ood. It may likewise be considered, that exile,
considerable fines, or the choice of an easy death, relate more
particularly to the rich and the noble; and the persons the most exposed
to the avarice or resentment of a provincial magistrate, were thus
removed from his obscure persecution to the more august and impartial
tribunal of the Praetorian praefect. 2. As it was reasonably apprehended
that the integrity of the judge might be biased, if his interest was
concerned, or his affections were engaged, the strictest regulations
were established, to exclude any person, without the special
dispensation of the emperor, from the government of the province
where he was born; [115] and to prohibit the governor or his son from
contracting marriage with a native, or an inhabitant; [116] or
from purchasing slaves, lands, or houses, within the extent of his
jurisdiction. [117] Notwithstanding these rigorous precautions, the
emperor Constantine, after a reign of twenty-five years, still deplores
the venal and oppressive administration of justice, and expresses the
warmest indignation that the audience of the judge, his despatch of
business, his seasonable delays, and his final sentence, were
publicly sold, either by himself or by the officers of his court. The
continuance, and perhaps the impunity, of these crimes, is attested by
the repetition of impotent laws and ineffectual menaces. [118]

[Footnote 113: Among the works of the celebrated Ulpian, there was one
in ten books, concerning the office of a proconsul, whose duties in the
most essential articles were the same as those of an ordinary governor
of a province.]

[Footnote 114: The presidents, or consulars, could impose only two
ounces; the vice-praefects, three; the proconsuls, count of the east,
and praefect of Egypt, six. See Heineccii Jur. Civil. tom. i. p. 75.
Pandect. l. xlviii. tit. xix. n. 8. Cod. Justinian. l. i. tit. liv. leg.
4, 6.]

[Footnote 115: Ut nulli patriae suae administratio sine speciali
principis permissu permittatur. Cod. Justinian. l. i. tit. xli. This law
was first enacted by the emperor Marcus, after the rebellion of Cassius.
(Dion. l. lxxi.) The same regulation is observed in China, with equal
strictness, and with equal effect.]

[Footnote 116: Pandect. l. xxiii. tit. ii. n. 38, 57, 63.]

[Footnote 117: In jure continetur, ne quis in administratione
constitutus aliquid compararet. Cod. Theod. l. viii. tit. xv. leg. l.
This maxim of common law