OF MODERN CORPORATIONS. 43 
pronounce the law and inquire into the facts; 
but at the same time a custom grew up which 
relieved the magistrate from part of his enor- 
mous labour. The pretor under the republic, 
when not a jurist, had been attended by asses- 
sors and advisers, and when the emperors ab- 
sorbed all jurisdiction in their own tribunals 
they were compelled to appoint a permanent 
body of the same kind. The governors of the 
provinces imitated their master, and availed 
themselves of the aid of assessors; and though 
it is not expressly said that the city magistrate 
did the same, and made the members of the 
curia, already associated with him in the volun- 
tary jurisdiction, his assessors also in the con- 
tentious, the change is so natural in itself, and 
serves so well to explain the subsequent state 
of things, that we cannot hesitate to admit its 
reality. But be this as it may, the existence of 
the Curia in the Roman cities, as the body be- 
fore which transactions must be validated, down 
to the time of the barbarian invasion, admits of 
no doubt, and in the laws of the Ostrogoths and 
the Franks after that event, nearly the same 
forms and names are retained.* When the 
supreme authority passed from the emperors to 
the new sovereigns of the barbarian kingdoms, 
Savigny, p. 97. 
