codification commission, which consisted of three commissioners and two secretaries, all drawn from the Bar of Lower Canada. The Act authorizing the Code's adoption received royal assent on 18 September 1865, and it was proclaimed in force on 1 August 1866. The commission was also charged with the codification of the laws of civil procedure, and the Act authorizing the adoption of the Code of Civil Procedure of Lower Canada received royal assent on 15 August 1866, and came into force on 28 June 1867. The Code was generally greeted with satisfaction. As Thomas McCord noted in his 1867 edition of the Code: Layout The Code consisted of four books: Book First – Of Persons (consisting of eleven titles) Book Second – Of Property, Of Ownership, and of its different modifications (consisting of five titles) Book Third – Of the Acquisition and Exercise of rights of property (consisting of twenty titles) Book Fourth – Commercial Law (consisting of six titles) The provisions of the Code were drawn from several sources, including: the Napoleonic Code of 1804 the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825 the writings of Robert Joseph Pothier on pre-revolutionary French jurisprudence writings of contemporary commentators regarding the Napoleonic Code the Field Code movement in New York the Civil Code of the Canton de Vaud of 1819 The codification resulted in many parts of the French civil law being available in English for the first time. As Thomas McCord related later: Innovation While the 1804 French Civil Code's framework was used in drafting the CCLC, the commissioners had to adapt its provisions to conform to the legal situation in Lower Canada by: deleting those provisions that were "new" law and thus not in force in Lower Canada adding to the Code those laws particular to Lower Canada In addition, they proposed 217 resolutions for changes to the law, which were accepted by the Legislature with only minor modifications. As Thomas-Jean-Jacques Loranger observed in his 1873 work, Commentaire sur le Code Civil du Bas-Canada: There were significant reforms to the previous French law: mutual assent alone was now sufficient to convey title without delivery (which also was extended to cover sales and gifts) lesion (i.e. injury from another's failure to perform a contract) was abolished as grounds for voiding contracts between adults in contractual obligations, any stipulation of a fixed and certain sum to be paid as damages would no longer