niture and domestic comfort, books, and whatever else promised to be acceptable to the person addressed. This reciprocity of liberality, and the perpetual visits which all ranks of the state were in the habit of making to Rome, the seat and centre of all the arts, science, wealth, and industry of the day, occasioned a general diffusion and use of the known conveniences and approved inventions which had then appeared.'

To the institutions of our Saxon ancestors, the fair sex are indebted for the superior rank which they hold in European society, compared with that which ladies enjoy in the east, After having explained the provisions made by the morgen gift (or matrimonial settlement) for the wife among the AngloSaxons, Mr. Turner remarks:

Nothing could be more calculated to produce a very striking dissimilarity between the Gothic nations and the Oriental states, than this exaltation of the female sex to that honour, consequence, and independence, which European laws studied to uphold. As the edu; cation of youth will always rest principally with women in the most ductile part of life, it is of the greatest importance that the fair sex should possess high rank and estimation in society, and nothing could more certainly tend to perpetuate this feeling than the privi lege of possessing property in their own right, and at their own. disposal.

That the Anglo-Saxon ladies both inherited and disposed of property as they pleased, appears from many instances: a wife is mentioned who devised land by her will, with the consent of her husband, in his lifetime. We read also of land which a wife had sold in her husband's life. We frequently find wives the parties to a sale of land, and still oftener we read of estates given to women, or devised by men of affluence to their wives. Widows selling property is also a common occurrence; so is the incident of women devising it. That they inherited land is also clear, for a case is mentioned wherein there being no male heir the estate went to a female. Women ap pear as tenants in capite ia Doomsday.'

In the chapter on the Classes and Conditions of Society, we perceive that the annexation of political privileges to landed property is of antient date; and that the improvements which were afterward introduced were in accordance with the original principle:

The birth that was thought illustrious conferred personal honour, but no political rank or power. No title was attached to it which descended by heirship and gave a perpetuity of political privileges. That was a later improvement. In theoretical reasoning, and in the eye of religion, the distinction of birth seems to be an unjust preju dice; we have all one common ancestor, and the same Creator, protector, and judge; but the morality and merit of society is the pro. duct of very complicated and diversified motives, and is never so superabundant as to suffer uninjured the loss of any one of its in

centivea

centives and supports. The fame of an applauded ancestor has stimulated many to perform noble actions, or to preserve an honourable character, and will continue so to operate while human nature exists. It creates a sentiment of honour, a dread of disgrace, an useful pride of name, which, though not universally efficient, wil frequently check the vicious propensities of passion or selfishness, when reason or religion has exhorted in vain. The distinction of birth may be therefore added to the exaltation of the female sex as another of those peculiarities, which have tended to extract from the barbarism of the Gothic nations a far nobler character than any that the rich climates of the east could rear.

That there was a nobility from landed property distinct from that of birth, attainable by every one, and possessing (what noble birth had not of itself) political rank and immunities, is very often clear from several passages. It is mentioned in the laws, as an incentive to proper actions, that through God's gift a servile thræl may become a thane, and a ceorl, an eorl, just as a singer may become a priest, and a bocere (a writer) a bishop. In the time of Ethelstan it is expressly declared, that if a ceorle have the full proprietorship of five hides of his own land, a church, and kitchen, a bell-house, a burhgate-seat, and an appropriate office in the king's hall, he shall thenceforth be a thegen or thane by right. The same laws provide that a thegen may arrive at the dignity of an eorl, and that a mas sere, or merchant, who went three times over sea with his own craft, might become a thegen. But the most curious passage on this subject is that which attests, that without the possession of a certain quan- · tity of landed property the dignity of sitting in the witena-gemot could not be enjoyed, not even though the person was noble already. An abbot of Ely had a brother who was courting the daughter of a great man, but the lady refused him because, although noble, he had not the lordship of forty hides, and therefore could not be numbered among the proceres or witena. To enable him to gratify his love and her ambition, the abbot conveyed to him certain lands belonging to his monastery. The nuptials took place, and the fraud was for some time undiscovered.

The principle of distinguishing men by their property is also es tablished in the laws. Thus we read of twyhyndum, of syxhyndum, and of twelfhyndum men. A twyhynde man was level in his were with a ceorle, and a twelthynde with a thegen. But though property might confer distinction, yet it was the possession of landed property which raised a man to those titles which might be called ennobling. Hence it is mentioned, that though a ceorle should attain to a helmet, mail, and a gold-hilted sword, yet if he had no land he must still remain a ceorle.'

It must not, however, be forgotten that a large proportion of the Saxon population was in a state of slavery: but, through the influence of Christianity, which mildly attempered the feelings of the individual, the custom of manumission began to prevail; and thus the benevolent spirit of the Gospel powerfully contributed to the amelioration of general society. It

was not in this instance only that the religion embraced by the Anglo-Saxons contributed to their improvement. The fortu. nate connection, which Christianity established between the Clergy of Europe, favoured the advancement of the mechanical arts, and opened the door to traffic and the exchange of commodities. To the Roman ecclesiastics Mr. T. ascribes the introduction of coined money among the Anglo-Saxons, and he founds this belief on the expression which they applied to coin. This was mynet, a coin, and from this, mynetian, to coin, and mynetere, a person coining. These words are obviously the Latin moneta, and monetarius; and it usually happens that when one nation borrows such a term from another, they are indebted to the same source for the knowlege of the thing which it designates.'

Gold, the author is inclined to believe, was used among these people in an uncoined state; and according to his etymology of the word shilling, it is probable that silver was originally employed as a medium of exchange in the same way. The Saxon coinage, however, is a dark subject; and Mr. Turner cannot bring his mind to a decisive judgment.

Many curious particulars are related in the Book on Landed Property. It is known that the most essential parts of what is called the Feudal System prevailed among the Anglo-Saxons; and that the modes of inheritance called gavel kind and borough-english descended from them: but it appears that they had no prescribed form of words for the conveyance of a freehold estate, and that their then deeds had no wax-seals, which were introduced at the Norman conquest. We might conclude from the documents belonging to the Anglo-Saxons, in which different kinds of property are described, that England was formerly blessed with a more genial climate than it at present enjoys; since in these writings a vineyard is not unfrequently mentioned.

As a proof of the duration of the names of places, we shall make a quotation from the chapter containing particulars on. this subject:

The local denominations by which the various places in England are now known seem to have been principally imposed by our AngloSaxon ancestors. Most of them, in their composition, betray their Saxon origin; and whoever will take the trouble to compare the names in Doomsday-book, which prevailed in the island during the

The etymology of the word scyllinga would lead us to suppose it to have been a certain quantity of uncoined silver; for whe ther we derive it from rcylan to divide, or rceale, a scale, the idea presented to us by either word is the same; that is, so much silver cut off, as in China, and weighing so much.'

time of the Confessor, with the present appellations of the same places, will find that the greatest number of them correspond. The hundreds in the county of Sussex were sixty-three, and still remain so: of these, thirty-eight bore the same names as now, and of the ville or maneria, which are boat three hundred and forty-five, there are two hundred and thirty with appellations like their present.

The following list will shew the correspondencies between the ancient and modern names of the counties which occur in Doomsdays book:

Chenth.

Sudsexe.

Midelsexe..

Hertfordscire.

London is mentioned in Bede as the metropolis of the East Saxons in the year 604, lying on the banks of the Thames, "the emporium of many people coming by sea and land."

On the interesting subject of the Government of the AngloSaxons, we highly approve the manner in which Mr. Turner has made his report. Speaking of the dignity and prerogatives of the cyning or king, he observes that

All the prerogatives and rights of the Anglo-Saxon cyning were definite and ascertained. They were such as had become established by law or custom, and could be as little exceeded by the sovereign as withheld by his people. They were not arbitrary privileges of an unknown extent. Even William the Conqueror found it necessary to have an official survey of the royal rights taken in every part of the kingdom; and we find the hundred, or similar bodies in every county, making the inquisition to the king's commissioners, who returned to the sovereign that minute record of his claims upon his subjects, which constitutes the Domesday-book. The royal claims in Domesday book were, therefore, not the arbitrary impositions of the throne, but were those which the people themselves testified to their king to have been his legal rights. Perhaps no country in Europe can exhibit such an ancient record of the freedom of its people, and the limited prerogatives of its ruler.'

The nature and powers of the Witena-Gemot, or assembly of the wise men, are afterward carefully and faithfully delineated, under the following topics of inquiry: What its members were styled? of whom it was composed? by whom convened? the times of its meeting? the place? its business? and its power? To all these questions, satisfactory answers cannot be returned: but it is highly creditable to Mr. Turner, that he confines himself to such a representation as real evidence can substantiate, and does not endeavour by the manner of his report to favour any system. We extract a passage or two from this chapter:

• We know what was necessary to exalt a ceorl to a thegen, but we cannot distinctly ascertain all the qualifications which entitled persons to a seat in the witena-gemot. There is, however, one. curious passage which ascertains, that a certain amount of property was an indispensable requisite, and that acquired property would an. swer this purpose as well as hereditary property. The possession here stated to be necessary was 40 hides of land. The whole incident is so curious as to be worth transcribing*.-Guddmund desired in matrimony the daughter of a great man, but because he had not the lordship of 40 hides of land, he could not, though noble, be reckoned among the proceres; and therefore she refused him. He went to his brother, the abbot of Ely, complaining of his misfortune. The abbot fraudulently gave him possessions of the monastery sufficient to make up the deficiency. This circumstance attests that nobility alone was not sufficient for a seat among the witan, and that forty hides of land was an indispensable qualification.

It would be highly interesting to know whether they who pos sessed this quantity of land had thereby the right of being in the witena-gemot, or whether the members of this great council were elected from the territorial proprietors, and sat as their representatives. I am not able to decide this curious question. But I cannot avoid mentioning one person's designation, which seems to have the force of expressing an elected member. Among the persons signing to the act of the gemot at Clofeshoe in 824 is " Ego Beonna electus consent. et subscrib."—

The king presided at the witena-gemots, and sometimes, perhaps always, addressed them. In 993 we have this account of a royal specch. The king says, in a charter which recites what had passed at one of their meetings, "I benigantly addressed to them salutary and pacific words. I admonished all-that those things which were worthy of the Creator, and serviceable to the health of my soul, or to my royal dignity, and which should prevail as proper for the English people, they might, with the Lord's assistance, discuss in

common."

One of their duties was to clect the sovereign, and to assist at his coronation. Another was to co-operate with the king in making jaws. Thus Bede says, of the earliest laws we have, that Ethelbert

And of repeating too, as Mr. T. apparently thinks. See p. 117.