568 
SAL 
and as France found itself divided into a number of petty 
lordships, which acknowledged rather a feudal than a po¬ 
litical dependence, it was very difficult for only one law to 
be authorised. Accordingly the Salic, Burgundian, and 
Visigoth laws were extremely neglected at the end of the 
second race, and at the beginning of the third they were 
scarcely ever mentioned. 
The Salic law, or that of the Salian Franks, differed 
in several respects from that of the Ripuarian Franks, and 
other barbarous nations. The Salic law did not allow of 
the custom of negative proofs ; that is, if a person brought 
a demand or charge against another, he was obliged by the 
Salic law to prove it, and it was not sufficient for the ac¬ 
cused to deny it; and this is agreeable to the laws of almost 
all the nations in the universe. In one case, however, this 
kind of proof was allowed; but even then they were not 
admitted alone, and without the concurrence of positive 
proofs. The plaintiff caused witnesses to be heard, in order 
to ground his action; the defendant also produced witnesses 
on his side; and the judge was to come at the truth by com¬ 
paring these testimonies. The Salic law did not admit of 
the trial by combat; though it had been received by the 
laws of the Ripuarians, and of almost all the barbarous na¬ 
tions. The Salic law allowed of the ordeal or trial by 
boiling water, and as it was excessively cruel, the law found 
an expedient to soften its rigour; for it permitted the per¬ 
son, who had been summoned to this trial, to ransom his 
hand, with the consent of the adverse party. The decline 
and disuse of the Salic and Roman laws were partly, if not 
principally, owing to their not admitting judicial combats. 
That particular passage of the Salic law, which is commonly 
distinguished by the terms “ the Salic law,” has not any 
particular regard to the crown of France: it only imports, 
in the general, that, with regard to Salic land, no part of the 
inheritance shall fall to any female, but the whole to the 
male sex. “ De terra Salica nulla portio hsereditatis mulieri 
veniat; sed ad virilem sexum tota terrae hsereditas per- 
veniat.” So that it is a popular error to suppose, that the 
Salic law was established purely on account of the succession 
of the crown; since it extends to private persons as much 
as those of the royal family. 
Part of it seems to have been borrowed by our Henry I. 
ni compiling his laws, cap. 89. “ Qui hoc fecerit, secun¬ 
dum legem Salicam moriatur.”' 
By Salic lands, or inheritances, were anciently denoted 
all lands, by whatever tenure held, whether noble or base, 
from the succession to which women were excluded by the 
Salic law; for they were by it admitted to inherit nothing 
but moveables and purchases, whenever there were any males. 
Indieed, M. Fenelon observes, that “ there were originally 
Salic lands, distinguished from all others, and destined for 
the military people of the nation ; and to these the law was 
originally intended to be confined.” 
When the Franks lived in Germany, their wealth con¬ 
sisted of slaves, flocks, horses, arms, &c.; the house, and the 
small portion of land adjoining to it, were naturally given 
to the male children who were to dwell there. But after¬ 
wards, when the Franks had by conquest acquired large di¬ 
visions of land, they thought it hard that the daughters 
and their children should be incapable of enjoying any part 
of them. They introduced a custom of permitting the 
father to recall his daughter, and her children. They silenced 
the law ; and it appears that these recalls were frequent, since 
they were entered in the formularies. 
The Salic law had not in view a preference of one sex to 
the other, much less had it a regard to the perpetuity of a 
family, a name, or the succession of land. These things did 
not enter into the heads of the Germans; it was purely a 
law of economy, which gatfe the house, and the land de¬ 
pendent on the house, to the males who should dwell in it, 
and to whom it consequently was of most service. 
In proof of this we need only transcribe the title of the 
allodial lands of the Salic law :— 
“ 1. Ilf a man dies without issue, his father or mother 
SAL 
shall succeed him. 2. If he has neither father nor mother,- 
his brother or sister shall succeed him. 3. If he has neither- 
brother nor sister* the sister of his mother shall succeed him. 
4. If his mother has no sister, the sister of his father shall 
succeed him. 5. If his father has no sister, the nearest- 
relation by the male shall succeed. 6. Not any part of 
the Salic land shall pass to the females; but it shall belong 
to the males, that is, the male children shall succeed their 
father.” 
It is plain that the first five articles relate to the inheritance 
of a man who dies without issue; and the sixth to the 
succession of him who has children. 
When a man dies without children, the law ordains that 
neither of the two sexes shall have the preference to the 
other, except in certain cases. In the two first degrees of 
succession, the advantages of the males and females were the 
same; in the third and fourth, the females had the preference, 
and the males in the fifth. 
The Salic law enjoins, that after the father’s sister, the 
succession should be held by the nearest male relation; but 
if this relation was beyond the fifth degree, he should not 
inherit. Thus a woman of the sixth degree, might inherit 
to the prejudice of a male of the sixth: and this may be seen 
in the law of the Ripuarian Franks, (a faithful interpretation 
of the Salic law,) under the title of allodial lands, where it 
follows step by step the Salic law on the. same subject. 
If the father left issue, the Salic law would have the 
daughters excluded from the inheritance of the Salic land, 
and that it should belong to the male children. 
It would be easy, says Montesquieu, to prove that the Salic 
law did not absolutely exclude the daughters from the pos¬ 
sesion of the Salic land, but only in the case where they were 
excluded by their brothers. This appears from the Salic law 
itself; which, after having said that the women shall possess 
none of the Salic land, but only the males, interprets and 
restrains itself, by adding, “ that is, the son shall succeed to 
the inheritance of the father.” 
After what has been said, one would not imagine that 
the perpetual succession of the males to the crown of France 
should have taken its rise from the Salic law. And yet this 
is a point indubitably certain. Montesquieu proves it from 
the several codes of the barbarous nations. The Salic law 
and the law of the Burgundians refused the daughters the 
right of succeeding to the land in conjunction with their 
brothers; neither did they succeed to the crown. The 
law of the Visigoths, on the contrary, permitted the 
daughters to inherit the land with the brothers; and the 
women were capable of inheriting the crown. Amongst 
these people the regulation of the civil law had an effect on 
the political. 
This was not the only case in which the political law of 
the Franks gave way to the civil. By the Salic law all the 
brothers succeeded equally to the land, and this was also 
decreed by a law of the Burgundians. Thus in the king¬ 
dom of the Franks, and in that of the Burgundians, all the 
brothers succeeded to the crown; if we except a few mur¬ 
ders and usurpations which took place amongst the Burgun¬ 
dians. Spirit of Laws, vols. i, and ii. 
SALICARIA, in Botany, so called by Tournefort, from 
salix, a willow, because the most common species grows in 
willow-beds, or osier-holts, and sometimes bears the name 
of Willow-herb. See Lythrum. 
SALICARIA, in Ornithology. See Motacilla SALI¬ 
CARIA. 
SALICARIiE, in Botany, a natural order of plants, the 
91st in Jussieu’s system, the 9th of his 14th class. The name 
of this order alludes to Lythrum Salicaria, one of the best 
known of the plants it contains, and the characters given by 
Jussieu are as follows :— 
Calyx tubular, or pitcher-shaped. Petals definite, inserted 
into the top of the calyx, alternately with its segments; 
sometimes wanting. Stamens definite, (indefinite in Lager- 
stroemia and Munchausia), either the same number with the 
petals, or twice as many, inserted into the middle of the 
calyx; 
