framed by the Parliament, but, like the French Ordonnances, were introduced into the Legislature by the so-called "Lords of the Articles," who prepared all Bills or Acts for the Scottish Parliament. At the Union, in 1707, those Statutes which we admit to have been ably drawn up, were unfortunately retained in the judicial system of that part of Great Britain. Heritable jurisdictions also continued to exist until their repeal, by being compounded for, in 1747. One of the worst remnants of the judicial system is that which regulates the local courts, and leaves decisions to local judges, whatever the amount at issue, with appeal in all suits above £8. 6s. 8d. to the Sheriff-Depute or Principal, who is usually practising as an advocate in the ParliamentHouse of Edinburgh. Under the Scottish judicial and representative system, the people had really no civil or political liberty until after the passing of the Reform Bill.

The advantages which England has derived from the institution of County Courts, giving summary jurisdiction to the extent of £50, have caused an universal desire in all Scotland, excepting Edinburgh, to have the local courts of that country modelled on a similar basis.

With the exception of England and Spain, the Roman and Civil law were introduced into the judicial system of almost every country in Europe; and it is a remarkable fact, that the inhabitants of those countries have proved incapable of the exercise of true civil, political, and religious liberty. In Rome, the Jus Pontificum, or religious law, was united to the civil, or Jus Civile; and at that period the patricians alone were considered capable of administering the laws. Afterwards, during the empire, the Roman laws were compiled as imperial constitutions; and it is rather remarkable that the Roman Codes were framed during a period described as the "Decline" of the ancient jurispru dence. There were many of those Codes, the first as early as the time of Septimus Severus. The Codes now usually referred to are those of Theodosius and Justinian, especially the latter, which have nearly altogether supplanted the use of the former. The Justinian legislation, which included much of the Theodosian Code, was published A.D. 534, as "Codex Justinianus Repetitæ Prælectionus," and declared to have ever after the force of imperial laws. It is divided

into Twelve Books, the first of which treats, of the Catholic Faith, defining its creed, forbidding public disputations on dogmas treating of the rights, discipline, &c. of the Church, and enacting many cruel penalties and punishments. The second book treats of compromises, restitution of property, personal calumny, &c. The third book refers to the judicial proceedings relating to holidays, testaments, donations, inheritances, mixed actions, criminal proceedings, gaming, &c. Book fourth treats of personal actions on loans or other obligations, in relation to heirs and partnership undertakings, &c. The fifth book states the law in regard to marriage, women's portions, &c. The sixth book relates to slaves, freemen, patrons, disinheriting of heirs, opening of wills, &c. The seventh lays down the law of manumission of slaves, seizure of goods, and the mode of obtaining redress for defrauded creditors, &c. The eighth treats of pledges, pawns, paternal power, emancipation of children, &c. The ninth book is nearly altogether devoted to setting forth crimes, judgments, and punishments. The tenth refers to the revenue, public offices, and functions. The eleventh book relates to the rights of the city of Rome, municipal towns, corporate bodies, communities, &c.; and the twelfth book declares or explains the rights of cities in regard to offices civil and military, and their functionaries. There are, however, many portions of the Justinian Code which require reference to the Theodosian when doubts arise as to their interpretation.

Shortly after the publication of his Code of Laws, Justinian appointed Tribonian, and sixteen lawyers, to select all that was considered valuable in the writings of the classical and other learned jurisconsults of the empire, with instructions to prepare a Code which would form a never-failing work of reference to the lawyer and the magistrate. They completed this great task in three years, and called the work" Digesta," which was at the same time styled by the Greek title "Pandecta," under which those laws are now better known. The Digesta-first published a.d. 533-consists of five books, subdivided into titles and sections, and treats of the same subjects, with a great number of others, which are contained in the Code, and is much superior to the latter in its language and arrangement. An abridgment of

the Digesta, in four books, was also published, and relates chiefly to persons, things. and actions.

The new laws afterwards published by Justinian were chiefly in Greek, and collectively were known as the Novellæ. This work is divided into 168 constitutions, has been three or four times translated into Latin, and has been printed in some editions of the "Corpus Juris."

Tribonianus, a native of Pamphilia, may be considered the real author of the Justinian legislation, which in a great degree was compiled from his valuable law library. The Pandects were lost for several centuries, and were discovered at Amalfi during the twelfth century. The German, Dutch, French, and Italian lawyers are compelled to study the Justinian legislation, as well as the more modern public law of Europe.

In England the ecclesiastics contended strenuously for the introduction of the Civil and Canon law, as arranged or compiled by Gratian at Bologna, early in the twelfth century; and ten years after the discovery of the Pandects, Vacarius, an Italian lawyer, delivered public lectures on the Civil law in the University of Oxford, under the protection of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Romish Church. The exclusion of the study of the Common law in the Universities originated the Inns of Court, the first of which is said to have been Thavies Inn, Holborn. Fortescue writes that in his time there had been four Inns of Court, and ten Inns of Chancery; the first frequented by the sons of the nobility and wealthy gentry, and the latter by persons who had not the means of paying the greater expense of the Inns of Court. Students in the first were styled Apprenticii Nobiliorum, and in the second simply Apprenticii.-Editor.

No 5. THE OMNIPOTENCE OF PARLIAMENT.—(Page 102.)

Sir Edward Coke contends that the power and jurisdiction of Parliament is so transcendant and absolute that it cannot be confined either for causes or persons within any bounds. "It hath sovereign and uncontrollable authority in making, confirming, enlarging, restraining, abrogating, repealing, reviving, and expounding of laws concerning

matters of all possible denominations, ecclesiastical or temporal, civil, military, maritime, or criminal, this being the place where that absolute despotic power which must in all governments reside somewhere, is entrusted by the constitution of these kingdoms. All mischiefs and grievances, operations and remedies, that transcend the ordinary course of the laws, are within the reach of this extraordinary tribunal. It can regulate or new model the succession to the Crown, as was done in the reigns of Henry VIII. and William III. It can alter the established religion of the land, as was done in a variety of instances in the reigns of King Henry VIII. and his three children. It can change and create afresh even the Constitution of the Kingdom, and of Parliaments themselves, as was done by the Act of Union and the several statutes for Triennial and Septennial Elections. It can, in short, do everything that is not naturally impossible, and, therefore, some have not scrupled to call its power, by a figure rather too bold, the Omnipotence of Parliament.

"True it is, that what the Parliament doth no authority upon earth can undo, so that it is a matter most essential to the liberties of this kingdom that such members be delegated to this important trust as are most eminent for their probity, their fortitude, and their knowledge. For it was a known apothegm of the great Lord Treasurer Burleigh, that England could never be ruined but by a Parliament;' and Sir Matthew Hale observes, 'this being the highest and greatest Court, over which none other can have jurisdiction in the kingdom, if by any means a misgovernment should any way fall upon it, the subjects of this kingdom are left without all manner of remedy.' To the same purpose the present President Montesquieu, though I trust too hastily, presages, that, as Rome, Sparta, and Carthage had lost their liberty and perished, so the Constitution of England will in time lose its liberty; it will perish whenever the legislative power shall become more corrupt than the executive.

"It must be owned that Mr. Locke and other theoretical writers have held that there remains still inherent in the people a supreme power to remove or alter the legislature when they find the legislature act contrary to the trust reposed in them; for when such trust is abused it is thereby

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