“Swá ðæt nán scírgeréfa oððe mótgeréfa hæbbe ǽnige sócne oððe mót, búton ðæs abbudes ágen hǽse ⁊ unne.” Cod. Dipl. No. 841. The law of Eadweard which commands the reeve to hold his court once a month, and which can only apply to the hundred, makes it probable that as the scírgeréfa was in some places called scírman, so the hundred-man may in some places have been called hundred-geréfa: I have already alluded to the geréfa in the Wapentake; and the law of Eadweard the Confessor (§ 31) shows that in the counties where there were Triðingas or Ridings, there existed also a Triðing-geréfa. ----- CHAPTER VI. THE WITENA GEMÓT. The conquest of the Roman provinces in Europe was accomplished by successive bands of adventurers, ranged under the banners of various leaders, whom ambition, restlessness or want of means had driven from their homes. But the conquest once achieved, the strangers settled down upon the territory they had won, and became the nucleus of nations: in their new settlements they adopted the rules and forms of institutions to which they had been accustomed in their ancient home, subject indeed to such modifications as necessarily resulted from the mode of the conquest, and their new position among vanquished populations, generally superior to themselves in the arts of civilized life. If we carefully examine the nature of these ventures, we shall I think come to the conclusion that they were carried on upon what may be familiarly termed the joint-stock principle. The owner of a ship, the supplier of the weapons or food necessary to set the business on foot, is the great capitalist of the company: the man of skill and judgment and experience is listened to with respect and cheerfully obeyed: the strong arms and unflinching courage of the multitude complete the work: and when the prize is won, the profits are justly divided among the winners, according to the value of each man’s contribution to the general utility[472]. But in such voluntary associations as these, it is clear that every man retains a certain amount of free will, that he has a right to consult, discuss and advise, to assent to or dissent from the measures proposed to be adopted: even the council of war of such a band must differ very much from what in our day goes by that name; where a few officers of high rank decide, and the mass of the army blindly execute their plans. It cannot then surprise us that in such cases everything should be done with the counsel, consent and leave of the associated adventurers. The bands were then not too numerous for general consultation: there was no fear lest treachery or weakness should betray the plans to an enemy: the necessities of self-preservation guaranteed the faith of every individual; for, camped among hostile and exasperated populations, ignorant of their tongue, and remote from them in manners,