the degree of licentiate both in the civil and the canon law; and the taking of such a degree, in a French university, was far from a matter of course. As soon as the grant of the office was delivered to the purchaser, he presented it to the tribunal to which the office belonged, with a petition, stating generally, his qualifications, and expressly averring that the money, which he had paid for the office, was really his own, and had not been borrowed by him for the purpose. A commission then issued, composed of lay and ecclesiastical lawyers and other persons of rank they were directed to inquire and report upon the learning, morals, political conduct and general idoniety of the purchaser. The procureur-general of the parliament, within whose resort the office lay, presided over the commission. If the inquiry was favourable to the purchaser, they chose, out of the digest or code, some point of law, upon which, at the end of eight days, he was to come prepared with complete legal information; he was also expected to answer, with general sufficiency, on the civil and canon law, and on the ordonnances and customary law of the country. Sometimes, he was declared incapable of the office; sometimes, a term for further probation was allowed him. Till the middle of the last century these examinations were conducted with great strictness. The chancellor himself occasionally examined the persons appointed to offices, on their competency. "One day," says Brantôme, "I "called on M. le Chancelier de l'Hôpital, with Marés"chal Strozzi, who was among his favourites, and he invi"ted us to dinner. He gave us an excellent bouillie,* and

*Of the excellence of this bouillie, Strozzi was a consummate judge, if he was capable of appreciating the merit of his own cook.

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"nothing more; but his conversation was charming; "fine words, fine sentences in abundance, and now and "then a gentle joke. After dinner, a couple of counsel'lors, just chosen into their offices, were announced ; he "ordered them in, and, without desiring them to sit "down, called for the code, and put several questions upon different articles in it to the two gentlemen, who "all the while trembled as a leaf. Their answers did "not show much knowledge; and he gave them such a "lecture! Though the youngest of them was fifty years "old, he sent them back to their studies. Strozzi and

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"This great artist maintained his master's table with twelve couverts every day, during the long and severe blockade of Le Petit Leyth, although he had nothing better to place on it, than the quar ter of a carrion horse, and now and then the grass and weeds that grew on the ramparts: c'étoit un homme superbe! With one thistle's head and a nettle or two, he could make a soup for twenty guests; an haunch of a little puppy-dog, made a roti des plus excellents: but his coup de maître was, when the rendition, what you call the surrender, took place and happened; and then he made, out of the hind quarter of one salted horse, forty-five couverts, that the English and Scottish officers and nobility, who had the honour to dine with Monseigneur, upon the rendition, could not tell what the devil any one of them were made upon at all."-Fortunes of Nigel, vol. ii. ch. 1.

"A French cook entertained high notions both of the profession to which he belonged, and of his own eminence in it. At the dinner, which the prince of Condé gave to Louis the fourteenth, the prince's cook, Vatel, le grand Vatel, as he is called by Madame de Sévigné, did not receive, in due time, some fresh sea-fish which he had order. ed, and the want of which would render the dinner imperfect. This was too much for him. He said he had lost his honour; and could not survive its loss. The prince endeavoured to comfort him, but without effect: he declared his heart was broken; and, a few mi nutes afterward, died a Roman death.”—Sévigné's Letters, vol. j. 1.50.

of men

"I stood by the fire-side highly diverted with the scene, "and particularly with the woful countenances of the "two magistrates; they had all the appearance "going to be hanged. At length the chancellor packed "them off with a frown; and assured them that he would "inform the king how ignorant they were, and would see "that their charges should be given to others. As soon "as they were out of hearing, he told us, they were two 66 great asses; and that it was against conscience that the king should name such persons for judges. We sug

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gested to him that the game, which he had offered them, was too high for their palates. Far from it,' said the "chancellor, 'I questioned them on no point on which a tyro in the law ought not to be fully informed.'

It should be added, that, in general, the magistrates were chosen from families of great respectability, and possessed fortunes, which placed them considerably above want. No one was admitted into the parliament of Brittany, who could not prove that he was noble by race and extraction, or in other words, who could not prove a century of nobility in his family.

The advocates for the venality of offices of justice are proud to reckon among them the cardinal de Richelieu and Montesquieu. "The venality of charges," says the "latter,* "cannot exist in despotic states; as it is essen"tial to despotism, that every officer should be liable to "be instantaneously placed, and instantaneously displa"ced, at the mere will of the prince. It is proper for "monarchies, as it makes the study of the law a kind of "qualification, which otherwise the party would not be "at the pains of acquiring, to enable him to hold a family

*Esprit des Loix, 1. v. c. 19.

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"dignity. It gives an early direction to duty; and tends 'to confer permanence on an order of great public use in "the state. It is a just observation of Suidas,"* continues Montesquieu, "that, by the sale of offices, the emperor Anastasius converted the empire into an aristocracy; Plato could not endure it. He declares that it "is the same, as if persons on ship-board should choose "a pilot for money. But Plato is speaking of a repub"lic, the basis of which is virtue; we are speaking of a "monarchy. There, if the sale of offices were not allow"ed by law, the greediness and avarice of the courtiers "would, in spite of the law, make them saleable. As "the sales of them are now regulated by our laws, the "chance of having them properly filled is greater than "if the nomination of them depended on the mere will "of the courtiers. Finally, such a method of advancing "one's self by wealth, both inspires and sustains indus"try; and, in a monarchy, every thing, which incites "noble families to industry, is to be encouraged." These observations are excellent; but the intelligent reader will immediately perceive, that nothing urged in them for the venality of charges in France can be applied to the venality of them in England. A reflection, highly honourable both to the wisdom and purity of the English constitution, will perhaps here suggest itself to him!

*It did honour to Suidas to make this observation, and to Montesquieu to feel its justness but how often did Montesquieu turn what he read into gold!

The Reminiscent invites every student, who has bewildered himself among the cognati and agnati of the Roman law, to peruse the 27th book De l' Esprit des Loix, where he will find the whole system of Roman jurisprudence, respecting heirship and succession, developed with the greatest precision and perspicuity. It consists of a single chapter; but it is a chapter written by one, who, as he himself says of Tacitus, abregeâit tout parçe qu'il voyâit tout.

III. 2.

Presents and Personal Solicitations to Foreign Judges. ANOTHER practice in the French administration of justice, which will astonish an English reader, was the épiçes, or presents made, on some occasions, by the parties in a cause, to the judges by whom it was tried.

A passage in Homer,* describing a compartment in the shield of Achilles, in which two talents of gold were placed between two judges, to be paid to the best speaker, is generally cited to prove, that even in the earliest times, the judges were paid for their administration of justice : but an attentive reader will probably agree with Mr. Mitford in his construction of this passage, that the two talents were not the reward of the judge, who should give the best opinion, but the subject of the dispute, and to be adjudged to him, who established his title to them by the best arguments.-Plutarch mentions, that, under the administration of Pericles, the Athenian magistrates were authorized, for the first time, to require a remuneration from the suitors of their courts. In ancient Rome, the magistrates were wholly paid by the public; but Justinian allowed some magistrates of an inferior description to receive presents, of a fixed amount, from the suitors in their courts. Montesquieu † observes, that, "in the early ages of the feudal law, when legal proceed"ings were short and simple, the lord defrayed the "whole expense of the administration of justice in his "court. In proportion as society became refined, a more complex administration of justice became necessary; " and it was considered that not only the party who was cast, should, for having instituted a bad cause, but that

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* Iliad, lib. xviii. 503-508.

Esprit des Loix, 1. xxviii, ch. 35.