re Inaugural Address. 
MY LORD AND GENTLEMEN, 
A\proIntEeD to address a Society, distinguished, 
in its origin, by the rank and character ofits noble Founder, 
and, in the first stage of its progress, by the respectability 
and talents of its numerous Members; whose high and me- 
ritorious purpose is, to extend more amply the advantages of 
Science and Literature to a remote, but rising portion of the 
Great Empire to which we belong, and the beneficial effects 
of its disinterested labours to future times, Tam anxious to 
devote the period, in which I hope to be honored with your 
attention, to a subject which, corresponding with the views 
of your Institution, & involving matter interesting to Science, 
may, in some degree, be worthy of your notice. 
Confining myself, therefore, to the more immediate object 
of the Society—Tistorical Research—I shall offer to your 
consideration an Essay upon the Juridical History of France, 
antecedent to the erection of the Sovereign Council of Que- 
bec, in the year 1663; the Law, as it was then adminis- 
tered in France, in the Tribunals of the Vicomté of Paris, 
being, in fact, the Common Law of the division of Canada 
which we now inhabit(1). 
The study of the Municipal Law of every country requires 
some previous knowledge of its rise and progress.—The ob~ 
svlete principles of former ages are, most commonly, the 
foundations of what we possess ; and, in many instances, the 
true object and intent of modern Institutions, can only be 
known by reference to the history of their origin and gradual 
improvement. And as J feel assured, that, to persons of li- 
beral education, knowledge of the Law which constitutes 
the rule of their civil conduct, must at all times be desirable, 
I cannot but hope that what I am about to offer, upon the 
peculiar Municipal Law by which we are governed, (though, 
I 
(1) Edits et Ordonnances, vol. 1, p. 21. 
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