OF MODERN CORPORATIONS. 49 
pellation was founded. The language of laws 
and documents, which Savigny brings forward 
(p. 425) from the Middle Ages, to support the 
identity of the Decurions and the Boni homines, 
is explained with greater ease by the supposi- 
tion, that the place which the Decurions had 
held, while the population of the cities was ex- 
clusively Roman, passed to the wealthier class 
of the inhabitants, under the name of Bont 
homines, as the two elements were blended, but 
without any violent change in the constitution. 
To have destroyed an existing organization, the 
uses of which were evident, would have argued 
a love of destruction, which prejudice only can 
attribute to our Teutonic forefathers; to have 
submitted themselves to the narrow oligarchal 
dominion of the Decurions, when they became 
inhabitants of cities, would have been an aban- 
donment of those principles of equality in the 
administration of justice, which was one of their 
strongest and their noblest characteristics. 
In maintaining the connexion between the 
Roman Municipia and the communities of the 
Middle Ages, Savigny is opposed to some of the 
French antiquaries, but supported by others. 
The question was considered as intimately affect- 
ing the rights of the crown and the people; and 
D 
