to levying fines were conferred.
In process of time the rights originating in royal grants of privilege
overbalanced, as it were, folk-right in many respects, and became
themselves the starting-point of a new legal system--the feudal one.

(b) Another feature of vital importance in the history of Anglo-Saxon
law is its tendency towards the preservation of peace. Society
is constantly struggling to ensure the main condition of its
existence--peace. Already in AEthelberht's legislation we find
characteristic fines inflicted for breach of the peace of householders
of different ranks--the ceorl, the eorl, and the king himself
appearing as the most exalted among them. Peace is considered not so
much a state of equilibrium and friendly relations between parties,
but rather as the rule of a third within a certain region--a house,
an estate, a kingdom. This leads on one side to the recognition of
private authorities--the father's in his family, the master's as to
servants, the lord's as to his personal or territorial dependents.
On the other hand, the tendency to maintain peace naturally takes
its course towards the strongest ruler, the king, and we witness in
Anglo-Saxon law the gradual evolution of more and more stringent and
complete rules in respect of the king's peace and its infringements.

(c) The more ancient documents of Anglo-Saxon law show us the
individual not merely as the subject and citizen of a certain
commonwealth, but also as a member of some group, all the fellows
of which are closely allied in claims and responsibilities. The most
elementary of these groups is the _maegth_, the association of agnatic
and cognatic relations. Personal protection and revenge, oaths,
marriage, wardship, succession, supervision over settlement, and good
behaviour, are regulated by the law of kinship. A man's actions are
considered not as exertions of his individual will, but as acts of the
kindred, and all the fellows of the maegth are held responsible for
them. What began as a natural alliance was used later as a means of
enforcing responsibility and keeping lawless individuals in
order. When the association of kinsmen failed, the voluntary
associations--guilds--appeared as substitutes. The gild brothers
associated in mutual defence and support, and they had to share in
the payment of fines. The township and the hundred came also in for
certain forms of collective responsibility, because they presented
groups of people associ