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 as a general maxim that sympathy with the debtor is the sign of a weak epoch. This sympathy styles itself humanity. A vigorous age is concerned first of all with insuring the creditor his rights, even if the debtor goes to the wall in consequence.

To come now to the Roman law of the present time: I almost regret that I have mentioned it, for I see myself compelled to pass judgment on it here, without being able to defend it as I would like. But that judgment itself I do not hesitate to express.

To sum up my thoughts on the subject in a few words, I would say that I find in the aggregate of history, and in all the application, of modern Roman law, a marked preponderance, rendered necessary to a certain extent by circumstances, of simple erudition over all those factors which otherwise determine the formation and development of the law: the national feeling of legal right, practice, and legislation. It is foreign law, written in a foreign language, introduced by the learned who alone can understand it