Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/163

chap, xxxvni] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 131 impartial stranger, instructed by their discoveries, their disputes, and even their faults, may describe, from the same original materials, the state of the Koman provincials, after Gaul had submitted to the arms and laws of the Merovingian kings. 69 The rudest, or most servile, condition of human society is Laws of the regulated however by some fixed and general rules. When Tacitus surveyed the primitive simplicity of the Germans, he discovered some permanent maxims, or customs, of public and private life, which were preserved by faithful tradition till the introduction of the art of writing and of the Latin tongue. 70 Before the election of the Merovingian kings, the most power- ful tribe, or nation, of the Franks appointed four venerable chieftains to compose the Salic laws ; 71 and their labours were examined and approved in three successive assemblies of the people. After the baptism of Clovis, he reformed several articles that appeared incompatible with Christianity ; the Salic law was again amended by his sons ; and at length, under the reign of Dagobert, the code was revised and promulgated in its actual form, one hundred years after the establishment of the French monarchy. Within the same period, the customs of the Ripuarians were transcribed and published; and Charle- magne himself, the legislator of his age and country, had accurately studied the two national laws which still prevailed among the Franks. 72 The same care was extended to their 89 In the spaoe of thirty years (1728-1765) this interesting subject has been agitated by the free spirit of the Count de Boulainvilliers (Memoires Historiques sur l'Btat de la Prance, particularly torn. i. p. 15-49), the learned ingenuity of the Abbe Dubos (Histoire Critique de i'Etablissement de la Monarchic Francoise dans les Gaules, 2 vols, in 4to), the comprehensive genius of the president de Montes- quieu (Esprit des Loix, particularly 1. xxviii. xxx. xxxi.), and the good sense and diligence of the Abbe de Mably (Observations sur 1'Histoire de France, 2 vols. 12rno). 70 1 have derived much instruction from two learned works of Heineccius, the History, and the Elements, of the Germanic law. In a judicious preface to the Elements, he considers, and tries to excuse, the defects of that barbarous juris- prudence . 11 Latin appears to have been the original language of the Salic law. [So Waitz, Verfassungsgeschichte, 2, p. 89.] It was probably composed in the beginning of the fifth century, before the sera (a.d. 421) of the real or fabulous Pharamond. The preface mentions the four Cantons which produced the four legislators ; and many provinces, Franconia, Saxony, Hanover, Brabant, &e. have claimed them as their own. See an excellent Dissertation of Heineccius, de Lege Salica, torn. iii. Sylloge iii. p. 247-267. [There is little trace of Roman, and none of Christian, influence in the Lex Salica ; and the probability is that the original edition was composed in the Salic land. The four legislators have a legendary sound.] 72 Eginhard, in Vit. Caroli Magni, o. 29, in torn. v. p. 100. By these two laws, most critics understand the Salic and the Ripuarian. The former extended from