states the varying prices at which human lives were rated according to their rank, — a capitis estimatio. Although in time the custom of *' Weregild " was abrogated in England, and Wil liam the Conqueror took away all capital punishments and substituted physical muti lation, — the loss of arms, of hands and feet and eyes, — yet by the time of Henry IV. the punishment of homicide was, regularly, death. A custom then sprang up of insti tuting two kinds of proceedings, the one being at the suit of the heir or wife by an appeal, the other at the suit of the king by indictment. In the case of an appeal, Lord Coke has pointed out that the offender was to be hanged by the neck till he be dead; and in case he was convicted on an appeal, the ancient usage was that all the relations of the slain should drag him with a long rope to the place of execution. (3 Coke's Ins., 131; Plowden, 306, B. 11.) In theft, Sir Matthew Hale points out that the punishment varied from time to time, according as the offense grew and prevailed, more or less. By the laws of Ethelbert, if one man stole anything from another, he was to restore threefold, besides a fine to the king; if he stole anything from the king, he was to restore ninefold. By the laws of Ina, a thief was punished with death; but if a rogue who had been often accused, but never convicted, should be taken in a theft, he was to have a hand or foot cut off. By the laws of Alfred, whoever stole a mare with foal, or a cow with a calf, was to pay 405., besides the price of the mare or cow; while whoever stole anything out of a church, was to pay the value and a fine, according to the value, and also was to have the hand cut off which committed the act. Malmsbury tells us that in the time of William I. theft was punished with castration and loss of eyes; but in the time of Henry I. the an cient law, which continued until the early part of this century, was that the thief or
the robber should be hanged by the neck until dead. The comparative clemency of the Saxons was soon supplanted by the ferocious and warlike spirit of the Normans; and as time went on, crimes punishable by death were created by the score. A study of the stat utes cannot fail to impress us with the fact that from century to century the mass of sanguinary legislation rolled on, augmenting in -bulk and black with terror. Bigotry, avarice, ambition, fanaticism, the selfish pleasures of the rich, the jealousies of land owners, the brutalities of sheriffs, the greed of gaolers, and the interests of scheming monopolists, alike demanded victims, and cried out for blood. The laws of Edward I., of Edward III., and Richard II., inflicted upon offenders the punishment of death, whenever a man purveyed victuals without warrant, or im ported " false and evil coin; " whether he stole a falcon or concealed a hawk, or ex ported wools, leather, or lead; and by the 14th statute of Edward III., chap. 10, if a gaoler or underkeeper by too great duress of imprisonment and by pain made any prisoner in his ward to become an appealer against his will, and thereof be attaint, he should have judgment of life. The impor tation of false and evil money was prohibited under pain of life and liberty, and *he ex portation of coin or bullion was prohibited under pain of forfeiture, one branch of this being declared treason by the statute of 25 Edward III. The statute of 27 Edward III. prohibited the exportation of wools, leather, or lead by any English, Irish, or Welshman, under pain of loss of life and liberty, and forfeiture of land and goods. This was subsequently amended, as the spirit of commerce grew to strength, by allowing merchant denizens to pass with their wool, as well as foreigners, without being restrained. In the reign of Henry IV. it was ordained, by statute passed in the fifth year of that
