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Indiana University Studies 
no distinction between torts, crimes, and breaches of con- 
tracts. Wrongs had a tort aspect in that wrongs were gen- 
erally regarded as private, with definite compositions provided 
therefor by the dooms, but otherwise they could not be called 
torts. There was no criminal law, altho treason (as a viola- 
tion of the king’s peace) dates from the time of Alfred, and 
between the time of Canute and the Conquest there was de- 
velopment in the direction of a true criminal law in connection 
with revenue, the police, and the substitution of the king’s 
vengeance for that of the community. But even then there 
were no prisons and no criminal procedure. 
Remedies. The remedies (remedial rights) for legal wrongs 
under the Anglo-Saxon system were essentially fines (wergild) 
provided by way of composition. If the fine was payable to the 
king for a breach of his peace it was called a wite. If the fine 
was payable to the injured party it was called a bot. By Al- 
fred’s law of treason, however, it was provided that such of- 
fense should be botleas (bootless), that is, incapable of being 
compounded by money payment. This assessment of wrongs 
at a price in money is a peculiarity of early law. It is found 
not only in the complicated tariffs, or dooms, of the Anglo- 
Saxons, but also in the Code of Hammurabi and Hebrew law . 23 
Everything had its price, from a chattel to human life. This 
scheme of compositions succeeded the blood-feud, and was in 
turn succeeded to some extent by outlawry, in case of persist- 
ent refusal to appear in court, and by the death penalty in case 
of treason and secret murder. 
Courts. Government among the Anglo-Saxons also was 
modeled after that with which they had been accustomed in 
Germany. There was some sort of local assembly of the free- 
men of the village which regulated purely local affairs, so far 
as they were regulated, and elected representatives of the vil- 
lages in the court of the hundred. The headman of the hun- 
dred, reeve, was the presiding officer of the court. The hundred 
court was also attended by the parish priest, four additional 
chosen representatives from each township, and by the lords 
of separate estates within the district, or by their stewards. 
Instead of the German national assembly there were in Eng- 
land above the hundred the king and the witanagemot. With 
the union of the many small states into seven larger kingdoms, 
23 21 and 22 Exod. 
