distinctly see William as an English statesman, as a statesman who
knew how to work a radical change under conservative forms. One
enactment, perhaps the earliest of all, provided for the safety of
the strangers who had come with him to subdue and to settle in the
land. The murder of a Norman by an Englishman, especially of a
Norman intruder by a dispossessed Englishman, was a thing that
doubtless often happened. William therefore provides for the
safety of those whom he calls "the men whom I brought with me or
who have come after me;" that is, the warriors of Senlac, Exeter,
and York. These men are put within his own peace; wrong done to
them is wrong done to the King, his crown and dignity. If the
murderer cannot be found, the lord and, failing him, the hundred,
must make payment to the King. Of this grew the presentment of
Englishry, one of the few formal badges of distinction between the
conquering and the conquered race. Its practical need could not
have lasted beyond a generation or two, but it went on as a form
ages after it had lost all meaning. An unknown corpse, unless it
could be proved that the dead man was English, was assumed to be
that of a man who had come with King William, and the fine was
levied. Some other enactments were needed when two nations lived
side by side in the same land. As in earlier times, Roman and
barbarian each kept his own law, so now for some purposes the
Frenchman--"Francigena"--and the Englishman kept their own law.
This is chiefly with regard to the modes of appealing to God's
judgement in doubtful cases. The English did this by ordeal, the
Normans by wager of battle. When a man of one nation appealed a
man of the other, the accused chose the mode of trial. If an
Englishman appealed a Frenchman and declined to prove his charge
either way, the Frenchman might clear himself by oath. But these
privileges were strictly confined to Frenchmen who had come with