tion of the bulls issued by the Popes) all those bulls which were sent abroad in the time of Gregory XIII., Sixtus V, and Clement VIII., to the eternal reproach of the crown of France, were left out, that the presumption and malignity of them might be forgotten.' The resentment of the King of France, and the humiliation to which he subjected the Pope, in consequence of the violence offered by the Corsican guard, in the city of Rome, to the French ambassador, manifest a very striking proof of the decline of Papal despotism, towards the end of the 17th century.

After having, in nine long chapters, afforded a sufficiently ample display of Papal usurpations, and after having attended every Pope, from St. Peter to Clement X., (who was living when the noble author wrote, but died in 1676,) through a series, according to the best account, of 243 Popes, Lord C. closes the details of this historical discourse with the two following observations:

The first is, the extreme scandal and damage religion hath sustained from this exorbitant affectation of superiority and sovereignty in the Pope; the greatest schisms and separations amongst Christians having flowed from that fountain; and from thence the greatest ruin to kings and kingdoms, in the vast consumption of treasure and blood in unnatural wars and rebellions, having had their original.

The second is, that Catholic Princes themselves, who, for their own benefit and mutual exchange of conveniencies, do continue that correspondence with the Popes, and do themselves pay and enjoin their subjects to render that submission and obedience to him, have not that opinion of his divine right, nor do they look upon it as any part of their religion; so that in truth the obligation which is imposed upon the Catholic subjects of Protestant Princes is another religion, or at least consists of more articles of faith than the Catholic Princes and their subjects do profess to believe.'

Since the latter remark applies so closely to the Catholic subjects of the British empire, the posthumous work before us is intitled to the fullest consideration. Lord Clarendon was persuaded that no union can take place between the Catholic and the Protestant church, till the power of the Pope is destroyed; and he recommends a National Council, by which as in other countries the Catholic church may be made independent of all foreign jurisdiction. If the Catholics will abjure the Pope, then, he contends, may the state repeal the penal laws against them; and he hopes that they will find enough of their best clergy to concur with and support them in this resolution. With much liberality, this noble author endeavours to place Catholics and Protestants on good terms with each other; and he calls on the former to adopt those principles of policy, by which every objection to their admission to the fullest enjoy

ment

ment of civil rights in Protestant states would be removed. He thus concludes:

This would be the way, and the only way, to make the practice of religion flourish amongst Christians, without any violation of Christian charity; and, the uncharitableness of all faction being removed, there would remain such an innocence and integrity in the heart, as would make our religion acceptable to God; and when no mischievous action doth necessarily result from our opinions, how erroneous soever, we should be no more offended with each other for those differences, than for the distinct colour of our eyes or hair.'

We wish to persuade ourselves that, as this work was written many years ago by a nobleman who was eminent for his talents, the long account which we have given of it will not be deemed superfluous; and that Catholics, while they must rest assured of the good intentions of the writer, will not regard it as a party-publication, but duly consider what good they can derive from the advice which it contains.

ART. VII. The Code Napoleon, verbally translated from the French; to which is prefixed an Introductory Discourse, &c. By Bryan Barrett, of Gray's-Inn. 8vo. 2 Vols. 11. 8s. Boards. Reed.

WH HATEVER becomes of the dynasty of Napoleon, it is pro bable that the Code of Law, which passes under his name, will in some shape be perpetuated, so far as to remain an object of interesting inquiry to the present and to future generations. Calculated as it is in many respects for the purposes of rational government, and exempt from any taint of the visionary and mischievous principles of the revolutionary system, surely the name alone of its founder will not be sufficient to induce the sound part of the French nation, under any ruler, entirely to annul its provisions. If it had no other merit than that of hav ing given to the kingdom of France one uniform law, in the place of a great variety of clashing and irreconcileable systems of judicature, which formerly prevailed in its different provinces, this alone would afford it a claim to continuance which cannot fail, after eleven years' experience, to be strongly felt and universally appreciated. These considerations, together with the assurance specifically announced in the public acts recognized by the restored monarch, encourage us to believe that no apology is necessary for requesting the reader's attention to a succinct account of the work announced at the head of this article; more especially as it forms a proper sequel to the observations of which they are already in possession, on publications intimately connected with the present.

The great acts of legislation, which have from time to time appeared in the world, are divisible into two kinds, adapted to the occasions and the state of society which produced them. The first discovery which occurs to men, after having exchanged a separate and independent existence for social union, is the necessity of consenting to some fixed rules, which may determine the portion of individual free-agency that each member must resign, in return for the benefits of mutual strength and protection which he claims from the whole body, This consideration has led to the establishment of laws formed for the earliest stages of society, and founded only on original principles of mutual justice and utility: but universal experience has shewn that, in proportion to the duration and extent of societies, the laws adapted to their government have a natural and unavoidable tendency to multiply; and to become, from the fluctuations of manners and interests, perplexed, obscure, and contradictory. The second species of legislative labour has therefore been employed in pruning, digesting, and elucidating the unwieldy mass of jarring laws which the progress of time had accumulated. Without entering into a wider discussion on this topic, or going in search of all the historical illustrations of it which might be collected, we may adduce, as apt examples of our meaning, the Twelve Tables of Rome, and the Pandects of Justinian. The first of these was formed for society comparatively in its infancy; and the second was the result of that endless confusion into which the same laws had unavoidably run by the lapse of a thousand years. The task of reforming the laws of a country has been, in all times, a favourite object with those legislators who have entertained the ambition of securing a place in the memory of posterity: the most re-. markable works of this character, in modern times, being the Body of Laws framed and published by Louis the XIVth in 1667, and the Code of Frederic the Great of Prussia, compiled for the government of his dominions in 1761.

We should have been glad if the limits of the present article had allowed us a free scope for discussing this interesting topic, with reference to our own country; and for considering more at large the agreeable speculations of those who are convinced that the present state of our jurisprudence requires a measure similar to the revision of the Roman laws by Justinian. This opinion is intitled to the greater weight, because it cannot be imputed to any modern spirit of innovation: for it is well known that Sir Francis Bacon, who was never accused of harbouring wild schemes of reform, laboured with great earnestness to procure a revision of our laws, which he proposed to methodize and reduce into one code. In pursuance of this favourite

measure,

measure, he drew up a plan, which is still extant, for the execution of that great work, assigning the reasons for its expediency; and, in justice to James the First, to whom that plan is addressed, it must be admitted that the design did not fail from any discouragement on his part: on the contrary, that Prince recommended the "Reformation of the statutes and acts of parliament as a worthy work, which it well deserved a parliament to be sat of purpose for it." At that time, the statutes were not one-tenth part so voluminous as they are at present: the statutes of this reign alone being equal to more than one-third of the whole from the time of Henry the Third. A crude project was conceived and some attempts made towards the execution of it, in the Long Parliament; the failure of which has been attributed to the cabals of the lawyers, whose apprehensions for the loss of their profits induced them (according to the vulgar stories of that time) to hold secret meetings, and bestow large bribes in frustrating the design. This story, however, may safely be placed to the account of the violent prejudice which then prevailed against that body; and which occasioned, as Whitelock informs us, a solemn debate whether they should not be disqualified from sitting in parliament. The truth is that such a work, though likely enough to engage the fancy, was far above the skill of such workmen as would then have been employed about it; and we are neither to wonder nor to lament that the conception was not matured: but we may be allowed to regret the causes, whatever they were, which prevented the great and philosophic mind of Bacon from employing its powers in that noble undertaking: since a man so qualified for the task,-in whom penetration was so happily combined with experience, genuine philosophy, and the best spirit of antient and modern knowlege,- may not easily be found again. Yet the difficulty of the object can never occur as a decisive objection to any person who reflects on the state of the Roman laws when their reformation was effected under the auspices of Justinian; and who considers that the magnitude of the labour had been so much over-rated, that the completion of the design was effected in three years, being less than onethird of the period allotted by the Emperor for its accomplishment.

In France, however, besides the inconvenience arising from the vast mass of obscure, contradictory, and undigested materials of which the laws were composed, and which objection was common to those of all other nations whose laws are formed out of the accumulations of many ages, another imperfection called loudly for redress. This was the diversity and even contrariety in the laws which prevailed in the several provinces;

-an evil which was

or the want of a common law of the land: universally acknowleged, but which was so deeply rooted as to resist all peaceable means of reformation, and manifested that any alteration could be effected only by a convulsion which broke down all antient establishments whatever. The opportunity afforded by the state of France, after the late Revolution, for correcting so injurious a system, could not be overlooked in framing a new government, by a legislator whose counsels possessed even the most moderate portion of wisdom. To set this matter in the clearest light, it must be recollected that France, like all the other European countries which fell by conquest under the subjection of the northern invaders, was parcelled out into distinct principalities or duchies; of which the chiefs indeed owned a nominal allegiance to one sovereign, but which were themselves subject to their separate governments, had. distinct legislatures, and were regulated by institutions that had no dependence on the common head. The states were gradually swallowed up by the sovereignty, as far as the powers of government were concerned, but they still retained their own peculiar laws and regulations. England was the only one of those countries which had early attained an entire uniformity in this respect; and it is not an unlikely nor an unpleasing conjecture that the collection of laws promulgated by Alfred had this salutary object in contemplation. The separate states, into which the country had been broken, were indeed nominally formed into one kingdom: but it is probable that much of the local distinctions, peculiar to the laws and ordinances of each. state, continued to prevail, and rendered the coalition doubtful and imperfect. It is indifferent, therefore, to the glory of that great and wise prince, whether he was the author or compiler of that body of laws which bears his name, if he sowed the seed of his country's greatness by first conferring on it tha stable union which arises only from living beneath the same system of laws and civil polity.

Under the old order of things in France, the general or written law was every where modified and controuled by the customary or local law. Among the customary laws, were more than 180 that were general, and extending more or less over the various provinces; and these general customs were again modified by local usages. Neither the Salic Law, which was the first code of the Franks after their establishment in Gaul, nor the Capitularies which followed them, abrogated or entirely superseded the usages or customs of the countries in which they were promulgated: those laws only were abolished by them which were contrary to the regulations which they established. In other respects, the codes not only permitted, but

in