(1) Nature and Purpose of the Institution of Guardianship 290 (2) Modes of Appointment of Guardians to those under Age, and of Trustees in Guardianship to other Persons 291 (1) Historical Enumeration of the Various Sorts of Wills 347 355 369 ACTIONS AND REMEDIAL PROCESSES. § 1.-Growth of Roman Procedure up to the Age of Justinian (1) The Antique Civil Processes (legis actiones) (2) The Formulary System of Pleading (3) The Summary Jurisdiction of the Prætor § 2. Procedure as Existing in Justinian's Time, or as Reorganized by (1) The Formal Abolition of the Formulary System (2) The Reconstruction of the System of Judicial Adminis- HISTORY AND PRINCIPLES OF THE CIVIL LAW. INTRODUCTION. IF the era of Augustus has appeared to some signally fitted for the manifestation of a religion for the civilized world, a law for that world was consolidated and republished by Justinian in times scarcely less suitable for its reception and spread. The Eastern empire still retained its unbroken unity and that concentrated system of administration which had been impressed upon it by Diocletian and Constantine; while the Western empire, though shattered and dislocated, was still disciplined by the Theodosian code embodied in the barbarian legislation, and so was retained within those grooves of the older Roman law from which its progeny, the States of Europe, would never depart. It was only for a short period, indeed, that the old unity of the East and West was galvanized into life by Justinian; but the period was long enough to admit of the promulgation of the Digest, the Institutes, the Code, and the Novells throughout Italy, a soil kept receptive of purely Roman influences by the enlightened policy of Theodoric and Cassiodorus. It was not, however, only the continuing imperial unity and administrative inter-dependence of the parts of the world in which Justinian's laws were published that aided their rapid diffusion, and that made them take so deep and so lasting a root. Since the days of Gaius and the brilliant line of jurists in the second century, and even since B the time of Theodosius II. in the fifth, the quality of the law itself had undergone radical changes, which peculiarly fitted it for universal diffusion and easy reception. It had cast off nearly all that was exclusively and narrowly Roman, and had acquired the cosmopolitan lineaments due only to logical and common political needs. It was becoming, in a higher sense than in the early days of the Republic, a true jus civile or "civil law," adapted to the world just in proportion to the degree in which that world grew civilized. The old learning relating to the distinction between Roman, Italian, and foreigner; between freedman of one order or of another and citizen; between persons married according to different formalities; had dropped away. The old and long-cherished ceremonies, of peculiarly Roman birth, of mancipatio, the sacramentum, vindicatio, the legal actio, and even the interdictum, and the more technical parts of the formalities of the stipulatio, were remembered only in antiquarian literature and in allusions in the registered opinions of the older jurists. The laws of inheritance, of succession, and of procedure were completely remodelled from their foundation, chiefly by Justinian himself. The more enlightened doctrines,-capable still indeed of indefinite improvement,-relating to slavery and manumission, had introduced chapters wholly new into the legal system. The organization of the Christian Church had been laid under tribute for the purposes of legal administration; and while one class of laws invites or demands the co-operation of the bishops and clergy and the use of sacred edifices for the more effectual execution of the laws, another class relates to the disabilities, privileges, or shortcomings of every class of ecclesiastical ministers. It is thus clear, from even this summary survey, that by Justinian's time, and quite apart from the extraordinary influence due to his own work of expurgation and compilation, the law of the empire had been gradually amended and transmuted in such a way as well to fit it for a new and more extended enterprise. Then, again, in Justinian's time, the Roman language of law, though debased-as is clearly shown by comparing the |