je m'étudiai, p

1. 17. les codes. The great work of the Consulate was to produce several Codes of Law, the most important of which, the Code Civil, in drawing up which the First Consul took a considerable share, is known as the Code Napoleon. By a Code is meant a complete and systematic statement of the whole or some portion of the law. The necessity for such codes in France was most pressing. Voltaire had said before the Revolution that in travelling through France you changed laws as often as you changed horses. Moreover the legislation of the Revolution had

no LA CANNE DE JONC

made vast alterations in great haste. The French codes are now, to a great extent, the basis of law in the countries inhabited by the Latin races.

en faisant des événements , 'by making history.'

1. 19. tactique, as opposed to stratégie, refers to the details of military science as opposed to the general conception of a campaign; manœuvre here means 'drill' rather than manœuvres.