Page 96 - index

"Si unquam libertis patronus lilios non habens bonn
"
omnia vel partem aliqum facultaturn fuerit donatione
' I
largitiu et postea susceperit liberos, totum quidquid
"largitus fuerit revertatur in ejusdem donatoris arbi-
"trio ac ditione mansumm."
The fimt qiie~tion is to what extent, and under whnt mo-
dification~, this Iw was adopted and prevailed in France.
It wae plaintly enlarged as to the persons to he
afiectcd by it, and mas not confined to the case of pa-
tron snd frecdrnan, or of persons in an aiidogous rela-
tion; whilst, on the other hand, it is evident that, at least
in some parts of France, it was limited and modified as to
the things given, in the direction of excluding from the
operation of the rule sucb donations as were not of large
value relatively to the estate of the donor. Whst this
proportion was, h~w it was to be measured, and under whst
eirciunstaiices gcnerx~lly the rule was excludcd, has been the
subject of much diversity of opinion miongst French
lawyers, and the jurisprudence of the Pariiaments has
undoubtedly not heen uniform.
It was argued hy the learned counsel for the Appeliante
that the tcvt of the Roman law must betaken to have been
the common law of France, where custom dit not conflict
with it. This may have been 80 in those parts of the
soiith of France where the Roman law uras held to govern
as "loi Ccritc", but in other parts of the kingdom this
would not seem to have bcen so, and,though in them the
Roman law Bras resorted to hy the Courts, and its prin-
ciples were largely borrowed, yet these principles were not
regarded as binding written law, and were capable of
being, md in rnany cases were, modified by the Coutumee
as expounded by the jurisprudence of the I'arliaments.
Numeroiis French jurists have dircussed with much
ingenuity the quedion,-n-hat part of a rnan's estate rnight
be given without being subject to the condition of revoca-
tion on the birth of children. Some early writers argued
that the words "partem aliquam" should bc construed to