German yurists and Poets. of the affairs of the town. The Prussian cities Konigsberg and Posen had similar ex periences. Would a Republican town relish the appointment of a Democratic mayor by Mr. Cleveland? I say nothing of the consti tutional questions which would arise under such circumstances. Such measures, com bined with the unnatural suppression of public opinion, prepare a ready soil for socialistic agitation, as seen in the fact that during the suppression of the socialistic press that party gained more strength than at the time they were allowed to vent their eccentric ideas. Germany has, strictly speaking, no com mon law. The local law has all been codi fied; and the influence which the " Human ists" attained over the "letter of the law" during the second part of the last century, and which led to the disregard of the written law providing for torture, etc., was early in the beginning of this century crystallized in the Allgemeines Prcussisches Landrecht, the Bavarian Penal Code, and other penal codes which became afterwards the basis of the uniform Penal Code previously mentioned. The ancient notion of a " common German law" (Gemcines Recht) was superseded by the Code, so that even in the instruction at the universities the fiction of a common law was abandoned. It is curious and interest ing to observe that, while in the United States from some quarters the civil law is lauded to the skies, coupled with the pious wish that " the tongue should have been pal sied " ' that pronounced institutions grow ing up under the English common law "as a plan of freedom," some of the German thoughtful writers deplore the disuse of the traditional institutions and customs of the ancient Teutons, roasting — to express it in classical language — the venerable Roman jurists to their heart's content. Victor von Scheffel, the poet and jurist, of whom I 1 Martin K. Morris, Washington, D. C, The Contest between the Civil and the Common Laws. (Pamph let.)
shall speak later, has this to say about his studies in the Roman law : ' "Also ward ich ein Juriste, Kaufte mir ein grosses Tintfass, Kauft- mir eine Ledermappe Und ein schweres Corpus Juris Und sass eifrig in dem Horsaal, Wo mit mumiengelbem Antlitz Samuel Brunnquell, der Professor, Uns das rom-sche Recht docirt'; Romisch Recht, gedenk- ich deiner, Liegts wie Alpdruck auf dem Herzen Liegts wie Miihlstein mir im Magen, 1st der Kopf wie brettvernagelt; Ein Geflunker musst' ich hbren, Wie sie einst auf rom"schem Forum Klaffend mit einander zankten, Wie Herr Gaius Diess behauptet Und Herr L'lpianus Jenes, Wie dann Spa'tre dreingepfuschet, Bis der Kaiser Justinianus Er, der Pfuscher allergrbsster, All' mit einem Fusstritt heimschickt. To call the emperor Justinian " der Pfu scher allergrosster," — bungler viagnificissimus, so to speak — is certainly audacious and original. But the courageous poet goes on to dwell upon the uselessness of the study of the law of the Romans, sighing for " the own common right," sprung up among the glens of his native land : "Und ich wollt' mich thoricht fragen: 'Sind verdammt wir immerdar den Grossen Knochen zu benagen, Den als Abfall ihres Mahles Uns die Romer hingeworfen? Soil nicht auch der deutschen Erde Eignen Rechtes Blum' entsprossen Waldesduftig. schlicht, kein iippig Wuchernd Schlinggewachs des Sudens? Traurig Loos der Epigonen! Mussen sitzen, miissen schwitzen, Hin und her die Faden zerren Eines wiistverschlungnen Knauels, Giebts kein Schwert und andre Lbsung? The wish of the poet has not yet been realized. No Alexander has come to cut the Gordian knot of the foreign system of the civil law, and no Blackstone has yet 1 Victor von Scheffel, Der Trompeter von Sakkingen, pp. 40, 41.
