been much the smallest of the three, and was yet inconsiderable.

The Norman Conquest is the great era of our laws. At this time the
English jurisprudence, which, had hitherto continued a poor stream, fed
from some few, and those scanty sources, was all at once, as from a
mighty flood, replenished with a vast body of foreign learning, by
which, indeed, it might be said rather to have been increased than much
improved: for this foreign law, being imposed, not adopted, for a long
time bore strong appearances of that violence by which it had been first
introduced. All our monuments bear a strong evidence to this change. New
courts of justice, new names and powers of officers, in a word, a new
tenure of land as well as new possessors of it, took place. Even the
language of public proceedings was in a great measure changed.

FOOTNOTES:

[83] Decreta illi judiciorum juxta exempla Romanorum cum consilio
sapientium constituit.--Beda, Eccl. Hist. Lib. II. c. 5.

[84] Leg. AElfred. 38, De Pugna.

[85] Justum est ut proles matrem sequatur.--Edric and Lothaire.

[86] Negatio potior est affirmatione. Possessio proprior est habenti
quam deinceps repetenti.--L. Cnut.

END OF VOL. VII.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable
Edmund Burke, Vol. VII. (of 12), by Edmund Burke

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDMOND BURKE ***

***** This file should be named 16292.txt or 16292.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/9/16292/

Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made
available by the Bibliotheque nationale de France
(BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.