APPENDIX I.

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the loose execution of the laws, the continued Appendixdisorders and convulsions of the state ; all these 1.circumstances evince , that the Anglo - Saxongovernment became at last extremely aristocratical;and the events , during the period immediatelypreceding the conquest, confirm this inference orconjecture.

Both the punishments inflicted by the Anglo- CriminalSaxon courts of judicature, and the methods of law 'proof employed in all causes, appear somewhatsingular, and are very different from those whichprevail at present among all civilized nations.

We must conceive, that the ancient Germanswere little removed from the original state ofnature: The social confederacy among them wasmore martial than civil: They had chiefly inview the means of attack or defence againstpublic enemies, not those of protection againsttheir fellow-citizens: Their possessions were soslender and so equal, that they were not exposedto great danger; and the natural bravery of thepeople made every man trust to himself and tohis particular friends for his defence or vengeance.

This defect in the political union drew muchcloser the knot of particular confederacies: Aninsult upon any man was regarded by all hisrelations and associates as a common injury : Theywere bound by honour , as well as by a fense ofcommon interest, to revenge his death, or anyviolence which he had suffered : They retaliatedon the aggressor by like acts of violence; and ifhe were protected , as was natural and usual,