The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-01
legal Procedure In France.

France has not always had much reason TO
be proud either of her laws or of her judges.
Previously TO 1889 there we're few things 10
corrupt as a French court Of law, and few
people 80 untrustworthy as French magis-
krates "Haute justice'-that is, justice in
important cases-was administered by the
, Parliaments; and ''basse justice by an inf
mite number Of people, such ~ provosts,
baiifs, landed prOprietors, and church dig
nitaries, who were supposed TO decide by
equity, but who in reality mostly sold their
judgments to the highest bidder. In the
Parliaments the traffic in justice was so noto-
Tious that any man of sense would sooner
have sacrificed third of his fortune at once
than have risked the whole of it--even when
he had right on his side-in a lawsuit The
posts of Conseiller au Parlement we're as
much coveted as colonelcies, and fetched rs
good price. They were usually bought for
younger sons of noblemen, who constituted
what was called ''la nobesse de robe"
3 and made rapid fortunes out Of unscrupu-
l lous peaders History has kept the names
of q few upright judges-LH Hopital, D'Agues-
11 seau, De Thou, and some others-but they
were rare exceptions is sufficiently proved
by the immense veneration with which they
are still regarded. The last who acquired a
high reputation for impartiality was the
i Chancellor Du Harlay, under Louis XV's
reign. He was an honest man, but one OF
the most uncouth- hammered and grud-spoken
persons of his time. A characteristic story Is
~ told concerning him and the Duchess dc
40 Grammont, who, happening to have law
suit on hand, went, as was customary, to pay
propitiatory visit, in order to see whether
any bribing was possible. Du Harlay received
her with about the same civiity he would
~ have shown dog; so that the duchess, who
was used to the fattery of everybody who came
tj near her, went out from his presence red with
y rage and almost crying from modification.
~ Going down the steps of the palace, her passion
Ar md Sha fo har htar yvhO
was with her, "The man ought to be flogged.
He's no better than an old baboon." But the
o words were hardly spoken than she turned
y pale with horror, for. on looking round, she
r. saw the sardonc face of the Chancellor, who
n, had followed her out to her carriage. Natu-
rally, she supposed that her suit was blasted,
and when the cause came on for trial could
10 hardly credit her senses upon hearing Du
y Harlay give judgment in her favor. The
" conduct of the Chancellor seemed to her 80
q noble that she instantly asked for an
e audience, and thanked him with fer
vor. "Oh, Madame, answered Du Harlay,
Vi grimly 'l ny q point de remerciements
me faire. Un vieux babouin est toujours
chante de rendre service a une vieille ba-
bouine."
At the revolution, one of the first subjects
which the National Assembly took up with a
view to instant reform the administration
" Of justice. The criminal laws were then
b barbarous, and The jurisprudence in civil
cases was founded upon confused jumble of
contrary edicts, some remounting to the time
of the Merovingian dynasty, and all more or
less autocratic and absurd. What made mat
ters worse, too, was that each province had
its set of laws, just as each had its scale of
j. weights and measures; so that even in the re-
mote contingency of a couple of pleaders
i having to do with thoroughly incorruptible
Judges, there was small chance of their OBJ
tanning definite and binding adjudication if
Al. l.
suits were sent from Parliament to Parlia-
ment, until each side could boast of half-a-
dozen judgments in support of its claims;
and there were cases that were protected in
this way from generation to generation, until
everybody connected with the families of the
suitors had died out.
The National Assembly lost no time in
remedying this disastrous state of things by
enacting first that code should be drawn
MP to serve for the whole kingdom, and next
that the judges should be elected by the
people. This last reform was never fairly
carried out, but sort of code was drawn up
by the convention and worked with tolerable
! good effect until it was ultimately superseded
} by that to which Napoleon has attached his
name and which was elaborated under the
Consulate Most French lawyers very
proud of this code, which has certainly the
merit of being so mathematicaly simple that
everybody who can read is able to judge for
himself, without the aid of solicitor, what
things he may and may not do. OF late
years, however, there has been a growing
opinion amongst the iberal-minded and re-
forming portion of the French bar that there
is room for considerable improvements in the
methods of procedure which the code lays
down; and this opinion applies especially tc
the criminal PROCEDURE, which Is both more
intricate and harassing in its effects than
ours. France, as at present constituted, is
divided for judicial purposes into tri-
bunals of first instance" and Imperia
Courts, there being of the former one fo
every reimbursement, and of the latter
twenty seven in the whole empire. Above al
is one Court of High Appeal, the Cour d.
Cessation, which sits in Paris. In civil casel
man can have recourse successfully to fv,
jurisdictions. First he can apply to the jus
tice of the peace of his canton, who has powe
to adiudicate as to all sums not exceeding
hundred francs; next he appeal to tn
tribunal of his arrondissement after that h
may be sent to the Cour Imperiale of the dis
trict; then, if no wishes it, to the Court O
Cessation, and finally to the Council of State
which has power-though it seldom exercise
ito hear his case over again if he fancie
himself maliciously wronged by one of hi
Judges. There is no jury in civil cases. Th
trials in FIRST instance" take place befor
three judges; in the Imperial Courts befor
five or seven; in the Court of Cassatio
before twelve. In all causes the Procureur
Imperial intervenes either for the plaintiff
or defendant as he thinks right and it is yer