest 

 sacred laws of the East not a vestige of the actual blood-feud 

 remains ; though its former existence is proved by elaborate 



1 Wihtraed, 25; Henry I, 12, § i; Canute, II, 64: Schmid, Gesetze, 19, 444, 

 304. Cf. Maine, Ancient Law, 367; also the references to the laws in Schmid, 

 Glossar, 555-8; and particularly Wilda, Strafrecht, 180 ff., 165-6. 



2 " Poena manifesti furti ex lege XII tabularum capitalis erat. nam liber ver- 

 beratus addicebatur ei cui furtum fecerat . . . ; servum aeque verberatum e saxo 

 deiciebant" : Poste's Gains, III, § 189, p. 454. 



3 "Nee manifesti furti poena per legem XII tabularum dupli inrogatur; quam 

 etiam Praetor conservat": Poste's Gains, III, § 190, p. 455. 



* Maine, A^icient Law, 366—7. 



^ Cf. Leist, AU-Arisches Jus Gentium, 314. 



8 " In omnibus istis plagis ac feritis superius descriptis, quae inter homines 

 liberos eveniunt, ideo maiorem compositionem posuimus, quam antiqui nostri, ut 

 faida, quod est inimicitia, post compositionem acceptam postponatur, et amplius 

 non requiratur, nee dolus teneatur : sed caussa sit finita, amicitia manente " : 

 Edictuin Rotharis, LXXIV : Walter, Corpus Jni-is Gerinanici, I, 693. 



