book is ſaid to have been extant ſo late as the reign of king Edward the fourth, but is now unfortunately loſt. It contained, we may probably ſuppoſe, the principal maxims of the common law, the penalties for miſdemeſnors, and the forms of judicial proceedings. Thus much may at leaſt be collected from that injunction to obſerve it, which we find in the laws of king Edward the elder, the ſon of Alfred[1]. “Omnibus qui reipublicae praeſunt etiam atque etiam mando, ut omnibus aequos ſe praebeant judices, perinde ac in judiciali libro (Saxonice, dom-bec) ſcriptum habetur; nec quicquam formident quin jus commune (Saxonice, folcrihte) audacter libereque dicant.”
But the irruption and eſtabliſhment of the Danes in England, which followed ſoon after, introduced new cuſtoms, and cauſed this code of Alfred in many provinces to fall into diſuſe; or at leaſt to be mixed and debaſed with other laws of a coarſer alloy. So that about the beginning of the eleventh century there were three principal ſyſtems of laws prevailing in different diſtricts. 1. The Mercen-Lage, or Mercian laws, which were obſerved in many of the midland counties, and thoſe bordering on the principality of Wales, the retreat of the antient Britons; and therefore very probably intermixed with the Britiſh or Druidical cuſtoms. 2. The Weſt-Saxon-Lage, or laws of the weſt Saxons, which obtained in the counties to the ſouth and weſt of the iſland, from Kent to Devonſhire. Theſe were probably much the ſame with the laws of Alfred above-mentioned, being the municipal law of the far moſt conſiderable part of his dominions, and particularly including Berkſhire, the ſeat of his peculiar reſidence. 3. The Dane-Lage, or Daniſh law, the very name of which ſpeaks it’s original and compoſition. This was principally maintained in the reſt of the midland counties, and alſo on the eaſtern coaſt, the part moſt expoſed to the viſits of that piratical people. As for the very northern provinces, they were at that time under a diſtinct government[2].
