to the offences. The last two of these principles had of late been
flagrantly violated; but the general pacification of France now
permitted a calm consideration of the whole question of criminal law,
and of its application to normal conditions.

Civil law was to be greatly influenced by the Rights of Man; but those
famous declarations were to a large extent contravened in the ensuing
civil strifes, and their application to real life was rendered
infinitely more difficult by that predominance of the critical over
the constructive faculties which marred the efforts of the
revolutionary Babel-builders. Indeed, such was the ardour of those
enthusiasts that they could scarcely see any difficulties. Thus, the
Convention in 1793 allowed its legislative committee just one month
for the preparation of a code of civil law. At the close of six weeks
Cambacérès, the reporter of the committee, was actually able to
announce that it was ready. It was found to be too complex. Another
commission was ordered to reconstruct it: this time the Convention
discovered that the revised edition was too concise. Two other drafts
were drawn up at the orders of the Directory, but neither gave
satisfaction. And thus it was reserved for the First Consul to achieve
what the revolutionists had only begun, building on the foundations
and with the very materials which their ten years' toil had prepared.

He had many other advantages. The Second Consul, Cambacérès, was at
his side, with stores of legal experience and habits of complaisance
that were of the highest value. Then, too, the principles of personal
liberty and social equality were yielding ground before the more
autocratic maxims of Roman law. The view of life now dominant was that
of the warrior not of the philosopher. Bonaparte named Tronchet, Bigot
de Préameneu, and the eloquent and learned Portalis for the redaction