Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/297

Rh perty of the irregular as well as of the lawful wife, both during cohabitation and on separation, which appears to have been frequent. The lawful wife seems to have had no other protection against the introduction of the &quot;adal- traich &quot; wife than the withdrawal of her separate property, in addition to certain mulcts payable to her on the occasion. She possessed independent rights of alienating a portion of her separate property, and could, to some extent, control the rights of alienation of her husband. The looseness of the marriage tie evidenced by these laws was one of the evils calling for reform alleged by the Irish prelates in their letter moving Pope Alexander III. to ratify the grant of the island made by Adrian IV. to king Henry II. The practice of putting out the children of the wealthier classes to be nursed and educated may have contributed to make such relations less incompatible with domestic peace. The law of fosterage, of which few if any recognizable traces, outside the law of apprenticeship, have survived elsewhere, provides for the external nursing and educating of the children of the upper class by poorer members of the community, who, besides the fosterage-fee received with the infant* had a claim on the foster-child for support in old age. The fostering began from infancy, and ter minated, in the case of daughters, at thirteen, and of sons, at seventeen years of age. A certain amount of instruction should be imparted. Girls of the less wealthy class should be taught to use the handmill (quern) and sieve, to bake, and to rear young cattle ; those of the higher class to sew, cut out, and embroider. The boys should learn kiln- drying and wood-cutting, and those of the upper class chess-playing, the use of missiles, horsemanship, and swim ming. The lawful food for all was porridge. Their clothing, besides the nursing clothes supplied by the parents, was according to their status, from sober coloured stuffs for the children of the less wealthy to scarlet cloth and silks for the children of those of the rank of king. Provision was made for the necessary correction of the pupil, with mulcts for excess. During the pupilage, the foster-father was entitled to all compensation for injuries to his charge, and liable to all mulcts for their offences. If the child died in its pupilage, another might be sent in its place. If returned before the completion of the term, or imperfectly educated, the foster-father should refund. The fixing of the proportionate amounts due in the several cases gives rise to much minute regulation. The law of military service like the others, was based on a system of fines leviable for non-attendance and even for desertion in the field. To what has been said on the land-law it may be added that public contributions were leviable for the repair of roads and bridges, and the maintenance of the chiefs or king s fortresses ; and that each community had a public mill, fishing-net, ferry-boat, ifcc., besides such objects of this kind as were possessed in sevcralty by the wealthisr members. There was also a law of waifs and strays, and of wrecks of the sea, with provisions for the entertainment of shipwrecked seamen at the common charge of the district entitled to the distribution of the wreck. There is little mention of testamentary disposition ; and from the language employed, a Roman origin may be probably surmised for it. To counterpoise the excess of privilege incident to the possession of wealth, the mulcts payable for misfeasances and nonfeasances of all kinds were graduated in the interests of the poorer classes. Crime and breach of con tract might reduce from the highest to the lowest grade. As regards the law of contracts generally, the disabilities arising from tribal partnership, infancy, imbecility, cover ture, and obligation to the lord give riss to many excep tions and qualifications, the general rule being that acquiescence, after notice, by the parties jointly interested, or standing in relations of protectorship, has the effect of validating what would otherwise be void. Distinct periods are limited within which the parties entitled to disagree may avoid the bargain ; and, in all cases, a locus poenitentice of twenty-four hours is annexed to the oral agreement, within which time either party may rescind it. The nature and effect of a warranty on sale appears also to have been understood and provided for ; and frequent reference is made to the cases arising on unsoundness, latent or supervening. There are some traces of a law of the market; but how far, if at all, it qualified the ordinary rules of contract, does not appear. The Acnachs, or great fairs, were held at distant places and at long intervals of time. Various immunities are given to the persons fre quenting them ; and a violation of some of the necessary provisions for securing the peace and decorum of the meet ings was exceptionally punishable with death, while almost every other offence might be condoned by a pecuniary payment. A highly interesting account of one of these great assemblages, which was held triennially at Carman, near Wexford, is given in a tract translated in the 2d series of O Curry s Lectures, where, among the various classes resorting there for amusement and traffic, mention is made of Greek merchants bringing commodities for sale. The laws themselves give little intimation of their own origin or sanctions. They appear to have undergone no substan tial changes from time immemorial ; but some evidence exists of local law-making authority exercised at meetings of the freemen of the eric ft, subject to revision by some higher authority, and one of the objects of these fairs or comitia was to publish such enactments as well as tho general body of the laws and customs from time to time. The law of torts regarded all offences, with the nominal exception of murder, as condonable by fines until the offender and those liable for him could pay no more, when the defaulter lost his status and fell into the servile class. For some of the offences of the individual, the finne or family were responsible ; for others, particular sureties. Whether this system of quasi frank-pledge did not extend to breaches of contract, as well as to cases of non-feasance, misfeasance, and breaches of the peace, appears uncertain. The scale of mulcts for the several sorts of homicides, wounds, and personal hurts, is in out line the same with those of the other western European nations ; but, in addition to their definite fine of so much for such and such a lesion or bruise, it provides by rateable deductions for excusatory circumstances of intention, know ledge, contributory negligence, accident, and necessity, all of which are considerable refinements on the contempor aneous systems of the Continent. The penalty of death for murder was of ecclesiastical introduction, and, like the law ordaining the payment of tithes, appears to have fallen into desuetude before the Conquest. Chief I aron Gilbert, in Dwyer s case (Gilb., Ev., vol. i. p. 9) has an observation apposite to the state of society disclosed by this system of measured mulcts and mutual suretyship, in treating of the state of Britain before murder had become punishable with death under the later law of Canute:—

1em