LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.

ACTS of Parliament are thus referred to:

St. 32 Hen. 8, c. 16, s. 13, or simply, 32 Hen. 8, c. 16, s. 13= the statute of the 32nd year of Henry VIII.'s reign, chapter 16, section 13.

2 Ric. 2, st. 1, c. 4= the 1st statute of the 2nd year of Richard II's reign, chapter 4.

1 Will. & Mar. sess. 2. c. 2=chapter 2 of the second session of the reign of William and Mary.

=

Art. sup. cart Articuli super Cartas.

8 B & S = Best & Smith's (Queen's Bench) Reports, vol. viii.

4 Burr. Burrow's Reports (King's Bench), vol. iv.

11 Cl. & F. Clark and Finnelly's House of Lords Reports, vol. xi.

J., following a name, =Judge; thus "Powell J." Judge Powell. [So C. J. Chief Justice].

10 Q. B. = Queen's Bench Reports (by Adolphus & Ellis) vol. x. Stat. Wynton. Statute of Winchester.

1 W. Blackst. Sir Wm. Blackstone's Reports, vol. i.

=

2. Wils. Wilson's Reports, Part ii. (Common Pleas)..

PART I.

Social and Local Development of the Constitution.

CHAPTER I.

ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH INSTITUTIONS.

Sources of our Institutions.-The political and social institutions of the people of England, which together make up what is called the Constitution, derive their origin mainly from two sources— (1) The laws and customs of the Teutonic tribes, who in the time of the old Roman Empire occupied the central parts of Europe; and (2) The feudal system, which grew out of those laws and customs at a period subsequent to the settlement of the Angles and Saxons in Britain, and which was imported into this country at the Norman Conquest. In Continental Europe the Teutonic tribes, when they overran and subjugated the countries previously under the sway of Rome, adopted in great part the institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, of the population among whom they settled as conquerors, institutions which were established by the authority of Rome, and were based on her civil law. Hence we find that Roman law remains to this day the groundwork of all the legal systems of Western Europe, except the English. The Angles and Saxons, on the contrary, when

ENG. INST.

A

they invaded Britain, swept away all traces of Roman civilisation and institutions from the districts which they occupied. The constitution, therefore, which first developed itself as that of Wessex, Mercia, and the other kingdoms of the so-called Heptarchy,1 and which, when the West-Saxon kingdom absorbed its rivals, became, with various local modifications, the constitution of all England, was almost entirely Teutonic in its origin and growth.

Early Teutonic Institutions.-The early political and social condition of the German tribes is described by Tacitus in his Germania. Among its essential features, we notice the natural freedom of every individual of the community, coupled with the possibility, under certain circumstances, of being reduced to slavery; and the right of every man to take part in the deliberations on all important affairs of state, in the trials of offenders who were accused before the general council, and in the choice of magistrates, who were appointed to administer justice throughout the districts and villages, with the assistance of a hundred of the common people as assessors. This democratic state of things was, however, tempered by the existence, first, of kings possessed of a limited authority, and chosen on account of their high birth; and, secondly, of principes who were dignified with that rank, either for the same reason, or as the reward of personal merit, and who transacted the details of public business without consulting the mass of the people. Another counterpoise to the democratic element in the Teutonic institutions, was furnished by the practice which Tacitus mentions of each princeps attaching to himself a large body of his fellow-tribesmen as

1 The number and dimensions of these kingdoms were perpetually varying. The name Heptarchy is derived from the fact that seven attained to a greater prominence in size and importance than the others. 2 See Tac. Germ. cc. 7, 11-14, 24, 25.

followers (comites), who attended him devotedly in war, and looked to his bounty for remuneration. This practice was destined to play a most important part in the political history of the future nations of Western Europe, being the groundwork on which the system of feudalism was eventually erected. In succeeding chapters, the characteristics. of German polity, thus described by Tacitus, will be traced in the early English constitution and its subsequent development; though partially concealed beneath various modifications and additions, arising out of the changing circumstances of the people and the progress of events.

Feudalism.—A sketch of the principal features of feudalism will be given in chap. ii. § 2 (see p. 7), when attention will be drawn to the effect of its introduction at the Norman Conquest upon the condition of the English people. It will be sufficient to observe here that, while in the early Teutonic polity the relations of the people to their rulers and among themselves were purely personal in their nature, these relations under the feudal system were almost as exclusively territorial. It is true that our preNorman ancestors had already begun to blend the territorial with the personal principle in their institutions; but nearly all the changes effected in the constitution of the country at the Norman Conquest were connected with the predominance then given, by the introduction of continental feudalism, to the territorial relationship which had previously existed in the country in a comparatively imperfect and subordinate form. But though dominant for a time, it did not stamp out or even permanently override the incidents of personal relationship. Whatever excellence our institutions possess over those of other nations, is due in great measure to the fact that the personal element was left in our constitution sufficiently strong to contend with and eventually over

master the territorial element, receiving, however, in the course of the struggle some moderating and tempering influences from the opponent principle.

CHAPTER II.

THE PEOPLE.

1.1 Classes of the People.-The English settlers in Britain were from the first divided into the two great hereditary classes of Eorls (the principes of Tacitus) and Ceorls,2 both free, but the former of noble, the latter of ignoble birth. The oath of an eorl availed against that of six ceorls, and there was a corresponding difference in the amount of the weregild or compensation-money to be paid for the murder of a member of the two classes; which in the case of a ceorl was only 200 shillings (whence he was called a twyhyndman), but in that of an eorl 1200 shillings. Besides these distinctions between the two classes, another was introduced, which had not existed when the people dwelt in the forests of Germany. Their private wealth had then consisted of household furniture, armour, and cattle, while their land was regarded as the

common property of the tribe. But after settling upon the conquered soil of Britain, they made continually increasing encroachments on the folc-land, or land common to the whole people, by converting portion after portion of it into boc-land-land held by private individuals, by book or charter. Landed wealth was at first the accompaniment of noble birth or personal merit, and when it became dissociated from these, it was gradually looked

1 For the periods of our history to which the sections marked 1-6 in the different chapters correspond, see the Preface.

2 The words have now, under the modernised forms of earl and churl, acquired totally different meanings