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Show 12 INTRODUCTION. king and the wittcnagemot may be considered as repre ented by our federal systen1 generally. But thou<Yh the reeve and the bishop pre ided in the 0 local Ann-lo- axon courts, it wa rather in the chara ter of 0 moderators than of judges; that latter function being per-formed by the freeholder" of the county, all of 'vhon1, not less than the bi "'hop and the reeve, had the right and were bounll to give their attendance at the e court . "Suits," says Ilmne;~< ''were determined ]n a . un1n1ary manner, without much pleading, fonnality, or delay, by a majority of voice ; i" and the bi hop and alderman had no further authority than to keep onler mnong the freeholders, and interpo-.c with their opinion." The e county courts, though traces of them arc to be found in all the old Teutonic states of Europe, became ultimately peculiar to England. None of the feudal government of continental Europe had any thing like thcrn; and llumr, with his u ual agacity, has remarked that p rhap"' thi · in. Litution had greater effect on the political ystem of England than has yet been <li tinctly pointed out. Dy 1nean. f thi" in -,titution, all the freeholders were obli<Ycd to take a hare in the b conduct of affair"'. Drawn fron1 that in<lividual and inde-pendent state, so distinctive of the feudal systc1n, and o hostile to social order and the authority of law, they were n1ade member of a political con1bination, and wcr taught in the ~ History of England, Appendix, I. t ~he d?ci ion of this majority would seem to have been principally determmed, 1f the party complained against denied the charrre by the method of co mptu·g a f Jon, m· wh "1 eh the oath of tho defendant ,ov a's s· u ' tained by that of a certain number of his neitrhbors who thereby certified their confidence in hi~; or, if he could n;t produce compurgators, n.nd dared 1o venture upon 1t, by n superstitious appeal to the ordeal. l~TRODGCTION. 13 lllO., t effectual lllanner the duty and aJ vantages of Cl VIC obeuience by being thc1nsel ves achnitted to a share of civic authority. Perhap", indeed, in thi Anglo-Saxon institution of hundred anu county courts we are to eek the origin of that sy tern of local administration anu elf-go\~ernn1cnt still more fully carried out in An1erica than in l~ngland, by which ]~ngli h and Anglo-American in titutions are so strongly clistingui hed from tho e of ]~urope, and in the j uuieion. combination of which with a central adn1inistration, for matters of general concern, British anu A1nerican liberty, as a practical nutttcr, 111ainly consi ,·ts. One of the ilrst procedures of the Korman Conqueror, by way of fixing hi yoke upon the ·houldcr~ of the l~ngli h people, was gradually to break down and belittle thi local administration of j u tice. lie did not venture, indeed, to abolish institutions o venerable and so popular, but he artfully effected hi purpo c by other means. lie began by f'eparati11g the civil and eccle ... iastical juri 'uicLion . rfhc bi hops, according to a fashion recently intro<luccd on the continent, were authorized to hold special courts of their own. The. e courts were at first limited to ca .. es in which ccclcsia ·tical questions were involved, or to which clcrgyn1cn were partie ; but by the progre of an artful ystern of u ' urpation.', familiar to the courts of all ages an<l nations, they gradually extended their authority to n1any purely lay 1natt rs, under pretence that there wa:s something nl>out then1 of an eccle 'ia 'tical character. It was under thi pretence that the l~ngli.sh cccle iastical court a. Ttn1cd jurisdiction of the important n1nttcr"' of marriage and divorce, of wills, and of the cli."'tribution of the personal property of intestate -a jurisdiction which they still retain in England, and which, though \'\'e ne,·cr had any 2 |