The Law of England forms the most remarkable characteristic of the country. The Law is the spirit of the national liberty, the guardian of the national religion, and the foundation of the national government. Britain has the proud distinction of being almost the only country on earth, where no act of arbitrary power can be suffered—where no man’s person, property, or conscience, can be subjected to insult with impunity—and where every man has _rights_, and all are alike under the safeguard of Law. We propose to give a rapid sketch of the history of this great principle in England. It is singular that the most intellectual nation of the ancient world—Greece—has not left us any system of law. Cicero speaks with professional scorn of all jurisprudence except the Roman. He would not have spoken thus of the Mosaic law, if he had known it. But one of the most extraordinary circumstances of the Hebrew commonwealth, is the general ignorance of its incomparable institutions, which prevailed among the most active inquirers of the northern world. But law existed from the earliest periods in Greece, though its name was often and curiously changed. In the time of Homer, the name of law was _Themis_, or establishment. In the time of Hesiod, the name was _Nomos_, or distribution. In after times, it was _Dikè_, or justice. The cause of the Greek want of system was said to be the _number_ of judges in their courts, which rendered the decision rather matter of popular sentiment than of fixed rule. The systematic nature of the Roman law arose from there being in general but _one_ judge in each court. The two prætors—the one for the city, and the other for the external jurisdiction—were annually appointed, and were accustomed, on entering on their offices, to state the rules on which they intended to act. Those rules became gradually embodied, and finally formed the groundwork of the Roman law. In the language of Rome, Law was _Lex_, from _Lego_, as the proposal of the rule was _read_ by the magistrate to the assembly of the people. The Anglo-Saxon name was Laga, from _Legen_, to lay down—from which comes our word Law. Law in England ascends as high as the time of the Druids, who, however, had no written code. But they seem to have left us the custom of Gavelkind—the division of the property of an intestate between the widow and the children, and the burning of a widow found guilty of her husband’s murder. The Roman, Pictish, and Saxon invasions, with the Heptarchy, filled the country with a general confusion of laws, until the time of Alfred. This great king and man of genius undertook to remodel the whole constitution of the West-Saxon monarchy—a design, for whose execution he has been praised by all the philosophic lawyers, as exhibiting the highest sagacity.