peace, on rural customs (_Rectitudines
singularum personarum_), the treatises on the reeve (_gerefa_) and on
the judge (_dema_), formulae of oaths, notions as to wergeld, &c. A
fourth group might be made of the charters, as they are based on
Old English private and public law and supply us with most important
materials in regard to it. Looking somewhat deeper at the sources
from which Old English law was derived, we shall have to modify our
classification to some extent, as the external forms of publication,
although important from the point of view of historical criticism, are
not sufficient standards as to the juridical character of the various
kinds of material. Direct statements of law would fall under the
following heads, from the point of view of their legal origins: i.
customary rules followed by divers communities capable of formulating
law; ii. enactments of authorities, especially of kings; iii. private
arrangements made under recognized legal rules. The first would
comprise, besides most of the statements of custom included in the
second division according to the first classification, a great many
of the rules entered in collections promulgated by kings; most of the
paragraphs of AEthelberht's, Hlothhere's, and Eadric's and Ine's
laws, are popular legal customs that have received the stamp of royal
authority by their insertion in official codes. On the other hand,
from Withraed's and Alfred's laws downwards, the element of enactment
by central authority becomes more and more prominent. The kings
endeavour, with the help of secular and clerical witan, to introduce
new rules and to break the power of long-standing customs (e.g. the
precepts about the keeping of holidays, the enactments of Edmund
restricting private vengeance, and the solidarity of kindreds as to
feuds, and the like). There are, however, no outward signs enabling
us to distinguish conclusively between both categories of laws in the
codes, nor is it possible to draw a line between permanent laws and
personal ordinances of single sovereigns, as has been attempted in the
case of Frankish legislation.

[Footnote 1: The _Judicia civitatis Lundoniae_ are a gild statute
confirmed by King AEthelstan.]

3. Even in the course of a general survey of the legal lore at
our disposal, one cannot help being struck by peculiarities in the
distribution of legal subjects. Matters which seem to us of primary
importance and occupy a wide place in our law-books ar