362 
L A W. 
found palliatives rain; he therefore fwept them away by 
on e, fenatus confultuni , declaring them all illegal. A law 
that (fome think) would be no lefs ufeful here than at 
Rome. 
Open theft in the day-time was both a private and a 
public wrong; as to the perfon of the injured, the latif- 
faction of the freeman was private; as to the community, 
it was public ; he wars fcourged and delivered over in fla- 
vcry to the perfon from whom he had ftolen; bvit, if al¬ 
ready a Have, he was thrown from the Tarpeian rock. 
Privately healing was only pun lined by reftoring the dou- 
' ble. Commentators are at a lofs to account for this dif¬ 
ference, All will blame the la\y which allowed any thief 
to compound, if the injured party would receive the com- 
pofition, as not being very conducive to public order. 
Prefcription was acquired by one year’s poffeffion of 
movable, and two years of immovable, property; but no 
time could give prefcription to a ftranger againft the free 
citizen of Rome ; nor of the thing ftolen, by a principle 
of excellent juftice, that the right in nothing was acquir¬ 
ed, whether by fale or delivery, until paid for. Upon 
any perfon being accufed of having obtained a wrongful 
pofTeftion of property, the pretor nominated three arbitra¬ 
tors to inquire into the matter ; and the wrongful polTeffor 
was condemned to pay double the profits he had taken. 
In all matters in difpute, the prefumption was declared 
to be in favour of the pofleffor; but, where the liberty or 
flavery of the party was in queftion, the poffeffion was al¬ 
ways deemed to belong to the party claiming the freedom. 
Plutarch records a fingular inftitution of Numa. His 
predeceifor had built and fucceftively enlarged the city of 
Rome and its boundaries,by incorporation of ftrangers and 
by conquelt. For the uniting this confufed mafs, and 
rendering it lefs inclined to a military life, and at the fame 
time for the encouragement of induftry, Numa parcelled 
■out the conquered lands to fome of them, and claffed the 
various artificers of every defcription, according to their 
trades, into colleges, or, as we fhould now term them, into 
companies, afiigning to each body a hall, courts, and cer¬ 
tain religious ceremonies. What was the nature of the 
courts, it is now impoftible to fay; but their refpective 
cuftoms in their trades, and their mode of conducing 
them, were regulated among themfelves. The decemvirs, 
with a view to their protection, poftibly too dildaining 
the minutiae of legiflation into which fo wide a field mutt 
have led them, enafted, that whatever rules they made 
among themfelves fhould be binding upon them fo far as 
they in nothing derogated from or contradicted the pub¬ 
lic law. In after-times we find thefe colleges differing in 
tiothing from our corporate bodies; they could have com¬ 
mon property ; had a common cheft, and a manager or 
mailer; could manumit flaves, accept a legacy, and do 
every other aft of a modern company. From thefe col¬ 
leges, formed in towns as fome of them muft have been 
for the purpofes of trade, coupled with the feparate laws 
and jurifdiftion in cities, allowed to the Romans, by their 
fubfequent conquerors, the Goths, Franks, &c. we may 
clearly deduce the origin of our own corporate bodies, 
and the municipal magiftracy and government of the 
towns upon the continent. However, in the ftate of 
Rome at the time of Numa and the Decemvirs, it may be 
contended that the legiflature had no further view than 
to proteft the little rules which artificers muft always have 
among themfelves, and which, being too minute for the 
interference of legiflation, were wifely left to be governed 
by thofe whom alone they could affeft. Rojinus Antiq. 
Roman, lib. viii. 
Such are laws of the Twelve Tables upon which all the 
fubfequent laws of Rome were grafted and multiplied, until 
the venerable (lock became hardly difcernible under the 
innumerable additions, fubftitutes, and refinements, which 
the complicated mixture of fraud and oppreflion, of luxu¬ 
ry and mifery, of chicane and evafion, at various times 
occafioned. Livy, in the days of Auguftus, dates the vo¬ 
luminous immenfity to which the fimple code of the re¬ 
public had fwelled; and it continued to increafe from the 
time of Livy, under the multiplied burthen of conftitu- 
tions, refcripts, decrees, and edifts, added by fucceftive 
emperors, until the time of Juftinian, who attained an 
empire loaded with a law which few had time to read, and 
ftill fewer the ability to underhand, or even conveniently 
to purchafe. 
Among favage nations, the want of letters is imper¬ 
fectly Supplied by the ufe of vifible figns, which awaken 
attention, and perpetuate the remembrance of any public 
or private tranfaftion. The jurifprud.ence of the firft 
Romans exhibited the feenes of a pantomime; the words 
were adapted to the geftures, and the flighted error or 
neglect in the forms of proceeding was fufficient to annul 
the fubjlance of the faireft claim. The communion of the 
marriage-life was denoted by the neceflary elements of 
fire and water; and the divorced wife refigned the bunch 
of keys, by the delivery of which fhe had been inverted 
with the government of the family. The manumiffion of 
a fon, or a Have, was performed by turning him round 
with a gentle blow on the cheek ; a work was prohibited 
by the carting of a done; prefcription was interrupted by 
the breaking of a branch ; the clenched nft was the fym- 
bol of a pledge or depofit; the right hand was the gift of 
Faith and confidence. The indenture of covenants was a 
broken draw ; weights and dales were introduced into 
every payment ; and the heir who accepted a teftament 
was fometimes obliged to fnap his fingers, to cart away 
his garments, and to leap and dance with real or affefted 
tranfport. If a citizen purfued any ftolen goods into a 
neighbour’s houfe, he concealed his nakednefs with a li¬ 
nen towel, and hid his face with a mafk or bafon, left he 
fhould encounter the eyes of a virgin or a matron. In a 
civil aftion, the plaintiff touched the ear of his witnefs, 
feized his reluftant adverfary by the neck, and implored, 
in folemn lamentation, the aid of his fellow-citizens. 
The two competitors grafped each other’s hand as if they 
flood prepared for combat before the tribunal of the pre- 
tor ; he commanded them to produce the objeft of the 
difpute; they went, they returned with meafured fteps, 
and a clod of earth was call at his feet to reprefent the 
field for which they contended. This occult fcience of 
the words and aftions of law was the inheritance of the 
pontiffs and patricians : like Chaldean aftrologers, they 
announced to their clients the days of bufmefs and re- 
pofe. Thefe important trifles were interwoven with the 
religion of Numa; and, after the publication of the Twelve 
Tables, the Roman people was ltill enflaved by the igno¬ 
rance of judicial proceedings. The treachery of fome 
plebeian officers at length revealed the profitable myftery; 
in a more enlightened age, the legal aftions were derided 
and obferved; and the fame antiquity which fanftified the 
practice, obliterated the ufe and meaning, of this primi¬ 
tive language. 
A more liberal art was cultivated, however, by the 
fages of Rome, who, in a drifter fenfe, may be confidered 
as the authors of the civil law. The alteration of the 
idiom and manners of the Romans, rendered the ftyle of 
the Twelve Tables lefs familiar to each rifing generation; 
and the doubtful paffages were imperfectly explained by 
the ftudy of legal antiquarians. To define the ambigui¬ 
ties, to circumfcribe the latitude, to apply the principles, 
to extend the confequences, to reconcile the real or ap¬ 
parent contradictions, was a much nobler and more im¬ 
portant tafk ; and the province of legiflation was filently 
invaded by the expounders of ancient ftatutes. Their 
fubtle interpretations concurred with the equity of the 
pretor, to reform the tyranny of the darker ages; howe¬ 
ver ftrange or intricate the means, it was the aim of arti¬ 
ficial jurifprudence to reftore the fiinple dictates of nature 
and reafon ; and the fkill of private citizens was nfefully 
employed to undermine the public inftitutions of their 
country. 
The revolution of almoft one thoufand years, from the 
Twelve Tables to the reign of Juftinian, may be divided 
i into 
