after Christ. V. 7. Seventh Period 408 438 506 528 533 534 566 508 753 906 1453 7. Libri Feudorum, and other Articles forming the Deci ma Collatio 8. General Merit of Justinian's Collection 9. Ninth Period-the Fate of Justinian's Law. 1. In the Western Empire 2. In the Eastern Empire The Basilica The Extinction of the Roman Law in the East, in consequence of the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet the Second 10. The Tenth Period-Revival of the Roman Law in the West, in consequence of the Discovery of the Pandects at Amalphi-Collations and Editions of the Pandects VI. Principal Schools of the Civil Law 1. School of Irnerius 2. 3. 4. -- Accursius Bartolus and Baldus VII. Influence of the Civil Law on the Jurisprudence of the principal States of Europe What is said on the FEUDAL LAW, may be I. Of the original Territories of the Nations by whom it 1. Scythians-2. Celts-3. Sarmatians-4. Scandinavians II. Of the gradual Extension and Dates of the principal III. And of the principal written Documents of the Learn- 1. Codes of Law-2. Capitularies-3. Customary Law What is said on the CANON LAW, may be found I. 1. Of the Ancient Religion of Rome-2. Of the Gods After Christ. II. Of their Toleration of Foreign Worship 200 300 385 451 560 692 760 845 906 1000 1100 1150 1230 1298 1313 1340 1483 1590 IV. Of the General Materials of Canon Law 3. Vetus Canonum Latinorum Editio, by Dyonysius Exiguus-4. Collection of Canons of the African Church. -Church of Spain 2. The Middle Period of the Canon Law 1. Isidore Peccator, or Mercator's Collection of Decreta Capitularies of Adrian Collection of Rheginon Abbot of Prumia Burchardus's Magnum Decretorum seu Canonum Volu men Decretum Canonum, and Panomia of Ivo 2. Decretum Gratiani-Breviarum Bernardi Papiensis Collections of Johannes Galensis and Peter Beneventanus Libri quinque Decretalium Gregorii Noni Liber Sextus Decretalium Institutiones Lancellotti 3. Of the Modern Period of Canon Law. 1. Transactions and Concordats between Sovereigns and the See of Rome-2. Counsels of Basil, Pisa, Constance, and Trent-3. Bullarium-4. Regulæ Cancellariæ Romanæ-Decrees and Ordinances of the various Congregations of Cardinals at Rome; and the Decisions of the Rota-5. Legantine and Provincial Constitutions VI. Authority, of the Canon Law. APPENDIX.-Note 1. *On the Right of the Crown of England to • This is extracted from the notes to Co. Litt, by Mr. Butler. the exclusive Dominion and Property of the British Seas.-Note II. On the Geographical Division of the Alps-Note III. On the Prætor's Judicial Power, from Dr. Bever's History of the Legal Po lity of the British State.-Note IV. On the Modes of quoting the Civil and Canon Laws, from Dr. Halifax's Analysis of the Roman Civil Law. As we are well convinced that the legal wisdom which draws after it a high and well deserved fame, such as that which belongs to a Bacon, a Hale, or a Mansfield, can only be acquired by a diligent course of study on an extensive and liberal plan, stretching far beyond the narrow circle of ordinary practical information, we are not surprised that Mr. Butler should indulge a thirst for general knowledge in the occasional investigation of subjects which may be deemed, perhaps, even more remotely connected than these are, with what belongs to his immediate practice. By some they may indeed be thought to involve too much of difficulty to be fitted for the amusement of the few hours that can be spared from the fatigues of a laborious profession. But there are, in letters, as in arms, those who burn with the thirst of universal conquest, who know no fatigues in the pursuit of the object of their ambition, and make the acquisition of one branch of knowledge only the means of assisting in their further progress through the regions of science, as the gaining of one province leads the military enthusiast to the subjugation of others, and supplies him with means of carrying war into more distant countries. This is always the course of an ardent mind, which is never so well satisfied with ample possessions as it is stimulated by the desire of constant acquisition; and while the vicious ambition of universal despotism to be won by military conquest, threatens nearly all Europe, we have here an example of a lawyer, who, in his peaceful sphere, has projected, as it were, a plan of universal conquest; a course of reading and reflection upon all the remarkable codes of jurisprudence, divine and human, from the earliest ages to the present. This was the author's object in even his earliest professional studies, and he regrets that after many years he has been enabled to execute but imperfectly, and not according to his own extensive views, a plan, which may be well conceived to be too great for one man, when it is considered that he has not been able to bend the whole of his powers to the task. We wonder not then that Mr. Butler deems his present work but an imperfect sketch of that which he would have wished to execute on a more ample scale; but, we be lieve, that his readers will have cause to rejoice that he has never been wholly discouraged in his undertaking, and will consider that if he has travelled through a vast and difficult region in the pursuit of intellectual treasures, and has hoped to collect a more ample store than he has had opportunity to bring home, he has yet given them such a plan of the track and course which he has himself pursued that others may have less difficulty in following him, should they be tempted by the same spirit to encounter difficulties in the hopes of further discoveries; and for himself, we trust, he feels contented that he has met only with a common fate in a partial failure of his expectations, which, we yet hope, will never check the future aspirings of youthful ardour, or repress the vigorous energies of enterprising genius, whose lot it always is to aim at great and arduous things. To him then we may safely apply the words in which Johnson expresses his own feelings on an occasion somewhat similar, when he regrets the imperfections of his dictionary of the English language" To have attempted much, is always laudable even when the enterprise is above the strength that undertakes it to rest below his own aim is incident to every one whose fancy is active and whose views are comprehensive; nor is any man satisfied with himself because he has done much, but because he can conceive little." We extract the following passage as one which will probably be interesting to English lawyers, since it shews that those useful fictions, which, to persons ignorant of the utility of forms in legal proceedings, appear the ridiculous inventions of legal monks, have been found in all ages to afford the most convenient modes of obtaining the great ends of justice. "One mode of process in use at Athens bears a resemblance to the modern practice of trying the title to the freehold by ejectment. That, in its original state, was an action brought by a lessee for years, to repair the injury done him by dispossessing him of his term. To make it serve as a legal process for recovering the freehold, the law now supposes that the party dispossessed has entered on the land; that he has executed a lease of it; and that his lessee has been dispossessed for this injury the lessee brings his action of ejectment to recover the term granted by the lease; now, to maintain his title to the lease, he must shew a good title in his lessor; and thus inciden tally and collaterally the title to the freehold is brought before the court. In the jurisprudence of Athens, the guardian and ward were. so far identified, that the latter could not maintain an action against the former ; so that, for any injury done to his property, the ward, during the term of pupilage, was without remedy, For his relief the law authorized the Archon to suppose a lease had been executed by the ward to a stranger; then, the stranger, a kind of next friend, was to bring his action against the guardian, for the injury done to his property during the term; and, if he recovered, he became trustee of what he recovered for the ward. Thus, in each case, a fictitious lease was used as a legal process for bringing the real merits of the case to trial." In the following passage we have a clear view of the limited power of a Roman prætor, an officer who has too frequently been supposed to possess a jurisdiction armed with a vigour beyond the law. "Such were his rank and authority in Rome, and such the influence of his decisions on Roman jurisprudence, that several writers on the Roman law mention his edicts in terms, which seem to import that he possessed legislative as well as judicial power; and make it difficult to describe with accuracy, what is to be understood by the Prætor's edict. Perhaps the following remarks on this subject will be found of use, and shew an analogy between some parts of the law of which the honorary law of Rome was composed, and some important branches of the law of England.-1st. By the Prætor's edict, as those words apply to the subject now under consideration, civilians do not refer to a particular edict, but use the words to denote that general body of law, to which the edicts of the Prætor's gave rise.-2dly. It is to be observed, that the legislative acts of any state form a very small proportion of its laws; a much greater proportion of them consists of that explanation of the general body of the national law, which is to be collected from the decisions of its courts of judicature, and which has, therefore, the appearance of being framed by the courts. A considerable part of the law, distinguished by the name of the Prætor's edict, was of the last kind; and, as it was a consequence of his decisions, received the general name of his law. In this respect, the legal policy of England is not unlike that of Rome; for, voluminous as is the statute book of England, the mass of law it contains bears no proportion to that which lies scattered in the volumes of reports, which fill the shelves of an English lawyer's library and perhaps it would be difficult to find, in any edict of a Prætor, a more direct contradiction of the established law of the land, than the decisions of the English judges, which, in direct opposition to the spirit and language of the statute de donis, supported the effect of common recoveries in barring estates tail.-3dly. Experience shews, that the provisions of law, on account of the general terms in which they are expressed, or the generality of the subjects to which they are applicable, have frequently an injurious operation in particular cases, and that circumstances frequently arise, for which the law has made no provision. To remedy these inconveniences, the courts of |