CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



proceedings of citizens at large, such as directions 

 for the order to be taken regarding the effects 

 of a deceased person, &c. This code is generally 

 accompanied by a table of fees in law pro- 

 ceedings. In 1807, another code was promul- 

 gated, called the Code de Commerce, regulating 

 partnership, bills and notes, banking, shipping, 

 bankruptcy, &c. By this code, provision is made 

 for merchants choosing boards or courts from 

 among their own number, called Tribunaux de 

 Commerce. The jurisdiction of these courts, 

 which are very numerous, extends to questions 

 between merchants, and disputes arising out of 

 commercial transactions. In criminal legislation, 

 a different order was pursued from that adopted 

 in the civil ; the procedure code was prepared 

 and adopted before the crimes to which it was to 

 apply, and the punishments it was to enforce, were 

 defined. The Code d' Instruction Criminelle was 

 promulgated in 1808, and the Code /Y<?/in 1810. 

 Such were the laws issued under the govern- 

 ment of Napoleon, commonly called Les Cinq 

 Codes, or the Five Codes. There are other 

 collections of regulations, which should be added 

 to make up a complete body of French laws a 

 military code, issued by Napoleon; regulations 

 concerning woods and forests, issued under 

 Charles X.; various laws as to the press and 

 theatrical exhibitions, and alterations of the penal 

 code, issued under the government of Louis- 

 Philippe; and, lastly, the enactments under the 

 Republic of 1848 and the Empire of Napoleon III. 

 It is in the Five Codes, however, passed under 

 Napoleon, and confirmed at the Restoration, that 

 the modern laws of France are known to Europe 

 at large. They are distinguished by the concise- 

 ness, clearness, and elegance of their language, and 

 their intrinsic merits. Independently of the divi- 

 sion into books and sections, the paragraphs 

 in each code are numbered from the commence- 

 ment an arrangement which gives facilities for 

 reference. Thus, there are in the civil code 2281 

 consecutively numbered paragraphs. In a country 

 where the material of the law is so gigantic as it 

 is in England, it is of the highest interest to mark 

 the practical working of this. To an unlearned 

 person in this country, it is a much easier thing to 

 know the law of France on any particular point, 

 than the law he is living under. 



64 



The French codes adopt the phraseology of the 

 Roman law, and many of its principles. The 

 most striking deviation from the previous law of 

 France and the present system of other countries, 

 is perhaps in the rules respecting succession. The 

 children succeed to equal shares of the parents' 

 property, whether it consist of land or movables ; 

 and if there be no legitimate children, illegitimate 

 children may succeed. The parent is limited in 

 the disposal of his property by will. He can only 

 bequeath the half, if he have one legitimate child ; 

 and the third, if he have two. Restrictions some- 

 what similar are to be found in other countries 

 with respect to movable property, but not as to 

 land. The effect which the extensive partition, 

 naturally occasioned by this law, has effected, and 

 may effect in France, is a subject of great interest 

 to political economists. In the mercantile law, 

 there are several provisions unknown in this 

 country, such as registers for hypothecs or secur- 

 ities held over movable goods or merchandise; 

 and societies en commandite, or partnerships 

 in which certain managing members are respon- 

 sible for the obligations of the company to the 

 extent of their whole property, while the sleeping 

 partners who advance money are not responsible 

 beyond the amount of their shares. The chief 

 improvement in the criminal law effected during 

 the Revolution, and sanctioned by the code of 

 instruction, was jury trial, to which Napoleon was 

 much opposed : the system, as finally settled, bore 

 more resemblance to the Scottish than to the 

 English form, prosecutions being conducted by 

 public prosecutors, there being no grand jury, and 

 the jury of final trial deciding by a majority. In 

 other respects, the criminal law is more remark- 

 able for its austerity than for its subserviency to 

 the general good of the public. With Napoleon, 

 though that object was not neglected, it was made 

 secondary to the consolidation of his own power ; 

 and offences are measured less by their pernicious 

 effects on society at large, than by the trouble or 

 danger they might occasion to rulers. Hence was 

 adopted in many cases the stern and simple 

 method of putting arbitrary power over crimi- 

 nals into the hands of the administrators of 

 the law, while punishments of the highest 

 kind were reserved for offences against the 

 authorities. 



