e language of ancient jurisprudence, which was corrupted and
forgotten before the age of Justinian, these spoils were distinguished
by the name of manceps or mancipium, taken with the hand; and whenever
they were sold or emancipated, the purchaser required some assurance
that they had been the property of an enemy and not of a fellow-citizen.

A citizen could only forfeit his rights by apparent dereliction, and
such dereliction of a valuable interest could not easily be presumed.
Yet, according to the _Twelve Tables_, a prescription of one year for
movables, and of two years for immovables, abolished the claim of the
ancient master, if the actual possessor had acquired them by a fair
transaction from the person whom he believed to be the lawful
proprietor.[32] Such conscientious injustice, without any mixture of
fraud or force could seldom injure the members of a small republic; but
the various periods of three, of ten, or of twenty years, determined by
Justinian, are more suitable to the latitude of a great empire. It is
only in the term of prescription that the distinction of real and
personal fortune has been remarked by the civilians; and their general
idea of property is that of simple, uniform, and absolute dominion. The
subordinate exceptions of use, of usufruct, of servitudes, imposed for
the benefit of a neighbor on lands and houses, are abundantly explained
by the professors of jurisprudence. The claims of property, as far as
they are altered by the mixture, the division, or the transformation of
substances, are investigated with metaphysical subtlety by the same
civilians.

The personal title of the first proprietor must be determined by his
death: but the possession, without any appearance of change, is
peaceably continued in his children, the associates of his toil and the
partners of his wealth. This natural inheritance has been protected by
the legislators of every climate and age, and the father is encouraged
to persevere in slow and distant improvements, by the tender hope that a
long posterity will enjoy the fruits of his labor. The _principle_ of
hereditary succession is universal; but the _order_ has been variously
established by convenience or caprice, by the spirit of national
institutions, or by some partial example which was originally decided by
fraud or violence. The jurisprudence of the Romans appears to have
deviated from the equality of nature much less than the Jewish, the
Athenian, or the