APPENDIX I.

285

or injury of a kinsman by their acquisition of Appendixnew property: And thus general peace was for a 1.moment restored to the society

But when the German nations had been fettledsome time in the provinces of the Roman empire,they made still another step towards a morecultivated life, and their criminal justice graduallyimproved and refined itself. The magistrate,whose office it was to guard public peace andto suppress private animosities , conceived himselfto be injured by every injury done to any of hispeople ; and besides the compensation to theperson who fullered, or to his family, he thoughthimself entitled to exact a sine, called theFritwit,as an atonement for the breach of peace, and asa reward for the pains which he had taken inaccommodating the quarrel. When this idea ,which is so natural, was once suggested , it waswillingly received both by sovereign and people.

The numerous fines which were levied , aug-mented the revenue of the king : And the peoplewere sensible, that he would be more vigilant ininterposing with his good offices , when he reapedsuch immediate advantage from them ; and thatinjuries would be less frequent, when, besidescompensation to the person injured, they wereexposed to this additional penalty

3 ’ Tacit de morib. Germ. The aud,or soys, that theprice of the composition was fixed; which nmit have been.by the laws and the interposition of the magistrates.

" Besides paying money to the relations of the deceasedand to the king, the murderer was also obliged to pay the