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    tury ; and amendments in her civil code were attempted b y I / Hdpital and Lamoignon , with but little beneficjal effect . The Chancellor d'Aguesseau introduced some important enactments ,

    regarding testaments , successions , and donations ; various regulations for improving the forms of procedure ; for ascertaining the limits of jurisdictions ; and for effecting greater uniformity in the execution of the laws throughout the different provinces . Jlis reforms , however , were far from radical ; and he has even been

    reproached by the Due de St . Simon and others , with confessedly retaining lucrative abuses , —acknowledging that he * could not bring his mind to a step which would so grievously diminish the profits of the law .

    The preponderating influence of the court , operating , no doubt , both perceptibly and imperceptibly on the Chancellor ' s mind , overpowerea his moral courage . Unequal to so mighty a task , he was assailed on every side and in every way which the ingenuity of the lawyers , the influence of the court , the treacherous smiles

    of seductive persuasion , and the dreaded frowns of power could devise , and with all his good intentions and the excellence of the cause he had undertaken , he was baffled , disarmed , and subdued j leaving to posterity a memorable example of the failure of the best and most upright endeavours to effect reform , unless supported by the unequivocal expression and powerful influences of

    public opinion . 1 his abortive attempt of the Chaucellor appears to have materially influenced his success in future public life \ for when he afterwards interfered to reconcile the disputes between the parliament and the court , his mediation gave no satisfaction to either party ; both became dissatisfied with him ; the one reproaching him for deserting their cause , whilst the other charged

    him with a too great leaning to it . It was , perhaps , too much to expect from mortal man , situated as the Chancellor d'Aguesseau was , to touch with unsparing hand the abuses by which so many powerful individuals and great public bodies profited . And thus these enormities were doomed to accumulate till past bearing : the besom of destruction only could sweep the Augean stable .

    After M . d'Aguesseau ' s failure , no other persons seem to have endeavoured to stem the torrent of judiciary corruption ; so that this glorious task was reserved for the National Assembly of France j the members of which , many of them lawyers , did themselves immortal honour by reducing the whole of this revolting

    and inharmonious mass of absurdities and injustice into one simple uniform system . The seignoral judges were replaced by justices of the neace , and every district of importance ( arrondissement ) obtained its court , or tribunal de premiere instance . The higher courts were not erected till afterwards ; but ( he judges ' of every description were elected by the inhabitants af the province , --ra right which continued with them until the usurpation of Napoleon Bonaparte . The vvhole of the code , owing to the

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    1 $ Notice * of Frftnce .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1833, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2606/page/18/