tom seems to have been intended as a check | istics as in those of the Franks and other Ger

upon the right of private revenge. If the offended party insisted upon personal vengeance, then it was to be subject to certain terms, and was to be in the presence of wit- | nesses. The Ripuarian laws, it is supposed, were compiled in the 7th century. The laws of the Burgundians are of an earlier period, probably between the years 468 and 534, the latter being the date of the final conquest of the Burgundians by the successors of Clovis. The chief characteristic of those laws is that they apply to Romans and Burgundians alike, and that civil rights and procedure are more prominent than in the laws of the Franks, probably by reason of the great interfusion of Roman law. The capitularies of Charlemagne and several of his successors have been commonly classed among compilations of laws. They are, in truth, the acts of the government in all its functions, including instructions to magistrates, financial regulations, political, civil, and canonical legislation, judicial decisions, even moral precepts, and propositions or questions for consideration. Guizot has arranged the acts of Charlemagne into 1,150 articles. Of these the greater proportion belong to canonical legislation, including under that term the acts of councils and the ordinances of the emperor in relation to affairs of the church. The next most considerable subject is political legislation, relating to administrative offices, courts, and police, and is contained in 293 articles. Penal provisions are numerous, but differ little in character from the previous penal laws of the Ripuarians, Lombards, and other barbarian nations who had become subjects of Charlemagne. There is one exception, in the severity with which he punished the conquered Saxons. Legislation concerning private rights is comparatively inconsiderable. Among the capitularies are some additions to the ancient laws, as the Salic and Ripuarian, the laws of the Lombards, Bavarians, &c.; there are also extracts from these laws, which were probably intended for some particular purpose. It is said that a revision of the Salic law, and of the laws of the Lombards and others, was made by order of Charlemagne, but only fragments of such revision appear in the capitularies. In fact, the capitularies themselves are but fragmentary, many of them being imperfect, and others being referred to which are lost. The most complete edition of the capitularies was published by Baluze (Paris, 1677).—The laws compiled by Alfred the Great in the 9th century have been celebrated as the supposed origin of the peculiarities of the English common law. Trial by jury is commonly referred to this monarch as if first introduced by him. But this is certainly not sustained by authentic evidence. It was a familiar principle in the usages of all the Germanic nations that a free man should be tried only by his peers. In the laws attributed to Alfred we find the same general character

manic nations, pecuniary compositions for every species of crime, proof by compurgators, and the like. A law was indeed enacted by Alfred, making wilful murder a capital offence, but it seems not to have been enforced. There is one provision in these laws which may have originated in the humanity of the sovereign, but more probably in the regard which the Anglo-Saxons had for a man's house as being sacred, which feeling has been transmitted to their descendants, and exists to this day. If a man who had committed an injury should keep within his own house, his adversary might besiege him for seven days without attacking him; but if within that time the besieged person should be willing to surrender himself and his arms, his adversary might detain him 30 days, but after that must restore him safe to his kindred, and be content with the compensation prescribed by law. Trial by ordeal and other superstitious methods appear to have been frequent among the Anglo-Saxons. Judicial combat, if in use at all, was seldom resorted to until the Normans substituted it in place of compurgation.-Coming down to a more recent period, we find a peculiar law of custom developed under the feudal system, especially in France. In the southern part of that monarchy, which had been occupied by the Visigoths and Burgundians, the Roman municipal institutions, judicial forms, and rights of property, were to a considerable extent preserved. That part of the country was for that reason called pays du droit écrit. Yet even here, in some districts, many peculiar customs (droits coutumiers) were established in the feudal anarchy. In other provinces, especially the northern, the Roman law was almost entirely lost, at least was no longer distinguishable, and a new system succeeded, of various character, according to the degree of independence maintained by the great feudal lords; and these provinces were designated as pays du droit coutumier. The laws of Normandy are the most important on account of their bearing on the English law of landed property. The customs of the county of Paris were next in importance, as they were regarded as precedents in other districts. Many of these local systems were collected in the Établissements de St. Louis. In the reign of Charles VII., in 1453, it was decreed by the assembly of the states that all customary laws should be reduced to writing, This brought into distinct and recognized legal existence a vast number of systems, a collection of several hundred of which has been made by Bourdot de Richebourg (Coutumier général, Paris, 1724). This diversity, instead of being relieved by general legislation as the authority of the crown increased, was only made more perplexed by ordonnances not founded upon comprehensive principles, and therefore having no tendency to assimilate the heterogeneous elements before existing, Collections of these ordonnances were repeatedly made, some of

which received the inappropriate designation | after the Code Napoléon were promulgated in of codes; as the Code Henri, made by Brisson the Two Sicilies in 1819, the Netherlands in in the reign of Henry III.; the Code Murvillac 1822 and 1837, Hayti in 1826, Sardinia in or Michau, under Louis XIII. (1629), relating 1837, the Swiss cantons from 1819 to 1855, to judicial procedure; and the Code Louis XV., and Bolivia in 1843; and everywhere the Latin by Chaussepierre, containing the ordonnances races appear to be following these examples.from 1722 to 1740. Several comprehensive In Germany, until a recent period, the laws, ordonnances, which were in fact codes of laws both civil and criminal, have been in a state relating to particular subjects, were enacted in of great confusion. In 1532 the statutes comthe reign of Louis XVI. But the necessity of monly known as the Carolina Criminalis were a general compilation, and the assimilation of enacted by the emperor Charles V. for the all the different systems into a homogeneous regulation of criminal proceedings. Prior to jurisprudence for the use of the whole nation, that time the law of the empire relating to became more and more pressing, till the revo- crimes was threefold: 1, the Germanic, conlution paved the way for its accomplishment. tained in the ancient barbaric codes and subseIt was early the subject of discussion, and pro- quent local usages; 2, the provisions of the jects were reported by Cambacérès in 1793 Roman law in the compilations of Justinian, and 1795, which, though incomplete in details, particularly the Libri Terribiles of the Digest, and on the whole unsatisfactory, yet furnished and the 18th title of the Institutes; 3, the a perspicuous and well arranged outline. By a various penal provisions of the canon law consular decree, Aug. 12, 1800, a commission (Corpus Juris Canonici). The Carolina Criwas constituted "to compare the order which minalis purported to be "a simple instruction had been followed in the preparation of the for unlearned judges, to teach them how to projects for a civil code hitherto published, to proceed in criminal cases." It did not superdetermine the plan which the commissioners sede the previously existing laws, but referred should think best to adopt, and to discuss the to them, sometimes defining what was obscure, chief principles of civil legislation." Portalis, and fixed punishments with more exactness, Tronchet, Bigot de Préameneu, Maleville, and but more particularly regulated the form of the minister of justice were the commissioners. criminal proceedings. Being in form didactic In 1801 they reported a draft of a civil code, rather than statutory, a large license was taken which was submitted to the court of cassation by judges in administering the law as thus and other courts of appeal, and with the re- prescribed, and uncertainty still prevailed. ports of the judges was finally brought before The revision of the Prussian laws known as the the council of state, in which Napoleon (then Code Frédéric, published 1749-'57, revised after first consul) presided in person. The discus- 1780, but not put in force till 1794, was intendsion, which was consecutive and thorough, may ed to obviate, according to its preface, 1, the be found in a work entitled Conférence du code difficulties of the Roman codes; 2, the discivil, avec la discussion particulière du conseil putes of the commentators; 3, the contradicd'état, &c. (Paris, 1805). In the discussion and tions of Roman and German law. Like the Inadjustment of the code, Tronchet, Roederer, stitutes, it divides the subject into the law of perPortalis, Thibaudeau, Cambacérès, and Le sons, of things, and of obligations. The penal Brun were the most conspicuous. Of these, laws have since been repeatedly revised. In 1826 Tronchet was the most regarded by the first a commission was appointed to prepare a new consul for profound and enlightened views; Le penal code, in pursuance of which six different Brun was the best qualified as a rédacteur. ́ In projects were presented and discussed at varithe same manner the other codes were reported, ous times, during a period of 25 years; and discussed, and amended.. The whole revision the code which is now in force was finally was finally adopted under the title of Les cinque adopted in 1851, and has been highly praised. codes, consisting of the civil code (which, as the Other German states made efforts toward first in order, and most important, was distin- codification in the last century. A criminal guished by the appellation of the Code Napo- code for Bavaria was promulgated in 1751, and léon), the code of criminal procedure, penal for Austria in 1768, and again in 1786. In the code, code of civil procedure, and code of com- latter country a civil code was produced in merce. Another was added by Charles X. 1811, founded in great measure on the Prussian (1827), entitled the Code forestier, which is a code; and a code of criminal procedure was collection of laws relating to the administra- published in 1852, which adopts the classification of the wood lands belonging to the king, tion of offences contained in the French penal or to cities, villages, &c.; and the whole is now code. In Bavaria a penal code prepared by published under the title of Les six codes. Of Feuerbach was adopted in 1813, which was the merits of this great work we have sufficient received with such favor as to be accepted by evidence from the fact that it still continues, several other states.-In Russia a commiswith but little change, to be the law of France, sion, which originated with Peter the Great, notwithstanding the subversion of the govern- reported in 1832 the Svod zakonov, which ment by which it was established. The extent became the exclusive source of law in 1835. of its influence upon the laws of other countries This comprises eight codes, devoted respechas been very great. Civil codes modelled | tively to-1, the state and imperial family; 2,

original and incomplete code enacted in 1848. On April 6, 1857, the legislature created a new commission to prepare codes of all the law not covered by the reports of the practice commission, and appointed David Dudley Field, William Curtis Noyes, and Alexander W. Bradford the commissioners, for a term of five years, which was afterward extended for three years further. They reported a political code, a penal code, and a civil code. These codes have not up to the present time been adopted by the legislature of New York; and indeed, although reported by committees, the legislature has always been too much occupied with special legislation to give the necessary time for their consideration. The code of civil procedure, in whole or in part, has been adopted into the laws of 23 states and territories of the Union, viz.: New York, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, California, Oregon, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, and Arizona. It has also been adopted for the consular courts of the United States in Japan. The code of criminal procedure has been adopted in ten or more states and territories. In California a code commission created by the legislature reported in Janu

public services; 3, finance; 4, the classes of persons; 5, civil law; 6, administration; 7, police; 8, penal law. It contains about 38,000 articles, each of which is referred to some preëxisting ordinance. In the United States the first experiment at a legislative remodelling of the entire law was made in Louisiana. That state was originally a French colony; it was afterward ceded to Spain, when the Spanish law was introduced, but again reverted to the French, and from them was acquired by the | United States. The confusion of laws introduced by these numerous changes of government made a revision necessary, and a code was prepared and adopted in 1806-'8, which did not, however, supersede the ancient laws, except so far as they conflicted with it. A further revision was found necessary, and in 1822 commissioners were appointed for that purpose, who reported a complete civil code, which was adopted in 1824. Mr. Edward Livingston, one of the commissioners, and who is understood to have had the chief part in the compilation, had been familiar with the common law, and introduced from it many valuable provisions, though the basis of the work was mainly the French civil code. Mr. Livingston also reported a penal code, which was received with favor by the legislature, but not formally adopted. It brought to its author great rep-ary, 1872, a complete series of codes framed utation, especially in Europe. A penal code and code of procedure have since been adopted. The most important, however, of the attempts at codification which have been made in the United States are those of the state of New York, which had their origin mainly in the able and persistent efforts of David Dudley Field, which he began in 1839, by a public letter on the subject addressed to Gulian C. Verplanck, then a state senator, and continued by a series of addresses to legislative committees, of articles in the newspapers, and of pamphlets. The result of this agitation was that the revised constitution of New York, adopted in 1846, had two separate provisions in relation to codification. The first directed the appointment of three commissioners to reduce into a code the whole body of the law of the state, or so much thereof as might be deemed expedient. The other directed the appointment of three other commissioners to revise the rules of practice and pleadings in courts of record. Both commissions were filled by the legislature in 1847. The practice commissioners made a partial report on Feb. 29, 1848, containing an incomplete code of civil procedure, in such shape as to cover the principal reforms proposed in the practice of courts of record in civil cases, and this report was immediately adopted by the legislature. The complete codes of civil and criminal procedure were not reported until Dec. 31, 1849, and were never adopted by the legislature, although some portion of the amendments suggested by the commissioners were gradually incorporated by legislation into the text of the

upon the basis of the projected New York codes, all of which were adopted by the legislature, to take effect on Jan. 1, 1873. This consisted of a political code, a civil code, a penal code, and a code of civil procedure; the practice in criminal cases being regulated by the penal code. The territory of Dakota in 1864 also adopted the civil and penal codes of the New York commissioners. The principal feature of the code of civil procedure thus adopted in New York and other states was the entire fusion of law and equity by which the same principles were for the first time in the history of New York, or of any other states inheriting the English practice, applied to all species of actions. The courts of Pennsylvania had from the organization of the state decided actions at law upon the principles of equity, but they have never been clothed with all the powers of courts of equity as defined by the English practice. The union in one tribunal of all the powers belonging to a court of chancery as well as to a court of common law, and the application of all the principles of both systems to every controversy arising before the courts, was therefore an absolute novelty in 1848 in any state or colony founded by Englishmen and inheriting English law. The practice in English law courts being entirely different from that of courts of equity, it was necessary to devise a single and homogeneous system including the most useful parts of each form of procedure, and this was done by the code of civil procedure reported by the New York commissioners. Without this preliminary reform it would have been almost im

for the construction of a code, and the result of its efforts is generally understood to be strong conviction in the minds of the leaders of the legal profession that a complete code rather than a mere digest must become an absolute necessity.

CODEIA (Gr. kwdɛiα; head of poppy), an alkaloid found in opium, in which it exists combined, like morphia, with meconic acid. It has the formula C35H20ÑOь. It is soluble in water, alcohol, and ether, but is insoluble in alkaline solutions. It combines with acids to form crystallizable salts. (See OPIUM.)

CODEX (Lat.), in Roman antiquity, originally the trunk of a tree, afterward applied to the wooden tablets smeared with wax which were used for writing. At a later period it became the name of all large manuscripts (codices manuscripti), as the works of the historians and poets; and under the emperors and subsequently, it designated collections of civil and ecclesiastical laws. Of the last, the oldest and most celebrated are the Codex Theodosianus, the Codex Justinianus, the Codex Canonum Ecclesiasticorum, belonging to the time of Pope Innocent I., and the Codex Canonum Ecclesiæ universa, revised by the monk Dionysius about 527. Its principal modern application is to the uncial manuscripts of the New Testament, as the codices Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, Ephraemi, Bezæ or Cantabrigiensis, Claromontanus, &c., 41 in all, which are also designated by the Roman letters, as codices A, B, C, D, or by combinations, as F, W, or by the Greek letters, as A, 0.-A codex rescriptus (Lat., a rewritten codex), now usually termed a palimpsest, is an ancient parchment on which the original writing has been defaced, and a different composition copied.

possible to frame an intelligible code of law for an English-speaking community, inasmuch as many elementary questions were disposed of in one court upon precisely the opposite principles from those enforced by the other court. This difficulty being removed, however, it has been found as practicable to reduce the common law of England to the form of a code as the law of any other country. The civil code, defining the rights of individuals as between each other, is the one most interesting to the public at large. This code, as reported in New York and adopted in California and Dakota, consists of three principal divisions, viz., persons, property, and obligations, and a fourth or supplemental division containing general provisions applicable to more than one of the chief divisions already mentioned. Under the head of "Persons" are treated the subjects of personal rights and relations, including marriage, parentage, guardianship, &c., with the rights and duties growing out of them. Under the head of "Property" the rules, conditions, limitations, and incidents of ownership in both real and personal property are stated, inclu- | ding the modes of transfer by grant, will, inheritance, and otherwise. Under the head of "Obligations" the interpretation, transfer, and extinction of obligations are treated, together with the entire subject of contracts, under which special title are set forth the rules governing the creation, interpretation, and extinction of contracts, and the particular rules governing sale, exchange, deposit, loan, hiring of property, personal service, carriage or transportation, trusts or confidential relations, agency, partnership, insurance, indemnity, guaranty, liens (including pledge and mortgage), and negotiable instruments. Under the fourth division there are five titles: 1, relief, in- CODICIL (Lat. codicillus, diminutive of cocluding the law of damages, injunctions, spe- dex), an addition or supplement to a will, recific performance, &c.; 2, debtor and creditor, quiring the same formalities of execution and including fraudulent transactions, and assign- the same testamentary capacity. The distincments for the benefit of creditors; 3, nuisance; tion between the two formerly was, that by a 4, maxims of jurisprudence; 5, definitions. will an executor was appointed, and by a codThe civil code of California has, in addition to icil not; but now an executor may be apthe matter contained in the New York code, pointed by either or by neither, and the codicil extensive and 'detailed provisons regulating the is employed to meet changes of purpose on the management of corporations, and the business part of the testator, and to provide for new of mining, which has in that state an excep- circumstances. A will and codicil are to be tional importance.—The subject of codification construed together, and the latter, as the more has for many years been under discussion in recent expression of the testator's purpose, England and the United States, especially since will modify and control the other wherever the time of Jeremy Bentham; but the codes they are not in harmony; but in other particframed by the New York commissioners were❘ ulars the will is to stand. There may be sevthe first in which any real attempt was made eral codicils to a will, all of which must be proto embody the old law of any English-speak-bated with it; but any one may be rejected ing community. Since their publication the for want of the legal requisites, and the others expediency of codification has become a sub- will remain and have effect as if that had never ject of renewed interest in England, and the been made. 'adoption of a code has been urged not only by COD-LIVER OIL, the oil drained or expressprivate individuals but by members of the ed from the livers of the cod, and also of present government (1873), with every pros- the pollock, hake, and haddock, largely used pect of ultimate success. A commission was A commission was in medicine. Other fish oils are sometimes some time since appointed in England to pre- fraudulently substituted; the adulteration is pare a digest of the existing law as the basis to be detected by the taste and smell, the ab