It was in the month of November that the code of French jurisprudence,
upon which the most learned legislators had indefatigably laboured, was
established as the law of the State, under the title of the Code
Napoleon. Doubtless this legislative monument will redound to Napoleon's
honour in history; but was it to be supposed that the same laws would be
equally applicable throughout so vast an extent as that comprised within
the French Empire? Impossible as this was, as soon as the Code Napoleon
way promulgated I received orders to establish it in the Hanse Towns.

--[This great code of Civil Law was drawn up under Napoleon's orders
and personal superintendence. Much had been prepared under the
Convention, and the chief merits of it were due to the labours of
such men as Tronchet; Partatis, Bigot de Preameneu, Maleville,
Cambaceres, etc. But it was debated under and by Napoleon, who took
a lively interest in it. It was first called the "Code Civil," but
is 1807 was named "Code Napoleon," or eventually "Les Cinq Codes de
Napoleon." When completed in 1810 it included five Codes--the Code
Civil, decreed March 1803; Code de Procedure Civile, decreed April
1806; Code de Commerce, decreed September 1807; Code d'Instruction
Criminelle, decreed November 1808; and the Code Penal, decreed
February 1810. It had to be retained by the Bourbons, and its
principles have worked and are slowly working their way into the law
of every nation. Napoleon was justly proud of this work. The
Introduction of the Code into the conquered countries was, as
Bourrienne says, made too quickly. Puymaigre, who was employed in
the administration of Hamburg after Bourrienne left, says, "I shall
always remember the astonishment of the Hamburgers when they were
invaded by this cloud of French officials, who, under every form,
made researches is their houses, and who came to apply the
multiplied demands of the fiscal system. Like Proteus, the