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Rh substantially a reproduction of the Constitution of the year VIII, and the Constitutional laws which now govern France were never adopted by a constituent assembly.

The senatus consultum of the 16th Thermidor, year X, creating the consulship for life; of the 28th Floreal, year XII, making Napoleon I Emperor; and of August 19, 1807, suppressing the Tribunate, were but modifications of Napoleon's Constitution of 22d Frimaire, year VIII.

Napoleon III governed France for seventeen years by virtue of his Constitution of January 14, 1852, as modified by the senatus consultum of November 7, which established the hereditary empire; of December 25, 1852, which completed the imperial structure; of November 24, 1860, which permitted the Senate and Legislative Body to reply by the "Address" to the Crown's message; of January 19, 1867, which acknowledged the right of interpellation; of September 8, 1869, declaring the ministers responsible; and of April 23, 1870, claiming to enact a new Constitution, and to assure the future of the Napoleonic dynasty.

The Constitutions which are set forth in the appendix of this book were translated from the text as published in the "Histoire Constitutionnelle des Français, Textes et Commentaires," par F. E. Planteau, translator for the Court of Appeal in Paris. In making the translation of the Constitutions of 1793, 1795, and 1799, the author was assisted by the work of Bernard Roelker on "The Constitutions of France," as he was also largely aided by the translations of the Constitutions of 1814, 1830, 1848, and 1852, made by Francis Lieber, LL.D., in his work on "Civil Liberty."

Scarcely a page of this book could have been written without reference to the following works, among others, which have been consulted, quoted, or mentioned, and from whose pages expressions, and even sentences, have