semblies, but
the development of a coherent plan began only with the Convention.[497]
In the period of the Consulate the task was continued and progress was
rapid. The governmental mechanism under the constitution of 1799 was
cumbersome enough, but it was not ill adapted to the prosecution of a
project of this particular character. To a special commission, appointed
by the First Consul, was intrusted the drafting of the codes, and the
ultimate decision of difficult or controverted questions fell to the
Council of State, over whose deliberations Napoleon not infrequently
presided in person. March 31, 1804,--less than two months before the
proclamation of the Empire,--the new _Code civil des Francais_ was
promulgated in its entirety. September 3, 1807, the instrument was given
officially the name of the _Code Napoleon_. By a measure of 1818 the
original designation was restored; but a decree of March 27, 1852,
revived the Napoleonic nomenclature. Since September 4, 1870, the
instrument has been cited officially simply as the _Code Civil_. In
arrangement the Code resembles the Institutes of Justinian. In (p. 336)
content it represents a very successful combination of the two great
elements with which the framers had to deal, i.e., the ancient
heterogeneous law of the French provinces and the law which was
originated, or which was given shape, during the course of the
Revolution.

[Footnote 497: H. Cauviere, L'idee de codification
en France avant la redaction du Code Civil (Paris,
1911).]

With the progress of time certain defects have appeared in the Code,
and since 1871 more than a hundred modifications, some important and
some otherwise, have been introduced in it. Upon the occasion of the
celebration, in 1904, of the centenary of its promulgation there was
created an extra-parliamentary commission charged with the task of
preparing a revision of the instrument.[498] In the main, the faults
to be corrected are those which have arisen inevitably from the growth
of new interests and the development of new conditions since 1804, in
respect, for example, to insurance and to labor. In Belgium the Code
Napoleon survives to this day, and the codes of Italy, Spain,
Portugal, Holland, and many of the Latin American states are modelled
upon it.

[Footnote 498: The task of revision has not yet
been accomplished. See La Code Civil,