36 ON THE PROBABLE ORIGIN. 
in the English common law, which it was long 
the pride of our jurists to consider as wholly in- 
dependent of the civil law, indisputable traces 
of its influence have been pointed out.* The 
question respecting the connexion between the 
Roman municipia and our modern corporations, 
has assumed a new appearance, since these facts 
have been established, and instead of saying 
that the institutions of the cities of the middle 
ages cannot have originated from the Romans, 
because all knowledge of their laws and institu- 
tions had perished, we are entitled to say that 
the preservation of so many doctrines and forms 
of Roman law in the barbarian codes renders it 
probable, that the administration of justice and 
maintenance of order in the cities may have 
been carried on by forms and principles also 
derived from the practice of the Romans. 
If it could be shown, that a chain of tradition 
connects the Roman municipal governments 
with modern corporations, we should have ano- 
ther exemplification of a principle which, I be- 
lieve, pervades all history —that even those 
periods in which the greatest changes have 
taken place, will not be found to be separated 
from preceding times by any such gulph as is 
* Spence’s Inquiry, p. 533, seq. 
