358 OF A DIGEST OF LAWS. 



did watch to discern what laws waxed improper for 

 the times, and what new law did in any branch cross 

 a former law, and so &quot; ex officio&quot; propounded their 

 repeal. 



King Edgar collected the laws of this kingdom, 

 and gave them the strength of a faggot bound, which 

 formerly were dispersed ; which was more glory to 

 him, than his sailing about this island with a potent 

 fleet : for that was, as the Scripture saith, &quot; via navis 

 &quot; in mari,&quot; &quot;the way of a ship in the sea ;&quot; it vanished, 

 but this lasteth. Alphonso the wise, the ninth of 

 that name, king of Castile, compiled the digest of 

 the laws of Spain, intitled the &quot; Siete Partidas ;&quot; an 

 excellent work, which he finished in seven years. 

 And as Tacitus noteth well, that the Capitol, though 

 built in the beginnings of Rome, yet was fit for the 

 great monarchy that came after ; so that building of 

 laws sufficeth the greatness of the empire of Spain, 

 which since hath ensued. 



Lewis XI. had it in his mind, though he per 

 formed it not, to have made one constant law of 

 France, extracted out of the civil Roman law, and 

 the customs of provinces which are various, and the 

 king s edicts, which with the French are statutes. 

 Surely he might have done well, if, like as he brought 

 the crown, as he said himself, from Page, so he had 

 brought his people from Lackey ; not to run up and 

 down for their laws to the civil law, and the or 

 dinances and the customs and the discretions of 

 courts, and discourses of philosophers, as they use 

 to do. 



