It was probably, then, upon a system acknowledging the usual Ordeals of water and iron, the Wager of battle, and Compurgation “by oath sworn on the altar, according to the custom of Scotland,” and in which justice was generally administered by the district, provincial, or royal judge, whether inheriting his office, nominated by the crown, or chosen as arbiter in the public _Moot_, that David introduced the “Jugement del Pais” or _Visnet_; which must have, ere long, replaced the judgment of the earlier Brehon, or Deempster, by the verdict of “the good men of the country,” or the leading proprietary of the neighbourhood. Henceforth judgment was to be given by “the free-tenants, suitors of the Court,” sentence only being pronounced according to their verdict by the Judge, Sheriff, Alderman, or Bailiff, who was bound to leave the Court during their deliberation; and in process of time, the representative of the ancient president of the Gaelic Court of justice sunk so low, that the holder of the office of Deempster, which had long been shifted upon the lowest official of the law, no longer appeared at all in Court, except to pronounce that sentence of death which he himself was bound to execute--he was the _Hangman_. Every man, whether Earl, Baron, Vavassor, or Burgess, was entitled to be tried by his Peers, though one of lesser standing might be judged by the verdict of his superiors. Damages, or the amount of injuries sustained, were to be assessed by men of credit--_fide-digni_, the “unlying witnesses” of Athelstan’s Laws; and in challenge of battle, the sum deposited was to be estimated, not according to the claim of the challenger, but by “the assize of the good country,” the “body of the defender” being reckoned as one-third of the amount; whilst if a man accused of theft could prove, to the satisfaction of a similar jury, that the complainant had never possessed as much property as he charged the accused with stealing, the latter was to be at once acquitted by their verdict. Jurisdiction in the four greater causes known as “the Crown-pleas”--murder, rape, robbery, and fire-raising--was removed from the lesser Courts, no Alderman or Baron’s Bailiff being permitted to try such cases unless by special mandate of the Justiciary or “his attorney;” and it was ordered, that in every county a royal _Moot_ was to be held “within forty days,” or six week’s after the issue of the king’s writ, which was to be attended by the Bishop, the Earl, the Vicecomes, and by every free proprietor who was “Lord of a Vill.” All direct appeals to the king were prohibited, except in cases connected with the Crown-pleas, or where the officials in a lesser Court had failed to do their duty; and if the last law, ascribed to David, is not misplaced, all questions connected with property and inheritance were to be referred to the decision of “the assize of the good country.” The heir, no longer chosen according to the Law of Tanistry,