eastward to a spot near Bedford, after which it twisted about irregularly till it reached the English Channel about half way between the mouth of the Exe and Portland. After some further years of struggle the line went from the Pennine Hills southward through the Mendip Hills to the English Channel. Cumberland, Lancashire, Devon, and Cornwall were subdued at a later time. Wales remained independent for many hundred years. In these later and Western conquests. many more Britons were saved alive than in the East. 4. The English People and their Kings.-The invaders came to be usually known as Angles or English, though they were sometimes called AngloSaxon, that is to say, Angles and Saxons. The country was called England, or the land of the Angles. Each tribe had over it a king, but the king did not do as he pleased. The freemen who made up the tribe met in council and decided whether they would go to war or not. When the king died, they chose a new one out of the family of the last king. Nobody then thought it right that the eldest son of the last king should always reign after his father. A king had to command in battle as well as to sit at the head of the meetings of the freemen. If the eldest son of the king were a child, or a coward, or incapable of ruling from ill health, or from any other cause, the tribe passed him over altogether and chose his uncle or his cousin to be king. 5. Treatment of Criminals.-At these meetings of the people those who had been wronged were listened to, There were no regular judges as there are now. If a man committed a murder there was no idea that it concerned anybody to punish him except the relations of the murdered man. Some time before the English came to the island, the custom had been that the nearest relation of the murdered man considered it to be his duty to kill the murderer, like the avenger of blood, who was the nearest relation, amongst the ancient Hebrews. Then the relations of the murderer who had been killed considered it to be their duty to kill the man who had killed the murderer. So the blood feud, as it was called, went on from generation to generation, some one member of one family being always on the look-out to kill a member of the other. At last, however, people grew tired of this constant slaughter, and the custom grew up that, when a man was murdered, the murderer came to the relations of the murdered man and gave them some money to let him off. They brought the money before the meeting of the people, and then peace was made between the murderer and the relations of the man whom he had killed. If a thief was detected, he had to pay money in the same way. 3. The Religion of the English.-Such an arrangement as this was possible because the English did not think that it was at all wrong to kill a man. They were heathens, and their religion taught them that men were the better, not for being tender and merciful, but for being strong and bold. Their gods, they thought, showed favour to them if they were fierce and masterful, and would only give them happiness after their death if they died fighting. They thought that the dead warriors spent their time all day in another world in fighting for amuse ment. 7. Compurgation and Ordeal.-In other respects the mode of dealing with criminals in those days differed from ours. There were no lawyers and judges as there are now, trained to find out when a man has committed a crime which no one has seen him do. When therefore any one was accused of a murder or a theft, he was asked whether he could bring a number of honest men who lived near him to swear that he was innocent. If he could he was considered to be innocent. This was called Compurgation, because the men joined in purging him, or declaring him to be clean from the fault. If he could not get the men to swear for him he had yet another chance. He might try what was called the ordeal, or judgment of God. He had to walk blindfold over red-hot ploughshares or dip his hand into boiling water. If he missed the ploughshares, or if his hand did not appear to be hurt after three days, he was declared to be innocent. Probably scarcely anybody ever got off in this way, but as only those tried it who had failed to find men who would swear for them, they would all be considered to have bad characters because their neighbours distrusted them. For this reason nobody would feel much surprise if almost every accused person who tried the ordeal failed. |