142 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



arts, without having passed the usual apprenticeship. 

 This condition of things pervades the whole fabric of 

 society. Judges have been appointed here of less than 

 twenty-five years of age, and of only two or three years' 

 practice at the bar ; and a judge of that green age sits alone 

 on a trial involving life or death ! In this way, the laws are 

 administered, under the sanction of Congress and the gov- 

 ernment of the United States ! 



There has been a singular and radical change of the sys- 

 tem of law by which this country is governed. The whole 

 of this territory was first discovered and settled by French- 

 men, and charters and ordinances for its government were 

 granted and estabhshed by the king of France. By this 

 means, the civil law was extended over the countr}^, and be- 

 came the birthright of its inhabitants, in the same way and 

 by the same means that the common law became tlie birth- 

 right of the original thirteen States. The country west of 

 the Missisippi was afterwards possessed and governed by 

 Spain, which, as well as France, has the civil law for its code. 

 Thus, in the portion of country west of the Missisippi, the 

 civil law prevailed by a double title ; — both by birtli and 

 baptism it became the law of the land. It has never been 

 formally abrogated, yet it is utterly extinct. By the ordi- 

 nance of 1787, for the government of the Northwestern Ter- 

 ritory, tlie common law was extended over that country ; 

 and, by subsequent enactments, it has been establislied west 

 of the river. Perhaps it was supposed that the system of the 

 common law was so entirely repugnant to that of the civil, as 

 to operate a repeal of the latter. It is, however, more pro- 

 bable that the lawyers and judges, who had been practitioners 

 of the common law, did not inquire if that might be engrafted 

 on the civil, but wholly overlooked the fact that the latter had 

 ever had force there. However that may be, whether by 



