The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part A.: From the Britons of Early Times to King John
David Hume · en
[* LL. Edm. sect,. 1. Wilkins, p. 73.]
[** LL. Edm. sect. 3.]
[*** LL. Edm. sect. 2.]
[**** LL. Edm. sect. 4.]
[***** LL. Edm. sect. 7,]
[****** Tit. 63.]
[******* Wilkins, p. 71, 72]
[******** LL. Elthredi, apud Wilkins, p. 110.]
[********* Tyrrel, Introduct. vol. i. p. 120. Carte vol i.
p. 366.]
But no such distinction appears in the laws; and it is contradicted
by the practice of all the other barbarous nations,[*] by that of the
ancient Germans,[**] and by that curious monument above mentioned of
Saxon antiquity, preserved by Hickes. There is indeed a law of Alfred’s
which makes wilful murder capital;[***] but this seems only to have been
an attempt of that great legislator towards establishing a better police
in the kingdom, and it probably remained without execution. By the laws
of the same prince, a conspiracy against the life of the king might be
redeemed by a fine.[****]
The price of all kinds of wounds was likewise fixed by the Saxon laws: a
wound of an inch long under the hair was paid with one shilling: one of
a like size in the face, two shillings; thirty shillings for the loss of
an ear; and so forth.[*****] There seems not to have been any difference
made, according to the dignity of the person. By the laws of Ethelbert,
any one who committed adultery with his neighbor’s wife was obliged to
pay him a fine, and buy him another wife.[******]
These institutions are not peculiar to the ancient Germans. They seem
to be the necessary progress of criminal jurisprudence among every free
people, where the will of the sovereign is not implicitly obeyed. We
find them among the ancient Greeks during the time of the Trojan war.
Compositions for murder are mentioned in Nestor’s speech to Achilles, in
the ninth Iliad, and are called [Greek: apoinai]. The Irish, who never
had any connections with the German nations, adopted the same practice
till very lately; and the price of a man’s head was called among them
his “eric;” as we learn from Sir John Davis. The same custom seems also
to have prevailed among the Jews.[*******]
Theft and robbery were frequent among the Anglo-Saxons In order to
impose some check upon these crimes, it was ordained, that no man
should sell or buy any thing above twenty pence value, except in open
market;[********] and every bargain of sale must be executed before
witnesses.[*********]
[1: Lindenbrogius, passim.]
[2: Tacit, de Mor. Germ.]
[3: LL. Ælf. sect. 12. Wilkins, p. 29. It is
probable that by wilful murder Alfred means a treacherous
murder, committed by one who has no declared feud with
another.]
[4: LL. Ælf. sect. 4. Wilkins, p. 35.]
[5: LL. Ælf. sect. 40. See also LL. Ethelb. sect.
34, etc.]
[6: LL Ethelb. sect. 32.]
[7: Exod. cap. xxi. 29, 30.]
[8: LL. Æthelst. sect. 12.]