Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-31

imprisoument-for one reason because there
were few victims to appear against
them. And Minister Vale remains minis
ter of justice; and it is to him after all
that France is to owe the revision of its
code
l have said that women and foreigners
have much to expect from this revision
For example. the present law fcrbids in
quiry into pate nifty of children born out
of wedlock Girl mothers have no chance
at all in France. Again, a wife cannot
draw her hard-earned money from the saw
ings bank without her husbands signature.
Again, drunken husband may draw his
wife's wages! With respect to separate
property. the wife has some security-if
she had the luck or caution to get married
under the right regime" but in general
bad husbands scatter their wives 'dcts.''
The Divorce Law.
One change in the divorce law is regard
ed as inevitable. BY article 29S of the code
Napoleon the guilty parties, after divorce
for adultery, are forever forbidden to mar
ry. 1T is the Issue Of superannuated idea
of expiation by a suffering which is most
trivial" said Minister Vale in his centenary
speech 1T is dictated by an illusion of
preventive virtue to which the facts give
the lie." In a word it prevents the man
who has wrecked a household making the
only amends in his power. This article will
certainly be stricken out.
France is ripe for a revision of her code
because, for one reason, while it still makes
a brave show of cribbing and confirming the
| social activities of man. its own spirit has
been undergoing a vital change At St.
Helena Napoleon declared that he set more
store by the enduring influence of his regu-
lation of society than by all his victories.
1t is just a hundred years ago that Napol-
cons commission sat to draw the code up
under his direction. Side by side with cele-
brated jurisconsults he put his own mar
shals; but even the dryas-dust lawyers
Joined heartily with him in putting a new
straitjacket on society in accordance
with the accomplished facts of the revolu-
ton.
Now the essential fact, the very essence
of the revolution, according to Taine-the
change in property. Now another change
in property, equally radical is working I'M
der the framework of Napoleon.
Peasants Are Owners.
The new property owners of the French
revolution were the peasants of the coun-
try districts and the middle class people
of the towns. The great object of the code
Napoleon was TO protect these classes-who
alone had profited by the revolution
against the mobiles and clergy ever demand
! ing back what had been theirs
There was no working class powerful
enough 10 make its wants known. Every
thing was for individual property holders
For fifty years the bourgeois" triumphed
against the propertyless mobiles and clergy,
while at the same time hatching-the work
ingman
He, too, was without property He too.
began 10 feel the code Napoleon pressing on
him. There was an upheaval in 1S4S Then
in one year the bourgeois rose in the
might which its property gave it, swept
aside the changes of the republic of 1S4S
and drifted into the second empire
Napoleon III saw the inevitable trend of
society and. in 1864. sanctioned a first great
breach in his uncles code, which was to
hayFa afntY 1..1 -
property holders for all time This was a
law proclaiming the right of striking
among workmen, something which until
then had fallen under the repression of the
penal code.
In 1865 the article of the code Napoleon
declaring that, in cases of dispute the
word OF the employer should be taken In
preference to that of the workman, was
abolished.
In 1884 another breach in the wall of the
Code Napoleon was made by law grant
| ing the right of association to workmen
and legalizing collective contracts Since
| 1890 no French employer can tell his work
| men at the end of a day: Go your work
| is done"' If he be employed by the month
| he must have fifteen days notice And SO
on Each year sees new laws against the
! bourgeois, forced on him by the radical
socialist majority in parliament. Yes
France is ripe for a revision of the code
Napoleon. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS.