ancient nations which
approximate most closely to the law of nature, though when such laws
came to be revised by those who had received the law of revelation, they
were necessarily amended or altered in conformity therewith. No
government can exist without law; but as hereditary succession preceded
the law of hereditary succession, which was at first established by
custom, so the _lex non scripta_, or national custom, preceded the _lex
scripta_, or statute law. The intellectual condition of a nation may be
well and safely estimated by its laws. A code of laws that were observed
for centuries before the Christian era, and for centuries after the
Christian era, and which can bear the most critical tests of forensic
acumen in the nineteenth century, evidence that the framers of the code
were possessed of no slight degree of mental culture. Such are the
Brehon laws, by which pagan and Christian Erinn was governed for
centuries.

The sixth century was a marked period of legal reform. The Emperor
Justinian, by closing the schools of Athens, gave a deathblow to Grecian
philosophy and jurisprudence. But Grecian influence had already acted on
the formation of Roman law, and probably much of the Athenian code was
embodied therein. The origin of Roman law is involved in the same
obscurity as the origin of the Brehon code. In both cases, the mist of
ages lies like a light, but impenetrable veil, over all that could give
certainty to conjecture. Before the era of the Twelve Tables, mention is
made of laws enacted by Romulus respecting what we should now call civil
liabilities. Laws concerning religion are ascribed to Numa, and laws of
contract to Servius Tullius, who is supposed to have collected the
regulations made by his predecessors. The Twelve Tables were notably
formed on the legal enactments of Greece. The cruel severity of the law
for insolvent debtors, forms a marked contrast to the milder and more
equitable arrangements of the Brehon code. By the Roman enactments, the
person of the debtor was at the mercy of his creditor, who might sell
him for a slave beyond the Tiber. The Celt allowed only the seizure of
goods, and even this was under regulations most favourable to the
debtor. The legal establishment of Christianity by Constantine, or we
should rather say the existence of Christianity, necessitated a complete
revision of all ancient laws: hence we find the compilation of the
Theodosian code almost synchronizing with the