Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1885-04-30
THE ORIGIN OF LAW.

Professor Robinson Delivers Lee
ture to the Y. M. G. "A Large
Attendance and an Excellent Dis
course.
The tenth of the second annual course OF
lectures to young men under the auspices OF
the Y NJ @. A was delivered at the associa-
ton hall last evening by Professor William
c. Robinson. The lecturer was introduced
by Mr. Livingston w. cleveland, of the
reception committee. Professor Robinson
took as his subject "The Origin of Law"
and spoke as follows:
cat this latter end of the nineteenth cen
tury we find ourselves living in peace and
comfort as members of vast society Whlch
is preserved and perpetuated by the influence
of law. Though our attention Is rarely
called to this inf1uence-when some law
breaker i. punished or some legal obligation
yindicated in the courts-yet it is an inf1u-
ence which is all around us at all tunes.
It is like the air we breathe. With
out it all human institutions would
fall to ruin. Instead of our being here to-
night in this large and quiet city, enjoying
the advantages growing out of education, OF
social relations and the ownership OF proper
ty, we should be MISUNDERSTANDING, cruel
and selfish beyond any race of men we have
ever known. This law exists as great body
of rules governing our conduct in all the CON
Germs of life. 1t is known to us in two
forms-the statutes passed by our
legislatures and the old rules and
doctrines which are found in law books and
in the decisions of courts. 1t embraces an
amount of learning which no man ever has
mastered or ever will master and represents
the best fruits of human wisdom and Judg-
ment. Whence comes its Our ancestors
brought it with them to this country from
England but it was not originated there. 1t
M
to these from Asia in long forgotten cen
turtles.
cit is evident that the great body of law as
it now exists is the result of many ages OF
growth and development. Indeed it IS not
only historically untrue, but practically I'M
possible that people wholly without law
should frame for themselves an entire ana
harmonious system of law or that a people
always having some body of laws should ut
terly abrogate them and adopt complete
system of hitherto unknown ana
untried laws Our law bears
upon its face the marks OF ancient origin
and slow development. The statute law is
for the most part only the reat1irmance OF
erystallization into set forms of speech of
the rules and principles of common law. The
oldest code of written law, the Twelve Tables
of the Roman law was simply the permanent
formation in writing of antecedent customary
law. AS we find the origin of
statute law in customary or common law,
so we shall find customary law,
as it's name implies, in the customs of the
people whose law it afterwards became. As
a general rule all human law has been obeyed
before it was enacted. By kind of common
consent the people have acted in accordance
with certain ideas of rectitude and propriety
for a considerable period of time before
those ideas were regarded SO far obhgato-
nv as to receive the force of law.
eff we understand that the laws which now
th7o17 hn
of the globe are of common origin, that they
began in the customs of society in the most
remote period of human existence and by
slow development and definition have at
last come to be law in the complete
| condition in which we know 1t,
we are now prepared to enquire
more infinitely how primitive society
was constituted and what the chief customs
were out of which has grown our present
intricate system of law. The only history
which purports to describe the condition O.
mankind in the infancy of our race is the He
brew scriptures. The reliability of these,
though attacked unsparingly in the last cen
tury and subject to frequent disparagement
in the present age, has been SO far confirmed
and supported by every set
tied and proved discovery in
science and archaeology that the can
did historian can no longer doubt the sub
stantial accuracy of the description which it
gives of human events both before and since
the flood. From the Bible we learn that for
many ages the only form of social organism
| was the family. Originally consisting of
Adam and Eve, the family came to include
their sons and daughters and probably grand
sons and great-grandsons before the first sep
aration of its members. Their occupations
were agricultural and pastoral, their relig
| ious practices frequent and orderly and
| consisting, in part at least, of sacn
| fees offered on the family altar.
e LII L he Io-, L. -
| Cain it was no longer possible for Cain to
continue member of the family in which he
was born. He became ostracised from the
society of his brothers and sisters and with
his wives and children departed and became
| the founder of a separate family. In process
of time these two families intermarried,
new families were formed, but there
was as yet no vestige of royalty
or tribal organization. Finally the
deluge came, destroying the accumulated
wealth of ages and reducing the human race
once more to single family of eight persons
from whom the present population of the
earth descended. The family Of Noah in
creased after the deluge as the family of
Adam had before it. Then came the build
ing of the Tower of Babel and the confusion
of languages. The scripture narrative here
ceases to give any methodical account of
man outside of the Jewish race. For our
purposes, however, this special history serves
as well as one embracing the whole race
Abraham died leaving eight sons and all of
these except Isaac he had during his lifetime
established as the heads of independent fam
lies in distant countries, SO that at his death
Isaac succeeded to his fathers property and
to the leadership of his family"
In the same systematic and interesting
manner the lecturer traced the development
of families into tribes and tribes into nations,
and by frequent illustrations explained the
formation of the various branches of the
law. In conclusion the speaker said: 'These
modes of legal development are going
on under very eyes to-day
By true legislation and by judicial legis-
lation the law keeps pace with the
needs of mankind. The benign influence
which in its crude customary state it exerted
on primitive society it still continues to ex-
ert in wider fields and there is no reason to
doubt that what originated in the nature of
man and in the circumstances in which
divine providence first placed him will
prove sufficient for his guidance and control
in every future situation to which the same