d abolish the partial
distinctions of victory: and the Roman provincials might patiently
acquiesce in the hardships of their condition; since it depended
on themselves to assume the privilege, if they dared to assert the
character, of free and warlike Barbarians. [71]

[Footnote 65: I have derived much instruction from two learned works
of Heineccius, the History, and the Elements, of the Germanic law. In a
judicious preface to the Elements, he considers, and tries to excuse the
defects of that barbarous jurisprudence.]

[Footnote 66: Latin appears to have been the original language of
the Salic law. It was probably composed in the beginning of the fifth
century, before the era (A.D. 421) of the real or fabulous Pharamond.
The preface mentions the four cantons which produced the four
legislators; and many provinces, Franconia, Saxony, Hanover, Brabant,
&c., have claimed them as their own. See an excellent Dissertation of
Heinecties de Lege Salica, tom. iii. Sylloge iii. p. 247-267. * Note:
The relative antiquity of the two copies of the Salic law has been
contested with great learning and ingenuity. The work of M. Wiarda,
History and Explanation of the Salic Law, Bremen, 1808, asserts that
what is called the Lex Antiqua, or Vetustior in which many German words
are mingled with the Latin, has no claim to superior antiquity, and may
be suspected to be more modern. M. Wiarda has been opposed by M. Fuer
bach, who maintains the higher age of the "ancient" Code, which has been
greatly corrupted by the transcribers. See Guizot, Cours de l'Histoire
Moderne, vol. i. sect. 9: and the preface to the useful republication of
five of the different texts of the Salic law, with that of the Ripuarian
in parallel columns. By E. A. I. Laspeyres, Halle, 1833.--M.]

[Footnote 67: Eginhard, in Vit. Caroli Magni, c. 29, in tom. v. p. 100.
By these two laws, most critics understand the Salic and the Ripuarian.
The former extended from the Carbonarian forest to the Loire, (tom.
iv. p. 151,) and the latter might be obeyed from the same forest to the
Rhine, (tom. iv. p. 222.)]

[Footnote 68: Consult the ancient and modern prefaces of the several
codes, in the fourth volume of the Historians of France. The original
prologue to the Salic law expresses (though in a foreign dialect) the
genuine spirit of the Franks more forcibly than the ten books of Gregory
of Tours.]

[Footnote 69: The Ripuarian law declares, and defines, this indulgence
in f