CHAPTER XLVI 



PASTORAL LEGISLATION 



The legislation of the pastoral age has, at all times 

 and in every country, had a character of its own. In 

 countries M'here the inhabitants were still nomads there 

 could be no written laws, but there were still unwritten 

 usages, and these were binding. When the laws or 

 usages of a people are codified, these ancient customs 

 are often incorporated with the prescriptions of less 

 ancient times. Thus, " " enactments intended for a people 

 with settled habitations, and dwelling in walled cities," 

 says Milman, " are mingled up with temporary regula- 

 tions, suited only to the Bedouin encampment of a 

 nomad tribe." The whole subsequent legislation has 

 its root in these usages. Just so had the written cus- 

 tomary, or common, law of Europe its beginnings 

 in tribal usages. The capitularies of Karl the Great, so 

 formidable to look at in the antique pages of Baluze or 

 the modern edition of Pertz, are in good part but the 

 instructions of the Emperor to the villici, or managers, 

 of his farms. Yet out of them have grown the landed 

 customs and the land-legislation of modern times. 

 According to Darwin, General Rosas, in Argentina, first 

 gained his celebrity through the laws he made for the 

 government of his estancias.* 



There were un\\'ritten la^^s in the Australian bush. 

 Some related to the occupation of land and others to 

 the ownership of cattle or sheep. Thus, it was tacitly 

 agreed among the Victorian adventurers as they arrived 

 that no one should take up a station A\ithin three miles 

 * Voyage of the Adventure, ch. iv. 

 324 



