Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/254

 240 //. FROM THE llOO'S TO THE 1800'S sity, so that the Civil law was to decide the same," and it was decided by the Digest. ^ This Lex Mercatoria had therefore a Roman foundation; and the importance of this will be seen when we remember that Lord Mansfield, the father of modern Mercantile law,'^ during the 32 years in which he was Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, ^ constructed his system of Commercial law by mould- ing the findings of his special juries as to the usages of mer- chants (which had often a Roman origin) on principles fre- quently derived from the Civil law and the law of nations. One among Junius' bitter attacks on him expressly alludes to this feature of his :* "In contempt or ignorance of the Com- mon law of England, you have made it your study to intro- duce into the Court where you preside, maxims of juris- prudence unknown to Englishmen. The Roman code, the law of nations, and the opinions of foreign civilians, are your perpetual theme ; " a charge for which, says Lord Campbell,^ " there is not the slightest colour of pretence. He did not consider the Common law of England ... a perfect code adapted to the expanded, diversified, and novel requirements of a civilised and commercial nation. . . but in no instance did he ever attempt to substitute Roman rules and maxims for those of the Common law. He made ample use of the compilations of Justinian, but only for a supply of principles to guide him upon questions unsettled by prior decisions in England; deriving also similar assistance from the law of nations, and the modern Continental codes." The nature of his work was well described by Buller, J. in his celebrated judgment in Lickbarrow v. Mason,^ where he says concern- ing bills of lading : " thus the matter stood till within these 30 years ; since that time the Commercial law of this country has taken a very different turn from what it did before. . . . Before that period we find that in Courts of law »p. 69. •Park on Insurance, Lond. 1787, 7th edit.. Int. pp. 43-48. Lowndes on Insurance, Int. p. 27; Campbell's Lives, Vol. ii. » 1756-1788. ♦Cited in Campbell, ii. 437. nbid. p. 438, 439. •1787, 2 T. R. 63, 73; see also Lowndes on General Average, Pref. 3rd edit. p. 41.