Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/158

122 122 HARVARD LAW REVIEW The Draft Code Mr. Rose in his Bar Association address observes: "The draft of the code was finished in four months. It is perfectly plain that such an expeditious result could not have been accomplished if it had not been for the previously accumulated materials and arduous labors of Cambaceres and his committees." ^ The present writer has been unable to find confirmation of this view. "An expeditious result" was one of the conditions upon which the commission was set to work. It was appointed on August 12, 1800, "with instructions to bring the work to a con- clusion in the following November." ^ And it seems clear that obedience to these instructions, rather than a feeling that the task was "finished," caused the draft to be reported when it was. The Code has been called "a hasty piece of work," ^® and this was certainly the view taken in the Tribunate when the draft was before it.^^ At any rate the "materials" were limited and were quite as accessible to the draftsmen as to their predecessors. Be- sides, it was Napoleon's experience with the old committee and his belief that in six years it had accompUshed practically nothing which appears to have led him to insist now upon prompt action. Here, as always, he was looking for results. And just as the Aus- trian generals, whom he had vanquished — sometimes with half their force — had complained, "This man violates the principles of strategy," so now the reactionary defenders of the old legal regime saw in expedition only innovation. But Napoleon was equally at home whether opposing an armed force or an outworn jurisprudence, and the outcome in either case usually vindicated his methods. Reference and Revision The draft was never intended by its promoter to be anything more than what the French call a projet — a mere step toward the final result. Napoleon wanted these men of learning in the old law mendations of the Cambaceres committee but other legislation. See Smithers, "The Code Napol6on," 40 Am. L. Reg. (n. s.) 127, 139, 140. " 40 Am. L. Rev. 833, 849. ^ Id., 162. "Id., 153-
 * 9 Cambridge Modern History, 150.