Appendix J. fubmiffion which it expreffed: It diminished their regret for the lofs or injury of a kinfman by their acquifition of new property: And thus general peace was for a moment restored to the fociety". BUT when the German nations had been fettled fome time in the provinces of the Roman empire, they made still a new step towards a more cultivated life, and their criminal juftice gradually improved and refined itself. The magiftrate, whofe office it was to guard public peace and to fupprefs private animofities, conceived himself to be injured by every injury done to any of his people; and befides the compenfation to the person who suffered, or to his clan, he thought himself entitled to exact a fine, called the Fridwit, as an atonement for the breach of peace, and as a reward for the pains which he had taken in accommodating the quarrel. When this idea, which is fo natural, was once fuggested, it was readily received both by magiftrate and people. The numerous fines which were levied, augmented the profits of the King: And the people were fenfible, that he would be more vigilant in interpofing with his good offices, when he reaped such immediate advantage by them; and that injuries would be lefs frequent, when, befides compenfation to the perfon injured, they were exposed to this additional penalty. THIS short abstract contains the hiftory of the criminal jurifprudence of the northern nations for feveral centuries. The Tacit. de morb. Germ. The author fays, that the price of the compofition was fixed; which must have been by the laws and the interpofition of the magistrate. e Befides paying money to the relations of the deceased and to the King, the murderer was alfo obliged to pay the matter of a flave or vaffal a fum as a compenfation for his lofs. This was called the Manbote. See Spell. Gloff. in verb. Fredum, Manbot. ftate if state of England in this particular, during the period of the g Where the affailant f The addition of these last words in Italics appears neceffary from what follows in the fame law, * LL. Ælfr. § 28. Wilkins, p. 43. Appendix IT Appendix I. It was enacted by King Ina, that no man should take revenge of an injury till he had first demanded compenfation, and had been refused it ". KING Edmond, in the preamble to his laws, mentions the general diffatisfaction, occafioned by the multiplicity of private feuds and battles; and he establishes feveral expedients to remedy this grievance. He ordains, that if any one murders another, he may, with the affiftance of his kindred, pay within a twelvemonth the fine of his crime; and if they abandon him, he shall alone sustain the deadly feud or quarrel with the kindred of the murdered perfon: His own kindred are free from the feud, but on condition that they neither converse with the criminal, nor supply him with meat or other necessaries: If any of them, after renouncing him, receive him into their houfe, or give him assistance, they are finable to the King, and are involved in the feud. If the kindred of the murdered perfon take revenge of any but the criminal himself, after he is abandoned by his kindred, all their property is forfeited, and they are declared to be enemies to the King and all his friends. It is alfo ordained, that the fine for murder shall never be remitted by the King' and that no criminal fhall be killed who flies to the church, or any of the King's towns; and the King himself declares, that his house shall give no protection to murderers, till they have fatisfied the church by their penance, and the kindred of the deceased by making compensation. There follows the method appointed for tranfacting this composition ". d THESE attempts of Edmond to contract and diminish the feuds, were contrary to the antient spirit of the northern barba© LL. Edm. § 1. Wilkins, p. 73. LL. Inæ, $9. • LL Edm. § 3. * LL. Edm. §.7. rians, and were an advance towards a more regular administration of justice. By the Salic law, any man might, by a public declaration, exempt himself from his family quarrels: But then he was confidered by the law as no longer belonging to the family; and he was deprived of all right of fucceffion, as a punishment of his cowardice ". THE price of the King's head, or his weregild, as it was then called, was by law 30,000 thrimfas, a fpecies of coin whose value is uncertain. The price of the prince's head was 15,000 thrimfas; that of a bishop's or alderman's 8000; a sheriff's 4000; a thane's or clergyman's 2000; a ceorle's 266. These prices were fixed by the laws of the Angles. By the Mercian law, the price of a ceorle's head was 200 fhillings; that of a thane's fix times as much; that of a King's fix times more By the laws of Kent, the price of the archbishop's head was higher than that of the King's *. Such refpect was then paid to the ecclefiaftics! It must be understood, that where a perfon was unable to pay the fine, he was put out of the protection of -law, and the kindred of the deceased had liberty to punish him as they thought proper. SOME antiquarians have thought, that these compenfations were only given for man-slaughter, not for wilful murder: But no fuch distinction appears in the laws; and it is contradicted by the practice of all the other barbarous nations ", by that of the antient Germans ", and by that curious monument above mentioned of Saxon antiquity, preserved by Hickes. There is in h Tit. 63. I Wilkins, p. 71, 72. ! Tyrrel introduct. vol. i. p. 126. I i * LL. Elthredi, apud deed Appendix 1. I. Appendix deed a law of Alfred's, making wilful murder capital; but this seems only to have been an attempt of that great legislator for establishing a better police in the kingdom, and to have remained without execution. By the laws of the fame prince, a conspiracy against the life of the King might be redeemed by a fine ". THE price of all kinds of wounds was likewife fixed by the Saxon laws: A wound of an inch long under the hair was paid with one fhilling: One of a like fize on the face, two fhillings: Thirty fhillings for the lofs of an ear; and fo forth. There feems not to have been any difference made, according to the dignity of the perfon. By Ethelbert's laws, any one who committed adultery with his neighbour's wife was obliged to pay him a fine, and buy him another wife'. THESE inftitutions are not peculiar to the antient Germans: They seem to be the neceffary progress of criminal jurisprudence among every free people, where the will of the fovereign is not implicitly obeyed. We find them among the antient Greeks during the time of the Trojan war. Compofitions for murder are mentioned in Neftor's speech to Achilles in the ninth Iliad, and are called απαναι. The Irish, who never had any connections with the German nations, adopted the fame practice till very lately; and the price of a man's head was called among them his eric; as we learn from Sir John Davis. The fame custom seems also to have prevailed among the Jews". • LL. Ælf. § 12. Wilkins, p. 29. It is probable, that by wilful murder Alfred means a treacherous murder, committed by one who has no declared feud with another. • LL. Ethelb. § 32. 2 See alfo LL. Ethelb. • Exod. cap. xxi. 29, 30. THEFT |