366.] But no such distinction appears in the laws; and it is contradicted by the practice of all the other barbarous nations,[*] by that of the ancient Germans,[**] and by that curious monument above mentioned of Saxon antiquity, preserved by Hickes.

There is indeed a law of Alfred's which makes wilful murder capital;[***] but this seems only to have been an attempt of that great legislator towards establishing a better police in the kingdom, and it probably remained without execution.

By the laws of the same prince, a conspiracy against the life of the king might be redeemed by a fine.[****] The price of all kinds of wounds was likewise fixed by the Saxon laws: a wound of an inch long under the hair was paid with one shilling: one of a like size in the face, two shillings; thirty shillings for the loss of an ear; and so forth.[*****] There seems not to have been any difference made, according to the dignity of the person.

By the laws of Ethelbert, any one who committed adultery with his neighbor's wife was obliged to pay him a fine, and buy him another wife.[******] These institutions are not peculiar to the ancient Germans.

They seem to be the necessary progress of criminal jurisprudence among every free people, where the will of the sovereign is not implicitly obeyed.