ous as they are, among the ancient laws of modern nations?
These always variable edicts at length comprehended the whole of the
Roman legislature, and became the subject of the commentaries of the
most celebrated lawyers. They must therefore be considered as the basis
of all the Roman jurisprudence comprehended in the Digest of Justinian.
----It is in this sense that M. Schrader has written on this important
institution, proposing it for imitation as far as may be consistent with
our manners, and agreeable to our political institutions, in order to
avoid immature legislation becoming a permanent evil. See the History of
the Roman Law by M. Hugo, vol. i. p. 296, &c., vol. ii. p. 30, et seq.,
78. et seq., and the note in my elementary book on the Industries, p.
313. With regard to the works best suited to give information on
the framing and the form of these edicts, see Haubold, Institutiones
Literariae, tom. i. p. 321, 368. All that Heineccius says about the
usurpation of the right of making these edicts by the praetors is false,
and contrary to all historical testimony. A multitude of authorities
proves that the magistrates were under an obligation to publish these
edicts.--W. ----With the utmost deference for these excellent civilians,
I cannot but consider this confusion of the judicial and legislative
authority as a very perilous constitutional precedent. It might answer
among a people so singularly trained as the Romans were by habit and
national character in reverence for legal institutions, so as to be an
aristocracy, if not a people, of legislators; but in most nations the
investiture of a magistrate in such authority, leaving to his sole
judgment the lawyers he might consult, and the view of public opinion
which he might take, would be a very insufficient guaranty for right
legislation.--M.]

[Footnote 3311: Compare throughout the brief but admirable sketch of the
progress and growth of the Roman jurisprudence, the necessary operation
of the jusgentium, when Rome became the sovereign of nations, upon the
jus civile of the citizens of Rome, in the first chapter of Savigny.
Geschichte des Romischen Rechts im Mittelalter.--M.]

[Footnote 34: Dion Cassius (tom. i. l. xxxvi. p. 100) fixes the
perpetual edicts in the year of Rome, 686. Their institution, however,
is ascribed to the year 585 in the Acta Diurna, which have been
published from the papers of Ludovicus Vives. Their authenticity is
supported or allowed by