D 
Inaugural Address. XXVII 
the ITI. presided, it was reformed and amended, with ail the 
formalities which were used at the original redaction ; but it 
received no improvement or alteration of any kind after 
that period, and the several articles, as they were then cor- 
rected, continue, to this day, to be the text of the Custom 
of Paris. 
Various attempts were made by succeeding Monarchs, 
particularly Francis the I, Henry the IV. and Louis the XIV 
to renew the great design of Charles the VII. for the Govern- 
ment of France by one general and uniform code of Laws, 
but never with success.—The customs were too deeply rooted 
in the pride ahd prejudices of the inhabitants of the districts 
in which they obtained, to be eradicated, and they prevailed, 
though the evils arising from such a discordant mass of Laws 
were most sensibly felt and frequently deplored ;— Our 
numerous customs,” says an animated writer on the Laqy of 
France, “ obscure and susceptible of any interpretation, 
© forma vast and eternal Labyrinth, in which the peace, 
** the happiness, the lives and fortunes of our citizens, the 
® very character and honor of Jurisprudence, are lost for 
66 ever."(1) 
The supreme legislative authority was, originally, vested 
in the assemblies of the Champ de Mars,(2), and, by them, 
it was exercised until the year 921, when the last of the ca- 
pitulars was enacted, under Charles the simple.(3) 
During the disorders which followed, the Sovereign and 
the great Vassals were influenced by motives, which, though 
extremely different, produced the same effect in the conduct 
of both, and equally prevented all acts of general Legisla- 
tion, The weakness of the crown compelled the King care- 
fully to abstain from every attempt to render a Law general 
throughout the Kingdom ; such a step would have alarmed 
—— § § the 
(i) Prost. de Royer, Dictr. de Jurisp. vol. 3, p. 37. Vide also tho Pre- 
amble to the Ordinance of 1731, 
(2) Robertson's Charles V. vol. 1. p.» 166, 
(3) Kobertson, ibid, vol, 1. p. 367, 
