and Administration of Justice Law

Lastly, the Code Penal describes the punish ments awarded for offences in all the variety of gradation, from the penalties of the police correc tionelle, to the severest sentence of the law. All offences are classed under two general heads,— state offences, such as counterfeiting coin, resisting police officers, sedition, rebellion ; and offences against individuals, as calumny, false evidence, man slaughter, murder.

These codes,—the first attempt to reduce the laws of a great nation to the compass of a vo lume, consist of a number of sections and short paragraphs, each paragraph marked by a Number, as a means of reference. The style is as con cise as is compatible with clearness. The arrange ment is minute and elaborate. The whole is sold for a few shillings, in the shape of one octavo, or of two duodecimo volumes ; and copies of it are in the possession, not only of all judges, pleaders, and attornies, but of agents, merchants, and persons in business generally, who, without being enabled by it to dispense with the aid of lawyers in a suit, find in it a variety of useful explanations, relative to questions of frequent occurrence in their respective occupations.

The Justices of the Peace are very numerous, there being one for each canton, and consequently nearly 3000 in the kingdom. They never are, as in England, clergymen, and seldom country gentlemen, but persons acquainted with law, and in circumstan ces which make the salary, small as it is (from L.30 to L.40), an acceptable return for a portion of their time. They are not unfrequently provincial attornies, or pleaders retired from business. The Justice of the Peace, or juge de pair, is authorized to pronounce finally in petty questions (under 50 franks, or L.2), and to give, in questions of somewhat greater a mount (up to 100 franks, or L.4) a decision sub ject to appeal. He takes cognizance, likewise, of disputes about tenant's repairs, servant's wages, and the displacing of the land-marks of proper. ty. No action can be brought before a court of justice in France until the plaintiff has summoned his adversary before a juge de pair, with an amicable intent (site en conciliation), and received from the juge a prods verbal, showing that the difference could not be adjusted. When the justice is prevent ed from acting, his place is taken by his first, and, if necessary, by his second substitute.

Of the Primary

Courts, there is one for every ar. rondissement, making above 360 for the whole of France. Each is composed of three or four mem bers, of two or three :appliques or assistant mem bers, and of a procureur du roi, acting on the part of the crown. In populous districts, cours de pre mare instance comprise six, seven, eight, or more members, and are divided into two or three cham bers. They are chiefly occupied with questions of civil law, and hold, in the extent of their jurisdic tion, a medium between the humble limits of the juge de pair and the wide powers of the cour royale ; their decisions being final wherever the income from a property does not exceed forty shillings, or the principal forty pounds; but subject, in greater matters, to an appeal to the cour royale. The members of these inferior courts are named, like other judges, by the crown, and hold their places for life; the sa lary of each is only L. 80 a-year, equal to L.120 in England ; their number, throughout all France, in cluding suppleans, is not far short of 3000.

A section of the Tribunal de premig.re instance is appropriated to the trial of offences under the name of tribunal de police correctionnelle ; and here the English reader must be careful to distinguish be tween judicial and government police ; the former having no reference to state offences, such as libel or treason, but comprising a very numerous list of another kind, viz. all offences that do not amount to crimes, or subject the offender to a punishment afflictif ou infamant. These offences, when slight, are called contraventions de police, and are brought before a juge de pail, or the mayor of the commune ; when of a graver stamp, and requiring a punishment exceeding five days imprisonment, or a fine of 15 franks, they are brought before the court now men tioned, whose sentences, in point of imprisonment, may extend to the term of five years. The tres passes brought before a justice of the peace or mayor are such as damaging standing corn, driving incautiously in the high way, endangering a neigh bour's property by neglecting repairs. The offences referred to the tribunal correctionnel are such as as sault and battery, swindling, privately stealing, using false weights or measures, &c.