132 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxviii vassals ; and the rude institutions of the Alemanni and Bava- rians were diligently compiled and ratified by the supreme authority of the Merovingian kings. The Visigoths and Bur- gundians, whose conquests in Gaul preceded those of the Franks, shewed less impatience to attain one of the principal benefits of civilized society. Euric was the first of the Gothic princes who expressed in writing the manners and customs of his people ; and the composition of the Burgundian laws was a measure of policy rather than of justice : to alleviate the yoke and regain the affections of their Gallic subjects. 73 Thus, by a singular coincidence, the Germans framed their artless institu- tions at a time when the elaborate system of Koman juris- prudence was finally consummated. In the Salic laws and the Pandects of Justinian we may compare the first rudiments and the full maturity of civil wisdom ; and, whatever prejudices may be suggested in favour of Barbarism, our calmer reflections will ascribe to the Romans the superior advantages, not only of science and reason, but of humanity and justice. Yet the laws of the Barbarians were adapted to their wants and desires, their occupations, and their capacity ; and they all contributed to preserve the peace, and promote the improvements, of the society for whose use they were originally established. The the Carbonarian forest to the Loire (torn. iv. p. 151), and the latter might be obeyed from the same forest to the Rhine (torn. iv. p. 222). [On the Lex Ribuaria see Sohm's edition, 1883, and his dissertation Ueber die Entstehung der Lex Ribuaria (Zeitschrift fur Rechtsgeschiehte, v. 380 sqq.). It admits of analysis into four parts, of which the first (titles 1-31) seems to belong to the early 6th century, the second (taken from the Salic Law) to the end of the 6th century, the third to the 7th, and the fourth to the 8th century. This and all the later codes exhibit, when compared with the Lex Salica, the change which had taken place in the position of the king — a change which was the work of Chlodwig — through the significant formulae jubemus, constituimus, &c. The origin of the Lex Ribuaria is generally connected with the Lower Rhine ; but J. Ficker has recently sought it on the Upper Mosel. Mittheil. Inst. Oesterr. Gesch.-Forsch., Erganz. Band, v. i. The short code of Amor, or Hamaland, the small territory which lay between Frisians, Ripuarians and Saxons, represents the modification which the Lex Ribuaria underwent there. It is known as the Lex Chamavorum, and is edited by Sohm along with the Lex Ribuaria.] 73 Consult the ancient and modern prefaces of the several Codes, in the fourth volume of the Historians of France. The original prologue to the Salic law ex- presses (though in a foreign dialect) the genuine spirit of the Franks, more forcibly than the ten books of Gregory of Tours. [The Lex Burgundionum (ed. Bluhme) and the Lex Alamannorum (which has come down in a fragmentary state) will be found in vol. iii. of the Leges in the Mon. Germ. Hist. ; the Lex Bajuwariorum in the same vol. (ed. Merkel), and the Lex Frisionum (ed. Richthofen). Vol. v. con- tains the much later Lex Angliorum et Werinorum id est Thuringorum (ed. Richthofen) ; see Stubbs, Constitutional Hist, of England, vol. i. p. 50. For Euric's laws see below, note 132.]
