Note 071 This liberty of choice has been aptly deduced (The Spiritof Laws, l. xxviii.2) from a constitution of Lothaire I. (Leg. Langobard. l. ii. tit. lvii. in Codex Lindebrog. p. 664), though the example is too recent and partial. From a various reading in the Salic law (tit. xliv. not. xlv.), the Abbé de Mably (tom. i. p. 290-293) has conjectured that at first a barbarian only, and afterwards any man (consequently a Roman), might live according to the law of the Franks. I am sorry to offend this ingenious conjecture by observing that the stricter sense (Barbarum) is expressed in the reformed copy of Charlemagne, which is confirmed by the Royal and Wolfenbuttel MSS. The looser interpretation (hominem) is authorised only by the MS. of Fulda, from whence Heroldus published his edition. See the four original texts of the Salic law, in tom. iv. p. 147, 173, 196, 220.

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The History Of The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire—Volume 1— Chapter 38