t as the new
practice of trusts degenerated into some abuse, the trustee was enabled,
by the Trebellian and Pegasian decrees, to reserve one fourth of the
estate, or to transfer on the head of the real heir all the debts and
actions of the succession. The interpretation of testaments was strict
and literal; but the language of trusts and codicils was delivered from
the minute and technical accuracy of the civilians. [157]

[Footnote 155: Dion Cassius (tom. ii. l. lvi. p. 814, with Reimar's
Notes) specifies in Greek money the sum of 25,000 drachms.]

[Footnote 156: The revolutions of the Roman laws of inheritance are
finely, though sometimes fancifully, deduced by Montesquieu, (Esprit des
Loix, l. xxvii.)]

[Footnote 157: Of the civil jurisprudence of successions, testaments,
codicils, legacies, and trusts, the principles are ascertained in the
Institutes of Caius, (l. ii. tit. ii.--ix. p. 91--144,) Justinian,
(l. ii. tit. x.--xxv.,) and Theophilus, (p. 328--514;) and the immense
detail occupies twelve books (xxviii.--xxxix.) of the Pandects.] III.
The general duties of mankind are imposed by their public and private
relations: but their specific obligations to each other can only be the
effect of, 1. a promise, 2. a benefit, or 3. an injury: and when these
obligations are ratified by law, the interested party may compel the
performance by a judicial action. On this principle, the civilians of
every country have erected a similar jurisprudence, the fair conclusion
of universal reason and justice. [158]

[Footnote 158: The Institutes of Caius, (l. ii. tit. ix. x. p.
144--214,) of Justinian, (l. iii. tit. xiv.--xxx. l. iv. tit.
i.--vi.,) and of Theophilus, (p. 616--837,) distinguish four sorts of
obligations--aut re, aut verbis, aut literis aut consensu: but I confess
myself partial to my own division. Note: It is not at all applicable to
the Roman system of contracts, even if I were allowed to be good.--M.]

Chapter XLIV: Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence.--Part VII.

1. The goddess of faith (of human and social faith) was worshipped, not
only in her temples, but in the lives of the Romans; and if that
nation was deficient in the more amiable qualities of benevolence and
generosity, they astonished the Greeks by their sincere and simple
performance of the most burdensome engagements. [159] Yet among the same
people, according to the rigid maxims of the patricians and decemvirs,
a naked pact, a promise, or even