and was above the temptation of a bribe; but, to
encourage his activity, he was presented with a share of the territory
he governed, or was entitled to a proportion of the fines and profits of
justice. Every man, in his district, was bound to inform him concerning
criminals, and to assist him to bring them to trial; and, as in rude and
violent times the poor and helpless were ready to be oppressed by the
strong, he was instructed particularly to defend them.

"His court was ambulatory, and assembled only twice a year, unless the
distribution of justice required that its meetings should be oftener.
Every freeholder in the county was obliged to attend it; and should he
refuse this service, his possessions were seized, and he was forced to
find surety for his appearance. The neighboring earls held not their
courts on the same day; and, what seems very singular, no judge was
allowed, after meals, to exercise his office.

"The druids also, or priests, in Germany, as we had formerly occasion to
remark, and the clergy in England, exercised a jurisdiction in the
_hundred_ and _county_ courts. They instructed the people in religious
duties, and in matters regarding the priesthood; and the princes, earls,
or _eorldormen_, related to them the laws and customs of the community.
These judges were mutually a check to each other; but it was expected
that they should agree in their judgments, and should willingly unite
their efforts for the public interest.[66]

"_But the prince or earl performed not, at all times, in person, the
obligations of his office._ The enjoyment of ease and of pleasure, to
which in Germany he had delivered himself over, when disengaged from
war, and the mean idea he conceived of the drudgery of civil affairs,
_made him often delegate to an inferior person the distribution of
justice in his district_. The same sentiments were experienced by the
Saxon nobility; and the service which they owed by their tenures, and
the high employments they sustained, called them often from the
management of their counties. The progress, too, of commerce, giving an
intricacy to cases, and swelling the civil code, added to the difficulty
of their office, and made them averse to its duties. _Sheriffs,
therefore, or deputies, were frequently appointed to transact their
business; and though these were at first under some subordination to the
earls, they grew at length to be entirely independent of them. The
connection of jurisdicti