assent of
his wise men, &c. But considering the low estimation of royalty in those
days, this may rather be considered as the voice of the executive
magistrate, of the person who compiled the law and propounded it to the
Witenagemote for their consent, than of a legislator dictating from his
own proper authority. For then, it seems, the law was digested by the
king or his council for the assent of the general assembly. That order
is now reversed. All these things are, I think, sufficient to show of
what a visionary nature those systems are which would settle the ancient
Constitution in the most remote times exactly in the same form in which
we enjoy it at this day,--not considering that such mighty changes in
manners, during so many ages, always must produce a considerable change
in laws, and in the forms as well as the powers of all governments.

We shall next consider the nature of the laws passed in these
assemblies, and the judicious manner of proceeding in these several
courts which we have described.

[Sidenote: Saxon laws.]

The Anglo-Saxons trusted more to the strictness of their police, and to
the simple manners of their people, for the preservation of peace and
order, than to accuracy or exquisite digestion of their laws, or to the
severity of the punishments which they inflicted.[63] The laws which
remain to us of that people seem almost to regard two points only: the
suppressing of riots and affrays,--and the regulation of the several
ranks of men, in order to adjust the fines for delinquencies according
to the dignity of the person offended, or to the quantity of the
offence. In all other respects their laws seem very imperfect. They
often speak in the style of counsel as well as that of command. In the
collection of laws attributed to Alfred we have the Decalogue
transcribed, with no small part of the Levitical law; in the same code
are inserted many of the Saxon institutions, though these two laws were
in all respects as opposite as could possibly be imagined. These
indisputable monuments of our ancient rudeness are a very sufficient
confutation of the panegyrical declamations in which some persons would
persuade us that the crude institutions of an unlettered people had
attained an height which the united efforts of necessity, learning,
inquiry, and experience can hardly reach to in many ages. We must add,
that, although as one people under one head there was some resemblance
in the laws and customs