That a jury is here spoken of is beyond all doubt. But a highly remarkable circumstance has been too much overlooked, namely, that Ethelred’s above-mentioned regulation as to the composition of the jury is contained only in the law just cited; which, according to the opinion of its latest English editor, was intended only for the Five Burghs and the surrounding Danish districts. (“_The document of Ethelred, above referred to, seems, in a great measure, to have been published for the sake of the Five Burgs._”—Thorpe.) That it cannot have been intended for the Anglo-Saxon part of England may be immediately seen from the circumstance that all the fines mentioned in it are, without exception, fixed, according to Danish custom, in _marks_ and _ores_, or _öre_, and not, after the Anglo-Saxon custom, in pounds and shillings. In this concise law, moreover, we find several Danish legal terms which were not in use in the south of England; for instance, “lahcop” (Old Norsk, “lögkaup”); “wit-word” (Old N., “vitorð”); and “thrinna XII,” or “trende Tylvter Eed” (i. e. three twelves oath). With respect also to the “XII lahmen,” or, as they are called in Latin, “lagemanni” (Old Norsk, lögmaðr), mentioned in Ethelred’s time, it has long been agreed in England that they must have been originally instituted by the Danes. (Thorpe says: “_The institution was most probably of Danish origin, as we generally meet with them in the Danish portion of the country._”) They were constantly twelve in number, and it can scarcely admit of a doubt that their functions were the same as those of “the twelve eldest Thanes” before mentioned, and that consequently they were regular jurymen. We see, moreover, from Domesday-Book, which mentions “Lagemanni” only in the Danish portion of North England, viz., in Cambridge, Stamford, Lincoln, and Chester, that they were Thanes, or at least equal to Thanes in rank and privileges. Among other things, jurisdiction (sacam and socam) was conceded to them over their inferiors, or subjects. In the old Danish city of Lincoln the names are recited of those who were previously Lahmen, and of those who remained so when Domesday-Book was compiled. These names, which are partly pure Danish—as, for instance, Hardecnut, Ulf, son of Suertebrand, Walrauen, Siuuard, Aldene (Haldan), and others—prove that sons frequently succeeded their fathers in the office of Lah-man (for instance, “Suardinc loco Hardecnut patris sui. Sortebrand loco Ulf patris sui. Agemund loco Walrauen patris sui. Godvinus fil. Brictric”).