And  here  we  must  put  up  a  danger  signal  to  guard  against
accident.  Nowadays  a  real  contract  is  one  relating  to
land  or  some  interest  in  land.  That  was  not  at  all  the
Roman  meaning.  They  meant  a  pact  re,  founded  upon  something
done,  some  part  performance,  and  applicable  whenever  a
thing  belonging  to  one  person  has  been  placed  by  him  in
the  possession  of  another,  that  is,  where  there  has  been
em  actual  delivery  of  something  on  one  side,  or  some  right
of  status  or  property  is  involved.  There  were  four  of  these
real  contracts,  and  they  were  (l)  Matuum  or  the  loan  of
something  to  be  returned  in  kind,  (2)  Commodatum ,  or  the
gratuitous  loan  of  an  article  to  be  used  by  the  borrower,
(3)  Depositum  or  the  delivery  of  a  thing  for  custody  to  be
re-delivered  on  demand  without  compensation,  and  (4)  Pignus
or  pledge  where  a  thing  movable  or  immovable  is  transformed


^22


as  security  for  a  debt.     No  one  should  grow  restless  undef
these  Roman  names  and  the  division  of  contracts  which
they  represent.     While  Blackstone  did  that,  and  gave  in
his  Commenteuries  only  three  scant  pages  to  the  whole
law  of  Bailment,  we   shall  find  that  Story  has  elegantly
and  fully  elaborated  that  law,  and/  in  doing  it  has  drawn
almost  entirely  his  whole  doctrine  from  the  civil  law.
Every  page  bristles  with  the  Latin  of  the  Institutes  cuid
the  Digest,  and  the  English  lawyers,  abandoning  the  dry
wells  of  immemorial  custom,  have  come  to  America  and  the
civil  law  for  their  fountains  of  bailment.
