282 HISTORY OF ENGLAND,

Appendix interpretation. Though it should, therefore, beI. allowed , that th'i Wittenagemot was altogethercomposed of the principal nobility , the county-courts, where all the free-holders were admitted,and which regulated all the daily occurrences oflife, formed a wide basis for the government,and were no contemptible checks on the aristo-cracy. But there is another power still moreimportant than either the judicial or legislativeto wit , the power of injuring or serving byimmediate force and violence , for which it isdifficult to obtain redress in courts of justice. Inall extensive governments, where the executionof the laws is feeble, this power naturally fallsinto the hands of the principal nobility ; and thedegree of it which prevails, cannot be deter-mined so much by the public statutes, as bysmall incidents in history, by particular customs,and sometimes by the reason and nature of things.The Highlands of Scotland have long beenentitled by law to every privilege of Britishsubjects; but it was not till very lately that thecommon people could in fact enjoy these privileges.

The powers of all the members of the Anglo-Saxon government are disput<*d among historiansand antiquaries : The extreme obscurity of thesubject, even though faction had never enteredinto the question , would naturally have begottenthose controversies. But the great influence ofthe lords over their slaves and tenants , theclientfliip of the burghers, the total want of amiddling rank of men, the extent of the monarchy,