Note 42 — BOOK VIII. CONCERNING ACTS OF VIOLENCE AND INJURIES.

The penalty above described for an offence of such gravity as highway robbery, seems to be grossly inadequate. It is, however, a peculiarity of the Visigothic Code that, for many breaches of the law which we class as misdemeanors, it authorizes punishments generally inflicted for the commission of felony, and vice versa. Perhaps the courts construed the expression “complete legal satisfaction,” to mean the sentence usually imposed for theft. There can be little doubt that the obscurity of the language which often characterizes the edicts of the Forum Judicum, would, under a less strict and impartial judicial system, have offered many opportunities for the escape of an offender from the legal consequences of his crime.—[Ed.]