I Intend To Remain At Paris Until After The Marriage Ceremony Of The Duke
And Duchess Of Berri, And I Shall Then Proceed To Lausanne.
It is expected
there will be some disturbance on the occasion of this marriage.
I have witnessed an execution by the guillotine on the Place de Greve near
the Hotel de Ville. The criminal was guilty of a burglary and murder. It
is the only execution (except political ones) that has taken place at Paris
for the last six months, whereas in England they are strung up by dozens
every fortnight. Independent of there being far less crimes committed in
France than in England, the French code punishes but few offences with
death.
Why is not the sanguinary English criminal code with death in every
line - why is it not reformed, I say? 'Twould be well if our legislators,
instead of their puerile and frothy declamations against revolutionary
principles and the ambition of Napoleon, would occupy themselves seriously
with this subject. But then the lawyers would all oppose the simplification
of our Code. They find by experience that a complicated one, obstructed by
customs, statutes and acts of Parliament, difficult to be correctly
interpreted, and frequently at variance with each other, is a much more
profitable thing, a much wider and more lucrative field for the exercise of
their profession, than the simplicity of the Code Napoleon; and they would
die of rage and despair at the thought of anybody not a lawyer being able
to interpret the laws himself.
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