, 1840-07-11
ALL OFFICES ANcrENrLY ELECTIVE.

LII orfICES ANClkSILf ELECTIVE
sour Saxon ancestors e!ected,' saws
Blackstone. sail subordinate magistrates, their
military officers, their sheriffs, their coroners,
their conservators of the peace, their Dor.
treeves, and even their tithing men and bors.
holders. The king himself originally deriv.
ed his Office, his honors, and his power, i'm
mediatly from the people by election
Prior to the Norman invasion, the constitu.
tion gave the people every thing-the whole
magIstracy-the whole judicature-the whole
Iegislature--all where of their own cleo.
ton"
h people annually elected, at their
public Folkmotes, their Judges, their jurors,
and other public officers. From the Jurors
thus chosen, a sufficient number was drawn
bv lot to serve in the courts of the county
These courts were governed by law and con-
science; but their laws were so very few, so
very commons and so verygood, that every boz
dv knew them, and they were therefore called
common law. perfectly ineligible to the COM
monest of the people; and, like all things of
real excellence, they stood the test of time
and experience. And what is very remarka-
BILE. the law writers, from the earliest ages
OF English history to the present time, have
written the highest ~eulogiums in praise of
the Saxon common law of England; and vet
the whole could be comprised in a few
pages.
The AngIo-Norman parliament, being COM
posed of two bodies of legislators, an here
dItary House of Lords and n representative
House OF Commons, its legislation has never
heen so democratic as that of the Saxon
WIttenagemote, composed Of one house only,
every member OF which was elected by the
people, and hence the difference between
the parliamentary statutes and common law
of England.
William the Conqueror, and his success.
sors, swept away nearly all the constitutional
liberties of that people; but their dearest
institution THAT of trial by jury) could not
be extlrpated. He superseded the Wittena-
gemote, annually elected by the popular
voice, and instituted an hereditary legisla-
ture OF nobility; he established the feudal
tenures Of property; the lands became the
kings; the people the kings subjects; the
peace of the community the kings peace and
the laws OF the nation the kings laws. "The
nation (says Blackstone) seems to have
groaned under as absolute a slavery as il was
in the power of a warlike, an ambitious, and
polite prince 10 create; when the laws were
administeredin an unknown tongue; when the
forest laws restrained all rural pleasures; and
IN cities and towns the case was no better, the
company being obliged to disperse, and fire and
candle TO be extinguished by eight at night,
at the sound Of the melancholy curfew;
when the ultimate property ofall lands and a
considerable share of present profits was
vested in the king, or by him granted out to
favorites. who, by a gradual pro-
of slavery, were absolute ~vassals to
the crown. and as absolute tyrants to the
commons; and, to crown all, the king had
ready at his command an army of
sixty thousand knights, or militia, who
bound, upon pain Of confiscating their
TO attend him in time of invasion,
Or tn quell any domestic Instruction.
Democratic Rsriewsl.