Note 12 — LORD PALMERSTON. ON THE CASE OF DON PACIFICO: HOUSE OF COMMONS, JUNE 25, 1850.

Note 12, p. 160.—“Against the hundred.” The reference is to a peculiarity of the English common law, by which a district, originally containing a literal hundred of families, was entitled a “Hundred.” For offences committed within these precincts the inhabitants, or “Hundredors,” as they were called, were held civilly responsible. The division was probably of Germanic origin, having been established among the Franks by Clotaire, among the English by King Alfred.