Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 5).

Date:: 1830-33

Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 5). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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$103 FEUDAL SYSTEM—FEUILLANS. well for them that they cannot test the truth of their opinions by their owti ex- perience. Fecerbach, Paul John Anselm von, since 1821 royal Bavarian acting counsel- lor of state, since 1817 president of the court of appeal of the circle of Rezat, member of several ordere, and of the law commission at St. Petersburg, &c., was bohi November 14, 1775, and educated at Fiankfort on tlie 3Iaine, where his father, a lawyer, resided. He studied the Greek and Roman classics in tlie gjinnasium at that place, and commenced the study of philosophy and law at Jena, ui 175)2. The study of the works of Kant, Locke, Hume, Tetens, Lambert, &c., led him to investigations of the foundation of legal principles. Witli his mind thus strengthen- ed by pliilosopliical studies, he turned his attention to positive law. Li 1798, he WTote liis ^nti Hobbcs, and, by an essay on high treason, and a treatise on the design of punishment, first made his ajjpearance among the writers on criminal law. lie was also liighly popular as teacher of law at Jena, 1799. By the Revision of the fundamental Principles of Criminal Law (2 vols. 1799), and by the Library of Crimhial Law, edited by him, with Grol- man and Ahnendingen, he prepared the way for tlie revision of the penal laws, which he executed systematically in his Manual of tlie private Criminal Law of Germany (Giessen, J 801—9; nearly all written anew in the edition of 182G). By this work he placed huiiself at the head of the new school of criminal writers, called rigorists, who allow no discretion to the judjfe, but confine him to a strict adminis- tration of the law as set down in the codes and statutes. In 1801, Feuerbach receiv- ed an ordinary professorship at Jena, in 1802 accepted an invitation to Kiel, where he pubhshed, at the suggestion of a learn- ed Bavarian, A Review of the Plan of Kleinschrod for a Penal Code adapted to the Electoral-Palatine-Bavarian States (3 vols. 1804). In 1804, he was invited to Landshut, being the fii-st Protestant and foreigner who received this honor from the superintendents of a Bavarian imiver- sity, and was commissioned to prepare a plan for a Bavarian penal code. The en- tire reform of the penal code of Bavaria commenced in 1806, with the abolition of torture, and the regulation of the proceed- ings against prisoners refusing to plead— an ordinance drawn up by Feuerbach him- self. The new penal code for the king- dom of Bavai-ia, which he had drawn up, received the royal sanction, May 16,1813, after a previous examination and some al- terations. This work has been taken as a basis for tlie new codes in W«'iiiiar, Wiir- temburg, and other states. In the diieliy of Oldenburg, it was adopted entirely, anil was aftcnvards translated into Swedish- At the same time (1807), Fcutrbach was commanded by the king to adapt the Code JVapoleon, as a general civil code, to the situation of the kingdom of Bavaria, m hich, however, has never gone into o})eration. Among the works published at that lime, bv Feuerbach, are, Remarkabh; Criminal Cases (2 vols. 1808—11); Tlicmis, or Contril)utions to Legislation (1812); and Obser\'ations on Trial by Jury (Landshut, 1812). Feuerbach rejected the French jury, and many works were written both for and against his views. In his work On the Publicity of Judicial Proceed- higs (Giessen, 1821), he has expressed many of his'opinions, more ex])licilly, and shown how a public, judicial process, adapted to the circumstances of Germany, might combine oral and written forms. At the restoration of Gcrmiui independ- ence, 1813, Feuerbach displayed liis pat- riotism and public spirit by several publi- cations; such as On German Freedom, and the Representation of the German People (Leij)sic, 1814). About this time, the king apjjointcd him second president of the court of appeal in Bamberg. Feuerbach afterwards travelled into foreign countries, and lived at Mimich, devoted to lettei-s, until March, 1817, when he was appointed first president of the court pf appeal of the circle of Rezat, at Anspach. This unwearied jurist and scholar occu- pied his leisure moments with a poetical translation and commentary of the Indian poem Gita Gowinda. In the spiing and summer of 1821, he visited Paris, Brussels and the Rhenish provinces, by the direc- tion of the king, for the purpose of study- ing the judicial systems in those places ; an account of which he has given in his learned work On the Judicial System and Process in France (Giessen, 1825), in whicli he has explained the minutest details with clearness and accuracy. The life of this able man entitles him to a place not merely in the annals of hterature, but likewise in the history of legislation ; and Feuerbach will always be s])oken of -with veneration, like Beccaria. Some of his works have gone through many editions. Feuillans, in ecclesiastical histoiy; an order of religious clothed in white, and going barefoot, ^vho live mider the strict observance of the rule of St. Bernard. The name was occasioned by a reform of$

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