proved that the convenience resulting from the brevity of laws may be more than counterbalanced by the disadvantages attendant on it.

Most of the important privileges, possessed in later times by the prætors, date their origin from the twelve tables. The laws that authorize that magistrate to remove a guardian suspected of fraud, to inderdict a prodigal from the use of his property, to deliver a madman into the custody of his relations, may be traced to this source.m Now the power thrown into the hands of the prætor, who at that period was no other than the consul, was given to the Patrician order alone; since a Patrician only could fill the office.

Among the few fragments that are extant relating to constitutional law is one that prohibits the intermarriage of the Patricians with the Plebeians;" a provision well calculated to

m Sciendum est suspecti crimen à lege duodecim tabularum descendere. (Inst. Lib. I. Tit. XXVI.) Lex XII. tabularum furiosum, itemque prodigum cui bonis interdictum est, in curatione jubet esse adgnatorum. (Ulpiani Reg. Tit. xi. "De Curatoribus." § 2.)

- Ἐν δις καὶ ὅδε ὁ νόμος ἦν, μῆ ἐξεῖναι τοῖς πατρίκιοις πρὸς τούς δημοτικούς επιγαμίας συνάψαι. (Dionys. Halicarn. Lib. x. 504.) The text is: "Patribus cum plebe conubi jus esto." The fragments of all the laws referred to may be found, with their interpretation, in Ritter's edition of Heineccius, (Hist. Jur. Rom. § xxxv.) They are also in Rosinus. (Antiq. Rom. Lib. vi. cap. 6.) and most of the sources whence they have been gathered are indicated by Dempster in his Paralipomena. Lib. VIII.

restrain the gradual encroachments of the latter, and one which, so long as it remained in force, effectually prevented them from aspiring to a footing of social equality with the superior caste. This law was comprised in the two last tables,o which, it has been already remarked, probably contained others of a similar tendency. Such, for instance, was that which vested in the comitia centuriata the exclusive right of judging in capital cases. If we are to form an opinion, from these specimens, of the constitutional part of the decemviral laws; we shall entertain but little doubt that the vigilance of the Patrician legislators had provided, as far as possible, against any future efforts of their rivals, similar to that which had procured the appointment of the tribunes.

However, the motives which might induce the Decemviri to execute their trust in a partial manner, so far as the preservation of their own privileges was concerned, could not influence them in the composition of the chapters relating to sacred and to private law. For this reason probably, a much more considerable part of these

P Privilegia ne irroganto: de capite civis, nisi per maximum comitiatum, ollosque quos censores in partibus populi locassint, ne ferunto. (Cicero de Legibus. Lib. III. cap. 4.) On the disputed meaning of the law "Privilegia ne irroganto," see Rosin. Antiq. Rom. Lib. viii. cap. 6.

has been preserved. The laws of the former class turn chiefly on the interment of the dead; they particularly specify the ceremonies to be observed in funerals, and contain several sumptuary provisions calculated to prevent undue expense on those occasions. They are said to have been copied in great part from the code of Solon. Among the most remarkable of the enactments relating to private law are the confirmation of the Patria Potestas, and the legal authorization of enfranchisement by sale thrice repeated. The life and liberty of the son are also declared to be at the disposal of the father." Many of the provisions in this branch of the twelve tables, brief and imperfect as they are, contain the elements of laws which were in force at the time of Justinian, and have been inserted in his collection. The regulations already mentioned, concerning the authority of the Prætor, are among this number. Such, also, are the laws empowering parents to appoint guardians for their children; giving the tutor

Jàm cætera in XII. minuendi sumptus, lamentationesque funeris, translata de Solonis ferè legibus. (Cicer. de Leg. Lib. 11. cap. 23.) Posteaquàm ut scribit Phalereus, sumptuosa fieri funera, et lamentabilia cœpissent, Solonis lege sublata sunt. Quam legem eisdem propè verbis nostri Decemviri in decimam tabulam conjecerunt. (Ibid. cap. 25.)

"Si pater filium ter venundvit, filius à patre liber esto.” "Endo liberis justis vitæ, necis, venumdandique potestas ei esto."

ship of children and of their property to their nearest relations, in case of the father's dying intestate; and several others relative to testaments, to successions, or to the rights of guardianship. Some of the laws regulating the administration of public justice are derived from the same source.

The importance of the whole code in the study of the Roman jurisprudence has been sufficiently advocated, and perhaps rather exaggerated, by Heineccius. Certainly, however, much that particularly illustrates the manners and the superstitions of the Roman people; much that is in some measure valuable to every student of classical literature is to be found in the twelve tables. The original text of the laws, as it has been partially restored, is in some instances altogether unintelligible.t It appears, indeed,

The original text is sometimes quoted by Godefroy (Gothofredus) in his "Fontes quatuor juris civilis;" and most of the laws are given nearly in the original dialect by Ritter, (Not. ad Heinecc. Hist. Jur. Rom. § xxxv.) who has taken them from the work of Godefroy. Rosinus (Antiq. Rom. Lib. VIII. cap. 6) has somewhat modernised them. For the sake of those who are disposed to consult the "Fontes Quatuor," it may not be amiss to explain an awkward mode of abbreviation formerly in use, which might prove very embarrassing to those who had not the key to the cypher. If a letter or a syllable occurred twice consecutively, whether in the same or in different words, it was usual to write it only once; but in capital letters, to denote that it was to be repeated. Thus, for instance, the text of the law: Si in jus vocat atque eat was written Sin jus vocAT queat. This method of contraction is also employed in many old editions of the Corpus Juris. The capital letters were, I believe, first introduced by Taurelli.

that this was the case even during the Roman republic; the barbarous and antiquated dialect in which they were written having become so wholly obsolete that professed interpreters of the laws were sometimes at a loss to explain particular passages of them." The obscurity of their language was not, however, so great a bar to their remaining in force as their brevity and insufficiency. The arbitrary power of the magistrates was so little restricted by the scanty provisions of the new code, that the precedents, formed by their decisions on cases which could not be judged by the written law alone, shortly became of little less authority, and perhaps of more practical utility, than the law itself. The necessity also of frequent legislative innovations, occasioned as much by the insufficiency of the twelve tables as by the increasing power of the

If the repetition occur in words that are printed in capitals, it is indicated by small letters. Thus the words DOLUM MALUM are written DOLUM ALUM. See on this subject the chapter of M. Berriat St. Prix, entitled: Des Manuscrits du corps de Droit Romain, et surtout des Florentines. (Hist. du Droit Romain. p. 232.)

" Cicero, speaking of a passage in the code of the twelve tables, says: "Hoc veteres interpretes, Sextus Ælius, L. Acilius non satis se intelligere dixerunt, sed suspicari, &c. (De Leg. Lib. II. cap. 23.) It has been asserted that the laws were written in verse. This is an error, which has arisen from the misinterpretation of the word carmen. (See Heinecc. Hist. Jur. Rom. § XXXIX.) The signification of carmen, as given by Ernesti, is: Formula certa verborum et solennis. (Clav. Ciceron. voc. Carmen.)