uniform throughout the empire. With a commendable desire that all should be in structed in the provisions of " Das Biirgerliche Gesetzbuch," it was ordained the same should take effect January I, 1900. In the meantime the book is taught in the law schools, and lectures are delivered based on its provisions. The present laws of Germany are diverse in their origin. The Roman, or, as we call it, the civil law, is the basic element. As indicating the conservatism of jurisprudence, it may be noted that Mainz, which was wrested from France in 181 5, still retains the Code Napoleon. In certain portions of Germany the law of primogeniture prevails; in others not. Wiesbaden, now in Prussia, was once a portion of Luxemburg-Nassau, and edicts of that extinct grand duchy are still in force. Frankfurt, prior to 1866, was a free city of the empire, and certain ordi nances then passed still apply. Other cities — Goslar, Liibeck, Magdeburg, Cologne, Freiburg, Hamburg, or Bremen — either were or are free cities of the empire, and have varying laws. Instances of this char acter might be multiplied, but lack of space forbids. As early as 1814, Thibaut, then a pro fessor of jurisprudence at Heidelberg, wrote a pamphlet entitled, "The Necessity for a Universal Code of Rights in Germany," but the circumstances then surrounding the country were unpropitious; but in 1849 a universal bill of exchange and negotiable instrument act was adopted, and in 1861 a commercial code was added thereto. Nothing further was accomplished until 1873, when a preliminary act of the Reichstag was passed. In accordance with its provisions, a commission of five eminent scholars, four of whom were appellate judges, were selected in February, 1874, to devise a
plan. They reported in April and in July of that year; their recommendations were adopted, and a committee of eleven were appointed. Thrice death invaded their ranks, but the vacancies were filled, and, with the assistance of numerous others, the code was completed in 1890. The code was then submitted to a committee of twentytwo, who reviewed the same. This required five years, and in October, 1895, the com pleted work was handed the chancellor, who submitted the same to the Reichstag, where it was passed in July, 1896, and it was ap proved by the emperor on August 14. This new code is exceedingly interesting, and settles by positive enactments many questions on which numerous courts hold divergent opinions; and it is hoped, at some future date, when the same has been more carefully studied, that the writer of this paper may have the pleasure of speaking more fully in reference thereto. The rambler in the city of Weimar, famed for its literary associations, finds himself, almost ere he notices its bounds, in a beauti ful park. He wanders aimlessly where "The long, leafy shades between, The shadows alternately come and go "; and meditating on the lines of Shake speare, — '• Tongues in trees, Sermons in stones, Books in the running brooks, And good in everything," — suddenly finds a monument, erected at the suggestion of Goethe, in an out-of-the-way spot. On it is the inscription: "Mind, not limited by place." So it is with law: it is to no race or creed confined, but " its voice is the harmony of the universe, its seat the bosom of God. The very least do feel its care, the greatest are not exempt from its power."
