Attempts have been made to determine the condition of individuals, and to classify men according to the _wehrgeld;_ that is to say, according to the sum by which a man might compound for the commission of a murder, which was consequently the measure of the valuation of different lives. Shall we find here any more certain and unvarying principle by which social conditions may be classified? I have made an abstract of all the cases of _wehrgeld_ stipulated in the Barbaric laws. I will not enumerate them all, but will bring before you twenty-one of the principal, ranging from the sum of 1800 _solidi_, the largest value that was legally placed on any man's life, down to 20 _solidi_. The _wehrgeld_ amounted to:-- 1800 sol. _(solidi_): for the murder of a free barbarian, a companion of the king (_in truste regiâ_), attacked and killed in his house by an ... 960 sol.: 1st. the duke, among the Bavarians; 2nd. the bishop, among armed band, among the Salian Franks, the Germans. {138} 900 sol.: 1st. the bishop, among the Ripuarian Franks; 2nd. the Roman, _in truste regiâ_, attacked and killed in his own house by an armed band, among the Salian Franks. 640 sol.: the relatives of a duke, with the Barbarians. 600 sol.: 1st. every man _in truste regiâ_, with the Ripuarians; 2nd. the same, with the Salian Franks, 3rd. the count, with the Ripuarians; 4th. the priest, born free, with the Ripuarians; 5th. the priest, with the Germans; 6th. the count, with the Salian Franks; 7th. the _Sagibaro_ (a kind of judge) free, _ibid._; 8th. the priest, _ibid_.; the free man attacked and killed in his own house by an armed band, _ibid_. 500 sol.: the deacon, with the Ripuarians. 400 sol.: 1st. the sub-deacon, with the Ripuarians; 2nd. the deacon, with the Germans; 3rd. the same, among the Salian Franks. 300 sol.: 1st. the Roman living with the king, with the Salian Franks; 2nd. the young man brought up in the service of the king, and those who had been enfranchised by the king, and made counts, with the Ripuarians; 3rd. the priest, among the Bavarians; 4th. the _Sagibaro_ who had been brought up in the court of the king, with the Salian Franks; 5th. the Roman killed by an armed band in his house, _ibid_. 200 sol.: the free-born clerk, with the Ripuarians; 2nd. the deacon, with the Bavarians; 3rd. the free Ripuarian Frank; 4th. the German of the middle classes; 5th. the Frank or Barbarian, living under Salic law; 6th. the travelling Frank, with the Ripuarians; 7th. the man who had become enfranchised by purchase, with the Ripuarians. 160 sol.: 1st. the free man in general, among the Germans; 2nd. the same, with the Bavarians; 3rd. the Burgundian, the German, the Bavarian, the Frison, the Saxon, with the Ripuarians; 4th. the free man cultivating ecclesiastical property, with the Germans.