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 chap, xliv] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 501 West ; and their use may be considered as an evidence of their merit. They were selected by the Imperial delegates, Tribo- nian, Theophilus, and Dorotheus : and the freedom and purity of the Antonines was incrusted with the coarser materials of a degenerate age. The same volume which introduced the youth of Kome, Constantinople, and Berytus, to the gradual study of' the Code and Pandects is still precious to the historian, the philosopher, and the magistrate. The institutes of Justinian are divided into four books; they proceed, with no contempt- ible method, from I. Persons to II. Things, and from things to III. Actions ; and the article IV. of Private Wrongs is termin- ated by the principles of Criminal Law. I. The distinction of ranks and persons, is the firmest basis i. of of a mixed and limited government. In France, the remains Freemen of liberty are kept alive by the spirit, the honours, and even the prejudices, of fifty thousand nobles. 100 Two hundred fami- lies supply, in lineal descent, the second branch of the English legislature, which maintains, between the king and commons, the balance of the constitution. A gradation of patricians and plebeians, of strangers and subjects, has supported the aris- tocracy of Genoa, Venice, and ancient Rome. The perfect equality of men is the point in which the extremes of de- mocracy and despotism are confounded ; since the majesty of the prince or people would be offended, if any heads were exalted above the level of their fellow-slaves or fellow-citizens. In the decline of the Roman empire, the proud distinctions of the re- public were gradually abolished, and the reason or instinct of Justinian completed the simple form of an absolute monarchy. The emperor could not eradicate the popular reverence which always waits on the possession of hereditary wealth or the memory of famous ancestors. He delighted to honour with titles and emoluments his generals, magistrates, and senators; and his precarious indulgence communicated some rays of their 3rd ed., 1896. Ortolan's Explication historique des instituts de l'empereur Justinien, ed. 2, 3 vols., 1880, includes in vols. 2 and 3 the text and a French translation.] 100 See the Annales Politiques de l'Abbe' de St. Pierre, torn. i. p. 25, who dates in the year 1735. The most ancient families claim the immemorial possession of arms and fiefs. Since the Crusades, some, the most truly respectable, have been created by the king, for merit and services. The recent and vulgar crowd is derived from the multitude of venal offices without truBt or dignity, which continually en- noble the wealthy plebeians.