Prussian monarchy, nor even that of Napoleon, aspire to a much higher character. The latter, which is the most perfect of all, and a vast improvement upon the old French law, fails, in leaving its meaning in many instances to be determined by the decisions of the judges, which in time accumulate precedents, and make the study of the science a matter of as immense labor as that of the common law of England. It did not contain within itself a definition of its own terms, nor an accurate and appropriate classification of its parts. Bentham's idea went farther than this. A code in the true sense, he thought, should be one comprehending whatever was necessary to enable the judge to put in force, without extraneous or adventitious aid, the will of the legislator; which should possess, if we may so term it, the power of self-interpretation; and which should make provision for its own improvement and correction. In his plans for the codes of Russia and the United States, he endeavored to realize this general theory, by showing of what parts a code should consist, and the relation of the parts. But the nearest actual approach to his own notion is effected in the Penal Code, prepared by the Law Commissioners of Great Britian for the government of India, published in 1837. Whoever will consult it, will discover, if not a thoroughly unexceptionable code, one that proves the practicability of codification, and the beauty of an orderly and systematic arrangement. How it has operated practically we are not informed, but have no doubt of its success from the fact that it combines, as the framers of it state, the advantages of a statute book and of a collection of decided cases. It is at any rate, an approximation to something better than the miserable jumble of rules called law, to be found in most nations of the civilized world.

5. Be the opinion, however, what it may in respect to the practicability of codification—and we know that many, even among law reformers, are dubious—it must be conceded that Bentham, by the enthusiasm with which he prosecuted his task, if not by any actual success, kindled a spirit of active inquiry on this subject, which is working in the bosom of society with more and more power to this day. Commencing with the private student and the philosopher, it has gradually stolen its way into houses of legislation. At first Dumont, then Mill, then Romilly, then Brougham, and then less conspicuous men, caught the genial fire of the great master, and by a series of unsurpassed exertions, in the midst of scorn and opposition, directed public attention to the mighty truths which he proclaimed. The progress of opinion, it is true, has been slow, but when we contemplate the obstacles it has met, in the general worship of authority, in the pride and indifference of the legal profession, and in the stubborn habits of society, we are somewhat surprised at that which has been already accomplished. We were struck, in reading a late English work,* at the

* Miller on the Unsettled Condition of the Law.

number of changes which had been almost imperceptibly effected. Of these may be enumerated the alterations of laws, materially improving the relation of debtor and creditor, diminishing the number of oaths, softening the penalties, and ameliorating the spirit, of criminal law, simplifying the proceedings and forms of pleading at common law, defining more distinctly the rights, duties, and revenues of ecclesiastical persons, consolidating statutes, and harmonizing and modernizing the barbarous provisions of the law of real property. All these we attribute indirectly to Bentham, because his was the seminal mind from which the movement sprang. What may be the result in after ages, the progress of time will reveal. Our confidence is that his genius is destined to still nobler and vaster triumphs.

6. Nor should it be forgotten, in an enumeration of the services of the same great mind, what ought to have been insisted on before, that he has done much toward establishing the true functions of government. He has stated with more clearness than any preceding writer the real objects of civil law, and the best methods of attaining them. If he has not carried his ideas to the extent to which American statesmen are disposed to push their theories of government, he has made a near approximation to it. Indeed, the most radical of American statesmen can find much instruction in what he has uttered on this head. Law of any kind he regards as a retrenchment of liberty, and is consequently never to be imposed without a sufficient and specific reason. For there is always a reason against every coercive law in the fact that it is an attack upon the liberty of the citizen. Unless, therefore, he who proposes a law can prove that there is not only a specific reason in favor of it, but a reason stronger than the general reason against it, he transcends his province and invades the rights of the individual. Again, he says, the single aim of the legislator should be to promote the greatest possible happiness of the community. But happiness is increased as our sufferings are lighter and fewer, and our enjoyments greater and more numerous. As the care of his enjoyments ought, however, to be left entirely to the individual, it becomes the principal duty of government to guard against pains. If it protects the rights of personal security, if it defends property, if it watches over honor, if it succors the needy, it accomplishes its main purposes. Government approaches perfection in proportion as the sacrifice of liberty on the part of the subject is diminished, and his acquisition of rights is increased. Can the most rigid democrat carry his own theory much farther? Adopt these principles in legislation, and would they not lead to all those results for which he contends? Would they not simplify government until it became what it ought to be, a mere instrument for the protection of person and property? Would they not abolish all partial legislation, root out exclusive privileges, destroy monopolies, prevent the granting of acts of special incorporation, do away with unequal laws, and leave society to its own energies and

resources, in the conduct of its business and the prosecution of its enterprises? And this is all for which the great democratic party, the party of progress, is striving. It seeks to direct government to its true ends, to restore its action from the partial direction that has been given it, and urge it on to the accomplishment of those general objects, for which alone it was instituted, and which alone are compatible with the rights, the interests, and the improvement of man. Bentham himself, it must be admitted, has sometimes departed from, these objects, but only when he violated unconsciously his own fundamental principles.

We dave dwelt longer upon these topics than it was our intention when we begun, and longer we fear than the patience of the reader will excuse. We have done so, because we have been enamored of the theme, and have endeavored, in our own feeble way, to kindle the interest of others. If we have quickened the purposes of any to engage in the great study of law-reform, the time has not been unredeemed. It is a great subject, connected with the best interests of society and men, and worthy of the patient labor of the noblest minds. We know of no way in which the intellect could be more profitably tasked, or the purest sympathies more suitably indulged, or the firmest moral purpose more honorably tried, or greater good conferred on men, or a richer harvest of reputation reaped, than in prosecuting and applying the lofty inquiries which Bentham so auspiciously commenced. The law is yet a fallow field, covered with stubble, thorns, and weeds. There are many briars to be rooted out, many excrescences to be pruned, many decayed branches to be lopped, and many vigorous and wholesome shoots to be ingrafted upon its more ancient and withered trunks. What obscurities perplex its theory, what inconsistencies confuse its details, what vexations attend its practice! How numberless the absurdities which disfigure the statute-books! How aristocratic the spirit of much of its reasonings! How expensive, wearisome, and disastrous the greater part of its proceedings! Would any one confer a blessing on the poor, let him shorten its delays, and diminish its costs. Would any one spread peace among men, let him simplify its rules and make certain its decisions. The law is a science of mighty influence and vast extent. It is the prolific source of evil or of good. It is the instrument of the oppressor or the defender of the oppressed. It is the handmaid of virtue or the pander of vice. It mingles with all our business, with our pleasures, with our solitary studies, and with our social intercourse. When righteously administered, it is the great guardian spirit that guides the most important earthly relations of man. It watches over society when it slumbers, and protects it when it wakes. It confirms order, secures peace, encourages virtue, and assists freedom in developing and perfecting the social destinies of the human race. How important, therefore, that it should at the same time establish justice! A

worthier name could not be achieved than by taking part in the effort to correct its abuses, to remedy its defects, to symmetrize and beautify its whole structure, to conform it to the image of immutable justice, and to enshrine it in the centre of the Temple of Truth, where it is now permitted, we fear, to occupy only the outer courts. There may be more dazzling, but there are no more honorable or useful spheres of exertion than in the department of LAW REFORM.

WHO GOVERNS, THEN?*

A TALE OF THE COURT OF LOUIS XV.

(From the German of Zschokke.)

12. THE ALLIANCE WITH AUSTRIA.

THE Count de Staremberg, the ambassador of the Empress-Queen, Maria Theresa, had heretofore pursued the object of his mission at the court of the Tuilleries without success. That object was to engage the French court in an alliance with Austria against Prussia. The Prince de Kaunitz had already paved the way as Envoy Extraordinary from Vienna to Paris; while the King of Prussia himself, Frederic the Great, had himself done still more to promote it, by entering into an alliance with the English, the natural enemies of France. The Cardinal Bernis, however, as well as the Marchioness de Pompadour, and every man of sense, still abhorred the idea of an alliance of France with her hereditary enemy Austria, against Prussia, the natural ally of the French crown.

Nicholas, his mind full of the veil, entered the cabinet of the ambassador, just as the latter was returning, half in despair, from a long interview with the cardinal-minister. There seemed no chance of effecting an alliance between the courts of Paris and Vienna. The ambassador, however, did not allow any trace of his mortification to appear; especially as the appearance of Monsieur de Rosier revived a faint gleam of hope, that the cardinal had sent him to reopen, perhaps, the negotiation in some other way. "France means, I suppose, to sell me her alliance dear," thought the count, and received Monsieur de Rosier with the most polite welcome.

The conversation soon turned on the last ball, the loveliness of the young countess, the splendor of her veil, and the envy of all the beauties of the court. The count was listening, Nicholas was on the watch. They drew closer together. The count related, with much

* Concluded from page 157.

complacency, that the veil was of immense value, and that it had been procured from the Netherlands. What the young countess had said was the truth; there were only two similar veils in existence, both in the hands of the Empress. Nicholas did not then conceal that a person dear to him had fallen in love with that veil, and that all that was wanting to secure his highest happiness was to present her with such a veil.

'My dear friend," cried the count, "thus are we both in the same plight. For it is as impossible for you to obtain such a veil, as it is for me to engage your king in an alliance with our court."

"Never despair, my lord count!" said Nicholas, and immediately understood the price at which the Brabant lace was to be bought. "How many things in this world become possible, the moment we but cease to consider them impossible.”

The ambassador started at these words. 66

My friend," cried he, "do you consider the alliance possible, after the whole court has unanimously pronounced against it-after the cardinal and the Marchioness de Pompadour have resolutely declared to me the contrary?"

66

"Do not

Nicholas paused a moment, and revolved in his mind all that had already become possible to him. This gave him courage. despair," said he to the ambassador, "however difficult it may be." My friend," cried the latter, delighted, as he sprang to his feet, "cost what it may, if I succeed in the alliance, I will succeed also in rewarding you with the veil. If I fulfil the most ardent of the wishes of the Empress, she will not disregard my request for a veil.”

The two diplomatists now perfectly understood each other. They entered deeper into the business. Nicholas was provided with every requisite information. He promised his influence with the cardinal. The count pledged his with the Empress.

Nicholas was not successful with the Cardinal Bernis, but was abruptly repulsed, and reminded not to allow himself, as a French diplomatist, to be governed by the interests of foreigners. He was more successful in the private cabinet of his Pauline. As soon as she learned the price at which she could possess the imperial veil, she said, "Leave me to attend to that!"

And she did attend to it with effect, as soon as she had an opportunity of speaking unobserved to the Prince de Soubise. The latter, who, after his habitual fashion, was melting in tenderness, had nothing more important to tell her than that he had been dreaming of herthat in his dream she had made him a god-that she had been a thousandfold more lovely, while she had been less cruel, than in the waking reality.

Ah, Prince," cried Pauline, with a smile and blush, "I must almost fear that some envious fairy is sporting with us. Well, then, what do you think of my having also seen you in a dream? Yes, I myself saw you in the splendor of a nobler glory. I saw you at the head of