over all the rest, not upon any principle of subordination, but because
it was formed of all the rest. In this assembly, which was held
annually, and sometimes twice a year, sat the earls and bishops and
greater thanes, with the other officers of the crown.[60] So far as we
can judge by the style of the Saxon laws, none but the thanes, or
nobility, were considered as necessary constituent parts of this
assembly, at least whilst it acted deliberatively. It is true that great
numbers of all ranks of people attended its session, and gave by their
attendance, and their approbation of what was done, a sanction to the
laws; but when they consented to anything, it was rather in the way of
acclamation than by the exercise of a deliberate voice, or a regular
assent or negative. This may be explained by considering the analogy of
the inferior assemblies. All persons, of whatever rank, attended at the
county courts; but they did not go there as judges, they went to sue for
justice,--to be informed of their duty, and to be bound to the
performance of it. Thus all sorts of people attended at the
Witenagemotes, not to make laws, but to attend at the promulgation of
the laws;[61] as among so free a people every institution must have
wanted much of its necessary authority, if not confirmed by the general
approbation. Lambard is of opinion that in these early times the commons
sat, as they do at this day, by representation from shires and boroughs;
and he supports his opinion by very plausible reasons. A notion of this
kind, so contrary to the simplicity of the Saxon ideas of government,
and to the genius of that people, who held the arts and commerce in so
much contempt, must be founded on such appearances as no other
explanation can account for.

To the reign of Henry the Second, the citizens and burgesses were little
removed from absolute slaves. They might be taxed individually at what
sum the king thought fit to demand; or they might be discharged by