anxiety of the dominant caste or tribe to preserve itself pure was, according to Juarros, very great :

To the offices of lieutenants and councillors, and even down to doorkeepers of the council, none but those of noble race were admitted, and there was no instance of any person being appointed to a public office, high or low, who was not selected from the nobility; for which reason great anxiety was felt by them to keep the purity of their lineage unsullied. To preserve this rank untainted in blood, it was decreed by the law, that if any cacique or noble should marry a woman who was not of noble family, he should be degraded to the caste of mazagual or plebeian, assume the name of his wife, be subject to all the duties and services imposed upon the plebeians, and his estates be sequestered to the king, leaving him only a sufficiency for a decent maintenance in his sphere of maragual.'

The most accurate test of the progress of any country in civilization is to be found in its penal laws. They indicate what men deem honourable, what shameful, and the character of their punishments shows how far their feelings have been softened and humanized. Taken in this point of view, Juarros' brief recapitulation of the principal penal laws of Quiché increases materially our acquaintance with the men who reared and occupied the structures of which we have been speaking:

The king was liable to be tried, and if convicted of extreme cruelty and tyranny, was deposed by the Ahaguoes, who for this purpose assembled a council with great secrecy: the next in succession according to law was placed on the throne, and his ejected predecessor punished by confiscation of all his property, and, as some writers affirm, put to death by decapitation. If a queen was guilty of adultery with a noble person, both she and the accomplice were strangled; but if, forgetting her dignity, she had criminal intercourse with a commoner, they were thrown from a very high rock. If the ahaguoes impeded the collection of the tributes, or were fomenters of any conspiracy, they were condemned to death, and all the members of their families sold as slaves. Whoever was guilty of crimes against the king or the public, or convicted of homicide, was punished by death, the sequestration of property, and the slavery of his relations. Robbers were sentenced to pay the value of the things stolen, and a fine besides; for the second offence, the fine was doubled; and for the third, they were punished with death unless the calpul would redeem them; but, if they transgressed a fourth time, they were thrown from a rock. Rape was punished by death. Incendiaries were deemed enemies of their country, because, said the law, fire has no bounds, and by setting fire to a house, a whole town might be destroyed; and this would be public treason: therefore death was the punishment awarded against the perpetrator, and his family was banished from the kingdom. A simmarron, or runaway from the authority of his master, paid a fine to his calpul of a certain quantity of blankets; but the second offence was punished by death. The stealing of things sacred, the profanation of the temples, and contumacy to the ministers of the idols, subjected the offen

der to the punishment of death, and all his family were declared infamous. They had a law which is still (1800) in use; whenever a young man wished to marry, he was bound to serve the parents of his intended wife for a certain time, and make them stipulated presents; but if they afterwards rejected his proposals, they were compelled to return the things received, and serve him an equal number of days. * * The manner of bringing the accused to trial was cruel and unjust; for not having the privilege of appeal when brought before the judge, he was, if he confessed the crime, immediately taken from the tribunal to undergo the punishment awarded by the laws; and if he denied the charge, he was cruelly tortured to make him confess-he was stripped naked, suspended by the thumbs, and in that situation severely flogged and smoked with chile."

These are the laws of a people sufficiently emerged from the mere savage state to recognise the necessity of moral discipline, but still far from being humanized in their sentiments. In their harshness, their progress in art, their powerful priesthood, the secrecy of their patrician councils-the very doors of which were kept by members of the order-their skill in some mechanical arts, we recognise a people which had attained to a degree of civilization, parallel to what we can conceive existing in the petty states among which Rome grew up, and upon whose ruins it built its empire. It is strange, that in none of the monuments figured by Mr Catherwood do we find any trace of the astrological hieroglyphics, of which so many specimens are preserved in the calendars of Mexico, delineated on Agave paper, or graven upon stone. This is the more remarkable, because Boturini expressly states, that the calendar used by the inhabitants of the province of Chiapas, (in which the ruins near Palenque are situated,) differed from that used by the Mexicans only in the names which they gave to the twenty days of which their month consisted.

In pointing out the most important facts elicited by the researches of Mr Stephens and his predecessors, we have confined ourselves to the monuments found within the territories of the republic of Central America and Chiapas, and the Mexican province of Yucatan. The study of such antiquities is of little value, except in so far as it furnishes materials for comparing what progress has been made by different communities residing far apart, and influenced by different economical and political relations, with a view to throw light upon the history of society. Even Humboldt has not always been sufficiently careful to discriminate, in the accounts he has given of American antiquities, between what customs or monuments appear to have been common to the inhabitants of Mexico, Oaxaca, and Chiapas, and what were peculiar to the people inhabiting one or other of these districts ; and where he is inaccurate, others have fallen into utter confusion. One branch alone of the antiquities of the

northern continent of America, has been skilfully and accurately examined; namely, the calendar of the fallen Mexicans, and the knowledge and opinions upon which it was founded. Much rubbish must be swept away, before we can ascertain what is really known of American antiquities; and before this field has been cleared of the entanglements and errors which have been allowed to accumulate upon it, it would be in vain to think of instituting comparisons between what the nations found by the Spaniards had effected, with what had been accomplished by early Asiatic or European nations; either with a view to trace the origin of the Americans, or to throw light upon the natural history of society.

Apart from the interest which the student of history and human nature must take in such investigations, every thing that can throw light upon the character of their aboriginal population, has a deep practical import for the inhabitants of the Spanish republics of North America. The two races have never blended; and in many provinces the Indians far outnumber the Creoles. The fact mentioned by the proprietor of the site of Gueguetenango, shows how much of the leaven of their old superstitions is yet left among the natives. Even where they have embraced Christianity, they affect having saints of their own, whom they prefer to those of the whites. The legends of the Roman Catholic Church have assumed a local colouring in Central America, which to a stranger appears sufficiently startling. They are a population if possible still more ignorant, savage, and excitable, than the dregs of the French population at the time of their first revolution; and, moreover, they are distinguished from the hitherto dominant caste by blood, language, features, and colour. The fierce struggles between the partisans of Federal and Centralized government, had, at the time of Mr Stephens' visit, thrown the power into the hands of the Indians; much in the same way that the struggle between the adherents of the monarchy and the republicans threw it into the hands of the sans culottes during the Reign of Terror.

Mr Stephens, we are informed, undismayed by the discomforts and dangers he encountered in his first expedition, has returned to Guatimala. This has the appearance of being in earnest; and we are bound to wish all success to enquiries of such an interesting description, and from which further and more matured information may be reasonably expected. The work before us, notwithstanding considerable defects and blemishes, is by no means deficient in indications of shrewdness, literary ambition, and perseverance. There can be little doubt that Mr Stephens will find ample materials for another; and we shall look forward to its appearance, in due season, with considerable expectations.

ART. IV.-The History of Duelling. By J. G. MELLINGEN, M.D., F.R.S., 2 volumes 8vo. London: 1841.

THESE

HESE volumes present copious details respecting a practice altogether peculiar to the modern world. They might, perhaps, have been made somewhat more interesting, and the epochs might have been better and more clearly distinguished; but very great praise is due to the diligence with which the materials have been collected, and to the good sense and feeling which characterize the author's remarks. No traces of Duelling are to be found among any of the nations of antiquity. That one man should endanger or lose his own life, or take away that of another, for an offence, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, confessedly undeserving the punishment menaced or inflicted; that this should be every where done in defiance of law and religion; that the perpetrating the act should be esteemed meritorious-resistance to it dishonourable; and that this anomalous violation of humanity, law, and religion, should be the claimed and exclusive privilege of the most refined and best educated portion of society, are facts, for the history and exemplification of which, strange to say, we must limit our enquiries to the civilized communities of Christendom. It would be idle to refer for similar instances to the single combats that have taken place in front of hostile armies, or to the delegated contests between champions selected to settle the quarrels of nations or tribes. These had nothing in common with the Duel' beyond mere fighting; the motives, the sanctions, the issues, were totally different; self-devotion and obedience distinguished the one, selfishness and insubordination characterize the other.

But we utterly repudiate any other relationship than that of co-existence between the meek and forgiving spirit of Christianity, and the proud anti-social practice of duelling. It has been very generally referred to the customs and superstitions of the barbarous nations by whom the Roman Empire of the west was overthrown. Trials by ordeal, that is, by appeals to the Deity, were indeed in great esteem amongst them; but these have been more or less common to all ignorant and superstitious nations, and are in practice in many parts of the world at this day. The Hindoos have no less than nine different methods of extracting justice by the pressure of the ordeal. So also, violent and insubordinate appeals to the sword and to brute force, for the vindication of wrongs, have ever been common to all nations. These practices, therefore, although our forefathers had them in excess, they held in common with other races; but that

which, with some few and obscure exceptions, appears to have been peculiar to them, was the formal and judicial appointment of single combat for the settlement of litigation. Cæsar and Tacitus state, that the elder Germans determined disputed claims to property and even to office by the sword; and when conquest gave greater notoriety to their customs, we find these statements verified by their laws. There is a law of Gundebald the Burgundian, (A.D. 501,) enacting, as a remedy against obstinacy and avarice, that all controversies shall be decided by the sword; and Frothius the Dane-a worthy descendant of those heroes who, after death, according to the Edda, were rewarded at the court of Odin, by being indulged every morning, as soon as they were 'dressed, by going out into the court to fight with each other till the close of the day, when they returned to Valhalla to drink beer or 'mead' decreed Speciosius viribus quam verbis confligendum esse casum. This was not mincing the matter; and even after some little advance in the repression of disorder, we find Luitprand (701) proclaiming, we are not convinced of the justice of what is called the judgment of God; since we have found that many innocent persons have perished in defending a good cause; but this custom is of such antiquity amongst the Lombards that 'we cannot abolish it, notwithstanding its impiety.' These laws and customs are the true sources of the duel; and it is from this ancient practice of making the sword the scale of justice, that the modern duel, modified from time to time, has descended While we thus trace its source to the ignorance and ferocity of our Gothic ancestors, it is truly humiliating_that it should be continued to the present day; that the English gentleman of the nineteenth should join with the Lombard of the eighth century, in saying we cannot abolish it, notwithstanding its impiety.'

to us.

6

This, however, is not without its explanation. There is no such thing as a radical change in the customs of nations, seldom even of individuals; and those who examine the peculiarities of different races, well know how long the customs and institutions of early ages survive amongst, and characterize their descendants. There are still strong resemblances in all the branches of the great Gothic stem-split and separated as they have long been, under different forms of government, belief, language, and pursuits; so, too, among the Celts, the Jews universally, and in like manner all the other great families of the earth. Generations pass away, with their attendant convulsions, before ancient prejudices, traditions, and practices, are eradicated; time but softens their features, and in the great chain of cause and effect they are often, when lost to sight, still felt and found operating. It is thus that