Lectures on the Early History of Institutions | Page 8

his intentional crimes, so long as 'eric' fine is obtained; and whenever 'eric' fine is not obtained, he is put to death for his intentional crime, and placed on the sea for his unintentional crimes." It is impossible, of course, to accept the statement that this wide-spread ancient institution, the pecuniary fine levied on tribes or families for the wrongs done by their members, had its origin in Christian influences; but that it succeeded simple retaliation is in the highest degree probable, and no doubt in its day it was at least as great an advantage to the communities among whom it prevailed as was that stern administration of criminal justice to which the Englishmen of the sixteenth century were accustomed, and on which they so singularly prided themselves. but by the sixteenth century it may well have outlived its usefulness, and so may have partially justified the invectives of its English censors, who generally have the 'eric'-fine for homicide in view when they denounce the Brehon law as 'contrary to God's law and man's.'

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