ly, but rather own their property _through_
their family.

At an epoch not easy to settle with precision, the Roman Praetors fell
into the habit of acting upon Testaments solemnised in closer
conformity with the spirit than the letter of the law. Casual
dispensations became insensibly the established practice, till at
length a wholly new form of Will was matured and regularly engrafted
on the Edictal Jurisprudence. The new or _Praetorian_ Testament derived
the whole of its impregnability from the _Jus Honorarium_ or Equity of
Rome. The Praetor of some particular year must have inserted a clause
in his inaugural Proclamation declaratory of his intention to sustain
all Testaments which should have been executed with such and such
solemnities; and, the reform having been found advantageous, the
article relating to it must have been again introduced by the Praetor's
successor, and repeated by the next in office, till at length it
formed a recognised portion of that body of jurisprudence which from
these successive incorporations was styled the Perpetual or Continuous
Edict. On examining the conditions of a valid Praetorian Will they will
be plainly seen to have been determined by the requirements of the
Mancipatory Testament, the innovating Praetor having obviously
prescribed to himself the retention of the old formalities just so far
as they were warrants of genuineness or securities against fraud. At
the execution of the Mancipatory Testament seven persons had been
present besides the Testator. Seven witnesses were accordingly
essential to the Praetorian Will: two of them corresponding to the
_libripens_ and _familiae emptor_, who were now stripped of their
symbolical character, and were merely present for the purpose of
supplying their testimony. No emblematic ceremony was gone through;
the Will was merely recited; but then it is probable (though not
absolutely certain) that a written instrument was necessary to
perpetuate the evidence of the Testator's dispositions. At all events,
whenever a writing was read or exhibited as a person's last Will, we
know certainly that the Praetorian Court would not sustain it by
special intervention, unless each of the seven witnesses had severally
affixed his seal to the outside. This is the first appearance of
_sealing_ in the history of jurisprudence, considered as a mode of
authentication. It is to be observed that the seals of Roman Wills,
and other documents of importance, did no