Three main sources of Law: the Ruling Authority, the Magistrate, and the Legal Profession PAGE 253 The Jurists as makers of Law in earlier times Changed position of the Jurists under the Empire. Differences between the action of Roman and English Jurists 261 Roman Treatises compared with English Reports. Praetorian Edicts compared with English Case-Law Further observations on Praetorian methods. Strong and weak points in the English Case-System Direct Legislation at Rome: its Organs. The Popular Assembly: its method of legislating Merits of the Roman Statutes . Legislation by the Senate: its characteristics Direct legislation by the Emperor Profusion and inferiority of legislation under the later Direct legislation in England: its history Advantages of Parliament and Congress for legislation. Difficulties incident to Parliamentary legislation Reflections suggested by the history of English compared Some branches of law better fitted than others to be Effect on the law of the establishment of the imperial auto- Rise of Christianity: dissolution of the Empire in the West The decline in legal learning induced Codification. Political events and External Influences are the chief sources Causes of legal change operative in England: the periods of The Reformation and the Civil War. The Reform Act of 1832 and the Victorian Epoch The Law of Family and Inheritance at Rome and the Law of Effects of Territorial Expansion on Roman and on English Diversity of the Law of Marriage in different countries. Early Marriage law of the Romans . Subordination of the Wife: the 'Hand Power' (Manus) 381-474 Later Marriage Law: nature of the personal relation it creates 392 Roman doctrine and practice regarding Divorce Influence of Christianity on Imperial Legislation The English Law: jurisdiction of the Spiritual Courts Relations of the Consorts as respects Property under English Divorce Laws in the United States Laxity of Procedure in Divorce Cases Statistics of Divorce in the United States: causes for which it Causes now tending to weaken the permanence of the Mar- Does the growth of Divorce betoken a moral decline? Does the English Divorce Law need amendment? . 44I I THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA In several of the Essays contained in these volumes comparisons are instituted between Rome and England in points that touch the constitutions and the laws of these two great imperial States. This Essay is intended to compare them as conquering and ruling powers, acquiring and administering dominions outside the original dwelling-place of their peoples, and impressing upon these dominions their own type of civilization. This comparison derives a special interest from a consideration of the position in which the world finds itself at the beginning of the twentieth century. The great civilized nations have spread themselves out so widely, and that with increasing rapidity during the last fifty years, as to have brought under their dominion or control nearly all the barbarous or semi-civilized races. Europe-that is to say the five or six races which we call the European branch of mankind-has annexed the rest of the earth, extinguishing some races, absorbing others, ruling others as subjects, and spreading over their native customs and beliefs a layer of European ideas which will sink deeper and deeper till the old native life dies out. Thus, while the face of the earth is being changed by the application of European science, so it seems likely that within a measurable time European forms of thought and ways of life will come to prevail everywhere, except possibly in China, whose vast population may enable her to resist these solvent influences for several generations, perhaps for several centuries. In this process whose agencies are migration, conquest, and commerce, England has led the way and has achieved the most. Russia however, as well as France and Germany, have annexed vast areas inhabited by backward races. Even the United States has, by occupying the Hawaiian and the Philippine Islands, entered, somewhat to her own surprise, on the same path. Thus a new sort of unity is being created among mankind. This unity is seen in the bringing of every part of the globe into close relations, both commercial and political, with every other part. It is seen in the establishment of a few world languages' as vehicles of communication between many peoples, vehicles which carry to them the treasures of literature and science which the four or five leading nations have gathered. It is seen in the diffusion of a civilization which is everywhere the same in its material aspects, and is tolerably uniform even on its intellectual side, since it teaches men to think on similar lines and to apply similar methods of scientific inquiry. The process has been going on for some centuries. In our own day it advances so swiftly that we can almost foresee the time when it will be complete. It is one of the great events in the history of the world. Yet it is not altogether a new thing. A similar process went on in the ancient world from the time of Alexander the Macedonian to that of Alaric the Visigoth. The Greek type of civilization, and to some extent the Greek population also, spread out over the regions |