294 



COD CODES. 



The common or Bank cod (cabeliau or ntm-ue} va- 

 ries in size and weight according to its age and the sea- 

 ion of the year. The average length is about two and a 

 half or three feet, and the weight between thirty and 

 fifty pounds. Single cod have ueen caught weighing 

 three times as much, measuring five and a hall feet 

 hi length ; but such specimens are uncommon, the 

 greater number approaching the average above giv- 

 en. The colour is a yellowish-grey on the back, fna- 

 culated with yellowish and brown ; the belly white 

 or reddish, with golden spots in young individuals. 

 The fins are yellowish, with the exception of the 

 anal, which are greyish ; the head is large and flatten- 

 ed, with an enormous gape to the mouth ; the upper 

 jaw projects beyond the lower, which lias a cirrhus 

 or beard about the length of a finger ; the eyes are 

 very large, and veiled oy a transparent membrane ; 

 the scales are of large size ; first ray of the first anal 

 fin, not articulated and spinous. Professor Mitchell, 

 in his interesting paper on the fishes of New York, 

 enumerates ten species of cod among the supplies 

 brought to the market of that city, caught on the 

 coasts adjacent. To his valuable researches, pub- 

 lished in the first volume of the New York Philoso- 

 phical Transactions, the reader may advantageously 

 refer, who desires to be intimately acquainted with 

 the distinctions by which these species are discrimi- 

 nated. They are named as follows : Gadus mor- 

 rhua, Bank cod ; G. callarias, dorse cod ; G. tom- 

 codus, tomcod ; G. aglefitius, haddock ; G. blennoi- 

 det, blennoid cod; G. purpureus, New York pol- 

 lock ; G. merluccius, hake ; G. tennis ; slender 

 cod ; G. longipes, codling ; G. punctatus, spotted 

 cod. The whole process of cod-fishing is highly in- 

 teresting, but the briefest description of it would re- 

 quire far more space than can be afforded here. The 

 importance of this fishery, and the great national in- 

 terests which it involves, has made it a fruitful source 

 of diplomatic discussion, and led to the establishment 

 of various regulations, to which all are obliged to 

 conform who participate of its advantages. It is ob- 

 viously out of our power satisfactorily to treat of 

 these topics, and all the interesting matter connect- 

 ed with the subject, in an article solely designed to 

 give a general sketch of the characters of the genus, 

 and of the most interesting species of cod. 



COD, CAPE. See Cape Cod. 



CODE, in jurisprudence, is a name given, by way 

 of eminence, to a collection of laws. (For the de- 

 rivation of the word, see Codex. For the different 

 parties among the lawyers of our times, respecting 

 the advantages of codes and codifying, see Law. 

 For the different codes of modern times, see the re- 

 spective countries, and the following list.) 



CODE NAPOLEON. See Codes, les Cinq. 



CODE OF FREDERIC, CODEX FREDERICI- 

 ANUS. See Prussia, Code of. 



CODE OF JUSTINIAN. See Civil Law. 



CODES, LES CINQ (French; the five codes) ; the 

 new French digests of laws. The civil code (Code 

 civil) or general law of the country, the commercial 

 code, the penal code, the codes of civil and criminal 

 procedure, form together a whole, which, whatever 

 may be their absolute value, will remain a perpetual 

 monument of the state of tilings in France which pro- 

 ceeded from the revolution, and particularly of Na- 

 poleon's administration. They originated from the 

 spirit of the times and of the nation ; and are, in some 

 respects, the key-stone of the revolution, as they se- 

 cure, hi a great measure, its reasonable demands. 

 Like all human works, they are chargeable with im- 

 perfection, and they have been criticised with severi- 

 ty by some, political parties and some learned works. 

 See Savigny Von dem Beruf unserer Zeit zur Gesetz- 

 1816. On the Aptitude of the present Age 



for Legislatio and Jurisprudence ; translated from 

 the German of F. C. von Savigny, by a Barrister of 

 Lincoln's Inn. Yet, compared with the preceding 

 condition of jurisprudence in France, they must be 

 acknowledged by all to have been a great and unde- 

 niable benefit to the country, as well as to the age 

 in which they were produced. The laws in France, 

 before the revolution, were in a state of the greatest 

 confusion. The Roman or civil law was universally 

 in force as subsidiary to the local customs, anil was 

 applied, particularly, to the regulation of contracts. 

 But with regard to the rights of property of married 

 people, the modifications of landed property, feudal 

 rights, &c., the greatest differences prevailed in dif- 

 ferent parts of the kingdom. The invasions of the 

 German tribes must have effaced, in a great measure, 

 with the Roman law, the last traces of the ancient 

 laws of the Gallic nation ; and that more or less com- 

 pletely, according to the degree to which the Roman 

 constitution had taken root among the ancient inlia- 

 bitants, and to the political importance which they 

 themselves maintained under their new masters. 

 Hence, in the northern parts of France, and under the 

 dominion of the Franks, the Roman institutions were 

 more generally supplanted by the German, than in the 

 south, nearer to Italy, where the country was more 

 populous and under the dominion of the Visigoths 

 and Burgundisns. Here some portions of the Ro- 

 man municipal and judicial institutions had always 

 been preserved ; the civil law, particularly, as it was 

 contained in the collection ot Theodosius II., remain- 

 ed valid, especially with regard to the rights of pro- 

 perty between married people. The provinces 

 where it thus continued in force were called pays du 

 droit ecrit. The many droits coutumiers of different 

 districts, baronies and counties which were to be 

 found in France, even in the pays du droit Romain, 

 originated when the authority of a general govern- 

 ment liad given place to feudal anarchy, when 

 every barony and every city formed an independent 

 whole, and the king was nothing but the first among 

 the great feudal lords of France (the dukes of Nor- 

 mandy, Aquitaine, Burgundy and Brittany, the counts 

 of Champagne, Flanders, Provence, &c.), and, in his 

 own domains, scarcely more than the first among the 

 inferior barons. In each of these divisions, a parti- 

 cular system of law developed itself in the struggle 

 of the old, free municipal institutions with the usur- 

 pations of the barons, in which the former perished en- 

 tirely. The peculiarities of these different laws, how- 

 ever, proceeded less from the true wants and the 

 spirit of the nation, than from accidental circum- 

 stances and events. It must, however, be acknow- 

 ledged, that the laws of the provinces or ancient 

 principalities of the realm, which were founded partly 

 on express provisions adopted by the sovereign in 

 unison with the states, are of greater importance. 

 Among these, the laws of Normandy are of the most 

 consequence, since they are, at least with regard to 

 the feudal rights and the general principles of landed 

 property, the foundation of the whole English law. 

 See Houard's Trails sur les Coutumes Anglo Norman- 

 des, Dieppe, 1776, 4 vols., 4to. William I. made the 

 feudal law of the Normans the predominant law of 

 England, and founded the different branches of his 

 government on feudal principles ; even the language 

 of the courts of justice and of the official papers of the 

 government in England remained French for centu- 

 ries ; and French formulas are still used in parlia- 

 ment and in legal language, though sometimes sin- 

 gularly perverted. After the law of Normandy, the 

 customs and statutes of the city and county of Paris 

 were of chief importance, since they served as a 

 model for many others, and were considered, in some 

 measure, as a subsidiary source of law in the jurisdio 



