household, the huntsman, falconers, and other personal officers of the emperor in the first class, the jurisconsults and lawyers in the second, and the secretaries of the emperor in the third. The militia were formed into corporations or scholæ, divided into different companies, each with its head, not unlike the distribution in our departments. At first the right of nomination belonged to the chief of each class; this magister officiorum is called, by Cassiodorus, "gloriosus donator aulici consistorii, quasi alter Lucifer." Afterward, the emperor himself made the appointments by letters called probatoriæ, and in Greek doktpasta, which were duly registered. At first, too, these appointments were purely gratuitous; but gradually from being given to the officers as a gift for the benefit of widows and children, the officers got the right to dispose of them for their own private profit.

Hence arose the distinction of offices that were salable and hereditary, and those that were still in the gift of the emperor. Even the former, however, were dependent on the act of the emperor for their recognition, for he was still the source of all power, "a quo ut a sole radii omnes exeunt dignitates."

The legislation on this subject is found in the Institutes, 1. xxvii., Cod. de pign. et hyp., and 1. xi., Cod. de prox. sacr.; and in the Novellæ 46, c. 4, and 53, c. 5; and in the L. 102, s. 2, and 3, Dig. de legat. 3.

The learning bestowed on it is scattered over many works, and makes an essential part of all the treatises on sales, as distinct as any other branch.

The elements essential to such a contract were three, consensus, res, and pretium. The last could not exceed a sum fixed either by the society to which the office belonged, or by the emperor. The security for it was not unlike that of our own purchase-money mortgage; and gave rise to nearly as much discussion.

The relations of creditors, wife's dower, rights of minors, and the conditions made in the cor: truction of the contracts of sale, were all elaborated, and the treatises written on them, as well as the efforts made to secure by law, first one right and then another, are still occasionally referred to in the French courts. The gifts inter vivos, and the right to make testa

mentary disposition of offices, were all fully admitted, and the Lex. 102, s. 3, de legatis 3, makes the following decision: "Testator liberto militiam his verbis legavit: Seio liberto meo militiam do lego illam: quam militiam et testator habuit. Quæsitum est an onera omnia et introitus militiæ ab herede sint danda; respondit danda."

There was also the hereditary transmission of offices, at first limited to children or direct descendants as the objects, along with the father, of the bounty of the emperor who gave the office: "Hoc habeant non tamquam paternam hereditatem sed tanquam inperialem munificentiam; ut et substantiam relinquentibus et non habentibus, merito solatium præbeamus" (Nov. 53, c. 5).

The office itself came to the son, if there was one who could fill it, or was sold for the benefit of all the children; in either case, the new incumbent was obliged to pay the onus or introitus militiæ, an entrance fee fixed by statute, and due to the chief of the department, or to the corporation of which he was the head; or, in some cases, to the supernumerarii, those who were promised the next vacancy, a body regularly organized by the wisdom of an emperor, "Instituit imperator Claudius imaginariæ militiæ genus, quod vocatur supernumerum, quo absentes titulo tenus fungerentur."

Even where the office was sold for the benefit of the heirs, the purchaser had to pay to the family a round sum, called casus militiæ, which was also known as suffragium, solatium, and scholæ placitum : the first, because it required a vote of the corporation to which the office belonged; the second, because it was a consolation to the heirs for the death of their father, from whom the office descended to them; and the third, because it was regulated "pro tenore communis militantium placiti."

The limitation of this right of inheritance was of pretorian origin, and lost its primitive character under the later emperors. The "collatio bonorum" was extended to brothers and sisters, subject to a right to limit it by express words, and to a cloud of questions as to whether it meant the price given, or the assessed value; and whether it was the value at the time of the death of the donee or the donor, on all of

which much learning is found in the early Roman laws, and in the comments of the civilians.

The original permission to officers to dispose of their offices was not an absolute surrender by the emperors of their rights, but simply a reward for long and faithful services. The recommendation of the original appointee was not binding in law, it was only a jus ad militiam, which became valid when the appointment was duly made by commission, the real jus

in militia.

The imperial prerogative was limited, but not seriously affected by this innovation of the sale of offices; for the power was reserved to control, and even to refuse to appoint, candidates presented; as well as the right to remove officers found unfit for their position, and to suppress offices, and to create others, which of course were powers fatal to the salable value of an existing office. In certain employments, "dummodo et is qui subrogatur electione quæstoris fiat," the nomination depended on the chief of the bureau, through whom, and with whose recommendation, the out-going officer submitted to the emperor the name of his successor.

With this and the other restrictions already referred to, the owner of an office always took it with a view to its resale, quæ emeris vendere jus gentium est," and any loss of this right was a subject of reclamation.

As a primary rule, the officers were removable, for in the early years of the republic, the consuls Tarquin, Collatinus, and Lucius Flaminius, were deprived of their offices. Under the empire, the accession of Alexander Severus was distinguished, among other reforms, by numerous clearings out of judges, and governors of provinces. The Latin phrase, "mittere successorem," itself, shows the acknowledged right. Consuls under the republic, judges and governors under the empire, were all offices given gratuitously, but the militia, the offices of the emperor's household, and those of the different governors, were regularly bought and sold; to deprive their owners of them without compensation, was to take so much of their property.

While therefore the right of removal was recognized and maintained, the right to compensation was admitted; and the

successor, whether of his own choice, or imposed on him by superior authority, was obliged to pay to his predecessor, as an indemnity, the fixed price.

Even in case of a suspension, the right to the indemnity remained, and it was lost only where the officer himself abandoned his duties for five years: "quinquennium si fuerit divagatus, ipso jam cingulo spoliandus est."

The love of pomp and magnificence exhibited by the emperors of the East, led rapidly to a proportionate increase in the number of their officers.

The firm adherence to the proprietary right of existing offices, prevented their suppression, and led to the establishment of new offices, to be filled by new favorites. As they were all paid by the government, and not by fees, there was no clashing of interest, or question of compensation, and all were satisfied.

The offices thus created were mainly the following: Scriba et Tabularii, subordinate to the older notarius, described by St. Augustine (lib. ii., de Doctrina Christi), "notas qui didicerunt proprie notarii appellantur." The notarii prepared opinions and drew contracts; the scriba registered them, and the tabularii prepared the certified copies.

These offices were important even in the days of the Greek republic, but in Rome they had fallen into the hands of the slaves. The emperors Arcadius and Honorius secured them for the citizens, and divided them into three classes: "scribæ, defensores civitatum, judices pedanei." The improvement thus begun, ended in an effort of the citizens to avoid the unpaid labor of these offices, by becoming domestic officers of the emperors; thus avoiding the necessity of accepting public offices, and to remedy this it was necessary to enact by L. 3, Cod. de scribis tabulariis et logographis (lib. x., 1, 69), that these offices should be held by the emperor's own people.

This was followed by laws of Honorius and Theodosius, limiting these offices to the households of governors of provinces; and of Justinian, limiting them to the offices of the presidents, and subdividing them into exceptores, who wrote out judicial opinions, "acta judiciorum scribebant," and were called “notarii, quia notis scribebant acta præsidium;" the

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regendarii, who registered these opinions, "regerere enim iterum gerere est et inde regestum seu scriptum;" cancellarii, who prepared the pleadings, and drafted decrees, and actuarii, who received and recorded all voluntary legal acts, such, for example, as emancipation, adoption, contracts, and wills.

The later emperors established as a class of great importance, their own secretaries or notarii, "præclaram nobilemque militiam spectabilium tribunorum notariorum qui gloriosis obsequiis nonnihil reipublicæ commoditatis afferunt et decoris, diversis beneficiorum titulis muniendam credimus et augendam" (Cod. de primicerio et sec. et not., L. 12, t. 7).

They were also called tribuni and candidati, partly because they were recognized as on the high road to great preferment, and partly because they wore white robes, "qui familiaritate regum utebantur, purpurati regum vocabantur sicut apud nos a toga candidata candidati" (Tertullian, lib. de Idolatria).

They were also distinguished as tribuni prætoriani et notarii, with the title of comites, as tribuni et notarii, and as notarii familiares sive domestici. Their senior was called primicerius notariorum, and had the dignity of a proconsul, and a place among the illustres.

The second class of offices created by the later emperors, and made subject to the right of sale, was the Procuratores ad lites. It was not until six centuries after the foundation of Rome, that the law provided for representation by counsel; at first there were two classes, the cognitores and the procuratores, but the latter only existed in the latter empire. At no time, however, had they any public character, or any recognition other than that of persons doing an act of friendship, not exercising any avowed or acknowledged professional relation.

The last class of new offices was the viatores or executores, corresponding to the apparitores and statores of the republic, with the duties of our sheriff's officers and tipstaffs, that is, to notify parties to actions and their witnesses and others in interest.

The Roman empire during its existence of eleven centuries, had thrown out roots too deep in the spirit of its institutions, to be lost sight of when the first efforts toward reorganization