y man could track his stolen cattle into another's ground, the
latter was obliged to show the tracks out of it, or pay their value
[q].
[FN [m] LL. Aethelst. Sec. 12. [n] Ibid. Sec. 10, 12. LL. Edg. apud
Wilkins, p. 80. LL. Ethelredi, Sec. 4 apud Wilkins, p. 103. Hloth.
and Eadm. Sec. 16. LL. Canut. Sec. 22. [o] LL. Inae, Sec. 12. [p]
LL. Inae, Sec. 37. [q] LL. Aethelst. Sec. 2. Wilkins, p. 63.]

Rebellion, to whatever excess it was carried, was not capital, but
might be redeemed by a sum of money [r]. The legislators, knowing it
impossible to prevent all disorders, only imposed a higher fine on
breaches of the peace committed in the king's court, or before an
alderman or bishop. An alehouse too seems to have been considered as
a privileged place; and any quarrels that arose there were more
severely punished than elsewhere [s].
[FN [r] LL. Ethelredi, apud Wilkins, p. 110. LL. Aelf. Sec. 4.
Wilkins, p. 35. [s] LL. Hloth. and Eadm. Sec. 12, 13. LL. Ethelr.
apud Wilkins, p. 117.]

[MN Rules of proof.]
If the manner of punishing crimes among the Anglo-Saxons appear
singular, the proofs were not less so; and were also the natural
result of the situation of the people. Whatever we may imagine
concerning the usual truth and sincerity of men who live in a rude and
barbarous state, there is much more falsehood, and even perjury among
them, than among civilized nations; virtue which is nothing but a more
enlarged and more cultivated reason, never flourishes to any degree,
nor is founded on steady principles of honour, except where a good
education becomes general; and where men are taught the pernicious
consequences of vice, treachery, and immorality. Even superstition,
though more prevalent among ignorant nations, is but a poor supply for
the defects in knowledge and education: our European ancestors, who
employed every moment the expedient of swearing on extraordinary
crosses and relics, were less honourable in all engagements than their
posterity, who, from experience, have omitted those ineffectual
securities. This general proneness to perjury was much increased by
the usual want of discernment in judges, who could not discuss an
intricate evidence, and were obliged to number, not weigh, the
testimony of the witnesses [t]. Hence the ridiculous practice of
obliging men to bring compurgators, who, as they did not pretend to
know any thing of the fact, expressed upon oath, that they believed
the person spoke