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

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.

The movement of the progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract.

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

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

The members of such a society consider that the transgression of a religious ordinance should be punished by civil penalties, and that the violation of a civil duty exposes the delinquent to divine correction.

Our authorities leave us no doubt that the trust lodged with the oligarchy was sometimes abused, but it certainly ought not to be regarded as a mere usurpation or engine of tyranny.