the inquirer may imagine that he has arrived at the head of the stream, while he has only been exploring one of its branches. Though the spirit of modern research has thrown more light upon the history of the law, there is still much controversy among eminent historians and jurisconsults respecting the origin of the legal institutions of this kingdom, some writers confidently maintaining that the source of our legislation must be sought in the streams which flowed from imperial Rome, and were thence distributed over the world, whilst others believe that our laws are mainly derived from the Teutonic nations from which our Anglo-Saxon ancestors originally sprang.

"There is no good reason to doubt," observes Mr. J. M. Kemble,* "that at the period when the Teutonic tribes first attracted the attention of the south, they already possessed, more or less fully developed, the principles and germs of that system of polity, which has at length found its completion in the institutions of this country, in spite of all its changes still the most true to its Germanic prototype."

labours of the indefatigable Livingstone, the discovery of the true source of the Nile seems to be one of those geographical problems which have not yet attained their solution.

*Codex Diplomaticus Evi Anglo-Saxonici, vol. I, Preface, p. iv.

By Lord Bacon it is observed, that our laws are as mixed as our language, and as our language is so much the richer, the laws are the more complete ;" and an examination of the various elements that enter into the composition of these laws proves, in the words of a recent writer, that "Roman, Saxon, Dane, and Norman in turn brought their learning, their customs, and their wisdom into the channel in which the law of England was to flow."

There are still extant several monuments of ancient legislation in this country, which may be here briefly enumerated. Passing over the periods which belong rather to the domain of fable than of history, wherein are dimly descried through the mists of obscurity the names of Dunwallo Molmutius (Dyvnwal Moelmud), king of the Britons,* and of Mercia, queen of the same nation, who are said to have enacted laws before the Christian era, we find the earliest specimen of legislation to be the

*The Molmutian laws are contained in the Welsh Triads, and though the authenticity of these historical documents may be questioned, they are not to be regarded as entirely unworthy of attention. Sir J. Mackintosh observes, in his History of England, that "the credit of the Welsh poems called 'Triads' has been unduly abated by some in consequence of injudicious attempts to exaggerate their antiquity. . . . They are certainly the work of an early age; and parts of them, if we had the means of distinguishing, would probably be found to be of an origin not much less than has been claimed for the whole. Vol. I. p. 85.

code of laws framed by Ethelbert, king of Kent A.D. 561-616, which is the OLDEST EUROPEAN CODE extant in any modern or 'barbarous' language. Next occur the laws of Hlothære and Eadric, A.D. 673-685, and of Wihtræd, A.D. 690725, also kings of Kent.*

To these succeed the laws of Ina, king of the West Saxons A.D. 688-725, and those of Alfred, Edward the Elder, Athelstan, Edmund, Edgar, Ethelred; and the code of Canute, which embodied with improvements most of the provisions in the codes of his predecessors. This monarch has been celebrated for his justice and equity; and, when in the person of Edward the Confessor the crown was restored to the line of Cerdic, the “Anglo-Saxon monarch was required by the clergy and nobility of the nation to engage that the laws of the Danish king should be inviolably observed. Hence the older body of laws acquired the name of the Laws of the Confessor, not because he enacted them, but because they received a new and efficient sanction from his authority."+

* The laws of the Kentish kings are contained in the Textus Roffensis, a manuscript preserved in the Library of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, and compiled under the direction of Ernulf, bishop of that see from 1115 to 1125. They have been published by Hearne.

Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, part I 48.

Of the legislation of William I. the principal portion extant is contained in a statute or capitulary agreed upon in an assembly of the principal persons of the realm, held about the year 1070. On this occasion the English, with one accord, demanded the restoration of the laws and customs which had prevailed in the days of the Confessor-"not referring, as was afterwards supposed, to any code or statute which the Confessor had penned or granted, but demanding the laws which had subsisted under the last legitimate king of Anglo-Saxon race." The statute framed in accordance with this demand bears the following title: "These are the laws and customs which King William granted to the people of England after the conquest of the country; being the same which King Edward, his cousin, held before him." The text of this body of laws is in the Latin and Romance languages; and both versions are given, with a learned commentary, by Sir Francis Palgrave, and also in the "Ancient Laws and Institutes of England," published by the Record Commission. This document must be considered as the principal source,t whereby the written Anglo-Saxon Law was first diffused into the Common Law.

* Palgrave's Rise and Progress, I. 54, 55. +Ibid. Proofs and Illustrations, lxxxviii.

The Law of England is divided into two kinds, the lex

Domesday Book, compiled in the reign of William I., though not strictly belonging to legislation, may be mentioned here, as one of the most ancient records of England, and the Register from which judgment was to be given upon the value, tenure, and services of the lands therein described. It contains an account of all the lands of England, except the four northern counties, from a survey taken by order of the king, and describes particularly the quantity and value of them, with the names of their possessors. The original manuscript, in two volumes, is preserved in the Chapter House at Westminster, and the work has been made public by order of the House of Lords, having been printed with types resembling the original in 1783, in two volumes, folio. An Index was published by the Record Commission in 1816, and a supplemental volume in 1817. A valuable Introduction, with Indexes of the names of tenants, and numerous notes and illustrations by Sir Henry

scripta (as contained in the Statutes or Acts of Parliament) and the lex non scripta, or unwritten law, forming the common or municipal laws of the kingdom. By the Common Law, which includes not only general, but also particular laws and customs, the proceedings and determinations in the king's ordinary courts of justice are directed and guided. These laws are not merely traditional, but are extant in the records of the several courts, in the reports of judicial decisions, treatises, &c. preserved from ancient times. See Sir Matthew Hale and Blackstone.