As a specimen of the difficulty which was encountered in reconciling the rules prevalent in Roman-law provinces with those prevalent in "customary law" provinces, the case of marriage may be selected in which the dotal régime and the system of community of goods came into direct competition. They were both allowed to stand, if the parties chose, but in default of expressed intention the system of community was held to be presumed.

The general distribution of the civil code follows that of Justinian's Institutes and Pothier's treatises to an almost servile extent. Inasmuch as the code not only obtained a lasting footing in many of the European dominions, especially the Rhine provinces, which formed part of Napoleon's Empire, and has since been the constant model on which most European codes have been constructed, it is obvious that it has become one of the chief avenues for handing down Roman law to a new age.

One of the latest extensions of Roman law through the medium of the type supplied by the French codes, is the system of codes which came into force in the mixed international tribunals of Egypt, in 1876. These are, in fact, curt abbreviations of the Code Civil and the Code de Commerce, the Roman law arrangement, method, and terminology being, of course, prevalent throughout. The new codes for the remodelled Native Tribunals are being framed after the same type, and the result will be a fresh meeting point of the Roman law of the West with the Roman law element in the Mohammedan law of the East.

(3) CODIFICATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

One of the most notable adaptations of Roman law to the uses of a progressive modern State is exhibited in the Code of Louisiana. The present civil code of Louisiana is probably the most complete code in existence, originally composed in the English language, and based on the principles and terminology of the Roman law. Louisiana was ceded by France to Spain by the treaty of 1762. Even when the territory was ceded to the United States Govern

ment, French law (based on the Coutumes de Paris) and Spanish law prevailed in suits between individual persons.

In 1806, the Legislative Council of the territory of Orleans appointed two able lawyers to compile and prepare a civil code for the use of the territory. The result of their labours, purporting to be a "digest of the civil laws now in force in the territory of Orleans, with alterations and amendments adapted to the present system of government," was reported and adopted in 1808. The code was, in fact, a republication of so much as was not obsolete in the Spanish and French law, and generally followed the Justinian system, arrangement, and terminology, as well as the leading principles applicable to all the leading departments of the law.

A new and reformed code, which is, in fact, the one now in force, was published in 1824. It had the advantage of the experience derived from the precedent and operation of the French codes. It was entrusted to Mr. Derbigny, Mr. Livingston, and Mr. Moreau Lislet, and is, in many respects, a work of the highest interest.

The "repealing clause" is an index to the character and object of this code. It is as follows:-" From and after the promulgation of this code, the Spanish, Roman, and French laws which were in force when Louisiana was ceded to the United States, and the acts of the Legislative Council of the Legislature of the territory of Orleans, and of the Legislature of the State of Louisiana, be and are hereby repealed in every case for which it has been specially provided in this code, and they shall not be invoked as laws, even under the pretext that these provisions are not contrary or repugnant to that code."

INDEX.