readiness adopted and made as her own what was acceptable in the varied systems of the peoples with whom she was brought in contact.

For centuries a fierce struggle was waged between the two great parties in the State, the Patricians and Plebeians. For long, political power was monopolized by the Patricians. There were two Assemblies of the citizens. One was called the Comitia Curiata, an Assembly elected wholly by the Patricians. This Assembly was generally known as the Senate, according to the opinion of several eminent historians. The King exercised legislative, executive and political power. In his legislative acts he sought the concurrence of the Senate. Afterwards was formed another Assembly instituted by King Servius Tullius, generally known as the Assembly of the people, called the Comitia Centuriata, consisting of both Patricians and Plebeians. The suffrage was so restricted that power rested with the Patricians, owing to the manner of the distribution of the voters. The whole of the citizens were divided into five classes upon the basis of property qualification. Each group was divided into hundreds and numbered according to the valuation of their fortunes. Each hundred in a group was entitled to only one vote, and the Patricians having by far the greater wealth, for a long time, held an overwhelming ascendancy. Subsequently the King in enacting laws sought the concurrence of the Comitia Centuriata, or popular Assembly. During the Republic, the Comitia Centuriata enacted laws, elected the great officers of State, the Consuls, the Praetors, the Censors and Quæstors. The two Consuls were elected annually. They commanded the army in time of war, presided in the Senate, having equal power, and had the final jurisdiction in all criminal cases.

There was another Assembly called the Comitia Tributa. It originally was composed of Plebeians selected according to the tribes, somewhat on the one man, one vote, principle. Its enactments, called Plebiscita, were binding only on the Plebeians. Subse

quently, however, under the Hortensian law, its enactments were made binding both upon Patricians and Plebeians.

During the Republican period, in B.C. 451, and fifty years after the expulsion of the Kings, a code of laws was promulgated, known as the laws of the Twelve Tables. They were inscribed on tablets of brass, and set up in the Forum, on the walls of the temple of Jupiter. They consisted in the main of a codification of existing customs, long observed and sanctioned by the people, interwoven with additions and modifications selected from the legal systems of both Athens and Sparta. Based upon the laws of the Twelve Tables, amended, altered and improved, from time to time, by and through various agencies, during many years, was elaborated the Civil law of Rome, respecting which an eminent jurist has said:-" It was the best contribution of the Roman Republic to the civilization of the world. No wiser or better system of law has ever been devised by the genius of man than the Roman Civil Law, and it is safe to say that it will remain forever unrivalled and unapproached in the annals of jurisprudence."

Cicero, in speaking of the laws of the Twelve Tables, says: "The children were required to commit them to memory as ordinary school tasks, a Carmen Necessarium, to imprint on their tender minds an early knowledge of the laws and constitution of their country." To be more impressive, it is said, this indispensable lesson was recited in rhythmical cadence.

The agencies by which the legal system of the Roman State was elaborated and perfected, were as follows:

(1) The Responsa Prudentium.

These were the answers of eminent jurisconsults gratuitously given, either in public or private, to all such as chose to consult them. So distinguished were these jurists, for their knowledge of the law, that even

the judges applied to them for instruction and direction. The answers of these distinguished citizens were so noted for their practical utility and intrinsic equity, that they carried great weight with the Courts as well as the Praetors. This business, so undertaken by men of the highest character and great knowledge of the law, grew into a science and was taught openly in the Forum, as well as in private schools. This very much stimulated the study of law among all classes of citizens. The Responses were given viva voce, and at length were abused by the crude opinions of mere pretenders, during the closing years of the Republic. This evil, however, was obviated by Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, by a careful selection of jurisconsults, properly commissioned and certified. They were required to give their responses in writing with their reasons annexed. This so raised the character of these living oracles of the law, that they came to have the weight and force, in all the Courts, of an Imperial Rescript. The practice of the law, during the Republic, was gratuitous and purely honorary. Under the Empire, a reasonable compensation was allowed advocates, who devoted their time and talents to the profession, the compensation being regulated by a decree of the Emperor.

(2) The Commentaries of Celebrated Jurists.

The Commentaries upon Roman Law became of equal authority with the Praetorian Edicts, of which hereafter. The great lawyers of the Empire, under whom jurisprudence became a science, had for the foundation of their work the statutes of the Republic, the laws of the legislative bodies, and the Edicts of the Praetors as well. Among the famous jurists,

through whose works Roman jurisprudence attained its highest excellence, five stand forth with marked pre-eminence, namely, Gaius, Papinian, Ulpian, Paulus and Modestinus, Gaius was the author of an admirable work, called the "Institutes," which formed the

model of a large part of Justinian's more famous "Institutes." Bracton's great work, on the laws and Constitution of England, was based on the "Institutes" of Gaius, which it followed as a pattern and from which he extracted almost bodily all its laws on personal property. Guy Carleton Lee thus writes of Papinian,-" The Court of law over which he presided was probably the ablest that ever sat, for among his colleagues were Ulpian and Paul. Yet Papinian was facile princeps of this great triad." Cujas said of him that he was "the greatest lawyer that ever has been or ever will be; he occupies the same single pre-eminence among jurisconsults as Homer does amongst poets." Mommsen, the great German historian, says of him,-" that he was beyond doubt the first of Roman jurists in juristic genius; that he had no equal in the precision with which he stated a case, and without parade applying the rule of law, as if it lay on the surface and was patent to all the world." The voluminous works of Ulpian form the basis of the Digest of Justinian. The essential parts of the writings of these great jurists finally became incorporated in the Roman Civil Law.

(3) The Praetors.

The extraordinary evolution of Roman law owes more to the invaluable aid of two great officers of State, the Prdetor Urbanus and the Praetor Peregrinus, than to any other agency. These officials were elected by the Comitia Centuriata. The first appointment was made in the year B.C. 366, about 85 years after the promulgation of the laws of the Twelve Tables. The Praetor Urbanus administered justice between Roman citizens.

The Praetor Peregrinus or Foreign Praetor administered justice in controversies between foreigners resident in Rome, and also in controversies between foreigners and Roman citizens. The Praetor, in rank, stood next to the Consuls. He was the Supreme

Magistrate for the term of one year only. Great care was exercised in selecting men of probity and such as were well versed in the principles of jurisprudence, although not lawyers, in the strict use of that term, as understood by us. He resembled the English Chancellor, who was not a lawyer, before the reign of Henry VIII. This accounts for the Praetor's equitable decisions. He refused to be hampered by precedent or rigid rules of procedure. When the Praetor entered upon the duties of his office he published an Edict and caused it to be placed in a conspicuous part of the Forum, in which he laid down the principles of law and the mode of procedure by which he proposed to be governed, during his term of office. In this prospectus, he could either adopt the rules of law or procedure of his predecessor, in whole or in part, or make such changes or additions as he might think best. In making these rules for the year he sought to combine the systems of both law and equity. As defects became apparent, they could be speedily corrected by the incoming Praetor. Law consequently became a progressive science, unresting as it was unpausing in the direction of ultimate improvement. During the reign of Henry VIII. Sir Thomas More became the first Lord Chancellor, who had been a common law lawyer. It is a far cry from that time to the year 1875 when was established, in England, the High Court of Justice, under which," the long divorce of law and equity was at length reconciled." It took England many years to adopt what Rome many centuries before had settled," That equity and utility are the real foundations of all just laws."'

The practice of the Court of the Praetors was exceedingly simple, and may thus be briefly summarized. He laid down the principles of law by which each case brought before him was to be governed, and settled the

named the judges to hear the evidence and decide the issue between the parties. The judges, called judices,

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