The ancient codes were doubtless originally suggested by the discovery and diffusion of the art of writing.

The ancient Roman code belongs to a class of which almost every civilised nation in the world can show a sample, and which, so far as the Roman and Hellenic worlds were concerned, were largely diffused over them at epochs not widely distant from one another.

The most superficial student of Roman history must be struck by the extraordinary degree in which the fortunes of the republic were affected by the presence of foreigners, under different names, on her soil.

It is true that the aristocracies seem to have abused their monopoly of legal knowledge; and at all events their exclusive possession of the law was a formidable impediment to the success of those popular movements which began to be universal in the western world.

When primitive law has once been embodied in a Code, there is an end to what may be called its spontaneous development.

The epoch of Customary Law, and of its custody by a privileged order, is a very remarkable one.