Our fourth category of the modes of blood-vengeance is intended to comprise all the methods of punishing homicide which are characteristic of fully developed social organisms, whether in ancient or in modern times. Homicide, which was originally conceived as an outrage affecting only a family or clan, may come to be regarded as a crime against the body politic, as an insult to the majesty of the State, its laws, its gods, or its governors. Indeed, this latter conception usually becomes so vigorous that it obscures and ultimately extinguishes the former, at least in so far as that former conception concerns the claims of the relatives of the victim. In early English law the word _murdrum_[5] denoted a fine payable to the king if the murderer was not produced. In feudalism, the lord claimed a _portion_ of the payment made by the relatives of the slayer. This was the _honour-price_, an atonement for the insult caused by a ‘breach of the peace.’ In historical[6] Athens wergeld was forbidden, but the property of a convicted murderer who went into perpetual exile was confiscated to the State. In ancient Israel wergeld was abolished when murder was conceived as a ‘sin’ against the God of the State, when it was believed that blood polluted the land.[7] In Greece, too, we hope to show that wergeld was abolished in the first instance by the religion of Apollo, and that the evolution of the State, if it did not assist in its abolition, at least ensured that the abolition should be permanent. Once murder becomes a sin against the gods, or a crime against the State, the day of private vengeance has passed: that of State trial, State imprisonment, State execution takes its place. The relatives may still assist, they may even be compelled to assist, in the punishment of homicide, but they have lost the right to material compensation. We will now give a few illustrations of the actual operation of these modes of blood-vengeance. As the fourth or last-mentioned mode is found in all modern States, we need not here illustrate its operation, especially as we shall have to describe, at a later stage, the treatment of homicide in historical Athens.