But chief among the documents dating from this period are the Codes, which still give laws to France. These are the Civil Code of 1804, the _Code de Procedure Civile_ of 1806, the _Code de Commerce_ of 1807, the _Code d'Instruction Criminelle_ of 1809, and the _Code Penal_ of 1810. These monumental works, in the elaboration of which the _conseil d'etat_ took the chief part, contributed, to a greater or less extent, towards the fusion of the old law of France with the laws of the Revolution. It was in the case of the _Code Civil_ that this task presented the greatest difficulty (see CODE NAPOLEON). The _Code de Commerce_ was scarcely more than a revised and emended edition of the _ordonnances_ of 1673 and 1681; while the _Code de Procedure Civile_ borrowed its chief elements from the _ordonnance_ of 1667. In the case of the _Code d'Instruction Criminelle_ a distinctly new departure was made; the procedure introduced by the Revolution into courts where judgment was given remained public and oral, with full liberty of defence; the preliminary procedure, however, before the examining court (_juge d'instruction_ or _chambre des mises en accusation_) was borrowed from the _ordonnance_ of 1670; it was the procedure of the old law, without its cruelty, but secret and written, and generally not in the presence of both parties. The _Code Penal_ maintained the principles of the Revolution, but increased the penalties. It substituted for the system of fixed penalties, in cases of temporary punishment, a maximum and a minimum, between the limits of which judges could assess the amount. Even in the case of misdemeanours, it admitted the system of extenuating circumstances, which allowed them still further to decrease and alter the penalty in so far as the offence was mitigated by such circumstances. (See further under NAPOLEON I.) Constitutional monarchy.