Volume 2, Part 1 Part 11 (1/2)

4. The next question to be approached concerns the pedigree of Anglo-Saxon law and the latter's natural affinities. What is its position in the legal history of Germanic nations? How far has it been influenced by non-Germanic elements, especially by Roman and Canon law? The oldest Anglo-Saxon codes, especially the Kentish and the West Saxon ones, disclose a close relations.h.i.+p to the barbaric laws of Lower Germany--those of Saxons, Frisians, Thuringians. We find a division of social ranks which reminds us of the threefold gradation of Lower Germany (edelings, frilings, lazzen-eorls, ceorls, laets), and not of the twofold Frankish one (_ingenui Franci, Romani_), nor of the minute differentiation of the Upper Germans and Lombards. In subsequent history there is a good deal of resemblance between the capitularies' legislation of Charlemagne and his successors on one hand, the acts of Alfred, Edward the Elder, aethelstan and Edgar on the other, a resemblance called forth less by direct borrowing of Frankish inst.i.tutions than by the similarity of political problems and condition. Frankish law becomes a powerful modifying element in English legal history after the Conquest, when it was introduced wholesale in royal and in feudal courts. The Scandinavian invasions brought in many northern legal customs, especially in the districts thickly populated with Danes. The Domesday survey of Lincolns.h.i.+re, Nottinghams.h.i.+re, Yorks.h.i.+re, Norfolk, &c., shows remarkable deviations in local organization and justice (lagmen, sokes), and great peculiarities as to status (socmen, freemen), while from laws and a few charters we can perceive some influence on criminal law (_nidings-vaerk_), special usages as to fines (_lahslit_), the keeping of peace, attestation and sureties of acts (_faestermen_), &c. But, on the whole, the introduction of Danish and Norse elements, apart from local cases, was more important owing to the conflicts and compromises it called forth and its social results,--than on account of any distinct trail of Scandinavian views in English law. The Scandinavian newcomers coalesced easily and quickly with the native population.

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The direct influence of Roman law was not great during the Saxon period: we notice neither the transmission of important legal doctrines, chiefly through the medium of Visigothic codes, nor the continuous stream of Roman tradition in local usage. But indirectly Roman law did exert a by no means insignificant influence through the medium of the Church, which, for all its insular character, was still permeated with Roman ideas and forms of culture. The Old English ”books” are derived in a roundabout way from Roman models, and the tribal law of real property was deeply modified by the introduction of individualistic notions as to owners.h.i.+p, donations, wills, rights of women, &c. Yet in this respect also the Norman Conquest increased the store of Roman conceptions by breaking the national isolation of the English Church and opening the way for closer intercourse with France and Italy.

5. It would be useless to attempt to trace in a brief sketch the history of the legal principles embodied in the doc.u.ments of Anglo-Saxon law. But it may be of some value to give an outline of a few particularly characteristic subjects.

(a) The Anglo-Saxon legal system cannot be understood unless one realizes the fundamental opposition between folk-right and privilege.

Folk-right is the aggregate of rules, formulated or latent but susceptible of formulation, which can be appealed to as the expression of the juridical consciousness of the people at large or of the communities of which it is composed. It is tribal in its origin, and differentiated, not according to boundaries between states, but on national and provincial lines. There may be the folk-right of West and East Saxons, of East Angles, of Kentish men, Mercians, Northumbrians, Danes, Welshmen, and these main folk-right divisions remain even when tribal kingdoms disappear and the people is concentrated in one or two realms. The chief centres for the formulation and application of folk-right were in the 10th and 11th centuries the s.h.i.+re-moots, while the witan of the realm generally placed themselves on the higher ground of State expediency, although occasionally using folk-right ideas. The older law of real property, of succession, of contracts, the customary tariffs of fines, were mainly regulated by folk-right; the reeves employed by the king and great men were supposed to take care of local and rural affairs according to folk-right. The law had to be declared and applied by the people itself in its communities, while the spokesmen of the people were neither democratic majorities nor individual experts, but a few leading men--the twelve eldest thanes or some similar quorum. Folk-right could, however, be broken or modified by special law or special grant, and the fountain of such privileges was the royal power. Alterations and exceptions were, as a matter of fact, suggested by the interested parties themselves, and chiefly by the Church. Thus a privileged land-tenure was created--bookland; the rules as to the succession of kinsmen were set at nought by concession of testamentary power and confirmations of grants and wills; special exemptions from the jurisdiction of the hundreds and special privileges as to levying fines were conferred.

In process of time the rights originating in royal grants of privilege overbalanced, as it were, folk-right in many respects, and became themselves the starting-point of a new legal system--the feudal one.

(b) Another feature of vital importance in the history of Anglo-Saxon law is its tendency towards the preservation of peace. Society is constantly struggling to ensure the main condition of its existence--peace. Already in aethelberht's legislation we find characteristic fines inflicted for breach of the peace of householders of different ranks--the ceorl, the eorl, and the king himself appearing as the most exalted among them. Peace is considered not so much a state of equilibrium and friendly relations between parties, but rather as the rule of a third within a certain region--a house, an estate, a kingdom. This leads on one side to the recognition of private authorities--the father's in his family, the master's as to servants, the lord's as to his personal or territorial dependents.

On the other hand, the tendency to maintain peace naturally takes its course towards the strongest ruler, the king, and we witness in Anglo-Saxon law the gradual evolution of more and more stringent and complete rules in respect of the king's peace and its infringements.

(c) The more ancient doc.u.ments of Anglo-Saxon law show us the individual not merely as the subject and citizen of a certain commonwealth, but also as a member of some group, all the fellows of which are closely allied in claims and responsibilities. The most elementary of these groups is the _maegth_, the a.s.sociation of agnatic and cognatic relations. Personal protection and revenge, oaths, marriage, wards.h.i.+p, succession, supervision over settlement, and good behaviour, are regulated by the law of kins.h.i.+p. A man's actions are considered not as exertions of his individual will, but as acts of the kindred, and all the fellows of the maegth are held responsible for them. What began as a natural alliance was used later as a means of enforcing responsibility and keeping lawless individuals in order. When the a.s.sociation of kinsmen failed, the voluntary a.s.sociations--guilds--appeared as subst.i.tutes. The gild brothers a.s.sociated in mutual defence and support, and they had to share in the payment of fines. The towns.h.i.+p and the hundred came also in for certain forms of collective responsibility, because they presented groups of people a.s.sociated in their economic and legal interests.

(d) In course of time the natural a.s.sociations get loosened and intermixed, and this calls forth the elaborate police legislation of the later Anglo-Saxon kings. Regulations are issued about the sale of cattle in the presence of witnesses. Enactments about the pursuit of thieves, and the calling in of warrantors to justify sales of chattels, are other expressions of the difficulties attending peaceful intercourse. Personal surety appears as a complement of and subst.i.tute for collective responsibility. The _hlaford_ and his _hiredmen_ are an inst.i.tution not only of private patronage, but also of police supervision for the sake of laying hands on malefactors and suspected persons. The _landrica_ a.s.sumes the same part in a territorial district. Ultimately the laws of the 10th and 11th centuries show the beginnings of the frankpledge a.s.sociations, which came to act so important a part in the local police and administration of the feudal age.

The points mentioned are not many, but, apart from their intrinsic importance in any system of law, they are, as it were, made prominent by the doc.u.ments themselves, as they are constantly referred to in the latter.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--_Editions_: Liebermann, _Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen_ (1903, 1906) is indispensable, and leaves nothing to be desired as to the const.i.tution of the texts. The translations and notes are, of course, to be considered in the light of an instructive, but not final, commentary. R. Schmid, _Gesetze der Angelsachsen_ (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1858) is still valuable on account of its handiness and the fulness of its glossary. B. Thorpe, _Ancient Laws and Inst.i.tutes of England_ (1840) is not very trustworthy. _Domesday Book_, i. ii. (Rec.

Comm.); _Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici_, i.-vi. ed. J.M. Kemble (1839-1848); _Cartularium Saxonic.u.m_ (up to 940), ed. W. de Gray Birch (1885-1893); J. Earle, _Land Charters_ (Oxford, 1888); Thorpe, _Diplomatarium Anglicanum; Facsimiles of Ancient Charters_, edited by the Ordnance Survey and by the British Museum; Haddan and Stubbs, _Councils of Great Britain_, i.-iii. (Oxford, 1869-1878).

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_Modern works_.--Konrad Maurer, _uber Angelsachsische Rechtsverhaltnisse, Kritische Ueberschau_ (Munich, 1853 ff.), still the best account of the history of Anglo-Saxon law; _Essays on Anglo-Saxon Law_, by H. Adams, H.C. Lodge, J.L. Laughlin and E. Young (1876); J.M. Kemble, _Saxons in England_; F. Palgrave, _History of the English Commonwealth_; Stubbs, _Const.i.tutional History of England_, i.; Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_, i.; H. Brunner, _Zur Rechtsgeschichte der romisch-germanischen Urkunde_ (1880); Sir F. Pollock, _The King's Peace_ (Oxford Lectures); F. Seebohm; _The English Village Community_; Ibid. _Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law_; Marquardsen, _Haft und Burgschaft im Angelsachsischen Recht_; Jastrow, ”uber die Strafrechtliche Stellung der Sklaven,” Gierke's _Untersuchungen_, i.; Steenstrup, _Normannerne_, iv.; F.W. Maitland, _Domesday and Beyond_ (Cambridge, 1897); H.M. Chadwick, _Studies on Anglo-Saxon Inst.i.tutions_ (1905); P. Vinogradoff, ”Folcland” in the _English Historical Review_, 1893; ”Romanistische Einflusse im Angelsachsischen Recht: Das Buchland” in the _Melanges Fitting_, 1907; ”The Transfer of Land in Old English Law” in the _Harvard Law Review_, 1907.

(P. Vi.)

ANGLO-SAXONS. The term ”Anglo-Saxon” is commonly applied to that period of English history, language and literature which preceded the Norman Conquest. It goes back to the time of King Alfred, who seems to have frequently used the t.i.tle _rex Anglorum Saxonum_ or _rex Angul-Saxonum_. The origin of this t.i.tle is not quite clear. It is generally believed to have arisen from the final union of the various kingdoms under Alfred in 886. Bede (_Hist. Eccl._ i. 15) states that the people of the more northern kingdoms (East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, &c.) belonged to the Angli, while those of Ess.e.x, Suss.e.x and Wess.e.x were sprung from the Saxons (_q.v._), and those of Kent and southern Hamps.h.i.+re from the Jutes (_q.v._). Other early writers, however, do not observe these distinctions, and neither in language nor in custom do we find evidence of any appreciable differences between the two former groups, though in custom Kent presents most remarkable contrasts with the other kingdoms. Still more curious is the fact that West Saxon writers regularly speak of their own nation as a part of the _Angelcyn_ and of their language as _Englisc_, while the West Saxon royal family claimed to be of the same stock as that of Bernicia. On the other hand, it is by no means impossible that the distinction drawn by Bede was based solely on the names Ess.e.x (East Seaxan), East Anglia, &c. We need not doubt that the Angli and the Saxons were different nations originally; but from the evidence at our disposal it seems likely that they had practically coalesced in very early times, perhaps even before the invasion. At all events the term _Angli Saxones_ seems to have first come into use on the continent, where we find it, nearly a century before Alfred's time, in the writings of Paulus Diaconus (Paul the Deacon). There can be little doubt, however, that there it was used to distinguish the Teutonic inhabitants of Britain from the Old Saxons of the continent.

See W.H. Stevenson, _a.s.ser's Life of King Alfred_ (Oxford, 1904, pp. 148 ff.); H. Munro Chadwick, _The Origin of the English Nation_ (Cambridge, 1907); also BRITAIN, _Anglo-Saxon_.

(H.M.C.)

ANGOLA, the general name of the Portuguese possessions on the west coast of Africa south of the equator. With the exception of the enclave of Kabinda (_q.v._) the province lies wholly south of the river Congo. Bounded on the W. by the Atlantic Ocean, it extends along the coast from the southern bank of the Congo (6 S., 12 E.) to the mouth of the Kunene river (17 18' S., 11 50' E.). The coast-line is some 900 m. long. On the north the Congo forms for 80 m. the boundary separating Angola from the Congo Free State. The frontier thence (in 5 52' S.) goes due east to the Kw.a.n.go river. The eastern boundary--dividing the Portuguese possessions from the Congo State and Barotseland (N.W. Rhodesia)--is a highly irregular line. On the south Angola borders German South-West Africa, the frontier being drawn somewhat S. of the 17th degree of S. lat.i.tude. The area of the province is about 480,000 sq. m. The population is estimated (1906) at 4,119,000.

The name Angola (a Portuguese corruption of the Bantu word _Ngola_) is sometimes confined to the 105 m. of coast, with its hinterland, between the mouths of the rivers Dande and Kwanza, forming the central portion of the Portuguese dominions in West Africa; in a looser manner Angola is used to designate all the western coast of Africa south of the Congo in the possession of Portugal; but the name is now officially applied to the whole of the province. Angola is divided into five districts: four on the coast, the fifth, Lunda, wholly inland, being the N.E. part of the province. Lunda is part of the old Bantu kingdom of Muata Yanvo, divided by international agreement between Portugal and the Congo Free State.

The coast divisions of Angola are Congo on the N. (from the river Congo to the river Loje), corresponding roughly with the limits of the ”kingdom of Congo” (see _History_ below); Loanda, which includes Angola in the most restricted sense mentioned above; Benguella and Mossamedes to the south. Mossamedes is again divided into two portions--the coast region and the hinterland, known as Huilla.

_Physical Features_.--The coast is for the most part flat, with occasional low cliffs and bluffs of red sandstone. There is but one deep inlet of the sea--Great Fish Bay (or Bahia dos Tigres), a little north of the Portuguese-German frontier. Farther north are Port Alexander, Little Fish Bay and Lobito Bay, while shallower bays are numerous. Lobito Bay has water sufficient to allow large s.h.i.+ps to unload close insh.o.r.e. The coast plain extends inland for a distance varying from 30 to 100 m. This region is in general spa.r.s.ely watered and somewhat sterile. The approach to the great central plateau of Africa is marked by a series of irregular terraces. This intermediate mountain belt is covered with luxuriant vegetation. Water is fairly abundant, though in the dry season obtainable only by digging in the sandy beds of the rivers. The plateau has an alt.i.tude ranging from 4000 to 6000 ft. It consists of well-watered, wide, rolling plains, and low hills with scanty vegetation. In the east the tableland falls away to the basins of the Congo and Zambezi, to the south it merges into a barren sandy desert. A large number of rivers make their way westward to the sea; they rise, mostly, in the mountain belt, and are unimportant, the only two of any size being the Kwanza and the Kunene, separately noticed. The mountain chains which form the edge of the plateau, or diversify its surface, run generally parallel to the coast, as Tala Mugongo (4400 ft.), Ch.e.l.la and Vissecua (5250 ft. to 6500 ft.). In the district of Benguella are the highest points of the province, viz. Loviti (7780 ft.), in 12 5' S., and Mt. Elonga (7550 ft.). South of the Kwanza is the volcanic mountain Caculo-Cabaza (3300 ft.). From the tableland the Kw.a.n.go and many other streams flow north to join the Kasai (one of the largest affluents of the Congo), which in its upper course forms for fully 300 m. the boundary between Angola and the Congo State. In the south-east part of the province the rivers belong either to the Zambezi system, or, like the Okavango, drain to Lake Ngami.

_Geology_.--The rock formations of Angola are met with in three distinct regions: (1) the littoral zone, (2) the median zone formed by a series of hills more or less parallel with the coast, (3) the central plateau. The central plateau consists of ancient crystalline rocks with granites overlain by unfossiliferous sandstones and conglomerates considered to be of Palaeozoic age. The outcrops are largely hidden under laterite. The median zone is composed largely of crystalline rocks with granites and some Palaeozoic unfossiliferous rocks. The littoral zone contains the only fossiliferous strata. These are of Tertiary and Cretaceous ages, the latter rocks resting on a reddish sandstone of older date. The Cretaceous rocks of the Dombe Grande region (near Benguella) are of Albian age and belong to the _Acanthoceras mamillari_ zone. The beds containing _Schloenbachia inflata_ are referable to the Gault. Rocks of Tertiary age are met with at Dombe Grande, Mossamedes and near Loanda. The sandstones with gypsum, copper and sulphur of Dombe are doubtfully considered to be of Tria.s.sic age. Recent eruptive rocks, mainly basalts, form a line of hills almost bare of vegetation between Benguella and Mossamedes.

Nepheline basalts and liparites occur at Dombe Grande. The presence of gum copal in considerable quant.i.ties in the superficial rocks is characteristic of certain regions.