ate benefit of his subjects. It was their duty to select the
useful and practical parts of the Roman law; and the writings of the old
republicans, however curious on excellent, were no longer suited to
the new system of manners, religion, and government. Perhaps, if the
preceptors and friends of Cicero were still alive, our candor would
acknowledge, that, except in purity of language, [79] their intrinsic
merit was excelled by the school of Papinian and Ulpian. The science of
the laws is the slow growth of time and experience, and the advantage
both of method and materials, is naturally assumed by the most recent
authors. The civilians of the reign of the Antonines had studied the
works of their predecessors: their philosophic spirit had mitigated the
rigor of antiquity, simplified the forms of proceeding, and emerged
from the jealousy and prejudice of the rival sects. The choice of
the authorities that compose the Pandects depended on the judgment of
Tribonian: but the power of his sovereign could not absolve him from
the sacred obligations of truth and fidelity. As the legislator of the
empire, Justinian might repeal the acts of the Antonines, or condemn, as
seditious, the free principles, which were maintained by the last of the
Roman lawyers. [80] But the existence of past facts is placed beyond
the reach of despotism; and the emperor was guilty of fraud and forgery,
when he corrupted the integrity of their text, inscribed with their
venerable names the words and ideas of his servile reign, [81] and
suppressed, by the hand of power, the pure and authentic copies of
their sentiments. The changes and interpolations of Tribonian and his
colleagues are excused by the pretence of uniformity: but their cares
have been insufficient, and the antinomies, or contradictions of the
Code and Pandects, still exercise the patience and subtilty of modern
civilians. [82]

[Footnote 78: An ingenious and learned oration of Schultingius
(Jurisprudentia Ante-Justinianea, p. 883--907) justifies the choice of
Tribonian, against the passionate charges of Francis Hottoman and his
sectaries.]

[Footnote 79: Strip away the crust of Tribonian, and allow for the use
of technical words, and the Latin of the Pandects will be found
not unworthy of the silver age. It has been vehemently attacked by
Laurentius Valla, a fastidious grammarian of the xvth century, and by
his apologist Floridus Sabinus. It has been defended by Alciat, and
a name less