140 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



11. to a much smaller extent — that respect for the pre- 



Absence in -^ -^ 



^!^.2t ^'l^ o vailing order of things ; he therefore did not favour 



conservative o o ' 



spirit. ^j^g^i- compromise which, if not in theory yet doubtless 



in practice, the best-known thinkers of very different 

 schools had nearly always in the end resorted to. It 

 is true that he did not propose to alter the moral 

 code of civilised humanity, but he attacked its appli- 

 cation in one very important department, — in the 

 department of the legislation of his country. He was 

 the first to show that the existing laws of the country 

 could not claim from enlightened and thinking minds 

 that respect with which they were conventionally 

 treated. But instead of resorting, as was the custom 

 on the Continent, to the legal deliverances of the 

 Eoman Jurists codified when the Koman Empire was 

 approaching its decline, he made a bold attempt to 

 deal with the foundations of law through the principles 

 of moral philosophy. His work did not result in a 

 new and complete code such as was elaborated during 

 the reign and at the suggestion of the first Napoleon 

 in France, nor did he initiate that philosophical and 

 historical study of Roman law which, for a whole 

 century, constituted a large and important part of the 

 labours of a brilliant succession of Jurists in Germany.^ 

 Bentham and his followers dealt with many of the 



of the Roman Empire.' And when 

 John Austin (1790-1859) attempted, 

 as Professor of Jurisprudence at 

 the newly established University of 

 London, to introduce the philo- 

 sophical study of Law, he prepared 

 himself by resorting to the Uni- 

 versity of Bonn, where .some of 

 the most eminent Romanists were 

 then lecturing. 



^ And yet, this great school of 

 what are called "Romanists" in 

 Germany traces one of its sources 

 to an English scholar. It was about 

 the year 1785 that the Gottingen 

 Professor, Gustav Hugo, began 

 his Lecture Course on "Roman 

 Law," taking as a text -book the 

 celebrated 44th chapter of Gibbon's 

 ' History of the Decline and Fall 



