[32] Such conscientious injustice, without any mixture of
fraud or force could seldom injure the members of a small republic; but
the various periods of three, of ten, or of twenty years, determined by
Justinian, are more suitable to the latitude of a great empire. It is
only in the term of prescription that the distinction of real and
personal fortune has been remarked by the civilians; and their general
idea of property is that of simple, uniform, and absolute dominion. The
subordinate exceptions of use, of usufruct, of servitudes, imposed for
the benefit of a neighbor on lands and houses, are abundantly explained
by the professors of jurisprudence. The claims of property, as far as
they are altered by the mixture, the division, or the transformation of
substances, are investigated with metaphysical subtlety by the same
civilians.
The personal title of the first proprietor must be determined by his
death: but the possession, without any appearance of change, is
peaceably continued in his children, the associates of his toil and the
partners of his wealth.
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