[59] Sheriff in the Norman times was merely the king's officer, not the
earl's. The earl retained his ancient fee, without jurisdiction; the
sheriff did all the business. The elective sheriff must have disappeared
on the Conquest; for then all land was the king's, either immediately or
mediately, and therefore his officer governed.

[60] How this assembly was composed, or by what right the members sat in
it, I cannot by any means satisfy myself. What is here said is, I
believe, nearest to the truth.

[61] Hence, perhaps, all men are supposed cognizant of the law.

[62] Debet etiam rex omnia rite facere in regno, et per judicium
procerum regni.--Debet ... justitiam per consilium procerum regni sui
tenere.--Leges Ed. 17.

[63] The non-observance of a regulation of police was always heavily
punished by barbarous nations; a slighter punishment was inflicted upon
the commission of crimes. Among the Saxons moat crimes were punished by
fine; wandering from the highway without sounding an horn was death. So
among the Druids,--to enforce exactness in time at their meetings, he
that came last after the time appointed was punished with death.

[64] The Druids judged not as magistrates, but as interpreters of the
will of Heaven. "Ceterum neque animadvertere, neque vincire, neque
verberare quidem, nisi sacerdotibus permissum; non quasi in pœnam,
nec ducis jussu, sed velut Deo imperante," says Tacitus, de Mor. German.
7.