12

Jan.

The HISTORY of the laft Seffion of Parliament. fative power, and contrive to get themselves on many occafions admitted into the grand affembly of the king. dom.

THE ORIGIN OF THE SALIC LAW.

Every true friend to the indepen

dency of parliaments must therefore

with that the feverity of our laws against bribery was encreased, and that the fashionable mode of transferring qualifications to needy adventurers, who aim at becoming onr reprefentatives merely to make a livelihood of their country was not only rendered dangerous, but branded with fome ftigma that would turn the very pride of our great people into a negative patriotifin at leaft, and keep them through actual fhame from fporting with the happiness of the kingdom. The practice of transferring parliamentary qualifications, that is, of lending a man without a fhilling fo much property as entities him to fit in the House of Commons, after his election for any particular fhire, city or borough, is in reality rather more alarming to the conftitution, than even bribery, because it is poffible for a man of great opulence to be ambitious of honour, and fuch a man may be willing to open his purfe, for the dignity of fitting in our fenate, though he is zealously determined at all times to act as becomes an upright reprefentative. Pride alfo in cafe of an oppofition may lead him to tamper with his conftituents; but the cafe is totally different with the man who borrows a qualification; he can have no bufinefs in the house but to obtain a provifion for himself; he can have no defigu but to make fuch a difplay of his talents, as will engage the attention of a minister; and he can have no with but to difpofe of thofe talents at a valuable price: Wholly without property, what is it to him if his country is loaded with oppreffions? What is it to him if its interefts are facrificed to foreign foes or to domestic enemies ?---he has nothing to lole.and may probably be a gainer by the diftreffes of his fellow fubjects. For thefe reafons fome law is immediately neceffary to reftrain. the practice of furnishing indigent candidates with qualifications, fiance, if it should encreage, there is much more to be apprehended from this evil than from abfolute bribery and corruption, [To be continued in our next.]

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From the History of France, now tranflating by Dr. Nugent.

M

OST hiftorians afcribe to Pharamond the famous regulation, which goes by the name of the Salic law, either from the firname of that prince by whom it was promulged, or from the name of Salogaft who propofed it, or from the word Salichame, for fo the place was called, where the chief men of the nation affembled in order to digeft it. Others will have it, that it was fo named from its being made with reference to the Salic lands. These were noble fiefs, which the first kings of France beftowed upon the Salians; that is to fay, the grandees of their court, upon condition of their doing military fervice, and no other. For this reafon it was ordained, that they fhould not devolve upon females, whom the tenderness of their fex exempts from bearing arms. Some authors maintain, that this word is derived from the Salians, a people of France, who fettled in Gaul in the reign of the emperor Julian. It is faid, that this prince affigned them lands, upon condition of serving him in perfon in his wars: He even established it as a law, which the new conquerors adopted, and called the Salic law, from the name of their ancient coun trymen.

It is an opinion generally received, that this law relates only to the fucceffion to the crown, or to the Salic lands. This is a double error. This law was neither inftituted for the prefervation of the kingdom, nor merely to ascertain the right of individuals to the noble fiefs above-mentioned. It ordains punishments for robbery, incendiaries, witchcraft and violence: It lays down rules of police with regard to the morals, the government; the forms of proceeding in law-fuits; and, in fine, for the fupport of peace and concord between the feveral members of the state. It consists of seventy two articles, of which but one relates to fucceffions. The purport of it is this: "In Salic land, no part of the inheritance is to defcend to females; it belongs entirely to the heirs male.”

What is left us of this law appears to be only an extract from a larger code. The proof of this is, that the

Salic law itself is there cited, together with certain forms which are not to be found in what remains of that famous ordinance. The celebrated commentator Ducange fays, that there were two forts of Salic laws: One in force when the French were fill pagans; namely, that which was digefted by the four chiefs of the nation, Wifogaft, Bologaft, Salogaft and Widegaff: And another corrected by the chriftian kings; I mean that which was published by Du Tiller, Pithou, Lindembrock, and the famous advocate-general Jerome Bignon, who has wrote very elaborate commentaries upon it. A learned modern obferves, that we cannot but afcribe the digefting of this code to Clovis the Great. On the one hand, it is impoffible it should be pofterior to that prince, because Childebert his fon reformed fome articles in it; on the other, the chapter which treats of the immunities of churches, and the prefervation of their minifters, fuppoles the converfion of the first christian king. This laft code, adds he, is nothing else but a compilation of the regulations, which fhould be obferved by the French, fettled between the Carbonarian forest and the river Loire; to diftinguish it from the Ripuarian law, which was given to those who inhabited the banks of the Rhine, the

Maefe, and the Scheld. A certain

author confidently afferts, though it does not appear upon what foundation, that the fixty fecond chapter of the Salic code has not even an indirect reference to the fucceffion to the kingdom; and that it is nothing elle but an invention of Philip the Tall, to exclude from the throne Joan of France, daughter of Lewis Hutin. He doubtless did not take it into confideration, that as it was a rule with regard to the eftates of the nobility, that they should not devolve "from the lance to the diftaff;" to ufe an expreffion confecrated by its antiquity, we have ftill ftronger reafon to conclude, that this maxim fhould hold with regard to the crown, which is the noblest of poffeffions, and the fource that dignifies all the reft. The right of Philip having therefore been accurately difcuffed in a general aflembly of the grandees of the kingdom, they with

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unanimous confent decreed him the crown, at the fame time excluding the princefs: So general was the perfuafion, that there exifted, if not a law, at least a cuftom, which, acquiring force by prefcription time out of mind, excluded women from the throne of France; a cuftom, whofe origin is confounded with that of the monarchy; a cuftom which Agathias calls the law of the country, which had the force of a law from the most remote antiquity, fince Clovis the first fucceeded alone to his father Childeric, in prejudice of his two fifters, Alboflede and Lantilde. In the reign of Philip of Valois, there rofe a new conteft upon the fame fubject: The decifion was likewife the fame. The right of Edward the Third, king of England did not appear to be better founded than that of the princefs, Joan, daughter of France. The count was generally acknowledged to be the lawful fucceffor of Charles the Fair. It was at the time declared, that the article which regulated the right of individuals to the Salic lands, held equally with regard to the fucceffion to the crown, io that it became one of the fundamental laws of the conftitution.

The Arict Regularity of the French

Laws in the early Periods of that Monarchy.

No code of laws was ever more ex

act than that of the French; by it is every thing predetermined, nothing is left to the difcretion of the judge. It prefcribes the punishment of every crime, it fixes the fum to be paid for every theft, and scrupulously appreciates the reparation for all forts of injuries, indecent behaviour and ill ufage. To ftrip a man asleep or a dead man; and to mount without the master's leave a horfe, which a perfon meets accidentally, are so many crimes, that it punishes by fevere fines. Whoever prefumed to fqueeze the hand of a free woman, was condemned in a fine of fifteen golden fols; to a fine of twice that fum, if he took her by the arm; to a fine of four times the fum, if he touched her breaft. We cannot but admire and praife the wisdom of these regulations. The French were accustomed to carry their wives with them, when they

STRICT REGULARITY

In the fame law we meet with admirable regulations with regard to the honour of marriages, and the repofe of families. The children could not marry without the content of their father and mother. The future spouse was obliged. to offer a fum to the relations of the girl. The law did not determine how much it was to be; it was a golden fol and a dernier, if we may believe Fredegaire and Marculf. If the woman that was going to be married was a widow, three golden fols and a dernier were offered in court, which the judges diftributed to fuch of the relations of the decealed husband as inherited nothing from him. But it was required that this offer should be made at a folemn audience, where a buckler had been erected, and at least three causes tried; otherwife, the

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worthy of notice; that others relate thefe facts not as certain, but as a history of the vulgar perfuafion: Finally, that in the very ages in which this fuperftition was confecrated by the laws, it met with oppofers, who pofitively refused to fubmit to it. All this furnishes fo many prejudices against thefe ridiculous practices, which the fecond council of Aixla-Chapelle confiders as artifices calculated to evince truth and falfhood. "George Logothete fpeaks of a man, who in the thirteenth century refused to fubmit to the proof by fire, alledging for a reason, that he was not a moun tebank. The archbishop preffing him. upon the occafion, he declared that he was willing to receive the red-hot iron, provided it was from the prelate's own hand. The latter, too prudent to accept the condition, acknowledged that it was wrong to tempt God."

to touch a red-hot iron, which was heated more or less according to the violence of the prefumptions. It received the benediction, and was preferved with care in certain churches: For all were not poffeffed of this privilege, as ufeful as honourable. This iron was a gantlet, into which the perfon accufed thruft his hand; or a bar, which he was obliged to raise two or three times. This hand was afterwards wrapped up in a fack, to which both the judge and party put their feals, which they took off three days after: If he did not appear to be fcorched, he was cleared; if any traces of the fire were difcoverable, he was confidered as guilty. Such was the proof which nobles, priefts, and other free perfons, were obliged to undergo. That of the lower clafs of people was by boiling water, in which they plunged their hands; or by cold water; fome prayers were read over the patient, his The good archbishop, without doubt, feet and hands were tied, and he was had not much faith in miracles, and afterwards thrown into the water. If the diocefan did not think he had either he fwam upon the furface, he was treat- credit or fkill to forge one. It is well ed as a criminal; if he funk into the known that there are drugs that prevent water, his innocence was acknowledged. the action of fire; nothing is commoner People in that age had a perfuafion, in our days. It is like wife evident, that that God would rather have worked a the iron was heated more or lef's heavy. miracle, than have fuffered innocence to Was not attention likewife paid to the be oppreffed: A fuperftitious and ridi- quality, the power, and the generofity culous prepoffeffion, but fo ftrong, that of the accufed? Might not fufficient it was one of the chief obftacles to the time be employed in prayer, fprickling abolition of fuch abfurd customs. They with holy water, to let the iron cool in were not abolished till the thirteenth fuch a manner, as that it might be century, and that was by a folemn decree touched with impunity? There are of the council of Lateran, held under many ways of impofing upon a stupid the pontificate of Innocent III. populace, always eager after miracles. In the proofs with boiling water, might not a tub with a double bottom be eafily contrived? In that cafe the air being heated, might by pipes, raise the water fcarce lukewarm, and make it appear boiling-water, in the eyes of an ignorant multitude, that always fees things as im poftors would have them. With regard to the proof by cold water, fome criminals were loaded with fuch a quantity of cords, that they were fufficient to make them fwim upon the furface of the water. This contrivance, to which recourfe was always had when there were ftrong prefumptions against the çriminal, favoured the prejudice, and kept up the fuperftition: Befides, there are many men who have the cheft wide enough and the lungs light enough not to fink, when the cod with which they are bound makes, with their body, a

It will perhaps be afked, what judg. ment fhould be paffed upon thefe proofs, and the pretended miracles which followed them: Was all that has been related upon thefe occafions fupernatural in fact, or the work of artifice and ignorance? Hiftorians are fo generally agreed in relating thefe marvellous facts, that it does not appear poffible to deny them, without overturning all the foundations of history. But can we give any credit to them, without at the fame time in. verting all the principles of reafon? We fhall answer this question, equally curious and important, from the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles-lettres.

It is obferved in the first place, that the proofs were never folemnly approved of by the church: That amongst the great number of those who relate these pretended miracles, fome are but little

Remedies for the Afcarides.

NE ufe, fays Dr. Heberden, of fuch collections of medical papers, as the college now propoles to publish, is to preferve any materials as they occur, which are and ufeful, towards better afcertaining the nature of a difeafe, or the Power