The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

418 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
favourable to his unconscientious or partial pur- greatest difference with respect to its laws, and
poses. that a system may work well in France, and.answer
It follows, also, from the paucity of laws afforded all the purposes of jurisprudence, which in England
by a code constructed not by the growth of time, would be thought very-inadequate to the purpose.
but suggested by the ingenuity of theorists suddenly The humane institution which allows the accused
called to the task, and, considering its immense im- the benefit of counsel, is a privilege which the Engportance, executing it in haste, that many provi- lish law does not permit to the accused, and may
sions, most important for the exercise of justice, have its own weight in counterbalancing some oltlhe
must, of course, be neglected in the French code. inconveniences to which he is subjected in France.
For example, the whole law of evidence, the very It seems also probable, that the deficiencies in the
key and corner-stone of justice between man and code, arising from its recent origin and compressed
man, has been strangely overlooked in the French form, must be gradually remedied as in England, by
jurisprudence. It is plain, that litigation may pro- the course of decisions pronounced by intelligent
ceed for ever, unless there be some previous adjust- and learned judges; and. that what we now state as
ment (called technically an issue) betwixt the par- an objection to the system will gradually disappear
ties, at the sight of the judge, tending to ascertain under the influence of time.
their averments in point of fact, as also the re- Considered as a production of human science,
levancy of those averments to the determination of and a manual of legislative sagacity, tile code may
the cause. In England, chiefly during the course challenge general admiration for the clear and wise
of last century, the law of evidence has grown up manner in which the axioms are drawn up and exto a degree of perfection, which has tended, perhaps pressed. There are but few peculiarities making a
more than any other cause, at once to prevent and difference betwixt its principles and those of the
to shorten litigation. If we pass from the civil to Roman law, which has in most contracts claimed to
the penal mode of procedure in France, the British be considered as the mother of judicial regulation.
lawyer is yet'more shocked by a course, which The most remarkable occurs, perhaps, in the articles
seems in his view totally to invert and confound regulating what is called tile Family Council; a
every idea which he has received upon the law of subject which does not seem of importance sufficient
evidence. Our law, it is well known, is in nothing to claim much attention.
so scrupulous as in any conduct towards the prisoner, The Civil Code being thus ascertained, provision
which may have the most indirect tendency to was made for its regular administration by suitable
entrap him into bearing evidence against himself. courts; the judges of which did not, as before the
Law sympathizes in such a case with the frailties Revolution, depend for their emoluments upon fees
of humanity, and, aware of the consequence which payable by the litigants, but were compensated by
judicial inquiries must always have on the mind of suitable salaries at the expense of the public. As
the timid and ignorant, never pushes the examina- France does not supply that class of persons w:ho
tion of a suspected person farther than he himself, form what is called in England the unpaid magisin the natural hope of giving such an account of tracy, the French justices of peace received a small
himself as may procure his liberty, shall chuse to salary of from 800 to 1800 francs. Above them in
reply to it. rank came judges in the first instance, whose salaries
In France, on the contrary, the whole trial some- amounted to 3000 firancs at the utmost. The judges
times resolves into a continued examination and of the supreme tribunals enjoyed about ftur or five
cross-examination of the prisoner, who is not only thousand francs; and those of the High Court of
under the necessity of giving his original statement of Cassatidn had not more than ten thousand francs,
the circumstances on which he founds his defence, but which scarcely enabled them to live and keep some
is confronted repeatedly with the witnesses, and re- rank in the metiropolis. But, though thus underpaid,
peatedly required to reconcile his own statement of the situation of the French judges was honourable
the case with that which these have averred. With Iin the eyes of the country, and they maintained its
respect to the character of evidence, the same loose- character by activity and impartiality in their judiness of practice exists. No distinction seems to be cial functions.
made between that which is hearsay and that which The system of juries had been introduced in
is direct; that which is spontaneously given, and that criminal cases, by the acclamation of the Assembly.
which is extracted, or perhaps suggested, by lead- Bonaparte found them, however, scrupulously resing questions. All this is contrary to what we are tive and troublesome. There may be some truth in
taught to consider as the essence of justice towards the charge, that they were averse from conviction,
the accused. The use of the rack is, indeed, no i where a loophole remained for acquitting the crilonger admitted to extort the confession, but the! minal; and that many audacious crimes remained
mode of judicial examination seems to us a species unpunished, from the punctilious view which the
of moral torture, under which a timid and ignorant, juries took of their duty. But it was from other
though innocent man, is very likely to be involved motives than those of the public weal that Napoleon
in such contradictions and inextricable confusion, 1 made an early use of his power, for the purpose of
that he may be under the necessity of throwing forming special tribunals, invested with a half-miliaway his life by not knowing how to frame his tary character, to try all such crimes as assumed a
defence. | political complexion, with power to condemn withWe shall not protract thece remarks on the Code out the suffrage of a jury. We have already alluded
Napoleon; the rather that we must frankly confess, to this infringement of the mlost valuable political
that the manners and customs of a country make the rights of the subject, in giving some account of the