The Discovery of the Pandects.

Washington where they undoubtedly will form a portion at least of the internal history of Manila and of the Philippine Islands. The military commission as a war court is very old, and is well known to the historian. Major' André was tried by a military com mission composed of fourteen officers of the army, of which General Nathaniel Greene was the President. Jackson made use of them when he was fighting the Indians in Florida. Scott found them a valuable ad junct while governing and controlling Mex ico. During the great rebellion, hundreds of cases were tried by these tribunals and the decisions of our highest courts became involved. But now it is very well settled, First, That a military commission is a tri bunal which rests upon, is governed by, and derives its power and authority from martial law. (Dynes v. Hoover, 61 U. S. (15 I. ed.) 843; Ex parte Vallandigham, i Wall. 243.)

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Second, a military commission has jurisdiction upon the theater of actual war. It rests fundamentally upon the fact that martial law has been declared, and there can be no mar tial law except such as may arise from civil war, foreign invasion, or the theater of actual military operation, when war actually pre vails, as when there is no power left but the military power, and civil courts and instru mentalities for administering justice are closed. Such was the decision in the Su preme Court of the United States in the great case of Ex parte Milligan (Book 18, L. cd. 281). This case forms a valuable precedent as it clearly draws the line as to when martial law begins and ends. It set tled for all time to come the right of trial by jury, and struck a blow at the unlawful use and abuse of military commissions where courts were open and the necessity for martial law did not exist.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE PANDECTS. THE revival of the study of the civil law of Rome towards the beginning of the twelfth century is, without question, one of the most memorable circumstances in the history of modern Europe. Throughout a very considerable portion of Europe, the civil law was admitted as of direct authority; and even in those countries where it was made subservient to the existing national legisla tion, it was appealed to generally as a guide, if not as a rule, in cases for which the muni cipal laws had made no provision. There is, perhaps, no circumstance connected with the renovation of the civil law more remarkable than the rapidity with which it was adopted, and as it were, became naturalized, among the very nations where it had for some cen turies past been gradually falling into com parative disuse and oblivion. During the long period of darkness and barbarism which had succeeded the subver

sion of the Roman empire, the most valuable and authentic monuments of its jurisprudence had disappeared. Fragments of the Roman legislation were indeed extant, and in some instances obtained the force of law; in many more preserved the authority of custom. The Burgunclians, the Goths, and the Visi goths, on establishing themselves in the South of Europe, had retained a portion of the laws and institutions previously in use among such of the imperial possessions as they had subjugated. The compilations known by the titles of Breviarium Aniani and Liber Responsorum Papiniani, both pub lished at the beginning of the sixth century (the former, as it is supposed, by order of Gundebald, King of the Burgundians; the latter by that of Alaric, King of the Visi goths), are ascertained to have been in great part made up of extracts from the codes of Gregorius and Hermogenes, and Theodosius,