LAW, AND ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.
In this great department, France shows nothing of the backwardness apparent in her situation in many other respects, but is entitled to the particular attention of other nations, and of none more than our own. Law does not rest on tradition, nor is it necessary to study it in a never ending accumu lation of decisions. It is reduced into a compact and definite form, the result of a code formed recent ly, and with all the benefit of the application of the knowledge of an enlightened age to the principles of jurisprudence. Nothing could be more irregular than the administration of justice in France before the Revolution. The first stage of a process took place before judges appointed not by the King but by the Seigneur, or lord of the district. These judges had power to impose a fine, to decree a short imprisonment, or other correctional punishment, and to give, in a civil suit, a decision subject to appeal. The Senechals and Baillis ranked a degree higher, and were entitled to give a verdict in cases of im portance, subject, however, to an appeal to one or other of the Parliaments, of which there were, in all, thirteen in France ; and which, very different from the Parliaments with which we are familiar, were composed of judges and public officers of rank. The whole of this inharmonious mass was reduced into a simple and uniform system by the National Assem bly, in 1791; the seignoral judges being replaced by justices of the peace, and every district of import ance (arrondissement) obtaining its court or tribunal de premare instance. The higher courts were not added till afterwards, but the judges of every de scription were elected by the inhabitants of the pro vince—a right which continued with them until the usurpation of Bonaparte.
But there remained for the National Assembly another and a much more laborious work. Each province had its peculiar code, some founded on the Roman law, others on tradition and local custom, but the whole replete with ambiguity and discrepancy. To digest a complete body of law that might suffice for the country at large, and supersede the provin cial codes, was the labour of many years, and of a number of eminent lawyers. It was not completed
until the beginning of the present century, when it was promulgated under Bonaparte, and gave to the jurisprudence and judicial constitution of France nearly the form they at present bear. This body of law consists of five codes, entitled respectively, 1. Code civil; 2. de procedure civik ; 3. Code de commerce ; 4. Code d'instruction crinsinelk ; 5. Code penal.
The Code Civil, the first and by far the most com prehensive of these divisions, defines the rights of persons in their various capacities of citizens, pa rents, sons, daughters, guardians, minors, married, unmarried. It next treats of property in its respec tive modes of acquisition and possession, as inherit ances, marriage portions, sales, leases, loans, bonds, mortgages.
The Code de Procedure Chile prescribes the manner of proceeding before the different courts of justice, beginning with the juge de pair; also the mode of carrying into effect sentences, whether the payment of damages, the distraining of goods, or the imprisoning of the party condemned. It declares, likewise, the course to be followed in transactions distinct from those of the law courts; as in arbi tration, taking possession of an inheritance, or a se paration of property between man and wife.
The Code de Commerce begins by defining the du ties of certain officers, or commercial agents, such as sworn brokers and appraisers ; it next treats of part nerships—of sales and purchases--of bills of ex change—of shipping, freight, and insurance—of temporary suspensions of payment, and bankrupt. cies.
The Code d' Instruction Criminelle, a very differ ent, but equally important division, explains the du ties of all public officers connected with the judicial police, whether mayors, assistants of mayors (ad joints), procureurs du roi, juges d'instruction, Sre. After prescribing the rules regarding evidence, it regulates the manner of appointing juries and the questions which fall within their competency. Its farther dispositions relate to the mode and nature of appeals, and to the very unpopular courts autho rized to try state offences, termed Cours Speciales under Bonaparte, and Court Prevotales under the Bourbons.