By the laws
of the same prince, a conspiracy against the life of the king might be
redeemed by a fine.[****]
The price of all kinds of wounds was likewise fixed by the Saxon laws: a
wound of an inch long under the hair was paid with one shilling: one of
a like size in the face, two shillings; thirty shillings for the loss of
an ear; and so forth.[*****] There seems not to have been any difference
made, according to the dignity of the person. By the laws of Ethelbert,
any one who committed adultery with his neighbor's wife was obliged to
pay him a fine, and buy him another wife.[******]
These institutions are not peculiar to the ancient Germans. They seem
to be the necessary progress of criminal jurisprudence among every free
people, where the will of the sovereign is not implicitly obeyed. We
find them among the ancient Greeks during the time of the Trojan war.
Compositions for murder are mentioned in Nestor's speech to Achilles, in
the ninth Iliad, and are called [Greek: apoinai]. The Irish, who never
had any connections with the German nations, adopted the same practice
till very lately; and the price of a man's head was called among them
his "eric;" as we learn from Sir John Davis.
Pages:
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359