PREFACE.

Some remnants of the laws of an ancient conquering people, ordered to be compiled by a Prince who reigned in Constantinople twelve centuries ago, later mixed with Lombard customs and tangled in cumbersome volumes by private and obscure interpreters, form that tradition of opinions which a great part of Europe still calls law. It is as disastrous as it is common today that an opinion of Carpzovius Benedict Carpzov, a German jurist, an ancient usage mentioned by Clarus Julius Clarus, an Italian jurist, and a torture suggested with angry