The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 07 (of 12)

60

How this assembly was composed, or by what right the members sat in it, I cannot by any means satisfy myself. What is here said is, I believe, nearest to the truth.

61

Hence, perhaps, all men are supposed cognizant of the law.

62

Debet etiam rex omnia rite facere in regno, et per judicium procerum regni.—Debet … justitiam per consilium procerum regni sui tenere.—Leges Ed. 17.

63

The non-observance of a regulation of police was always heavily punished by barbarous nations; a slighter punishment was inflicted upon the commission of crimes. Among the Saxons moat crimes were punished by fine; wandering from the highway without sounding an horn was death. So among the Druids,—to enforce exactness in time at their meetings, he that came last after the time appointed was punished with death.

64

The Druids judged not as magistrates, but as interpreters of the will of Heaven. "Ceterum neque animadvertere, neque vincire, neque verberare quidem, nisi sacerdotibus permissum; non quasi in pœnam, nec ducis jussu, sed velut Deo imperante," says Tacitus, de Mor. German. 7.

65

Si quis emendationem oppidorum vel pontium vel profectionem militarem detrectaverit, compenset regi cxx solidis, … vel purget se, et nominentur ei xiv, et eligantur xi.—Leges Cnuti, 62.

66

Si accusatio sit, et purgatio male succedat, judicet Episcopus.—Leges Cnuti, 53.

67

Every man not privileged, whether he be paterfamilias, (heorthfest,[Heorthfeste,—the same with Husfastene, i.e. the master of a family, from the Saxon, Hearthfæst, i.e. fixed to the house or hearth]) or pedissequa, (folghere,[The Folgheres, or Folgeres, were the menial servants or followers of the Husfastene, or Housekeepers.—Bracton, Lib. III., Tract. 2, cap. 10. Leges Hen. I. cap. 8]) must enter into the hundred and tithing, and all above twelve to swear he will not be a thief or consenting to a thief.—Leges Cnuti, 19.

68

Si quis terram defenderit testimonio provinciæ, &c.—Leges Cnuti, 76: And sethe land gewerod hebbe be scyre gewitnesse.

69

See, in Madox, the case in Bishop of Bathes Court See also Brady, 272, where the witnesses on one side offer to swear, or join battle with the other.

70

Parentibus occisi fiat emendatio, vel guerra eorum portetur; unde Anglicè proverbium habetur, Bige spere of side, oththe bær; id est, Eme lanceam a latere, aut fer.—Leges Ed. 12.

The fines on the town or hundred.

Parentes murdrati sex marcas haberent, rex quadraginta. [This different from the ancient usage, where the king had half.] Si parentes deessent, dominus ejus reciperet. Si dominum non haberet, felagus ejus, id est, fide cum eo ligatus.—Leges Ed. 15.

71

Purveyance. Vide Leges Cnuti, 67.

Si quis intestatus ex hac vita decedat, sive sit per negligentiam ejus, sive per mortem subitaneam, tunc non assumat sibi dominus plus possessionis (æhta) ipsius quam justum armamentum; sed post mortem possessio (æhtgescyft) ejus quam justissime distribuatur uxori et liberis, et propinquis cognatis, cuilibet pro dignitate quæ ad cum pertinet.—Leges Cnuti, 68.

72

I have known, myself, great mistakes in calculation by computing, as the produce of every day in the year, that of one extraordinary day.

73

The Bishop of Winchester fined for not putting the king in mind to give a girdle to the Countess of Albemarle.—Robertus de Vallibus debet quinque optimos palafredos, ut rex taceret de uxore Henrici Pinel.—The wife of Hugh do Nevil fined in two hundred hens, that she might lie with, her husband for one night; another, that he might rise from, his infirmity; a third, that he might eat.

74

For some particulars of the condition of the English of this time, vide Eadmer, p. 110.

75

Upon occasion of a ward refused in marriage. Wright thinks the feudal right of marriage not then introduced.

76

Maimbourg.

77

Chron. Sax. 204.

78

Seld. Tithes, p. 482.

79

LL. Ethelred. Si presbyter homicida fieret, &c.

80

LL. Cnuti, 38, De Ministro Altaris Homicida. Idem, 40, De Ordinato Capitis reo.

81

LL. H.I. 57, De Querela Vicinorum; and 56 [66?]. De Ordinato qui Vitam forisfaciat, in Fœd. Alured. et Guthurn., apud Spel. Concil. 376, 1st vol.; LL. Edw. et Guthurn., 3, De Correctione Ordinatorum.

82

A word of uncertain derivation, but which signifies some scandalous species of cowardice.

83