The British nation a history / by George MWrong . Scourging a Slave. least several times in the year. To it came the reeveand other chief men from the villages, and upon thosegathered together appears at first to have been laid the Y2 THE BRITISH NATION. Old English Gallows. burden of preserving order in the district and of settlingdisputes. The evildoers were arraigned before them, andto them the wronged man appealed. Justice was the accused man denied his guilt,he must swear that he was innocentand find twelve other men in the com-munity to swear that they believedhim. By this method
The British nation a history / by George MWrong . Scourging a Slave. least several times in the year. To it came the reeveand other chief men from the villages, and upon thosegathered together appears at first to have been laid the Y2 THE BRITISH NATION. Old English Gallows. burden of preserving order in the district and of settlingdisputes. The evildoers were arraigned before them, andto them the wronged man appealed. Justice was the accused man denied his guilt,he must swear that he was innocentand find twelve other men in the com-munity to swear that they believedhim. By this method of compurga-tion he was acquitted. But shouldhe fail to secure compurgators, hemust go through the ordeal—plungehis arm into boiling water, or walkblindfold over red-hot plough-shares,and be able to show at the end of afixed number of days that he had re-ceived no harm. On such terms few,if any, could be proved innocent. Xo doubt, however,most of those accused either admitted guilt or foundcompurgators to declare their innocence. There was a still larger union than the hundred—that of the whole tribe, at first inhabiting an area about equal . , to the modern county, but soon, bv union. The meeting of ^ t -i n the people in the couquest, and
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