L A W. 377 
reign power. Much more will it happen where feven un- 
connefted ftates are to form their own conftitution and 
fuperftrufture of government, though they all begin to 
build upon the fame or fimilar foundations. 
When, therefore, the Welt Saxons had fwallowed up 
all the reft, and king Alfred fucceeded to the monarchy 
of England, whereof his grandfather Egbert was the 
founder, his mighty genius prompted him to undertake a 
molt great and neceffary work, which he is laid to have exe¬ 
cuted in as malterly a manner: no lefs than to new-model the 
conftitution ; to rebuild it on a plan that fliould endure for 
ages; and, out of its old difcordant materials, which were 
heaped upon each other in a vaft and rude irregularity, 
to form one uniform and well-conne6ted whole. This he 
effected, by reducing the whole kingdom under one regu¬ 
lar and gradual fubordination of government, wherein 
each man was anfwerable to his immediate fuperior for 
his own conduft and that of his neareft neighbours; for 
to him we owe that mafterpiece of judicial polity, the fub- 
divifion of England into tithings and hundreds, if not into 
counties; all under the influence and adminiltration of one 
fupreme magiftrate, the king ; in whom, as in a general re- 
fervoir, all the executive authority of the law was lodged, 
and from whom jufcice was difperfed to every part of the 
nation by diltinft, yet communicating, dutds and chan¬ 
nels; which wife inltitution has been perferved for near a 
thoufand years unchanged, from Alfred’s to the prefent 
time. He alfo, like another Theodolius, collefted the va¬ 
rious cultoms that he found difperfed in the kingdom, 
and reduced and digefted them into one uniform lylteni 
or code of laws, in his Dom-boc, or Liber Judicialis. This 
he compiled for the ufe of the court-baron, hundred, and 
county-court, the court-leet, and Iheriff’s tourn ; tribu¬ 
nals, which he eftablilhed, for the t’rial of all caufes civil 
and criminal, in the very diftrifts wherein the complaint 
arofe; all of them fubjett however to be infpefted, con¬ 
trolled, and kept within the bounds of the univerfal or 
common law, by the king’s own courts ; which were then 
itinerant, being kept in the king’s palace, and removing 
with his houfehold in thofe royal prog re lies which he con¬ 
tinually made from one end of the kingdom to the other. 
The Danilh invafion and conqueft, which introduced 
new foreign cultoms, was a fevere blow to this noble fa¬ 
bric ; but a plan, fo excellently concerted, could never 
be long thrown afide. So that, upon the expulfion of 
thefe intruders, the Englilh returned to their ancient law ; 
retaining however fome few of the cultoms of their late 
vilitants ; which went under the name of Dane- Lage ; as 
the code compiled by Alfred was called the Wcjt-Saxon 
Lage ; and the local conftitutions of the ancient kingdom 
of Mercia, which obtained in the counties neareft to 
Wales, and probably abounded with many Britilh cuf- 
tomSj were called the Mercen-Lage. And thefe three laws 
were, about the beginning of the eleventh century, in ufe 
in different counties of the realm ; the provincial polity 
of counties, and their fubdivifions, having never been al¬ 
tered or difcontinued, through all the fliocks and muta¬ 
tions of government, from the time of its fil'd inltitu¬ 
tion ; though the laws and cultoms therein ufed have of¬ 
ten fuffered confiderable changes. 
For king Edgar, (who, befides his military merit as 
founder of the Englilh navy, was alfo a molt excellent 
civil governor,) obferving the ill effefts of three diftinft 
bodies of laws, prevailing at once in feparate parts of his 
dominions, projected and began what his grandfon king 
Edward the Confeffor afterwards completed, viz. one uni¬ 
form digelt or body of laws to be obferved throughout the 
whole kingdom; being probably no more than a revival 
of king Alfred’s code, with fome improvements fnggelted 
by neceflity and experience; particularly the incorporat¬ 
ing fome of the Britilh or rather Mercian cultoms, and 
alio fuch of the Danilh as were reafonable and approved, 
into the Weft-Saxon Lage, which was dill the ground¬ 
work of the whole. And this appears to be the belt flip- 
ported and molt plaufible conjecture./for certainty is not 
VOL. XII. No. 837. 
to be expected) of the rife and origin of that admira¬ 
ble fyftem of maxims and unwritten cultoms, which is 
now known by the name of the common-law, as extending 
its authority univerfally over all the realm ; and which is 
doubtlefs of Saxon parentage. 
Among the molt remarkable of the Saxon laws we may 
reckon, 1. The conftitution of parliaments, or, rather, 
general aflemblies of the principal and wifeft men in the 
nation ; the wittena-gemote, or commune-cenjilium of the an¬ 
cient Germans; which was not yet reduced to the forms 
and diltinftions of our modern parliament; without vvhofe 
concurrence, however, no new law could be made, or old 
one altered. 2. The election of their magiftrates by the 
people; originally even that of their kings, till dear- 
bought experience evinced the convenience and neceflity 
of eltabliihing an hereditary fucceflion to the crown. But 
that of all fubordinate magiltrates, their military officers 
or heretochs, their fheriffs, their confervators of the peace, 
their coroners, their port-reeves, (fince changed iato 
mayors and bailiffs,) and even their tithing-men and borf- 
holders at the leet, continued, fome till the Norman con¬ 
queft, others for two centuries after, and fome remain to 
this day. 3. The defeent ot the crown, when once a royal 
family was eftablilhed, upon nearly the fame hereditary 
principles upon which it has ever fince continued; only 
that, perhaps, in cafe of minority, the next of kin of full 
age would afeend the throne, as king, and not as protec¬ 
tor ; though, after his death, the crown immediately re¬ 
verted back to the heir. 4. The great paucity of capital 
punifliments for the firll offence; even the molt notorious 
offenders being allowed to commute it for a fine or were■ 
gild, or, in default of payment, perpetual bondage; to 
which our benefit of clergy has now in fome meafure fuc¬ 
ceeded. 5. The prevalence of certain cultoms, as heriots 
and military fervices in proportion to every man’s land, 
which much refembled the feodal conftitution, but yet 
were exempt from all its rigorous hardlhips; and which 
may be weil enough accounted for, by fuppofing them to 
be brought from the continent by the firlt Saxon invaders, 
in the primitive moderation and fimplicity of the feodal 
law ; before it got into the hands of the Norman juritts, 
who extrafted the molt flavifli dodrines and Oppreflive con- 
fequencesout of what was originally intended as a law of 
liberty. 6. That their eftates were liable to forfeiture for 
treafon ; but that the doctrine of efeheats and corruption 
of blood for felony, or any other caufe, was utterly un¬ 
known amongft them. 7. The defeent of their lands to 
all the males equally, without any right of primogeni¬ 
ture; a cuftom which obtained among the Britons, was 
agreeable to the Roman law, and continued among the 
Saxons till the Norman conqueft; though really inconve¬ 
nient, and more efpecially delfrudtive to ancient families5 
which are in monarchies neceffary to be fupported, in or¬ 
der to form and keep up a nobility, or intermediate ftate 
between the prince and the common people. 8. The 
courts of jultice confifted principally of the county-courts ; 
and, in cafes of weight or nicety, the king’s court, held 
before himfelf in perfon, at the time of Ins parliaments ; 
which were ulually holden in different places, according 
as he kept the three great feftivals of Chriftmas, Eafter, 
and Wlritfuntide. An inftitution which was adopted by 
king Alonfo VII. of Caftile, about a century after the 
conqueft; who at the fame three great fealts was accuf- 
temed to affemble his nobility and prelates in his court, 
who there heard and decided all controverlies, and then, 
having received his inftruftions, departed home. Thefe 
county-courts, however, differed from the modern ones, in 
that the ecclefiaftical and civil jurifdi&ion were blended 
together, the bilhop and the ealdorman, or IherifF, fitting 
in the fame county-court; and alfo that the deciiions 
and proceedings therein were much more fimple and 
unembarraffed ; an advantage which will always attend 
the infancy of any laws, but wear off as they gradually 
advance to antiquity. 9. Trials, among a people who 
had a very ltrong tinfture of fuperftition, were permitted 
5 D- t<S 
