[A] This subject is so important, so delicate, that I shall not be satisfied with giving a translation of the passages which I quote, however careful I may be to render them exact and literal, at the risk of irregularity of style and violation of the idiom of our language. I wish, therefore, to set before the reader the original texts themselves, desiring him to judge from them and not from my version. [They will be found in the Appendix.]
[B] Crown attorneys, charged with the prosecution of criminal and other causes.
[C] When this was written.—Tr.
[D] Aug. Quid ipsi homines et populi, ejusne generis rerum sunt, ut interire mutarive non possint, æternique omnino sint?—Evod. Mutabile plane atque tempori obnoxium hoc genus esse quis dubitet?—Aug. Ergo, si populus sit bene moderatus et gravis, communisque utilitatis diligentissimus custos, in quo unusquisque minoris rem privatam quam publicam pendat, nonne recte lex fertur, qua huic ipsi populo liceat creare sibi magistratus, per quos sua res, id est publica, administretur?—Evod. Recte prorsus.—Aug. Porro, si paulatim depravatus idem populus rem privatam reipublicæ præferat, atque habeat venale suffragium, corruptusque ab eis qui honores amant, regimen in se flagitiosis consceleratisque committat, nonne item recte, si quis tunc extiterit vir bonus, qui plurimum possit, adimat huic populo potestatem dandi honores, et in paucorum bonorum vel etiam unius redigat arbitrium?—Evod. Et id recte.—Aug. Cum ergo duæ istæ leges ita sibi videantur esse contrariæ, ut una earum honorum dandorum populo tribuat potestatem, auferat altera, et cum ista secunda ita lata sit, ut nullo modo ambæ in una civitate simul esse possint, num dicemus aliquam earum injustam esse et ferri minime debuisse?—Evod. Nullo modo.
[E] An extract from Bellarmine de Romano Pont. is here omitted.
[F] Tribute that was paid on St. Martin's day.
[G] Another tribute.
[H] A tribute for the king's repast during his journeys.
[I] Tribute for maintaining the ditches of the castles in Castile, and the armies.
[J] "It is extremely difficult to ascertain the origin of the trades-corporations, even in those towns which have been the longest and the best disciplined.—Sandi, in his Civil History of Venice (t. ii. part 1, lib. iv. p. 767), after having reckoned sixty-one trades-corporations existing in that capital at the beginning of his century, declares that it is impossible to assign to each of these corporations the date of its origin, or that of its first statutes. This historian nevertheless consulted all the archives of the republic; he contents himself with observing, that none of the corporations are anterior to the fourteenth century." (The notes which accompany this chapter are those of Capmany himself.)