Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/311

ste TH E HI 3 T DRY Book L with the mill & of thrte hundred and fitfty pence. And the other three were a&ually to afliflr the murderer, to detain the unhappy man till the murderer came up, and to ftand by and behold the commiflion of the murder, and were each to be anfwered by. three hundred men or mul&ed five hundred and forty pence ,". The fine for the a&ual perpetration of murder, the WerigilcT of the Saxons, was denominated Gwerth among the Britons, the> worth or price of the murdered. Even the king had his gwerth, as among the Saxons ; though the Britifh law has not, like the Saxon, fufficiently told us the rate of it 5 The gwerth of an uchelwyr was fettled at fixty-three cows or fifteen pounds fifteen Jhillings in all, and the gwerth of an uchelwyr's villain at half the money "• The fine was difcharged to the lord and the re* lations of the murdered. All the kindred of the murderer were obliged to contribute to it in certain proportions afcertained by the law. And, if every penny was not paid, the former might put the murderer to death with impunity **. In all the modes of a civil procefs, the forms of proceeding in the Britifh courts ftand entirely diflinguifhed from the Saxon, Every caufe that refpe&ed inheritances was referred to the prin- cipal court, to the examination of the king or his deputy, the official judges, and the collected barons ". The other courts were continually open : but this was occafionally fhut. Its ju- ridical year was divided into terms. Thefe were only two in number, and in this the infancy of civil polity were very natu- rally regulated by the feafon of fowing and the period of the harveft * The former commenced upon the 9th of May, wheh the feed-time was concluded, and lafted to the 9th of Auguff. The latter began upon the 9th of November, when the harveft was con^pleated, and continued to the 9th of February $ Though the fuits in thefe courts refpe&ed the defcent of inherit- ances, the moft involved and perplexing caufes that are brought before our prefent judicatures, yet the a&ioti was fo generally decided within the compafs of a Single term, that if it ever .extended beyond the clofe of it, it was neceffarily recommenced at the beginning of the next *°. Every a&ion was profecuted with