The tariff of indemnities or compensations to be paid for each crime formed the basis of the code of laws amongst the principal tribes of Franks, a code essentially barbarian, and called the Salic law, or law of the Salians (Fig. 7).  Such, however, was the spirit of inequality among the German races, that it became an established principle for justice to be subservient to the rank of individuals.  The more powerful a man was, the more he was protected by the law; the lower his rank, the less the law protected him.

The life of a Frank, by right, was worth twice that of a Roman; the life of a servant of the King was worth three times that of an ordinary individual who did not possess that protecting tie.  On the other hand, punishment was the more prompt and rigorous according to the inferiority of position of the culprit.  In case of theft, for instance, a person of importance was brought before the King’s tribunal, and as it respected the rank held by the accused in the social hierarchy, little or no punishment was awarded.  In the case of the same crime by a poor man, on the contrary, the ordinary judge gave immediate sentence, and he was seized and hung on the spot.

Inasmuch as no political institutions amongst the Germans were nobler or more just than those of the Franks and the other barbaric races, we cannot accept the creed of certain historians who have represented the Germans as the true regenerators of society in Europe.  The two sources of modern civilisation are indisputably Pagan antiquity and Christianity.

After the fall of the Merovingian kings great progress was made in the political and social state of nations.  These kings, who were but chiefs of undisciplined bands, were unable to assume a regal character, properly so called.  Their authority was more personal than territorial, for incessant changes were made in the boundaries of their conquered dominions.  It was therefore with good reason that they styled themselves kings of the Franks, and not kings of France.

Charlemagne was the first who recognised that social union, so admirable an example of which was furnished by Roman organization, and who was able, with the very elements of confusion and disorder to which he succeeded, to unite, direct, and consolidate diverging and opposite forces, to establish and regulate public administrations, to found and build towns, and to form and reconstruct almost a new world (Fig. 8).  We hear of him assigning to each his place, creating for all a common interest, making of a crowd of small and scattered peoples a great and powerful nation; in a word, rekindling the beacon of ancient civilisation.  When he died, after a most active and glorious reign of forty-five years, he left an immense empire in the most perfect state of peace (Fig. 9).  But this magnificent inheritance was unfortunately destined to pass into unworthy or impotent hands, so that society soon fell back into anarchy and confusion.  The nobles, in their turn invested with power, were continually at war, and gradually weakened the royal authority—­the power of the kingdom—­by their endless disputes with the Crown and with one another.