Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/62

 48 /. BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST seatic League, and the Parloir aua: Bourgeois at Paris. Oc- casionally, some special rule of the Law Merchant receives official sanction from king or seigneur. But, for the most part, the Law Merchant is obeyed, no one knows why. It is simply one of several authorities of different origin, which may, and in fact do, come into conflict at many points. The need of a reconciling influence is obvious. In the thirteenth century the Teutonic world is still awaiting the solution of the all-important question — What is Law ? It is the glory of England that she, of all the countries of Teutonic Europe, was the first to furnish that solution. ^^'"^At the time of the Norman Conquest, England is, from a legal standpoint, the most bacl^ward of all Teutonic coun- tries, save only Scandinavia. While France and Germany have their feudal laws, which, fatal as they are to unity and good government, are yet elaborate and complete within their own sphere; while Spain, after long harrying by the Moslem, is awaking once more to brilliant life and precocious political development under Sancho the Strong and Cid Cam- peador; England is still in the twilight of the folk-laws, and, seemingly, without hope of progress. England had never been part of the Frank Empire; and such rudiments of a feudal system as she possessed before the Conquest can- not be compared with the highly organized feudalism of the Continent. To revert again to the admirable French dis- tinction, there might be in England a justice fonciere, there was little or no justice seigneuriale. In later times, this fact was of infinite benefit; in the days before the Conquest it was one of the chief reasons why English law lagged behind in the race. The feeble Imperialism of Eadgar and Eadward, even the rude vigour of Knut, seem to have left little perma- nent impress on Enghsh law. When, at the beginning of the twelfth century, an English writer is trying to describe Eng- lish law, in the so-called Leges Henrici, he ventures to quote as authorities the antiquated Lex Salica and Lex Ribuaria.^ About the same time the author of the book known as the Laws of Edward the Confessor resorts, for his explanation of the title of " king," to the old story of the correspondence
 * See Schmid, Oesetze der Angelsachsen, ed. 2, pp. 482, 485.