APPENDIX! 263

government; and the reigning prince, providedlie be of the royal family, passes undifputedlyfor the legal sovereign.

It is confessed, that our knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon history and antiquities is too imperfect toafford us means of determining with certaintynil the prerogatives of the crown and privilegesof the people, or of giving an exact delineationof that government. It is probable also , thatthe constitution might be somewhat different inthe different kingdoms of the Heptarchy, andthat it changed considerably during the course ofsix centuries, which elapsed from the first invasionof the Saxons till the Norman conquest 1 . Butmost of these differences and changes, with theircauses and effects, are unknown to us: It onlyappears, that, at all times, and in all the kiogydoms , there was a national council , called a.Wittenagemot or assembly of the wife men , (forthat is the import of the term ) whose consent wa^ re-quisite for enacting law's, and for ratifying the chief.

1 We know of one change, not inconsiderable in theSaxon constitution. The Saxon Annals, p. 49 . inform us, thatit was in early times the prerogative of the king to name thedukes, earls , aldermen and sheriffs of the counties. Affer ,a contemporary writer, informs us, that Alfred deposed allthe ignorant aldermen, and appointed men of more capacityin their place: Yet the laws of Edward the Confessor, §. 35-fay expressly, that the heretoghs or dukes, and the sheriffwere chosen by the freeholders in the folkmote , a county-,court, which was assembled once a-year , and where alj.the freeholders swore allegiance to the king.

S 4

Appcmfiii

I.

The Wittfl-nagemot.