Note 126 — [pg 249]No. XXIII.

In the time of Henry II, there were in England eleven hundred and fifteen castles, and az many tyrants az lords of castles. William of Newbury says, in the reign of Stephen, "Erant in Anglia quodammodo tot reges, vel potius tyranni, quot domini castellorum." It waz the tyranny of theze lords or their deputies, which rendered the intervention of twelv judges of the naborhood, highly necessary to preserve the peeple from the impositions of their rapacious masters. Hence the privilege of this mode of trial derived an inestimable valu.