Jiaugwal Address. XxvV 
In the execution of the edict of Charles VII, the States 
General of each Province, consisting of the deputies of the 
nobles, the ecclesiastics and the representatives of the coms 
mons, were convoked by the royal letters patent, issued for 
that purpose. By them, when assembled, an order was di- 
rected to all the Judges and other Royal Law Officers of the 
Province, requiring them to transmit to the States General, 
reports of all the customs and usages practised in their ress 
pective Jurisdictions, from time immemorial. These reports 
were referred to a special committee of the States General, 
by whom they were reduced to abstract maxims, arranged in 
order, and so returned to the States General by whom they 
were examined, confronted with the original reports, dis- 
cassed and accepted or rejected.(l) Those which were ac- 
cepted, beiag confirmed by the King, enregistered and pub- 
lished in the sovereign Court of the Jurisdiction to which 
they related,(2) became the Law of that Jurisdiction, bind- 
ing upon its inhabitants, but in no way affecting the rights 
or prerogatives of the Crown,(3) and subject, at all times, 
to any alteration which the King might thiak proper to make 
by a royal ordiuance.(4) 
The redaction of the Custom of Paris was among the first. 
In 1510, Louis the XII. published a general edict, in which, 
after reciting, that a fixed rule in the administration of Jus- 
tice was absolutely necessary for the happiness of a state, & 
that ao Government could exist without it; and declaring 
himself to be well acquainted with the great vexations, de- 
| lays 
§ 
(1) Fleury’s Hist. du Droit Francois, p. 70. 
(2) Loyseau des Seigneuries, ch. 3. sec. 11. Ferriére, pet. Com. v. 1 p. 5. 
(3) Bacquet Droit de Justice, ch. 10, No. 8. Droit d’Aubaine, ch. 
29, no. 2. Droits de Francs Fiefs, ch. 11. No. 5. Som. Seule.— Brodeau 
sur Paris—Trongon sur Paris, art. 75.—Galland, Traité de Frane aleu,y 
ch. 8—Ferritre gd. Com. v. 1, p. 9, sec. 10—D?Aguesseau, vol. 7. p. 302 
oe & vol. 8, p. 152, & 153. Case of Rex and the Duke and Dutchess 
ie Vanquinon, decided 5th August, 1762, and reported in Ferridre, D, D, 
verbo “ Coutumes,” vol.1, p. 424, edit. of 1771 & in the Dict, d 
Maines, vol. 2, p. 479, 
(4) Brodeau sur Louet, letter D, ch. 25—Ferritre, D, D, vol, Ist. ps 
542, verbo ** Droits Coutumicrs.” 
es Do- 
