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

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

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.

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.

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