The introduction, which is full of generalities and abstract ideas, after the manner of the time, states that the object of the code was to collect the statutes of the Ragusan Republic, “to harmonise the discrepancies, suppress superfluities, supply omissions, explain obscurities, so that nothing superfluous, obscure, or captious should remain in them.” The first book defines the position, rights, and duties of the count and of the other chief functionaries of the Republic, and deals with sundry financial matters. The second book contains the _formulæ_ and oaths of each officer of State; and in cap. xxiv. the salaries of the Ragusan envoys[130] to foreign countries were fixed. The third embodies the law of procedure and the judicial system, and sets forth the rules for the _stanico_, or international court of arbitration, to which we have already alluded. This institution was a peculiarly Serbo-Dalmatian one, and deserves examination. The statute of 1272 describes it as an _antica consuetudo_. It was of two kinds, the _plenarium stanicum_, or full court, and the _parvum_, or minor court. The full _stanicum_ was agreed upon by the Government of Ragusa and that of some other State with whom the former had a dispute. Each side elected an equal number of judges, who met at some place easily accessible to both capitals, and, if possible, on neutral ground, _i.e._ in the territory of some State not concerned in the dispute. Thus in disputes between Ragusa and Zara the spot chosen was Santa Maria di Lesina, on the island of that name; for those between Ragusa and Sebenico, Traù, Spalato, Almissa, or Lesina, the _stanicum_ met at or near Prevlaka (near Stagno); if the quarrel was with Hlum, at Malfi; if with the Serbs, at Gionchetto or Cresta; if with the Bosnians, at Trebinje, Popovo, or Canali. The dispute was settled by compromise rather than by arbitration, and each party was represented by State officials. The _parvum stanicum_ was convened to settle private disputes between Ragusans and citizens of one of the Slave states (it was not resorted to in the case of disputes with the other Dalmatian towns). The presence of representatives of the two States was not necessary. But often when such disputes arose the parties would agree to defer settling them until the full _stanicum_ met, provided that such a one was to take place shortly. It was not necessary that all private international disputes should be settled in this manner, and the plaintiff was free to summon his adversary before the latter’s own tribunal. He only resorted to it when he feared that he could not obtain justice from the foreign court. In proceedings by _stanicum_, the old Teutonic and Slavonic system of the _conjuratio_ was applied, by which each party produced a number of relations and friends, who swore to the veracity of their kinsman; if any one was convicted of perjury, the curse fell on the whole clan alike. The institution exists