XXVIII Inaugural Address. 
the Seigneurs—have been considered as an encroachment up- 
on the independence of their Jurisdictions, and have led to 
consequences which might have proved fatal to the little re- 
mains of power which he yet retained. On the other hand, 
the Seigneurs as carefully avoided the enacting of geneval 
Laws, because the execution of them must have vested in the 
King, and must have enlarged that paramount power which 
was the object of alltheir fears. The general assemblies, or 
States General of the nation, thus lost or voluntarily relin- 
quished their legislative authority, which, abandoned by them, 
was assumed by the Crown.(1) 
The first of the royal ordinances, which can be taken for 
ah act of Legislation, extending to the whole Kingdom, was 
published in the year 1190, by Philip Augustus, and is enti- 
tled “¢ Edit touchant la mouvance des Fiefs, entre divers 
Héritiers.”(2) Previous to this period they contained regu- 
lations, whose authority did not extend beyond the limits of 
the royal domain, so that no addition whatever was made to 
the statute Law of France, during the long period of 269 
years, which elapsed between the date of the last capitular, 
in the year 921, and the publication of this edict.(3) 
The first acts of general legislation were published by the 
Kings of France with great reserve and precaution. ‘They 
assembled a Council, composed of the great officers of the 
Crewn, and of certain of the Bishops and Seigneurs, which 
is generally supposed to have been no other than the King’s 
Council of that day, the Court of the Palace, which was 
afterwards made sedentary and called the Parliament of Pa- 
ris.(4) With them they deliberated—with their advice and 
consent they legislated, and by them the ordinances were 
sigaed, as well as by the Sovereign himself.(5) But, in a later 
period 
(1) Robertson’s Charles Y. vol. 1, p.167 and 168. 
(2) Conférence de Guenois Chronologique, p. 2. 
(3) Robertson’s Charles V. vol. 1. p. 368 ond 167. 
(4) Maximes de Droit Publique Francoise, vol. 4. p. 186. 
(5) Miraumont des Jurisdictions de l’enclos de Palais p. 61.—Coquille, » — 
Inatit. du Droit Frangois, cap. 1.--Maximes du Droit Pub. Frangoises, 
yol, 4, p. 184, 
Ste 
