122 ROMAN LAW. [CHAP. XXVII. 



Mr. Richard Henry Wilde, residing in the same 

 hotel, for he had lately established himself in New 

 Orleans, and was practising in the courts of civil 

 law with success. The Roman law, originally in 

 troduced into the courts here by the first settlers, 

 was afterwards modified by the French, and assimi 

 lated to the Code Napoleon, and finally, by modern 

 innovations, brought more and more into accordance 

 with the common law of England. Texas, in her 

 new constitution, and even some of the older States, 

 those of New England not excepted, have borrowed 

 several improvements from the Roman law. Among 

 these is the securing to married women rights in 

 property, real and personal, so as to protect them 

 from the debts of their husbands, and enable them 

 to dispose of their own property. 



Mr. Wilde took me to the Houses of the Legisla 

 ture, where a discussion was going on as to the pro 

 priety of changing the seat of government from New 

 Orleans to some other place in Louisiana, for it had 

 been determined, though by a majority of one only, 

 in a convention appointed for that purpose, that they 

 should go somewhere else, to a place at least sixty 

 miles distant from the metropolis. I remarked, that 

 the accessibility of New Orleans was so great, and 

 so many must be drawn to it by business, that the 

 determination to seek out a new site for a capital, 

 seemed to me incomprehensible. &quot; You will wonder 

 still more,&quot; he replied, &quot; when I tell you, that when 

 the convention had been some time at Baton Rouge to 

 frame the new constitution, they thought it advisable 

 to adjourn to New Orleans, where they could consult 



