XXIV Inaugural Address. 
cannot be doubted that they contributed greatly to those re- 
daction of the customs which were afterwards made under 
the sanction of the Sovereign. In 1302, Philip the IV. 
directed the most intelligent inhabitants of each bailiwick 
to be assembled for the purpose of informing his Courts of 
the customs which had been observed in their respective Ju- 
risdictions, and required his Judges to register and observe 
those which should be worthy of approbation, and to reject 
all which should be found unreasonable, and this command 
was carried into execution ia several parts of the Kingdom.(1) 
Charles the VII. conceived the idea of digesting the se- 
veral customs into one general code for all France, and to 
this end, by the 125th article of the ordinance of 1453, (2) 
usually called the ordinance of Montils le Tour, he directed 
the several customs and usages of each Jurisdiction to be 
written, but nothing further was done, until the year 1495, 
when the custom of Ponthieu was reduced to writing under 
Charles the eighth. His successor, Louis XI, is represented, 
by the Historian, Philip de Commines, and by Dumoulin, to 
have been very desirous of having ** one custom, one qweight, 
‘* and one measure, throughout his Kingdom, and that every 
“ Law should be fairly enregistered in the French language;” 
(3) yet it does not appear that any of the customs were com- 
pijied during his administration of the Government, but in 
the reigns of the succeeding monarchs, particularly Louis 
XU, Francis the I, and Henry the II, many were finished, 
and the whole, comprehending sixty collections of general 
customs, in force in the several Provinces, and about three 
hundred local customs, in force in the different Cities and 
Bailiwicks of the Kingdom, were completed under Charles 
the IX, after the expiration of the century from the com- 
mencement of the design.(4) 
Tn 
(1) Dénizart, vol. 1. p.575, 9th edit. 
(2) Ordonnances de Neron, vol. 1st, p. 43. 
(3) Dictionnaire de Jurispr. vol. 3d. p. 47. Fleury, p. 68. 
(4) Fleury’s Hist, du Droit Frangois, p. 69, Reper. verbo « Coutumes,» 
vol, 16, p. 390. 
eet Le. 
