With the Empire the Civil Code was completed, which I
take to be the greatest effort at codification of modern times.
Certainly it has endured until now. Governments have changed. The Empire
has yielded to the Monarchy, the Monarchy to the Republic, the Republic
to the Empire again, and that once more to the Republic, but the Code
which embodies the principle of equality before the law has remained.
Fundamentally the social equilibrium has been stable. And a chief reason
of this stability has been the organization of the courts upon rational
and conservative principles. During the Terror France had her fill of
political tribunals. Since the Terror French judges, under every
government, have shunned politics and have devoted themselves to
construing impartially the Code. Therefore all parties, and all ranks,
and all conditions of men have sustained the courts. In France, as in
England, there is no class jealousy touching the control of the
judiciary.
FOOTNOTES:
[40] _Histoire du Tribunal Revolutionaire de Paris_, H. Wallon, I, 57.
[41] "C'est demain qu'on me tue; n'etes-vous donc qu'un lache?"
CHAPTER VI
INFERENCES
As the universe, which at once creates and destroys life, is a complex
of infinitely varying forces, history can never repeat itself.
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