red the efforts of the
revolutionary Babel-builders. Indeed, such was the ardour of those
enthusiasts that they could scarcely see any difficulties. Thus, the
Convention in 1793 allowed its legislative committee just one month
for the preparation of a code of civil law. At the close of six weeks
Cambaceres, the reporter of the committee, was actually able to
announce that it was ready. It was found to be too complex. Another
commission was ordered to reconstruct it: this time the Convention
discovered that the revised edition was too concise. Two other drafts
were drawn up at the orders of the Directory, but neither gave
satisfaction. And thus it was reserved for the First Consul to achieve
what the revolutionists had only begun, building on the foundations
and with the very materials which their ten years' toil had prepared.

He had many other advantages. The Second Consul, Cambaceres, was at
his side, with stores of legal experience and habits of complaisance
that were of the highest value. Then, too, the principles of personal
liberty and social equality were yielding ground before the more
autocratic maxims of Roman law. The view of life now dominant was that
of the warrior not of the philosopher. Bonaparte named Tronchet, Bigot
de Preameneu, and the eloquent and learned Portalis for the redaction
of the code. By ceaseless toil they completed their first draft in
four months. Then, after receiving the criticisms of the Court of
Cassation and the Tribunals of Appeal, it came before the Council of
State for the decision of its special committee on legislation. There
it was subjected to the scrutiny of several experts, but, above all,
to Bonaparte himself. He presided at more than half of the 102
sittings devoted to this criticism; and sittings of eight or nine
hours were scarcely long enough to satisfy his eager curiosity, his
relentless activity, and his determined practicality.

From the notes of Thibaudeau one of the members of this revising
committee, we catch a glimpse of the part there played by the First
Consul. We see him listening intently to the discussions of the
jurists, taking up and sorting the threads of thought when a tangle
seemed imminent, and presenting the result in some striking pattern.
We watch his methodizing spirit at work on the cumbrous legal
phraseology, hammering it out into clear, ductile French. We feel the
unerring sagacity, which acted as a political and social touchstone,
testing, a