business, that prove that the Romans, in their civil and social
relations, were very much on a level with modern times. And it would be
difficult to find, in the most enlightened of modern codes, greater
wisdom and foresight than what appear in the legacy of Justinian, as to
all questions pertaining to the nature, the acquisition, the possession,
the use, and the transfer of property. Civil obligations are most
admirably defined, and all contracts are determined by the wisest
application of the natural principles of justice. What can be more
enlightened than the laws which relate to leases, to sales, to
partnerships, to damages, to pledges, to hiring of work, and to quasi
contracts! How clear the laws pertaining to the succession to property,
to the duties of guardians, to the rights of wards, to legacies, to
bequests in trust, and to the general limitation of testamentary powers!
How wise the regulations in reference to intestate succession, and to
the division of property among males and females. We find no laws of
entail, no unequal rights, no absurd distinctions between brothers, no
peculiar privileges given to males over females, or to older sons. In
the Institutes of Justinian, we see on every page a regard to the
principles of natural justice. We discover that the property of the wife
cannot be alienated nor mortgaged by a prodigal husband; that wards are
to be protected from the cupidity of guardians; that property could be
bequeathed by will, and that wills are sacred; that all promises are to
be fulfilled; that he who is intrusted with the property of another is
bound to restitution by the most imperative obligations; that usury
should be restrained; that all injuries should be repaired; that cattle
and slaves should be protected from malice and negligence; that
atrocious cruelties in punishment should not be inflicted; that
malicious witnesses should be punished; that corrupt judges should be
visited with severe penalties; that libels and satires should subject
their authors to severe chastisement; that every culprit should be