The Saxon government did little more than act the part of arbitrator between the contending parties, exacted the payment of this composition, and reduced it to a certainty.

However, the king, as the sovereign of all, and the sheriff, as the judicial officer, had their share in those fines.

This unwillingness to shed blood, which the Saxon customs gave rise to, the Christian religion confirmed.

Yet was it not altogether so imperfect as to have no punishment adequate to those great delinquencies which tend entirely to overturn a state, public robbery, murder of the lord.[71] [Sidenote: Origin of succession.] [Sidenote: Annual property.] As amongst the Anglo-Saxons government depended in some measure upon land-property, it will not be amiss to say something upon their manner of holding and inheriting their lands.

It must not be forgot that the Germans were of Scythian original, and had preserved that way of life and those peculiar manners which distinguished the parent nation.