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knights with their clouds of clothyard arrows at Azincourtthey followed Richard of the lion heart to the land of the Saviour, and formed the mailed bands who planted the cross of St. George on the towers of Acre and Joppa and Ascalon. They laughed over the satire of Piers Ploughman and the Mirror for Magistrates, and followed with childish delight the Journey of the Canterbury Pilgrims with Chaucer. They read with solemn joy the quaint pages of Wickliffe's Bibleand listened with young enthusiasm to the "wood notes wild" of the Swan of Avon. It was for the ancient and undoubted privileges of Englishmen that our fathers contended unto blood, during the colonial and revolutionary period. The old customs brought from the woods of Germany and incorporated into the English common law, are administered by every justice of the peace from Maine to Georgia. The decisions of Westminster Hall are cited as authority on the circuits of our Western forests, and in the august assembly of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States.

This race is substantially one wherever it has been planted. Its influence and character may for general purposes be considered as uniform, however it may temporarily have been affected by the admixture of foreign elements. This race too has spread over the world, and has carried with it everywhere its own peculiar life and power.

Such is this English race. We have now to ask, what has it done in the past, and what may we expect from it in the future? An answer to this question would involve the development of its political, intellectual, and moral life-its government, its literature, and its religion. But at present we propose to limit our remarks to the first of these three topics.

It has been pretty generally admitted that in the science and practice of State-building the English are in advance of all other men. This we might take for granted, but it may be made to appear with additional distinctness, if we can ascertain some of the elements, aside from the inherent power of the race, that have kept alive that system of laws and polity which has been the foundation of free States wherever it has been planted. What then is the inner life, the germ of that political organism, which the race has carried with it in all its wanderings from Australia to Oregon, and which has everywhere been fruitful of freedom and blessing? Much has been written on the English Constitution and on that of the United States that does not touch the peculiar principle that forms their distinguishing characteristic. This principle for the sake of brevity we shall call the confederation of distinct local govern

ments. It was to a certain extent common to all the Gothic tribes, and was founded on the feeling of personal independence which marked those fierce barbarians that conquered Rome. This led them to be jealous of centralization, and to adopt a government that provided in the highest degree for the security of personal rights.

So far as our knowledge of the German and Scandinavian tribes in early times extends, we everywhere find traces of local governments springing from the will and power of the people of the district governed. This local or rather personal government of small bodies of men, was the differential element, the "original monad" of Gothic political society. These distinct governments were formed primarily not with reference to the State, but with reference to the convenience and liberty of the individual man, and general governments or States were integrations of this differential element. It has been the habit of most English historians and lawyers, in accordance with the notion that the king is the fountain of justice, to represent all local courts to have received their power from the central government of the State, in which, to adopt the language of Blackstone," as in a general reservoir, all the executive authority of the law was lodged, and from which justice was dispersed to every part of the nation by distinct yet communicating ducts and channels." Blackstone uses these words when, following the monkish chronicler Ingulphus, he attributes to Alfred the division of England into counties and hundreds. Now it is clear that these territorial subdivisions existed wherever the Gothic nations have been planted, and moreover that in every case the power of the crown has originally been drawn from the local organization, instead of the contrary process.

Among the Scandinavians the integral community was the Hærad or Hundred, or perhaps the quarters or tithings which existed within the Hærad. Among the old Swedes the chief man of the Hærad was called the Heradzhoffding. When this office became vacant, the Laghman, or head of the shire, in which larger division the Hærad was included, summoned a meeting of the men of the Hundred, who chose twelve men, who with the Laghman were to elect three persons from the Hundred, one of whom was to be the Heradzhoffding. This officer, with a body of twelve or six men, exercised a jurisdiction over all the inhabitants of the district, similar to that of the Saxon hundred courts, and the leet courts of later times in England. By this court, bridges were built, and roads mended, and all disputes decided, arising out of the occupa

tion of land. This court also exercised criminal jurisdiction over all offenders of whatever character. It was to be held once a week, and all landholders within the district owed "suit and service" to it, and were fined for non-attendance. Each "Laghsagha," or shire, contained within it several "Hærads." The executive magistrate of this larger division was selected by the dwellers in the shire, in the same manner as was the magistrate of the "Hundred." These magistrates were called "Lawmen," and were assisted by a jury of twelve of the inhabitants of the shire, elected for that purpose. By the old law of Sweden, the king was elected by the Lawmen and standing juries of the different shires. These were to assemble in one place and give their voices by their foreman, and he who had the greatest number of voices was adjudged to be king. Moreover, any free-born Swede might be elected, but the law directed that the sons of the late king, if there were any, should have the preference. After his election the king was obliged to ride through the land with the sun, and each shire accepted the king apart from the rest, and the king made his promises and oath anew in each shire, and the commons of each also pledged separately their faith to the king. After this he was at liberty to be crowned at Upsala, if he chose to be, the laws evidently viewing this as a mere ceremony.

This shows most clearly the existence in Sweden, in early times, of a sort of confederation of local governments, each having its origin within itself, and that the political power of the central "respublica" was derived from these, and that the king was a president elected for life by the individual suffrages of the several "Laws," or shires of the country.

Just after the middle of the ninth century, Harold Harfarger, or Harold the Fair-haired, became, by conquest and usurpation, king of nearly the whole of Norway, and succeeded in abolishing most of the popular customs of the country, and filling the magistracies, which had been formerly elected by the inhabitants of the districts, with creatures and dependents of his own. This created a disturbance among the lovers of the old institutions of the country, and induced them to migrate in large bodies to the Shetlands and Orkneys, to France and Iceland. In the last named island they fixed themselves in numbers, and there developed and established the ancient Norwegian polity. Here we find clear evidence of the existence of local governments, confederated or represented in the government of the larger districts, and finally in that of the whole island. Soon after the colonists became established,

one of their number, Ulfliot, was sent to Norway, where he remained three years with Thorleif the Wise, renowned for his knowledge of the laws and usages of the parent country. When Ulfliot returned to Iceland, he convoked a general assembly of the people, and a government republican in its form, and according with the ancient traditions and customs of the parent country, was adopted. The smallest division adopted was the "hrepp," hrepp," a tract that should not contain less than twenty landholders, five of whom were to be elected by the inhabitants for the management of the affairs of the locality. These five were empowered to call a public meeting whenever they might deem it necessary to submit' any question to the freemen who had elected them. In addition to these small local divisions, there were thirteen districts, each having its "Thing," or Parliament, over which presided three "Godar," or "gods," who were to be chosen from among those the most distinguished for their wisdom and love of justice. This district "Thing" was held annually in the spring, and was attended by all the freemen in the district. It was called "Var Thing," var meaning "cautious," from the same root as the English word "wary." These meetings were held in the open air, and served both for the discussion of public affairs and for the administration of justice. For this latter purpose, the three "Godar" each selected twelve doomsmen to sit with him, as a sort of jury. Any one of these doomsmen, to whom either plaintiff or defendant might object, was to be instantly replaced by some other freeman in attendance, to whom no objection should be made. These three judges and thirty-six jurymen sat apart from the assembly within the doom ring, a circle formed of hazel twigs, or upright stones, connected by a rope. In the middle of the ring stood the "blotsteinn," a huge stone with a sharp ridge, on which the backs of criminals, condemned to death by the doomsmen, were broken.

Next in order above was the "Al Thing," or national assembly of the Icelanders. It was held annually in summer, and lasted sixteen days. A special police magistrate-a sort of sergeantat-arms-was appointed to maintain order among the assembled people. Over the "Al Thing" presided the chief magistrate of the republic-the "Law-saying Man,"-who was elected for life by the free suffrage of his fellow-citizens. For the purposes of the administration of justice, a doom ring was prepared, and within sat the Godar from each of the four quarters of the island, accompanied by their doomsmen. Over this body, seated on rows of stone seats within the doom

ring, presided the "Law-saying Man," or president of the republic.

We have been thus particular in describing, after Palgrave and Mallet, the polity of the Norsemen, as it shadows forth that which we find in the Hundred Courts and Shiremoots and Witenagemotes of the Anglo-Saxons, from which our laws and institutions have descended. Indeed, the Angles (from whom the name England is derived) who settled Norfolk and Suffolk, the old kingdom of East and West Anglia, were Scandinavians. So probably were the Jutes who settled Kent. At a later period the Danes and other Norsemen spread themselves over the whole northern part of the island, and became after the Norman conquest incorporated with the Saxon portion of the population. We have no so exact a statement of the internal organization of the Anglo-Saxon courts and legislative bodies as that which we have given of the Norsemen; but we may infer, with a good degree of certainty, that the primary idea of their legislative and judicial system was the same.

Among the Saxons, the first territorial division was the Mark, a term denoting both the people and the boundaries of the district which they occupied. The Gà or Scir (shire) was made up of a number of Marks. In some place within it, the freemen met for the administration of justice, for the celebration of the rites of religion, or the exchange of property. These shires were probably the original kingdoms, and as these were consolidated into the kingdoms of the Octarchy so called, by conquest, by the natural ascendency of men of talent, and the introduction of the imperial ideas of the Roman clergy, the descendants of these ancient royal families were, as we have reason to suppose, retained as sub-kings or Earldormen of the several shires. Doubtless the Saxon "cyning" was originally elective, and was simply a judge of a circuit. In case of war some one of these was elected for the time as general, and his functions ceased when the war was finished. This is distinctly stated by Bede, and it is confirmed by what Tacitus says of the German races generally. After the Saxons migrated into Britain, war was for many generations continual. They were encamped in an enemy's country, and the functions of a general became permanent. This was the germ of the king of the later periods of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy.

There seems to have been a distinction between the Mark and the Shire or Kingdom, and the Tithing and Hundred. The Mark and Shire appear to have been divisions having

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