CIVIL SOCIETY AND CIIRISTLVNITY. 35 



grand thougli sanguinary (rihinu^ — was it not yourrfolf 

 Avho invoked God and tlie immortal soul oi' num as the 

 last salvation of the people in its madness ? 



[The liberty ot" testation in the father of the family is also the 

 effective i>rinciple o{ tlic immortality of i/tc fdmili/.] 



The family is not a structure reared fora few years at 

 most, built on the marria2:e contract, and taken down 

 when the children come of age. It is an institution 

 Avhieh passes down the ages, like the State itself, of 

 which it is the more lasting hasis. In a learned and 

 eloquent plea for the wise enlargement of the liberty of 

 testation, an eminent magistrate, who now occupies a 

 seat in the council of his sovereign, exhibits to us the 

 picture of this institution, parcelled out in its patrimony, 

 enfeebled in its authority, and arrived at a point of 

 degradation which compromises it as a power in society.* 

 The mortal wound dealt to the family by Robespierre 

 and the Convention, has been but imperfectly healed by 

 the genius of the First Consul. The only efiectual rem- 

 edy is to restore to the hands of the father the plenary 

 power needful for the repression of evil and the encour- 

 agement of good in the society which he governs. On 

 tiie son who has dishonored his name and corrupted his 

 blood by vice, paternal justice, full of merc}^ must be 

 able to inflict punishment salutary to all, recovering, 

 perhaps, the guilty, protecting from him the rest of the 

 family. To the family itself he must be able to bequeath 

 the elements of j)rosperity and continuance, Mdiich at 

 present are sorely lacking. 



Between the family and the land which supports and 

 sustains it, there grow up ties which ought not to be 



* Speech on the right of Testation in its Relations with raterual Authority, 

 by M. Pinard, procurer-general. Page 58. 



