Note 13 — PART II HISTORICAL STUDIES (continued 2)

Thierry, who was ignorant of the Cinque Ports custom—as the historians of the Cinque Ports appear to have been ignorant of that at Amiens—describes this provision as 'loi remarquable en ce qu'elle faisait revivre et sanctionnait par des garanties toutes nouvelles ce principe de la législation romaine, que les offices municipaux sont une charge obligatoire'.13 But this brings us face to face with the difficult and disputed question of the persistence of Roman institutions. Personally, I have always thought it rash to accept similarity as proof of continuity. Here, for instance, the occurrence of this practice at Sandwich might lead to the inference that the institutions of Sandwich were of direct Roman origin. Yet, if this practice was imported from France, we see how erroneous that inference would be. A reductio ad absurdum of this rash argument, as I have elsewhere pointed out, would be found in the suggestion that every modern borough rejoicing in the possession of aldermen had derived its institutions continuously from Anglo-Saxon times. In the particular instance of this practice, we should note that it occurs (a) in that portion of France where the municipal development was least Roman in character; (b) in a peculiar and original form—the 'garanties toutes nouvelles' of Thierry.