judges. These civil functionaries, are to be appointed by royal authority, or by the governor of some local city or province. If appointed by the latter power, they must be surbordinate to those appointed by the King, who travel from province to province in dispensing justice, and upholding the laws. Both local and general judges of assize, may confide their powers to persons qualified to discharge the duties of their office; but if a person takes upon himself these duties, without proper authority, and is incompetent to the effectual discharge of his judicial functions, he must pay one pound of gold, and be answerable for his decisions; and the public officers who do his orders, shall be subjected to the punishment of one hundred stripes. To prevent this as much as possible, judicial responsibility must be defined with every degree of accuracy. If a judge be applied to for a process against any one, and the former, through partiality to the defendant, or any other cause, refuse to issue it, the plaintiff, by proving the neglect, subjects the judge to the same penalty, as would have been inflicted upon the defendant, supposing that he had been found guilty of the charge preferred against him. If a judge pass an unjust sentence, and deprive any subject of the realm of anything, that thing shall be restored, and its full value given to the person by the judge himself; and if the value of this thing be more than the judge can pay, he shall be mulcted of all his possessions; and if he be without any property at all, he shall be doomed to receive fifty stripes in public. Whatever expense a judge occasions by unnecessary delay, he shall pay out of his own If a client entertain suspicions as to the

resources.

integrity of his judges, or conceive he is obnoxious to them, he may demand to be tried in conjunction with the bishop of the diocese, and if he be still dissatisfied with the verdict, he has another appeal to the governor of the province, or to the King himself; and if the judgment be unjust the judge shall be responsible for it; but if, on the other hand, the complaint be groundless, the appellant shall be condemned to the same penalty, or receive one hundred lashes before the same tribunal he has slighted. The fees of judges shall in no case exceed five per cent. on the value of the property under litigation; if more be taken, he shall restore it twofold, and loose all claims to reward. The share of the executing officers shall be one-tenth, and if the same is exceeded, they shall be subjected to the same penalties as the magistrates. Judges must be independent; and if they give a wrong or unjust decision through fear of the King, it shall be corrected, but the judge himself shall be screened from harm, by making oath that he committed wrong or injustice through the influence of fear, and not from his own will or desire. The bishops of God are to be considered as the especial guardians of the poor; and may demand of judges who have decided wrongfully, (whether wilfully or through fear) to re-hear the case before them, and if a refusal is given, the bishops may re-hear and decide the case without the judges; but the former are compelled to send written statements of the case, and of their amended judgment to the king, who has the sole power to confirm that decision should he think it right. Judges may be cited to appear before other judges, or before the king, or his deputy, to

answer whatever complaints may be brought against them.

In addition to these several codes, we must also mention the Lombard Laws, which were first reduced to writing by Rotharis, in the middle of the eighth century. This legal edict contains 386 laws; and some additions were afterwards made to it by his successors Grimwald, Luitprand, Rachis, and Astolpho. This code became very extensively known; and,when compared with the barbaric systems, it has always maintained a decided preference, both for the perspicuity of its arrangements, and the justice and wisdom of its enactments. These laws being promulgated and abridged at the general assemblies and diets, there was naturally breathed into them, a liberal and popular spirit; and matters bearing on legislative principles of vital import, were considered with that due care and deliberation befitting their national importance.

CHAPTER VIII.

MISCELLANEOUS POLITICAL WRITERS, FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA, TO THE END OF THE NINTH CENTURY.

OUR object in this chapter is chiefly to notice some political writings which are neither directly connected with theological doctrines and discussions, nor with the general cultivation of the scholastic philosophy as a whole. These writings, though scanty, are nevertheless interesting, as connecting links in the progressive cultivation of political literature, as well as from the value of many of the abstract principles they contain, on the nature and origin of governments, and on constitutional polity generally.

In the times of our Saviour, and indeed both before and after, there were speculative and philosophical sects in the east who paid marked attention to political doctrines, and propounded theories of government on certain views of the nature of the social contract. The Essenes were one of these sects. Philo, Josephus, and Pliny, give some details of their opinions on political and civil institutions. The Essenes were smitten with a love of Arcadian simplicity and innocency of life. As a grand means of fulfilling this day-dream, they maintained the doctrine of a perfect community of

POLITICAL WRITERS, FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA, &c. 199

goods. They had no towns, but were scattered throughout the entire land of Judea; and when they wandered from place to place, were supported by the voluntary and gratuitous contributions of the faithful of the community. They never looked beyond the possession of the mere necessaries of life. The amassing of wealth they thought criminal, and so likewise were their views on war. Regal government they considered a direct and flagrant usurpation; and trade and commerce they held to be the great incentives to avarice, luxury, and degeneracy of character. All men were free and equal, and were united by the ties of a common nature and a sympathetic affection. Servitude and slavery were both abhorrent to their views. Members living in any particular locality assembled under one roof, and, like the inhabitants of Sparta and Crete, had their food in common. The Essenes practised the utmost simplicity in dress, and were punctiliously pious and grave in their deportment. Marriage was not considered creditable; and their numbers were recruited from converts, and the adoption of children, who were carefully instructed in their own peculiar opinions and usages. On this point of marriage, there were, however, differences among them; some considering it both lawful, and necessary. subject of education generally was in their eyes of great importance. Their system of tuition was confined chiefly to the strengthening and invigorating of the body by exercise and proper diet, and to the cultivation of the moral sentiments and affections. Philo tells us that "they formed themselves to sanctity, to justice, to domestic economy, and to social duties, by regulating themselves upon three principles which con

The