Saxons, a constant court, upon a Norman model, was held in the royal residence, entitled “the King's Hall;" which, until the granting of Magna Charta, followed the Sovereign wherever he removed. Over this court presided the King himself, or his Justiciary in his absence; and it was composed of the Lord Marshal, who superintended matters relating to honour and arms, and the military laws; the Lord Chancellor, who kept the Royal Seal, and had cognizance of all letters, writs, and grants to which it was attached; the Lord Treasurer, who had the principal authority in affairs of the revenue; and certain persons, learned in the laws, called the King's Justices, all of whom were assisted by the greater barons of the realm. But instead of the ancient and equitable Trial by Jury, the Normans introduced their own impious and absurd custom of Trial by Battle, for the decision of all civil and criminal questions of fact in the last resort. Yet first the institution of a regular trial by Jury has sometimes been attributed to William I., though traces of it have been shown in the Saxon judicature. The Ecclesiastical Courts, as those of the Archdeacon, Bishop, and Archbishop, were also erected at the same time with the King's; and the appeal, which was allowed from the last of these to Rome, was not only extremely costly and dilatory, but also gave the Pontiff a plausible pretence for interfering in the internal government of the realm. Besides these, there were Courts held by the Barons in the halls of their castles, at which, however, only trivial causes were decided; but as the lesser Ba rons, held of the greater, and each claimed the right of keeping such a court, they became at

length very numerous. The King's Court, however, was possessed only of the executive power, since that of making laws and levying subsidies, belonged to the Great Council, which succeeded the Witenagemote, and was composed of the Prelates and the Sovereigns, greater Barons, or tenants in chief, below whom it is generally sup posed that no persons were exempt, before the Parliament summoned by Simon Montford in 1265. This council is believed to have assembled thrice in the year without summons, but occasional meetings were called by the King's orders through his Sheriffs and Bailiffs; though he had no power of omitting any Baron who had a right to attend it, nor of introducing any below the required rank.

Another violent alteration of the English Constitution, consisted in the depopulation of whole districts to provide for the King's hunting, by establishing Forests, and subjecting them and the ancient woods of the nation to the continental servilities of Forest-law, whereby the slaughter of a beast was made almost as penal as that of a man. In the Saxon times, though no person was allowed to kill or chase the King's deer, yet he might start any game, pursue, and take it upon his own estate; but the sole property of all the game in England was now vested in the King, no one being allowed to disturb any fowl of the air, or beast of the forest, so reserved, without a royal grant of chase or free-warren; and even these licenses were given as much to preserve the breed as indulge the subject. It has been asserted, that the ancient additions of woodlands subjected to these laws were so great, that between the reigns

of Edward the Confessor and William I., nearly 17,000 acres were afforested in Hampshire; by which a piece of land amounting under the former sovereign to 3637. 19s. 10d., was reduced under the latter to 1297.

The tolls and taxes imposed by William I., were also the causes of much discontent; since all his feudal sources of wealth are said to have produced daily the sum of 10617. 10s. 1d. from not more than 2,000,000 of persons. His most oppressive impost was a land-tax called Hidage, which was similar to the Danegelt already mentioned; but he also derived great sums from Forfeitures, Corporation-rents, the Moneyage, a tax of Norman origin, and paid to the King as an equivalent for not debasing the coin, considerable property extorted from the Jews, and fines. Of these latter exactions, there is no rating the amount, since they were so various, arbitrary, and extended. They consisted of sums of money anciently paid to delay or expedite law-proceedings, and secure favour. The county of Norfolk paid an annual composition to be "fairly dealt with;" the men of Gernemue paid 25 marks, 167. 13s. 4d. to have the benefit of a charter given them by the King William de Wile paid 807. and 100 shillings, that he might have his lands, and be free of prosecution when accused of ravishing his ward; and Lucia, Countess of Chester, paid 5 marks of silver that she might not be compelled to marry for the next five years.

This very opulence, however, produced a lavish expenditure, which opened a way to privilege and freedom; for where Corporations were rich, they were enabled to buy from their lords the services

and reserved rents, which by custom he could demand, whereby the most important advances were made towards a free government. After London, Southampton stands first in the list of enfranchised cities; but historians are not agreed as to the time when a new species of constitution arose in England. About 1180, however, the Crown began to indulge large towns with immunities and privileges, on condition of receiving an annual rent or fine; by which the King was legally enriched, and the civic societies, protected from, irregular taxations, increased in convenience and commerce. In some cases, also, the inhabitants of such places retained, from their insignificance, a portion of their ancient free tenures, together with the degraded Saxon Thegns, and the Ceorls who had not conspired nor fought against William. All the rest of the nation ultimately became villeins or bondmen; and even cities and towns were subjected to the restraint of the melancholy Curfew, at the sound of which all company was obliged to disperse, and all lights were to be extinguished.

The limits of these volumes, however, will allow but a very brief description of the oppressions which the Norman invasion introduced into England, and at length spread over the whole kingdom. But it has been doubted if all these evils are justly to be attributed to William I.; and most of his changes are considered to have been in the name, rather than the nature of the Anglo-Saxon establishments. The active and aspiring spirit of the Normans, is also thought to have quickened and civilized the indolent and barbarous Saxons; and even the Curfew-of which, it may be observed, that no very exact notion or information

exists, was an institution well known on the Continent, the time of its establishment was one of continual conspiracies, and eight o'clock, when it was rung, was the usual hour of all classes retiring to rest. With regard to the ancient English customs, too, William has been said rather to have studied their restoration than their subversion; since Ingulphus states, that he made the laws of Edward the Confessor the foundation of his own, and ordered them to be observed. He materially contributed to the abolishing of slavery, by protecting the lands of the servile, and preventing their doing any undue service; by setting forth an easy and public form for their emancipation; and by enacting, that if any of them lived a year and a day in any city, burh, walled-town, or castle, without being claimed, they should be entitled to perpetual freedom. This policy served to strengthen the Crown against the Barons; but many of William's statutes were well calculated for the public benefit, one being, that stamped weights and measures should be adopted throughout the realm, " as his good predecessors had used. The Saxon Chronicle also records of his general government, that "the good peace which he made in this land is not to be forgotten: so that a man who had property of his own, might go unhurt over the kingdom, with his bosom full of gold; and no man durst slay him, though he had done ever so much evil against him." Much of the excellence of his laws, however, was lost to the lower ranks of the English, by the proceedings of the King's Courts being carried on in Norman French, though, from the earliest period, the enrolments appear to have been made in Latin,