270 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

Appendix inured to industry, justice was commonly very illI. administered , and great oppression and violenceseem to have prevailed. These disorders wouldbe increased by the exorbitant power of thearistocracy ; and would , in their turn , contributeto increase it. Men, not daring to rely on theguardianship of the laws, were obliged to devotethemselves to the service of some chieftain, whoseorders they followed even to the disturbance ofthe government or the injury of their fellow-citi-zens, and who afforded them in return protectionfrom any insult or injustice by strangers. Hencewe find, by the extracts which Dr. Brady hasgiven us from Domefday-book , that almost all theinhabitants even of towns, had placed themselvesunder the clientihip of some particular nobleman,whose patronage they purchased by annual pay-ments, and whom they were obliged to consideras their sovereign , more than the king hi ; self,or even the legislature *°. A client, though afreeman, was supposed so much to belong to hispatron, that his murderer was obliged bv lawto pay a fine to the latter, as a compensationfor his lob; in like manner as he paid a fine tothe master for the murder of his slave 11 . Men,who were of a more considerable rank, but notpowerful enough, each to support himself by his

10 Brady’s treatise of boroughs , p. 3,4, 5 , etc. Thecafe was the fame with the heemen in the country. Seopref. to his hist. p. 8, 9, to, etc.

11 LL. Edw. Cons. § 8. spud Ingulf.