Inaugural Address. XXXV 
cation not having beenauthorised by the Sovereign ; and to 
give effect to many ofits dispositions, which it was thought 
proper to adopt, they were enacted in the Royal Ordinan- 
ces.(1) 
The Royal Ordiaances, with the Law of nature and of nae 
tions, and the Ecclesiastical Code, so far as it was sanctioned 
by the Sovereign, may be considered as the Common or uni- 
versal Law of France ; but the remaining part of the muni- 
cipal Laws of her several Provinces or Districts were very 
dissimilar. Inthe Pays de Droit Ecrit, which were those 
Provinces in which the Roman Code, by the especial favour 
ofthe Sovereign, had been permitted to remain, and was 
declared to be in force, that system obtained to the exclusion 
of the Customs ;(2) while in the others, and particularly in 
the Vicomté of Paris, the Customs obtained, to the exclusion 
of the Roman Law, which, in these Provinces, or Pays de 
Droit Cofitumier, was of no forc2, and was considered only 
as a system of written reason. It was long, indeed, a disput- 
ed question in the Jurisdictions of the Vicomté of Paris, 
whether recourse was not to be had to the Roman, as to a 
positive Law, for decisions in unforeseen cases for which no 
remedy was provided by the Custom ; but it was ultimately 
settled that such recourse ought not to be had, and that the 
Judges were not bound to decide by it.(3) 
I feel that I have already trespassed upon your time, yet 
before I conclude, as the subject upon which I have the honor 
to address you appears to allow it, I cannot but solicit your 
attention to the actual state of the Study of the Law in Canada, 
The experience of many ages and of many countries scems 
to have shown, that the elements of science are best inculcat- 
ed by public lectures—rightly conducted they awaken. the 
at arent attention 
Hericourt, Loix Feclesiastique, vol. 1, p- 99, col, 1 & 2. 
Ferriére, D.D. verbo « Pays de Droit Eerit.» 
) Ferriére, D. D, verbo “ Pays de Droit Eerit.” Dumonlin, des Fiefs 
introduction, no. 106& 109, D’Aguesseau, vol, 1. p. 156. L.C, Déni- 
zart, vol. 5, p. 674. Ferritre, gd.Com, vol. 1, p. 18 & 19, no, 1, 2, 3, 4 
& seq. Wid. p. 306, vol, 4. art. 10, Dict. de Jurisp, de Prost. de Royer, 
vol. 1. p. 6. Discours Préliminaire, Le Prestre Cent. 3. cap. 85, p, 675, 
which cites an Ordinance of Philippe le Bel, declaring France not to be 
governed by the Civil Law, 
Q 
(2 
(3 
