Then surrounding himself with excellent legal
advisers [Footnote: Chief among these legal experts was Cambaceres
(1753-1824), the Second Consul.] whom he literally drove to labor, the
First Consul brought out a great Civil Code (1804), which was followed
by a Code of Civil Procedure, a Code of Criminal Procedure, a Penal
Code, and a Commercial Code. These codes were of the utmost importance.
The simplicity and elegance of their form commended them not only to
France, but to the greater part of continental Europe. Moreover, they
preserved the most valuable social conquests of the Revolution, such as
civil equality, religious toleration, equality of inheritance,
emancipation of serfs, freedom of land, legal arrest, and trial by
jury. It is true that many harsh punishments were retained and that the
position of woman was made distinctly inferior to that of man, but, on
the whole, the French Codes long remained not only the most convenient
but the most enlightened set of laws in the world. Bonaparte was
rightly hailed as a second Justinian.
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