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Table of Contents

Lecture I.—Page 1

Simultaneous development of history and civilization.

Two errors in our method of considering the past; proud disdain, or superstitious admiration.

Historic impartiality the vocation of the present age.

Divisions of the history of the political institutions of Europe into four great epochs.

Representative government the general and natural aim of these institutions.

Object of the course; inquiry into the origin of representative government in France, Spain, and England.

State of mind appropriate to this inquiry.

Lecture II.—Page 23

General character of political institutions in Europe, from the fourth to the eleventh century.

Political sterility of the Roman Empire.

Progress of the Germanic invasions.

Sketch of the history of the Anglo-Saxons.

Lecture III.—Page 32

Subject of the lecture.

A knowledge of the state of persons necessary to the proper study of institutions.

Essential difference between antiquity and modern societies, as regards the classification of social conditions.

State of persons among the Anglo-Saxons.

Thanes and Ceorls.

Central and local institutions.

Predominance of the latter among the Anglo-Saxons.

Its cause.

Lecture IV.—Page 41

Local institutions among the Anglo-Saxons.

Divisions of territory; their origin and double object.

Internal police of these local associations.

Importance of the county-courts; their composition and attributes.

Complex origin of the Jury.

Central institutions of the Anglo-Saxons.

The Wittenagemot; its composition, and the principle on which it was based.

Increasing preponderance of the large landowners in the Anglo-Saxon monarchy.

Lecture V.—Page 49

The Wittenagemot; its business and power.

Method of its convocation.

Vicissitudes of its character and importance.

The kingly office among the Anglo-Saxons.

Extent and progress of the royal power.

Lecture VI.—Page 55

The true principle of representative government.

Error of classifying governments according to their external forms.

Montesquieu's error with respect to the origin of the representative system.

Necessary correlation and simultaneous formation of society and government.

Rousseau's mistaken hypothesis of the social contract.

The nature of rightful sovereignty.

Confused and contradictory ideas entertained on this subject.

Societies, as individuals, possess the right of being placed under laws of justice and reason.

Governments ought to be continually reminded of their obligation to inquire into and conform to these laws.

Classification of governments on this principle.

Lecture VII.—Page 65

Comparison of the principles of different governments with the true principle of representative government.

Aristocratic governments.

Origin and history of the word aristocracy. Principle of this form of government; its consequences. How the principle of representative government enters into aristocratic governments. Democratic governments. Origin and consequences of the principle of the sovereignty of the people. This principle not identical with that of representative government. In what sense representative government is the government of the majority.

Lecture VIII.—Page 76

The forms of a government are related to its principle, but are swayed by circumstances, and vary according to different degrees of civilization.

What are the forms essential to a representative government?

1st. Division of powers; why absolutely essential to the principle of representative government;

2nd. Election;

3rd. Publicity.

Lecture IX.—Page 82

Primitive institutions of the Franks.

Sketch of the history of the Frankish monarchy.

The Franks in Germany.

Their settlement in Belgium and in Gaul.

Character and authority of their chiefs after their establishment in the Roman Empire.

Early Frankish chieftains.

Clovis: his expeditions, wars, and conquests.

Decisive preponderance of the Franks in Gaul.

Lecture X.—Page 86

Division of territory among the sons of the Frankish kings.

Rapid formation and disappearance of several Frank kingdoms.

Neustria and Austrasia; their geographical division.

Early predominance of Neustria.

Fredegonde and Brunehaut.

Elevation of the Mayors of the Palace. True character of their power. The Pepin family. Charles Martel. Fall of the Merovingians.

Lecture XI—Page 94

General character of events under the Carlovingian Empire.

Reign of Pepin the Short.

Reign of Charlemagne.

Epoch of transition.

Reigns of Louis the Débonnair and Charles the Bald.

Norman invasions.

The last Carlovingians.

Accession of Hugh Capet.

Lecture XII.—Page 103

Ancient institutions of the Franks.

They are more difficult of study than those of the Anglo-Saxons.

Three kinds of landed property; allodial, beneficiary, and tributary lands.

Origin of allodial lands.

Meaning of the word allodium.

Salic land amongst the Franks.

Essential characteristics of the allods.

Lecture XIII.—Page 109

Origin of military service; its cause and limits.

It was made a general obligation by Charlemagne.

Allodial lands were originally exempt from taxation.

Origin of benefices.

Change in the position of the German chiefs in consequence of their territorial settlement.

Their wealth.

No public treasury.

The œrarium and fiscus of the old Roman republic. Formation of the private domain of the kings of France. Character of benefices. Error of Montesquieu on this subject.

Lecture XIV.—Page 116

Proofs of the co-existence of various modes of conferring benefices, from the fifth to the tenth century.

Of benefices that were absolutely and arbitrarily revocable.

Of benefices conceded for a limited time; theprecaria. Of benefices granted for life. Of benefices granted hereditarily. General character of the concession of benefices. Their tendency to become hereditary. Its prevalence under Charles the Bald. Military service. Judicial and domestic service. Origin, meaning, and vicissitudes of the fidelity due by the vassal to his lord.

Lecture XV.—Page 124

Of benefices conceded by great landowners to men dependent upon them:

First, benefices conceded for all kinds of services, and as a mode of paying salary; Secondly, larger proprietors usurp the lands adjoining their own, and bestow them as benefices on their subordinates; Thirdly, the conversion of a great number of allodial lands into benefices, by the practice of recommendation.

Origin and meaning of this practice.

Permanence of freeholds, especially in certain parts of the Frankish monarchy.

Tributary lands.

Their origin and nature.

Their rapid extension: its causes.

General view of the condition of territorial property, from the sixth to the eleventh century:

First, different conditions of territorial property; Secondly, the individual dependence of territorial property; Thirdly, the stationary condition of territorial wealth.

Why the system of beneficiary property, that is to say, the feudal system, was necessary to the formation of modern society and of powerful states.

Lecture XVI.—Page 132

Of the state of persons, from the fifth to the tenth century.

Impossibility of determining this, according to any fixed and general principle.

The condition of lands not always correspondent with that of persons.

Variable and unsettled character of social conditions.

Slavery.

Attempt to determine the condition of persons according to the Wehrgeld. Table of twenty-one principal cases of Wehrgeld. Uncertainty of this principle. The true method of ascertaining the condition of persons.

Lecture XVII.—Page 141

Of the Leudes or Antrustions. Men, faithful to the king and to the large proprietors. Different means of acquiring and retaining them. Obligations of the Leudes. The Leudes are the origin of the nobility. Bishops and heads of monasteries were reckoned among the leudes of the king. Moral and material of the bishops. Efforts of the kings to possess themselves of the right of nominating bishops. Free men. Did they form a distinct and numerous class? The arimanni, and rathimburgi. Mistake of M. de Savigny. Rapid and general extension of the feudal hierarchy. The freedmen. Different modes of enfranchisement:

First, the denariales, enfranchised with respect to the king: Second, the tabularii, enfranchised with respect to the church: Third, the chartularii, enfranchised by a charter. Different consequences resulting from these different modes of enfranchisement.

Lecture XVIII.—Page 148

Simultaneous existence of three systems of institutions, after the settlement of the Franks in Gaul.

Conflict of these three systems.

Summary of this conflict, its vicissitudes, and results.

Its recurrence in local and central institutions.

Of local institutions under the Frankish monarchy.

Of the assemblies of free men.

Of the authority and jurisdiction of the great landowners in their estates.

Of the authority and jurisdiction of the dukes, counts, and other royal officers.

Lecture XIX.—Page 154

Government of Charlemagne.

Apparent revival of free institutions.

Individual independence and social liberty.

Organization of monarchical power under Charlemagne.

His active surveillance over his vassals and agents.

Rapid decline of monarchical institutions after his death.

Definitive predominance of the feudal system.

Central institutions during the same epoch: royalty.

Causes of the progress of royalty, and of the principle of hereditary succession among the Franks.

Influence of the clergy.

Lecture XX.—Page 163

National assemblies of the Franks; their primitive character, and rapid decline under the Merovingians.

They regain importance under the Carlovingians; and are held regularly under Charlemagne.

Letter of Archbishop Hincmar De ordine Palatii.

Lecture XXI.—Page 171

Decay of national assemblies under Louis the Débonnair and Charles the Bald.

Definitive predominance of the feudal system at the end of the tenth century.

Cause of this predominance.

Character of feudalism.

No trace of true representative government in France, from the fifth to the tenth century.

Lecture XXII.—Page 177

Political institutions of the Visigoths.

Peculiar character of Visigothic legislation.

Its authors and its influences.

Destruction and disappearance of the middle class in the Roman empire, at the time of the Barbarian invasion.

History of the Roman municipal system.

Three epochs in that history.

Lecture XXIII.—Page 193

Of the various social conditions in the Roman Empire, before the final invasion of the Barbarians.

The privileged classes, and curials.

Their obligations, functions, and immunities.

Attributes of the curia as a body. Of the various municipal magistracies and offices. Of the Defender in cities. Comparison of the development of the municipal system, and its relations to the central organization of the State in the Roman Empire and in modern societies.

Lecture XXIV.—Page 206

Sketch of the history of Spain under the Visigoths.

Condition of Spain under the Roman empire.

Settlement of the Visigoths in the south-west of Gaul.

Euric's collection of the laws of the Visigoths.

Alaric's collection of the laws of the Roman subjects.

Settlement of the Visigoths in Spain.

Conflict between the Catholics and Arians.

Political importance of the Councils of Toledo.

Principal kings of the Visigoths.

Egica collects the Forum judicum. Fall of the Visigothic monarchy in Spain.

Lecture XXV.—Page 215

Peculiar character of the legislation of the Visigoths.

Different sorts of laws contained in the Forum judicum. It was a doctrine as well as a code. Principles of this doctrine on the origin and nature of power. Absence of practical guarantees. Preponderance of the clergy in the legislation of the Visigoths. True character of the election of the Visigothic kings. The Visigothic legislation characterized by a spirit of mildness and equity towards all classes of men, and especially towards the slaves. Philosophical and moral merits of this legislation.

Lecture XXVI.—Page 229

Central institutions of the Visigothic monarchy.

True character of the Councils of Toledo.

Amount of their political influence.

The Officium palatinum. Prevalence of Roman maxims and institutions, among the Goths, over Germanic traditions. Proof of this in the local and central institutions of the Visigoths. Refutation of the errors of Savigny and the Edinburgh Review on this subject. Conclusion.