e almost
entirely absent in Anglo-Saxon laws or relegated to the background.
While it is impossible to give here anything like a complete or
exact survey of the field--a task rendered almost impossible by the
arbitrary manner in which paragraphs are divided, by the difficulty
of making Old English enactments fit into modern rubrics, and by the
necessity of counting several times certain paragraphs bearing on
different subjects--a brief statistical analysis of the contents of
royal codes and laws may be found instructive.

We find roughly 419 paragraphs devoted to criminal law and procedure
as against 91 concerned with questions of private law and civil
procedure. Of the criminal law clauses, as many as 238 are taken
up with tariffs of fines, while 80 treat of capital and corporal
punishment, outlawry and confiscation, and 101 include rules of
procedure. On the private law side 18 clauses apply to rights of
property and possession, 13 to succession and family law, 37 to
contracts, including marriage when treated as an act of sale; 18 touch
on civil procedure. A subject which attracted special attention was
the law of status, and no less than 107 paragraphs contain disposition
dictated by the wish to discriminate between the classes of society.
Questions of public law and administration are discussed in 217
clauses, while 197 concern the Church in one way or another, apart
from purely ecclesiastical collections. In the public law division it
is chiefly the power, interests and privileges of the king that are
dealt with, in roughly 93 paragraphs, while local administration comes
in for 39 and purely economic and fiscal matter for 13 clauses. Police
regulations are very much to the fore and occupy no less than 72
clauses of the royal legislation. As to church matters, the most
prolific group is formed by general precepts based on religious and
moral considerations, roughly 115, while secular privileges conferred
on the Church hold about 62, and questions of organization some 20
clauses.

The statistical contrasts are especially sharp and characteristic when
we take into account the chronological sequence in the elaboration of
laws. Practically the entire code of AEthelberht, for instance, is a
tariff of fines for crimes, and the same subject continues to occupy
a great place in the laws of Hlothhere and Eadric, Ine and Alfred,
whereas it appears only occasionally in the treaties with the Danes,
the laws of Withraed, Edwa