1800. } 
piece contains numerous and important 
details relative to theinduftry of theBlacks, 
their dexterity in mechanical arts, and 
the fuccefs of fome among them in the ca- 
reer of letters. Among the latter is dif- 
tinguifhed Phillis Wheatley, tranfported in 
1761 from Africa to America, at the 
age of feven years; from thence fhe was 
brought to England,where, having learned 
rapidly the Latin and the Englifh, fhe pub- 
lifhed, in this laft language, at the age of 
nineteen years, a collection of poems in 
fome eftimation. With refpe&t to the moral 
qualities of the Negroes, Citizen Gregoire 
produces numerous inftances from which 
it appears, that even in the bofom of 
flavery, which degrades and corrupts the 
mind, the Blacks have admirably cultivat- 
ed and praétifed the mild as well as the 
heroic virtues, filial piety, philanthropy, 
gratitude, martial bravery, and intrepidi- 
ty in danger. Such are the facts which 
Citizen Gregoire oppofes to certain theo- 
ries unfavourable to that oppreffed part of 
mankind. ‘* The vices of the Blacks,” 
concludes the author, ‘* are the work of 
tyranny, their virtues are their own.” 
Citizen LEveqQue has read a firft me- 
moir on the Republic of Athens. The 
refult of this memoir is, that the Athe- 
nians, with their Archons, their Areopa- 
gus, and their council of five hundred, 
had no idea of the divifion of, or of the 
equilibrium, of power. With them, the 
executive power, difleminated every where, 
had no confiftiency any where. All the 
authorities were refolved into judiciary au- 
thorities, none of them poffeffing in effeét 
a moderating power, capable at all times 
of ftopping or fufpending the precipitate 
refolutions of the others. The affembly 
of the people, exercifing, abdicating, re- 
fuming at hazard all the.kinds of func- 
tions, thofe of judging and adminiftering, 
as well as thofe of making elections and 
laws, exhibited no other permanent cha- 
- acter, than its inconftancy, its agitations, © 
and its fatal docility to the impulfions of 
every demagogue. It is to thefe deeply 
inlaid vices of the conftitution of Athens, 
that Citizen Leveque attributes the faults 
and the misfortunes of that republic ; as it 
as alfo to the wifdom, to the power of its 
amoral inftitutions, fhe owed her great ac- 
tions, her great men, her profperities {9 
fhort-lived, and her immortal glory. 
Certain nations fubjugated by Rome had 
obtained from her the liberty to retain 
their ancient laws. The Romans, con- 
quered in their turn, preferved in like man- 
ner their civil leiflation. Alaric IT. one 
of the conquerors who difmembered the 
2 
Proceedings of Public Societies, — 249 
Empire of the Weft, caufed accde of laws 
to be compiled in 506, purely Roman, in 
favour of his new Roman fubjects. This 
collection bearing the name of the Alaric 
Code, is the fubject of a memoir which 
Citizen BoucHaup has read to the Ciafs, 
and which may be divided into two parts. 
The queftion difcuffed in the firft is, By 
what jurisconfults that code was compiled. 
The fecond treats of the diffcrent. texts 
of which the Alaric Code is compofed, 
and of the interpretations which have been 
joined to it. Inthe National Library are 
two very defective manufcripts of the Ala- 
ric Code, one of which C. Bouchaud has 
fent to the commiffion of manufcriptsy 
with fome written obfervations. 
Citizen ANQuETIL has read the fecond 
part of a memoir on the French laws and 
manners from the fifth century to the tenth. 
Among the cuftoms conneéted with the le- 
giflation of thofe times, we remark a pe- 
nal Jaw promulged againft confpiracies, 
and frequently renewed or applied in the 
interval between the firft race of kings and 
the fecond. In the work of C. Anquetil, 
whatever relates to this law is terminated 
by fome confiderations on political revo- 
lutions, and of the duration of the con- 
vulfions which they occafion. If one part 
of the firft generation refifts, the fecond 
foftens, the third yields, and the change 
is confolidated when the fourth commences. 
A memoir read by C. Lecranp 
D’Ausstr prefents the hiftory of the eita- 
blifament of the common law in France, 
and contains an examination of the four 
firft works in the French language, which 
in the courfe of the thirteenth century, 
have treated of this law. ‘T‘hefe works 
are firft ** Les Confeils,”” by Pierre Des- 
fontaines; fecond, ** Les Affifes de Jeru- 
falem,”’ attributed to Godfrey of Bouillon, 
but compiled, in faét, in Cyprus, by Jean 
d’Ibelin; third, ‘‘Les Etabliffemens de 
St. Louis,’ a work whofe author is un- 
known; fourth, ‘* Les Coutumes de 
Beauvoifis,”” by Phillippe Beaumanoir. If 
we are not to fearch in monuments like 
thefe for the principles of a found jurif- 
prudence, we may at leaft ftudy in them 
the important hiftory of that feudal fyftem 
which has governed France and many other 
ftates of Europe, as well as the Afiatic 
provinces of which the crufading Latins 
obtained the peffeffion. ‘This memoir of 
C. Legrand ferves to complete that which 
he had read in the former fitting, on the 
ancient legiflature of the French, compre. 
hending the Salic Law, the law ofthe Vi. 
figoths, and the law of the Burgundians, 
In another memoir, which treats of 
< ancient 
