Note 116 — BOOK XVIII. (continued 2)

The author of A Memoir to serve as a New History of Louis XII. carries the first appearance of judicial reform in France to the reign of that monarch. He has prosecuted on this subject learned researches, and his work has given us much information upon the spirit and the march of our legislation in the middle ages. Although we do not always agree as to the consequences of the principles he develops, particularly as to their application to that which is passing at present, we take pleasure in rendering justice to the rare sagacity with which he has cleared up questions which have been scarcely perceived by our best historians.