It is true that the ...

It is true that the aristocracies seem to have abused their monopoly of legal knowledge and at all events their exclusive possession of the law was a formidable impediment to the success of those popular movements which began to be universal in the western world.
 Henry James Sumner Maine

Quotes from the same author

The movement of the progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract.
 Henry James Sumner Maine