is a matter connected, as we shall see, with the struggle between Henry and Becket, and because it is bound up very curiously with the story of the rise of the English nation.

But

Nearly every reader of history has heard of the 'murder-tax' which the Conqueror laid on the English hundreds as a compensation for the murder of any Norman, whilst the Norman murderers were left free from any such restraint. the subsequent working of the tax is probably less known. It is thus described in the work we have already so often quoted. 'Since then the Normans and English began to live together and intermarry, the nations have become so mixed. that at this day (I am speaking of their children) one can hardly tell who is of Norman, who of English race, excepting only the serfs (ascriptitü), who are called villeins, who are not free to leave their servile condition against the will of their masters. For this reason, when almost anyone is found killed nowadays, the murder-tax is laid on as a punishment, except where you can distover the certain marks of his servile condition.' Into the miseries of slavery, either as it existed before.

1 Dialogus de Scaccario, Book I. p. 193.

the Conquest, or as they are described in other parts of this dialogue, it would be out of place to enter here; but this passage clearly shows how the question of class-freedom had become complicated with the question of race-freedom, and therefore that any act for the checking of slavery must be a sign of the introduction of a rule which could recognise no distinction between conquerors and conquered, of a king who wished to be equally the guardian of both.

It was no slight gain in this respect that by Glanville's code many of the questions between masters who were disputing for a slave were referred to the court of the vice-comes, while a man claiming personal freedom as against a supposed master, could appeal to the opinion of the neighbourhood as evidence. Two clauses alone point to a brighter stage still, a gradual possibility for escape, even for those who had fallen into this miserable condition. Both are eminently characteristic of the stages of our history.

'If a man born in slavery shall have remained quietly for a year and a day in any privileged town (villa), in such a way as to be received into

their common gyld as a citizen, he is thereby freed from villeinage.'1

The other way mentioned in these laws for recovery of freedom in spite of a master, seems to suggest at once the opposition to the growth of law on the part of the masters, and the feeling of strength in those who administered the law.

'If a master, when summoned to prove his right to a supposed slave, refused to appear in court, the case was adjourned sine die, and the slave became free.' 2

Such then was, in its most remarkable features, the work of the first of the Angevin kings, the greatest king, probably, who reigned in England. from the death of Cnut 3 to the accession of Edward I. Greater than Cnut in that, instead of merely accepting existing institutions, he revived and improved those which had sunk into disuse; greater than Edward in that, though a foreigner, he yet understood far more readily than he the

1 Glanville, Book V. chap. v.

2 Ibid., chap. i.

> For an interesting and instructive estimate of Cnut, see Lappenberg's account of him (Heeren, Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, vol. i. pp. 466-468).

needs and instincts of the people whom he governed.

The immediate effects of these reforms were, first, to give a stability to the idea of law, which it had entirely lost during the reigns of the Norman kings.

Secondly, by raising up a kind of noblesse de la robe, and combining them with the old aristocracy in the administration of the law, it put a check on the lawless habits of the latter, both by the personal influence of the new lawyers, and by the necessity which it forced on the barons of combined deliberation and action. Thirdly, it put a further check on the local tyrannies, by organizing and restraining their power over their followers, whether freemen or serfs. Fourthly, by arranging and reducing to fixed principles the method of taxation, it gave an opportunity for a fairer adjustment of the incidence of taxation, and specially for relieving the poorest classes from its weight.'

In summing up Henry's work, Ralph of Coggeshale speaks of him as 'semper paci civium mediocrium et pauperum studens nobilium ac potentium arrogantiam atque tyrannidem potenter reprimens' (R. de Coggeshale, p. 814, ed. and vol. as above). As to the adjustment of taxation by the barons of the Exchequer, see Dialogus de Scaccario, Book II. pp. 226, 227. See also Bromton,

While, lastly, it called out the local life which had been crushed before, and gave it force and use by connecting it more closely and artistically with the central power.

Nor, when speaking of the effect of Henry's policy on local life, must we forget the encouragement given by him to the great towns. The old guilds were passing from the family or religious stage into the trading stage,' and, though they had as yet gained none of that importance in national history which they afterwards gained, they were gaining a marked influence on the local struggles between the great towns and any rival power.2 Thus encouragement to trade naturally tended to call out the strength of the great towns, and Henry made daring efforts in this direction. In this, as in other parts of his policy, he unfortunately incurred the hatred and suspicion of the men on whose report so much of his reputation with

p. 1152 (ed. and vol. as above), ‘In regno suo Angliæ grave onus nunquam imposuit.'

1 See their appearance in the charters granted by Henry to Winchester and Lincoln, quoted by Professor Stubbs at pp. 158, 159, of his Documents Illustrative of English History.

2 See esp. Jocelin of Brakelonde, pp. 55-56; Camden Society's series.