acquired the absolute dominion of his
inheritance, and the simplicity of the civil law was never clouded by
the long and intricate entails which confine the happiness and freedom
of unborn generations.

Conquest and the formalities of law established the use of codicils. If
a Roman was surprised by death in a remote province of the empire he
addressed a short epistle to his legitimate or testamentary heir, who
fulfilled with honor, or neglected with impunity, this last request,
which the judges before the age of Augustus were not authorized to
enforce. A codicil might be expressed in any mode, or in any language;
but the subscription of five witnesses must declare that it was the
genuine composition of the author. His intention, however laudable, was
sometimes illegal; and the invention of _fidei-commissa_, or trusts,
arose from the struggle between natural justice and positive
jurisprudence. A stranger of Greece or Africa might be the friend or
benefactor of a childless Roman, but none, except a fellow-citizen,
could act as his heir.

The Voconian law, which abolished female succession, restrained the
legacy or inheritance of a woman to the sum of one hundred thousand
sesterces, and an only daughter was condemned almost as an alien in her
father's house. The zeal of friendship and parental affection suggested
a liberal artifice: a qualified citizen was named in the testament, with
a prayer or injunction that he would restore the inheritance to the
person for whom it was truly intended. Various was the conduct of the
trustees in this painful situation; they had sworn to observe the laws
of their country, but honor prompted them to violate their oath; and if
they preferred their interest under the mask of patriotism, they
forfeited the esteem of every virtuous mind. The declaration of Augustus
relieved their doubts, gave a legal sanction to confidential testaments
and codicils, and gently unravelled the forms and restraints of the
republican jurisprudence. But as the new practice of trusts degenerated
into some abuse, the trustee was enabled, by the Trebellian and Pegasian
decrees, to reserve one-fourth of the estate, or to transfer on the head
of the real heir all the debts and actions of the succession. The
interpretation of testaments was strict and literal; but the language of
trusts and codicils was delivered from the minute and technical accuracy
of the civilians.

III. The general duties of mankind are imposed