ervation of liberty and the administration of justice that
ever was devised by the wit of man. Twelve freeholders were chosen,
who, having sworn, together with the hundreder, or presiding
magistrate of that division, to administer impartial justice [h],
proceeded to the examination of that cause which was submitted to
their jurisdiction. And beside these monthly meetings of the hundred,
there was an annual meeting, appointed for a more general inspection
of the police of the district; for the inquiry into crimes, the
correction of abuses in magistrates, and the obliging of every person
to show the decennary in which he was registered. The people, in
imitation of their ancestors, the ancient Germans, assembled there in
arms; whence a hundred was sometimes called a wapentake, and its court
served both for the support of military discipline, and for the
administration of civil justice [i].
[FN [g] Leg. Edw. cap. 2. [h] Foedus Alfred. and Gothurn. apud
Wilkins, cap. 3. p. 47. Leg. Ethelstani, cap. 2. apud Wilkins, p. 58.
LL. Ethelr. sec. 4. Wilkins, p. 117. [i] Spellman, IN VOCE Wapentake.]

The next superior court to that of the hundred was the county-court,
which met twice a year, after Michaelmas and Easter, and consisted of
the freeholders of the county, who possessed an equal vote in the
decision of causes. The bishop presided in this court, together with
the alderman; and the proper object of the court was the receiving of
appeals from the hundreds and decennaries, and the deciding of such
controversies as arose between men of different hundreds. Formerly,
the alderman possessed both the civil and military authority; but
Alfred, sensible that this conjunction of powers rendered the nobility
dangerous and independent, appointed also a sheriff in each county,
who enjoyed a co-ordinate authority with the former in the judicial
function [k]. His office also empowered him to guard the rights of
the crown in the county, and to levy the fines imposed; which in that
age formed no contemptible part of the public revenue.
[FN [k] Ingulph. p. 870.]

There lay an appeal, in default of justice, from all these courts to
the king himself in council; and as the people, sensible of the equity
and great talents of Alfred, placed their chief confidence in him, he
was soon overwhelmed with appeals from all parts of England. He was
indefatigable in the despatch of these causes [l]; but finding that
his time must be entirely e