NOTE C C. 



from the tree of life, and I shall receive sufficient compensation for all my 

 labours.&quot; 



Merit of legal Improvement. In his Proposition for a Compilation of the Law, 

 he says, &quot; Your majesty is a king blessed with posterity ; and these kings sort 

 best with acts of perpetuity, when they do not leave them instead of children, 

 but transmit both line and merit to future generations. You are a great master 

 in justice and judicature, and it were pity that the fruit of that virtue should 

 die with you. Your majesty also reigneth in learned times ; the more in regard 

 of your own perfections and patronage of learning ; and it hath been the mishap 

 of works of this nature, that the less learned time hath wrought upon the more 

 learned ; which now will not be so. As for my self the law is my profession, 

 to which I am a debtor. Some little helps I may have of other learning, which 

 may give form to matter ; and your majesty hath set n e in an eminent place, 

 whereby in a work, which must be the work of many, I may the better have 

 coadjutors. For the dignity of the work, I know scarcely where to find the 

 like ; for surely that scale, and those degrees of sovereign honour are true, and 

 rightly marshalled. First, the founders of estates, then the lawgivers, then the 

 deliverers and saviours, after long calamities ; then the fathers of their countries, 

 which are just and prudent princes; and lastly conquerors, which honour is not 

 to be received amongst the rest ; except it be where there is an addition of more 

 country and territory to a better government than that was of the conquered. 



Dedication to Elements of the Common Law. &quot; To her sacred Majesty. I do 

 here most humbly present and dedicate to your sacred majesty a sheaf and clus 

 ter of fruit of the good and favourable season, which, by the influence of your 

 happy government, we enjoy ; for if it be true that silent leges inter arma, it is 

 also as true, that your majesty is, in a double respect, the life of our laws , 

 once, because without your authority they are but litera mortua ; and again, 

 because you are the life of our peace, without which laws are put to silence. 

 And as the vital spirits do not only maintain and move the body, but also con 

 tend to perfect and renew it, so your sacred majesty, who is anima legit, doth 

 not only give unto your laws force and vigour, but also hath been careful of 

 their amendment and reforming ; wherein your majesty s proceeding may be 

 compared, as in that part of your government, for if your government be con 

 sidered in all the parts, it is incomparable, with the former doings of the most 

 excellent princes that ever have reigned, whose study altogether hath been 

 always to adorn and honour times of peace with the amendment of the policy of 

 their laws. Of this proceeding in Augustus Caesar the testimony yet remains. 

 Pace data tern s, animum ad civilia vertit 

 Jura snum ; legesque tulitjnstissimus auctor. 



Hence was collected the difference between gesta in armis and acta in two, 

 whereof he disputeth thus : 



Ecquid est, quod tarn proprit did potest actum ejus qni togatus in repitltlica 

 cum potentate imperioque vcrsatus sit quam lei? qnitre acta Gracchi? leges Sem- 

 pronii proferantur. Qucere Syllte : Cornelia ? Quid? Cn. Pom. tertius consit- 

 Uitt/s in quihus actis consistet ? neinpe in legihus : a Ca sare ipso si qiuereres qnid- 

 nam egisset in urbe, et in toga : * leges multas se re&ponderet, et pra-claras tulisse. 



The same desire long after did spring in the emperor Justinian, being rightly 

 called nltimus imperatarum Romauorum % who, having peace in the heart of his 

 empire, and making his wars prosperously in the remote places of his dominions 

 by his lieutenants, chose it for a monument and honour of his government, to 

 revise the Roman laws, from infinite volumes and much repugnancy, into one 

 competent and uniform corps of law ; of which matter himself doth speak glo 

 riously, and yet aptly calling it, propriuin et sanctissimum temptnm /nstit uf con- 

 secrutum : a work of great excellency indeed, as may well appear, in that 

 France, Italy, and Spain, which have long since shaken off the yoke of the 

 Roman empire, do yet nevertheless continue to use the policy of that law : but 



* Phil. i. c. 7. 



