Juries were introduced into France in 1791, and confined from the beginning to criminal trials ; nor does there seem any wish to extend their jurisdiction to civil suits. During several years, there were in France grand juries constituted as in England ; but under Bonaparte their functions were trans ferred to the Cours Rooks, on the plea that none but judges could be made to understand the dif ference between bringing to trial and bringing to punishment ; and that the consequence frequently was a discharge, when a true bill ought to have been found. It has, in fact, been questioned, whether the institution of juries is advisable in a nation, of which the mass is still strongly tinctured with the credulity engendered by blind submission to an absolute go vernment. That the French can supply special jury men of judgment and discrimination, must be admit ted by all who know how eminent are many of their men of business; but by their common juries, the na ture of evidence is as yet little understood ; and con siderable experience will be necessary to form to the habit of deliberate reflection individuals so much more open to impressions of feeling than of reasoning. A droit pleaders have been known to obtain very unex pected acquittals ; and it is remarkable, that all the charges against French juries turn on their bias to cle mency; none on a leaning towards the prosecutor, whatever may be his wealth or rank. The very nu merous party, called Liberaux,maintain,that practice only is wanting to qualify their countrymen to act on juries. They demand, therefore, the restoration of grand juries, and the exclusion of the executive power, from interference with the election of com mon juries, or with the appointment of juges de pair, mayors, or other local magistrates. These encroach ments on popular rights all owe their origin to Bona parte ; but they are too convenient for the executive power to be readily relinquished by his successors.
a dwelling-house was formerly punishable in France by the rack and death—an extreme which prevented respectable persons from bringing delinquents before a court, and tended, of course, to give frequency to the offence. Of the state of crime in France, and of the nature of the punishments, an idea may be formed from the following return made to the king by the minister of justice: exceptions arising from obscurity or deficiency in the provisions of the code, being as yet neither frequent nor important. But the old laws regulate all ques tions arising out of transactions passed, or out of rights acquired, prior to 1803 and 1804, the date of promulgating the code, as the latter has no retroac tive operation. The law students in France thus re gard the code as the sole authority. They, however, still read the more celebrated writers on law prior to the Revolution ; but they do so for the sake of col lateral illustration, in the same way as they study the Roman law.
There still exists in France the singular practice of parties engaged in a law-suit visiting the judges in private ; a practice originating in an age when suitors thought a personal interview the only effec tual mode of explaining their case, and continued in more enlightened times from that over complaisance which is the ground-work of several of the defects of the national character. Such interviews are lit tle else than an exchange of compliments, nor have the judges, either before or since the Revolution, been charged with acting under the influence of such ex parte statements.
The salaries of Frenchjudges must appear insig nificant to an English reader, but there are in that country a number of men of small patrimony but good education, who have no idea of trade or of ac tive pursuits in private life, while they attach much importance to government employment ; moreover, the functions of judges, and in general of public offi cers in France, engross much less time than in Eng land.
The law style of the French is much more brief than ours ; their deeds, such as leases, mortgages, sales, being generally contained in very few pages, and free from obscure or antiquated phraseology.