We now come to the higher courts of justice, which equal in jurisdiction our courts in Westmin ster Hall, and on the circuit, but with the material distinction, that in France the civil courts are always stationary. The Cours Royales, in number 27, are attached to the chief provincial towns throughout the kingdom. They are all formed on the same model, and possessed of equal power,' though differing ma terially in extent of business and number of mem bers. The number of the latter depends on the po pulation of the tract of country (generally three de partments), subject to the jurisdiction of the court. In a populous quarter, like Normandy, a Cour Royale comprises 20, 25, or even SO judges, and is divided into three or four chambers, of which one performs the duty of an English Grand Jury, in deciding on the bills of indictment (mites en accusation); another is for the trial of offences (police correctionnelle); and a third, with perhaps a fourth, is for civil suits. These courts are often called Cours d' Appel, as all the cases that come before them must previously have been tried by an inferior court. The collective number of judges in these higher courts is not short of 900; an aggregate hardly credible to an English reader, and which would prove a very serious charge on the public purse, were not their salaries very mo derate, viz. from L.100 to L.300 a-year, according to the population of the towns where the court is held. In the financial pressure of 1816 and 1817, a reduction of this numerous body was much called for ; but no diminution was made in the number of the courts, whatever gradual decrease may be allow ed to take place in the members from decease or re tirement.
Paris does not, like London and Edinburgh, ab sorb almost all the civil business of the country. It has, it is true, a Cour Royale on a large scale (five chambers and 50 judges), but confined in its juris diction to the metropolis, and the seven adjacent de partments. There is a procureur du roi for every tri bunal de premgre instance, and a procureur general for every Cour d' Appel.
The Assize Courts take cognizance exclusively of criminal cases ; that is, of the crimes or serious offen ces referred to them by the cours royales. They consist of three, four, or five judges, members of the cours royales, but never belonging to the section that finds the indictments. The grand accompani• meat of a French Assize Court is a Jury, which, as in England, consists of twelve members, and decides on the facts of the case, leaving the application of the law to the judges. Complete unanimity was at no time necessary in a French jury. At first a ma jority of ten to two was required; but this was sub sequently altered to a simple majority, with the qua lification, that, in case of condemnation by only two voices (seven to five), the verdict should be re-con sidered by the judges and the party acquitted, if, on taking judges and jurymen collectively, there was a majority in his favour. The assizes are the only courts in France that are not stationary. 'I hey are, however, generally held in the chief town of a de partment once in three months. The costs of suit are very exactly defined by a printed tart"; and it is a rule in criminal as in civil cases, that the party condemned is liable for all.
The Special Courts were constituted but of the usual course for the trial of state offences. The Cours Spe dales were appointed by Bonaparte, the Prevotales by the present government, during the period of po litical effervescence (fortunately short lived) which succeeded the second entry of the king, and the mis fortunes brought on the nation by Bonaparte's re turn from Elba. In both cases, the courts were considered as under the influence of government, and were, of course, obnoxious to the enlightened part of the public.
The name of Tribunal, or Court, is given in France to a committee of five merchants, or leading trades., men, appointed by the mercantile body in every town of considerable business or population. Their competency extends to all disputes occurring in mer cantile business, and falling within the provisions of the Code de Commerce. Their decisions are founded on that code, and on the customs of merchants.
They are final in all cases below L. 40. The pre sence of three members is necessary to form a court: The duty is performed gratuitously, and the number of these courts in France is about 160.
The Court of Cessation, the highest in the king dom, is held at Paris, and is composed of three cham bers, each of sixteen members and a president, mak ing, with the premier president, a total of 52. Its pro vince is to decide definitively in all appeals from the de crees of the Cours Royales ; investigating not the facts of a case, but the forms of law, and ordering, wherever these have been infringed or deviated from, a new trial before another Cour Royale. This revision takes place in criminal as well as in civil cases. The royal court chosen for the new trial is generally, for the convenience of the parties, the nearest in situation to the other. The Cour de Cessation has farther powers, and of the highest kind. It determines all differences as to jurisdiction between one court and another; and exercises a control over every court in the kingdom. It has power to call the judges to ac count before the minister of justice, and even to sus pend them from their functions ; acting thus as a high tribunal for the maintenance of the established order of judicature.
The minister bearing the title of " Keeper of the Seals and Minister of Justice," may be compared to the Chancellor of England, though his patronage is much less extensive, and his functions much more suitable to the station of minister. He rarely acts as a judge, but exercises a general superintendence over the judicial body. He is the medium between the king and the courts of justice, in the same way as the minister of the home department is in regard to the civil authorities. The expences of the judicial body fall under his cognizance. The procureurr gi nerauz and procureurs du roi throughout the king dom address their correspondence to him, and it is his province to report to the king on the alleviation of punishment; on pardons ; in short, on all disputed points, whether of legislation or administration.