The Roman jurisprudence has the longest known history of any set of human institutions.
Our authorities leave us no doubt that the trust lodged with the oligarchy was sometimes abused, but it certainly ought not to be regarded as a mere usurpation or engine of tyranny.
The inquiries of the jurist are in truth prosecuted much as inquiry in physic and physiology was prosecuted before observation had taken the place of assumption.
The most celebrated system of jurisprudence known to the world begins, as it ends, with a Code.
The ancient codes were doubtless originally suggested by the discovery and diffusion of the art of writing.
The most superficial student of Roman history must be struck by the extraordinary degree in which the fortunes of the republic were affected by the presence of foreigners, under different names, on her soil.
