cases, the offended party also had his conjuratores. There was there neither interrogation, nor discussion of evidence, nor, properly speaking, examination of the fact; the conjuratores simply attested, under oath, the truth of the assertion of the offended party, or the denial of the offender. This, as regards the discovery of facts, was the great means and general system of the barbarous laws: the conjuratores are mentioned less frequently in the law of the Salian Franks than in the other barbarous laws--in that of the Ripuarian Franks, for instance; yet there is no doubt that they were everywhere equally in use, and the foundation of criminal procedure.

This system, like that of composition, has been an object of great admiration to many learned men; they have seen in it two rare merits; the power of the ties of family, friendship, or neighborhood, and the confidence placed by the law in the veracity of man: "The Germans," says Rogge, "have never felt the necessity for a regular system of proofs. What may appear strange in this assertion vanishes, if one is thoroughly impressed, as I am, with a full faith in the nobility. of character, and, above all, the unbounded veracity of our

It would be amusing to pass from this sentence to Gregory of Tours, the poem of the Niebelungen, and all the poetical or historical monuments of the ancient German manners: to the artifice, deceit, and want of faith, shown there at every step, sometimes with the most dexterous refinement, and sometimes with the coarsest audacity. Can you believe that the Germans were any different when before their tribunals than in common life, and that the registers of their law-suits, if such things as registers then existed, should give the lie to their history?

I do not attach any special reproach to them for these vices; they are the vices of all barbarous nations, in all epochs, and under every zone; American traditions bear witness to it as well as those of Europe, and the Iliad as well as the Niebelungen. I am far, too, from denying that natural morality in man, which abandons him in no age or condition of society, and mixes itself with the most brutal empire of ignorance or passion. But you will readily comprehend, what, in the midst of such manners, the oaths of the conjuratores must very frequently have been.

'Ueber das gerichtwesen der Germanen, Preface, p. 6.

With regard to the spirit of tribe or family, it is true, it was powerful among the Germans; of this, among many other proofs, the conjuratores give one; but it had not all the causes, nor did it produce all the moral consequences which are attributed to it: a man accused was a man attacked; his neighbors followed and surrounded him before the tribunal as at a combat. It was between families that the state of warfare subsisted in the heart of barbarism: can we be surprised that they should group and put themselves in movement when, under such a form, war menaced them?

The true origin of the conjuratores was, that all other means of establishing facts were almost impracticable. Think what such an inquiry exacts, what a degree of intellectual development and public power are necessary in order to confront the various kinds of proofs, to collect and contest the evidence, to bring the witnesses before the judges, and to obtain truth from them in the presence of the accusers and the accused. Nothing of this was possible in the society governed by the Salic law; and it was neither from choice nor moral combination that they then had recourse to the judgment of God and the oath of relations, but because they could neither do, nor apprehend anything better.

Such are the principal points of this law which seemed to me to merit your attention. I say nothing of the fragments of political law, civil law, or civil procedure, which are found dispersed through it, nor even of that famous article which orders that "Salic land shall not fall to woman; and that the inheritance shall devolve exclusively on the males." No person is now ignorant of its true meaning. Some dispositions, relative to the forms by which a man may separate himself from his family,' the getting free of all obligation of relationship, and entering upon an entire independence, are very curious, and give a great insight into social life; but they hold an unimportant place in the law, and do not de termine its end. I repeat, that it is essentially a penal code, and you now comprehend it under this view. Considering it. in its whole, it is impossible not to recognize in it a complex, uncertain, and transitory legislation. One feels at every moment the passage from one country into another, from one social state into another social state, from one religion into another religion, and from one language into another language;

1 Tit. liii. § 1-3.

almost every metamorphosis which can take place in the life of a nation is stamped upon it. Its existence also was precarious and brief; from the tenth century, perhaps, it was replaced by a multitude of local customs, to which, of a surety, it had contributed a great deal, but which were likewise drawn from other sources, in the Roman law, the canon law, and the necessities of circumstances; and when, in the fourteenth century, they invoked the Salic law, in order to regulate the succession to the crown, it had certainly been a long time since it had been spoken of, except in remembrance, and upon some great occasion.

Three other barbarian laws ruled over the nations established in Gaul, those of the Ripuarians, the Burgundians, and the Visigoths; these will form the subject of our next lecture.

TENTH LECTURE.

Object of the lecture-Is the transitory character of the Salic law found in the laws of the Ripuarians, the Burgundians, and the Visigoths?-1st, The law of the Ripuarians-The Ripuarian Franks— History of the compilation of their law-Its contents-Difference between it and the Salic law-2d, The law of the BurgundiansHistory of its compilation-Its contents-Its distinctive character3d, The law of the Visigoths-It concerns the history of Spain more than that of France-Its general character-Effect of Roman civilization upon the barbarians.

IN our last lecture, the character which, on summing up, appeared to us dominant and fundamental in the Salic law, was that of being a transitory legislation, doubtless essentially German, yet distinguished by a Roman stamp; which would have no future; and which showed, on the one hand, the passage from the German into the Roman social state, and on the other, the decay and fusion of the two elements for the good of a new society, to which they both concurred, and which began to appear amidst their wreck.

This result of the examination of the Salic law will be singularly confirmed, if the examination of the other barbarous laws likewise lead us to it; still more, if we find in these various laws, different epochs of transition, different phases of transformation, which may be imperfectly discovered in the other; if we recognize, for example, that the law of the Ripuarians, the law of the Burgundians, and the law of the Visigoths, are in some measure placed in the same career as the Salic law, at unequal distances, and leave us, if the term be permitted, products more or less advanced in the combination of the German and Roman society, and in the formation of the new state which was to be the result.

It is to this, I believe, that the examination of the three laws will, in fact, conduct us, that is to say, of all those which, within the limits of Gaul, exercised any true influence. The distinction between the Ripuarian Franks and the Salian Franks is known to you; these were the two principal tribes, or rather the two principal collections of tribes of the great confederation of the Franks. The Salian Franks probably

took their name from the river Yssel (Ysala), upon the banks of which they were established, after the movement of nations which had driven them into Batavia; their name was therefore of German origin, and we may suppose that it was given them by themselves. The Ripuarian Franks, on the contrary, evidently received theirs from the Romans. They inhabited the banks of the Rhine. As the Salian Franks advanced towards the south-west, into Belgium and Gaul, the Ripuarian Franks spread also towards the west, and occupied the territory between the Rhine and the Meuse, to the forest of Ardennes. The first became, or well nigh, the Franks of Neustria; the last, the Franks of Austrasia. These two names, without exactly corresponding to the primitive distinction, reproduce it faithfully enough.

At the beginning of our history, the two tribes appear for a time re-united in a single nation and under a single empire. I will read to you, upon this subject, the account of Gregory of Tours; always, without his knowing it, the truest painter of the manners and events of this epoch. You will there see what, at that time, was understood by the words union of nations and conquest.

"When Clovis came to battle against Alaric, king of the Goths, he had for an ally the son of Sigebert-Claude (king of the Ripuarian Franks, and who resided at Cologne), named Chloderic. This Sigebert limped, from a blow on the knee which he had received at the battle of Tolbiac, against the Germans. King Clovis, during his sojourn at Paris, sent secretly to the son of Sigebert, saying to him: 'Your father is aged, and he limps with his bad leg: if he should die, his kingdom belongs to you of right, as well as our friendship.' Seduced by this ambition, Chloderic formed the project of killing his father.

"Sigebert had gone out of the town of Cologne, and, having passed the Rhine, was walking in the forest of Buconia; he slept at noon in his tent; his son sent assassins against him and procured his death, in the hope that he should possess his kingdom. But, by the judgment of God, he fell into the very grave which he had maliciously dug for his father. He sent to king Clovis messengers announcing the death of his father, and said to him: My father is dead, and I have in my power his treasures and his kingdom. Send to me and I will willingly give you what treasures you please.' Clovis returned for answer: I return thee thanks for thy