ict has usefully exercised the adverse powers of learning and
genius; and each antagonist, alternately vanquished and victorious has
extirpated some ancient errors, and established some interesting truths.
An impartial stranger, instructed by their discoveries, their disputes,
and even their faults, may describe, from the same original materials,
the state of the Roman provincials, after Gaul had submitted to the arms
and laws of the Merovingian kings.

The rudest, or the most servile, condition of human society, is
regulated, however, by some fixed and general rules. When Tacitus
surveyed the primitive simplicity of the Germans, he discovered some
permanent maxims, or customs, of public and private life, which were
preserved by faithful tradition till the introduction of the art of
writing, and of the Latin tongue. Before the election of the Merovingian
kings, the most powerful tribe, or nation, of the Franks, appointed four
venerable chieftains to compose the _Salic_ laws; and their labors were
examined and approved in three successive assemblies of the people.
After the baptism of Clovis, he reformed several articles that appeared
incompatible with Christianity: the Salic law was again amended by his
sons; and at length, under the reign of Dagobert, the code was revised
and promulgated in its actual form, one hundred years after the
establishment of the French monarchy. Within the same period, the
customs of the _Ripuarians_ were transcribed and published; and
Charlemagne himself, the legislator of his age and country, had
accurately studied the _two_ national laws, which still prevailed among
the Franks. The same care was extended to their vassals; and the rude
institutions of the _Alemanni_ and _Bavarians_ were diligently compiled
and ratified by the supreme authority of the Merovingian kings. The
_Visigoths_ and _Burgundians_, whose conquests in Gaul preceded those
of the Franks, showed less impatience to attain one of the principal
benefits of civilized society. Euric was the first of the Gothic princes
who expressed, in writing, the manners and customs of his people; and
the composition of the Burgundian laws was a measure of policy rather
than of justice; to alleviate the yoke, and regain the affections, of
their Gallic subjects. Thus, by a singular coincidence, the Germans
framed their artless institutions, at a time when the elaborate system
of Roman jurisprudence was finally consummated. In the Salic laws, an