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Show 10 INTRODUCTION. and upon which our Anglo-.._~n1erican free institutions are majnly founded. The origin of British liberty, by an ancient, con tant, and affectionate tradition, has uniformly been traced back to the times of the Anglo-Saxons. It was, however, by judicial, far more than by legislative in titution , that among tho .... e progenitors of ours private rights and public liberty were guarantied. The smalle t political subdivision muong the Anglo- a ons was the tything, (teot!t£ng) corristiog of ten familic. , the members of which were re. pon ~ ible for the goou con d. net of each other. The head. man of this conununity, <len01ninated tything-elder, (teothing ealdo1·,) seen1 to have acted as a kind of arbitrator in settling di 'putes about matter of a trifling nature; but whether he had actually a court for acln1inistcring ju ... tice does not appear. Next in order carne the hundred, (hundrede,) or, a it wa calleu in the north of Englan(l, i.he wapentake, in its odginul constitution con i. Ling of ten tything , or a hundred familie-·, u ~ ociated together by a ~ imilar bond of mutual re pon ibility. I t head n1an wa called. tho hundred's elder, (hundredes ealdor,) or ·in1ply reev-e, (gerefa,) that being the generic term for the officer of any di ' Lrict, or indeed for any officer.* This gerefa, along with the hi::;hop of the diocese, acted as the pre ·iding officer of the hundred court, which met once at least every n1onth, a nd. had both * The German graf' for wh· h th L t' . . ':!' lC e a. m conu:s ( m En 0' llsh count or earl) was employed as an · . 1 t · 0 ' . . . equn:a en , 1s a form of the ::;arne " ·ord. The law Latm for shenff 1 vice-comes . . . ' a name given, It would apprar after the title of carl or count had b h . ,1· • • ' · t b ccome Cieu1tmy, to the ofTlCcr who still contmueu o e elected by the peo 1 f . th ffi . . b th P o OI e o cml functions oriO'inally discharO'ed Y e earl. o o INTRODUCTION. 11 civil and criminal juri diction and. cognizance al o of ecclesiastical causes, which were entiLled to p recedence o\er every other business. 'There was beside a shire or county court (sln'r-genwt) held twice every year, or ofl ner if occasion requ ired, conYened by the sheriff, ( shir-reeve,) or, a be wa omctimes aL o called, the alderman, ( ealdo'r-man,) who presided over it, a - si ted by the bishop. Ilere cau e were decided and L u~iness was tran'"'acted which affected the inhabitant.· of everal of the hundreds. . The highe t court of all was that of the king, the \Vittenagemot, ( ~citan-ge1not,) in which he him~ elf was pre ent, attended by his councillors, or witan. This body, which united the functions of a legi"lative, judicial, and executive council, had no fixed times or place of meetino- but was held O) RS occa ion required, wherever the king happencu to be. As to its judicial functions, it wa in general only a court of extraordinary resort; it being a rule of the .Anglo-Saxon law that none should apply for ju ~ tice to the k ing unle s he had fir:t ought it in Yain in the local court"".* lienee the hundred and county court occupied by far the mo. t con. picnou po iLion in the A nglo-Saxon j udicial polity. 'The Anglo-Saxon hires, it 1uay be ob ·erved, having been originally principalitie , nearly, if not altogether, independent, but gradually united into one kingdom, 'vere rather tantamount to our Anglo-An1erican state than to our countic , of which the Saxon hundreds may be taken as the equivalent ; the tything. corTe pond.ing to our Anglo-American town.' hips; while (to carry out the parallel) the central authority of the llf Src F orsyth's Ilistory of Trial by ,Jury, rh. iv. sec. 4. |
