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The Growth of the Constitution.

Part III.—Constitution of the Early English Kingdom.

In treating of the constitution of a kingdom we may divide it into two main branches—the National Government and the Local Institutions. If called upon to describe the Constitution of England to-day we should probably begin by discussing the National Government, the Queen, Parliament, Ministers, Judges, and finish by telling about the local institutions, counties, municipal boroughs, and so forth. But in discussing the Constitution of England while it was yet young, it is better to do the reverse; for in many cases the local institutions that we have to deal with were older than the kingdom itself, and also were more important than any other institutions. Those old Germans that settled in England were fond of self-government, and every freeman took his part in public affairs. But he cared more for the affairs of his own district than for the affairs of the whole English people, and the matters that concerned his daily life he settled in his local assembly with the help of his neighbours, and usually left the national business to the King and his counsellors. It took a good many years to develop an English national spirit.

We may consider the local institutions of Early England under the three heads of the Township, the Hundred, and the Shire.

The smallest self-governing division was the township or tun. Townships exist to the present day, sometimes under the old name, but oftener as parishes. These townships had been formed page 224 gradually; sometimes a number of kinsfolk occupied a tract of land on their own account, or had it allotted to them by the chief whom they followed. Sometimes a noble who owned such a tract of land formed his dependents into a township. In each township part of the land was common pasture, and another part was cultivated in common under bye-laws made by the township. Each township had its general assembly held once a month. This assembly was called the tun-gemöt, and in it the townsmen made their bye-laws and elected their head man, the tun-gerefa or town reeve, and their beadle, and also four men to represent them in the assemblies of the hundred and the shire. In the tun-gemót also were settled petty disputes, and various orders of higher authorities, relating to such matters as taxation or the pursuit of criminals, were carried out. The townships were grouped together into hundreds, and an aggregation of hundreds constituted the shire. The union of shires made up the kingdom.

Though the name hundred still survives, as in the Chiltern Hundreds in Buckinghamshire, and in the Hundred of Isleworth in Middlesex, yet the division of the hundred is no longer used. In Early England, however, the hundreds had a large share of self-government. As to how they were first formed there is a good deal of dispute, but probably they had their origin in the primitive settlements of each hundred warriors of the invading tribes. The hundreds were very unequal in size, varying according to the fertility of the land and the density of the settlements.

The hundred had its general assembly, held once a month and called the hundred-gemôt, or hundred-mote. This assembly was attended by the principal landowners or their stewards, and by representatives from every township in the hundred, namely, the priest, the town-reeve, and four best men elected for this purpose. This assembly was presided over by a hundred-man or hundred-ealdr, who was at first elective; but when personal influence began to give way before territorial, he came to be very often nominated by the principal landowner of the hundred. The

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hundred-mote took cognisance of all matters, criminal and civil, arising within the hundred. All persons who were entitled to attend were qualified to act as judges; but, as they would have been too many, they usually elected twelve or more of their number to form a court.

The division into shires is very ancient, but the period at which it arose is the subject of some discussion. So far as we can tell, the shires were formed at different times and in different ways. Some were originally small kingdoms that eventually lost their independence. Others were sub-divisions of larger kingdoms. In Wessex the division into shires existed very early, before the end of the 7th century, and as Wessex gradually annexed the other kingdoms, these naturally fell into the rank of shires, or, if large, were split up into several shires on the lines of old tribal divisions.

The shire, like the town or the hundred, had its general assembly; but this assembly, called the shire-mote, met only twice in the year. It was attended by all the great landowners, public officers and representatives from every township in the shire, and had power to try both criminal and civil cases. As in the hundred-mote this business seems to have been entrusted to some twelve or more principal men on behalf of the whole assembly. The head of the shire was the ealdorman, who was elected not in the general assembly of the shire, but of the nation. His office, however, tended to become hereditary, and he was often the descendent of its old royal family in the days when it had been an independent kingdom. The ealdorman and the bishop both sat in the shire-mote; the ealdorman declared the law of the land, the bishop the law of the Church. The real president of the shire-mote was the shire-reeve or sheriff, an officer appointed by the King to enforce the law, and to take charge of the Crown lands. The office of sheriff never became hereditary, and was a great power in the hands of the central government. In time of war the fighting men of the shire were mustered and commanded by the ealdorman.

We now come to the National or Central Government. The page 226 head of the nation was its elected chief and representative, the King. We have seen how the German tribes, when they first came over to England, had no kings, but how circumstances called forth the royal office. Now, though the members of a noble family were always preferred, yet the kingship was elective. The people were the source of power, and the King was not their master but their minister. He was usually chosen out of one family, but was the member of the family whose age and other qualities marked him out as fittest to rule. Alfred the Great was chosen in preference to his nephews, the sons of the dead king. While the nation was very small the King was elected by the whole body of freemen, but when the nation became large he was elected by the wise men (witan) of the nation in the presence of such freemen as were able and willing to attend the election.

It is easily understood how, the larger the kingdom became, the more difficult it was to keep up government by a general assembly of the nation. And so the larger the kingdom the more exalted became the King. He was the leader of the people in time of war, and in time of peace was supreme judge and law-giver. His revenue was derived partly from land and partly from fines and fees levied in the courts of justice, the produce of mines and salt works, wrecks and treasure-trove. He had a retinue of free-born companions, his gesiths or thegns, whom he provided for out of the Folkland. Yet, comparatively speaking, his revenue was small; he had no standing army; no large body of officials and administration to help him; and his power was checked by the custom that required him to take counsel in all important business with the witenagemote, or assembly of wise men.

In every assembly of freemen it was but natural that all discussions would be carried on by the chief men; and when a tribe or nation grew large it was only the chief men who could come to the general assembly of the nation. So in process of time this assembly of the chief men gradually took the place of the assembly the nation.

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This assembly of chief or wise men was always a small body. It was presided over by the King, and was made up of the King's personal friends, his officers, his thegns, the ealdormen and bishops of the different shires, and such others as could attend. This, it is easily seen, was no representative body in the true sense of the word, yet it did to a very large extent act as a representative of the nation. In the Norman times it became the Great Council of the Norman Kings, and this in turn grew into the House of Lords.

The powers of the witenagemote were large. It had a share in all public business transacted by the King. Without its consent the King could make no laws, give no grants of land, administer no justice, nor decide any matters of general policy, such as questions of peace and war. In the general assembly of the nation the witenagemote elected, and even at times deposed, the King.

Thus I have tried shortly, and I am afraid somewhat imperfectly, to sketch the Old English Constitution. As has been well said, its defect was the weakness of its national government, a weakness that made it a prey to the Danes, and finally led to its conquest by both the Danes and Normans. Yet the merits of its local institutions were great, and these were full of vigour. They survived Danish invasions and Norman Conquest, and kept alive the love of liberty, till process of time saw the foundation of the English Parliament.

Chas. A. Tisdall.

Darkness before, all joy behind!
Yet keep thy courage, do not mind;
He soonest reads the lesson right
Who reads with back against the light!

George Houghton.