Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/310

Chap. VIII. OF M A N C H ET S T E R. 279 were generally puniflied by the latter 4T . In forne circumftances however the criminal was corrected with perfonal inflictions. The noble was not anfwerable for his villain in any caufes that afie&ed either life or limb 4 *. And even robbery was fometimes puniflied with banifhment, with flavery, or with hanging 49 . The right of compurgation, which unjuftly feems fo extra- ordinary a teft to the judgment of thefe later ages, and which was very familiar to the Saxons, appears to have been equally in ufe among the Britons* The accufed having aflerted his own innocency upon oath r a number of his friends appeared in court,, and (ware to their belief of the fame innocence. The rank of the witnefs was required among the Saxons and the Britons to be the fame with the rank of the accufed 10 .. And the number varied with the nature of the accufation. In all civil cafes the oaths of twenty-four met v were required to take off the force of an accufation concerning the value of an hundred and twenty pence,, and the oaths of forty-eight for. the value of two hun- dred and forty s *. In all the modes of* a criminal procefs,. the forms of pro* ceeding in the Britifli courts exactly coincide with the Saxon in fomc particulars, and are eflentially diftinguiflied from them in others.. The three' afts of murder theft and houfefiring had each nine AfFaeth Affinities or acceflbry parts of the crime, for which a perfon was equally refponlible to the law as for the actual perpetration of the deed, and was fubje&ed to different degrees of punHhment by it S V The three fiift circumftantials ef murder in particular were to point out to the murderer the proper place for the crime, to advife him about the execution, or to encourage him to the fatl ; and each required upon a de- nial of the chargeL a compurgation of an hundred men, or was followed upon confeflion of the deed vvirh a fine of an hundred and eighty pence. The three next were to point out the per* Ion intended to be murdered, to accompany the murderer a lit- tle on the road to the murder, or to attend him to the very fcene of the villainy; and if each accufation was not re felled by the oaths of two hundred men, each crime was puniihed with-