ce, and his clearing himself, the
criminal was committed to prison, and there detained till his trial.
If he fled, either before or after finding sureties, the borsholder
and decennary became liable to inquiry, and were exposed to the
penalties of law. Thirty-one days were allowed them for producing the
criminal; and if that time elapsed without their being able to find
him, the borsholder, with two other members of the decennary, was
obliged to appear, and, together with three chief members of the three
neighbouring decennaries, (making twelve in all,) to swear that his
decennary was free from all privity both of the crime committed, and
of the escape of the criminal. If the borsholder could not find such
a number to answer for their innocence, the decennary was compelled by
fine to make satisfaction to the king, according to the degree of the
offence [f]. By this institution, every man was obliged from his own
interest to keep a watchful eye over the conduct of his neighbours;
and was in a manner surety for the behaviour of those who were placed
under the division to which he belonged: whence these decennaries
received the name of frank-pledges.
[FN [f] Leges St. Edw. cap. 20. apud Wilkins, p. 202.]

Such a regular distribution of the people, with such a strict
confinement in their habitation, may not be necessary in times when
men are more inured to obedience and justice; and it might perhaps be
regarded as destructive of liberty and commerce in a polished state;
but it was well calculated to reduce that fierce and licentious people
under the salutary restraint of law and government. But Alfred took
care to temper these rigours by other institutions favourable to the
freedom of the citizens; and nothing could be more popular and liberal
than his plan for the administration of justice. The borsholder
summoned together his whole decennary to assist him in deciding any
lesser difference which occurred among the members of this small
community. In affairs of greater moment, in appeals from the
decennary, or in controversies arising between members of different
decennaries, the cause was brought before the hundred, which consisted
of ten decennaries, or a hundred families of freemen, and which was
regularly assembled once in four weeks for the deciding of causes [g].
Their method of decision deserves to be noted, as being the origin of
juries; an institution admirable in itself, and the best calculated
for the pres