Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/589

 18. BRYCE: THE EXTENSION OF LAW 575 only exception is South Britain, which lost its Roman law with the coming of the Angles and Saxons in the fifth cen- tury. The leading principles of Roman jurisprudence pre- vail also in some other outlying countries which have bor- rowed much of their law from some one or more of the coun- tries already named, viz. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, and Hungary. Then come the non-European colonies set- tled by some among the above States, such as Louisiana, the Canadian province of Quebec, Ceylon, British Guiana, South Africa (all the above having been at one time colonies either of France or of Holland), German Africa, and French Africa, together with the regions which formerly obeyed Spain or Portugal, including Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Philippine Islands. Add to these the Dutch and French East Indies, and Siberia. There is also Scotland, which has since the establishment of the Court of Session by King James the Fifth' in 1532 built up its law out of Roman Civil and (to some slight extent) Roman Canon Law.^ English law is in force not only In England, Wales, and Ireland but also in most of the British colonies. Quebec, Ceylon, Mauritius, South Africa, and some few of the West Indian islands follow the Roman law.^ The rest, including Australia, New Zealand, and all Canada except Quebec, follow English; as does also the United States (except Louisiana, but with the Hawaiian Islands), and India, though in India, as we shall see, native law is also admin- istered. Thus between them these two systems cover nearly the whole of the civilized, and most of the uncivilized world. Only two considerable masses of population stand outside — the Musulman East, that is, Turkey, North Africa, The law of land, however, is largely of feudal origin; and commercial law has latterly been influenced by that of England. ish law, as in Trinidad and Tobago, and of French law, as in St. Vin- cent, is now comparatively slight; and before long the West Indies (except Cuba and Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe and Martinique) will be entirely under English law. See as to the British colonies generally, C. P. Ilbert's Legislative Methods and Forms, chap. ix.
 * There is scarcely a trace of Celtic custom in modern Scottish law.
 * In these West Indian islands, however, that which remains of Span-