The Civil Code became law in 1804:  after undergoing some slight modifications and additions, it was, in 1807 renamed the Code Napoleon.  Its provisions had already, in 1806, been adopted in Italy.  In 1810 Holland, and the newly-annexed coast-line of the North Sea as far as Hamburg, and even Luebeck on the Baltic, received it as the basis of their laws, as did the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1811.  Indirectly it has also exerted an immense influence on the legislation of Central and Southern Germany, Prussia, Switzerland, and Spain:  while many of the Central and South American States have also borrowed its salient features.

A Code of Civil Procedure was promulgated in France in 1806, one of Commerce in 1807, of “Criminal Instruction” in 1808, and a Penal Code in 1810.  Except that they were more reactionary in spirit than the Civil Code, there is little that calls for notice here, the Penal Code especially showing little advance in intelligence or clemency on the older laws of France.  Even in 1802, officials favoured severity after the disorders of the preceding years.  When Fox and Romilly paid a visit to Talleyrand at Paris, they were informed by his secretary that: 

“In his opinion nothing could restore good morals and order in the country but ‘la roue et la religion de nos ancetres.’  He knew, he said, that the English did not think so, but we knew nothing of the people.  Fox was deeply shocked at the idea of restoring the wheel as a punishment in France."[167]

This horrible punishment was not actually restored:  but this extract from Romilly’s diary shows what was the state of feeling in official circles at Paris, and how strong was the reaction towards older ideas.  The reaction was unquestionably emphasized by Bonaparte’s influence, and it is noteworthy that the Penal and other Codes, passed during the Empire, were more reactionary than the laws of the Consulate.  Yet, even as First Consul, he exerted an influence that began to banish the customs and traditions of the Revolution, except in the single sphere of material interests; and he satisfied the peasants’ love of land and money in order that he might the more securely triumph over revolutionary ideals and draw France insensibly back to the age of Louis XIV.

While the legislator must always keep in reserve punishment as the ultima ratio for the lawless, he will turn by preference to education as a more potent moralizing agency; and certainly education urgently needed Bonaparte’s attention.  The work of carrying into practice the grand educational aims of Condorcet and his coadjutors in the French Convention was enough to tax the energies of a Hercules.  Those ardent reformers did little more than clear the ground for future action:  they abolished the old monastic and clerical training, and declared for a generous system of national education in primary, secondary, and advanced schools.  But amid strifes and bankruptcy their aims remained