"Alfred cantoned his kingdom, first into _Trihings_ and _Lathes_, as they are still called in Kent and other places, consisting of three or four Hundreds; _in which, the freeholders being judges_, such causes were brought as could not be determined in the Hundred court."--_Tyrrell's Introduction to the History of England_, p. 80. Of the _Hundred Court_ he says: "In this court anciently, _one of the principal inhabitants, called the alderman, together with the barons of the Hundred[51]--id est the freeholders--was judge_."--_Ditto_, p. 80. Also he says: "By a law of Edward the Elder, 'Every sheriff shall convene the people once a month, and do equal right to all, putting an end to controversies at times appointed.'"--_Ditto_, p. 86. "A statute, emphatically termed the 'Grand Assize,' enabled the defendant, if he thought proper, to abide by the testimony of the twelve good and lawful knights, chosen by four others of the vicinage, _and whose oaths gave a final decision to the contested claim_."--_1 Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth_, 261. "From the moment when the crown became accustomed to the 'Inquest,' a restraint was imposed upon every branch of the prerogative. _The king could never be informed of his rights, but through the medium of the people._ Every 'extent' by which he claimed the profits and advantages resulting from the casualties of tenure, every process by which he repressed the usurpations of the baronage, depended upon the 'good men and true' who were impanelled to 'pass' between the subject and the sovereign; and the thunder of the Exchequer at Westminster might be silenced by the honesty, the firmness, or the obstinacy, of one sturdy knight or yeoman in the distant shire. Taxation was controlled in the same manner by the voice of those who were most liable to oppression. * * A jury was impanelled to adjudge the proportion due to the sovereign; and this course was not essentially varied, even after the right of granting aids to the crown was fully acknowledged to be vested in the parliament of the realm. The people taxed themselves; and the collection of the grants was checked and controlled, and, perhaps, in many instances evaded, by these virtual representatives of the community.