"Whoever degrades his first or principal wife to the condition of an inferior wife shall be punished with one hundred blows. Whoever, during the life-time of his first wife, raises an inferior wife to the rank and condition of a first wife, shall be punished with ninety blows, and in both the cases each of the several wives shall be replaced in the rank to which she was originally entitled upon her marriage.

"Whenever any persons, having the same family name, intermarry, the parties and the contractor of the marriage shall each receive sixty blows, and, the marriage being null and void, the man and woman shall be separated, and the marriage presents forfeited to government.

"All persons unauthorizedly passing through any of the gates of the imperial citadel at Pekin, and entering therein, or into any of the imperial gardens, shall receive one hundred blows.

"No person shall presume to travel on the roads, or to cross the bridges, which are expressly provided and reserved for the use of the emperor, except only such civil and military officers and other attendants as immediately belong to his majesty's retinue, and who are, in consequence, necessarily permitted to proceed upon the side paths thereof.

"Any person who is guilty of striking his elder brother or sister, shall be punished at the least with ninety blows, and banishment for two years and a half; but if guilty of striking so as to wound, with one hundred blows and three years' banishment to the distance of 3000 lee.

Any person who is guilty of striking his fa-. ther, mother, paternal grandfather or grandmother;

and any wife who is guilty of striking her husband's father, mother, paternal grandfather, or grandmother, shall suffer death by being beheaded. Any person who is guilty of killing such a near relation, shall suffer death by a slow and painful execution."

EGYPT rose at a very early period to a high pitch of civilization and refinement. In the time of Moses, 1500 years before the Christian era, it had a vast population, and many mighty cities. The ruins of these attest their magnificence and power. The vast pyramids that still exist, and

which were constructed so long ago that history has not told us what king caused them to be created, are among the mightiest works of human labor.

Among the ruins of Thebes, and other cities along the banks of the Nile, there are the most wonderful architectural remains. Cut in the rocks, there are chambers or rooms still existing, the walls of which are ornamented with curious paintings.

Some of these represent the manners and customs of the ancient inhabitants of these cities, and show that a great variety of utensils now in use, and supposed to be of modern origin, were well known to the Egyptians, thousands of years ago.

It is evident that Egypt, at a date going back nearly 2000 years before Christ, was a thickly peopled country, and that a vast variety of curious and useful arts were in use among the inhabitants. There is no doubt that it was, at this and later dates, the most civilized portion of the globe, and that it was the school at which other nations for many ages learnt philosophy. From this country it was that the Greeks, who became so celebrated for their arts and their advances in every species of human learning, derived their first light in all branches of human knowledge.

But however much Egypt may have done for the rest of the world in those remote and mystic ages, we have not a very minute record of her internal history. Of her political system, we know that it was an hereditary and despotic monarchy, modelled upon the Asiatic plan, but greatly modified, at least in early times, by the influence of priests.

There is no nation of antiquity in which religion seems to have had greater influence, than in Egypt. Though they had advanced far in many arts and sciences though they knew the globular form of the earth, calculated eclipses, regarded the moon as another globe, were acquainted with arithmetic, geometry, and various curious arts, now loststill they were in the highest degree superstitious.

Their superstitions were of the most gloomy kind. Music was only used at funerals and the worship of the gods. Pleasure was a stranger to the Egyptians; songs, dances, and sports, they disliked; they never used wine; their drink was beer, made of barley. Funerals and times of sadness were the only occasions of parade and

expense.

Justice was administered in a strict and speedy manner. Written laws existed, and were handed down from age to age. Perjury and murder were punished with death. Calumniators and false accusers, were punished as if they had committed the crimes they charged on others. Falsehood was punished by a loss of the tongue; forgery, by loss of the hand; desertion of the army, by infamy.

The king could remit the penalty of the law, and indeed his authority was regarded as supreme --but in point of fact, he was himself, in many things, overruled by the priests. These even made rules to regulate his private affairs; they educated his children; pointed out the daily duties of his slaves; fixed the bill of fare at his table; and in various ways abridged and controlled his power. Kings were judged after their death, and if con

demned, their bodies were cast away. Soldiers and priests were exempt from all taxes, and every son was obliged to follow the profession of his father. The people were divided into seven casts— priests, soldiers, shepherds, swineherds, mechanics, interpreters, and fishermen. The priests were at the head; they were the teachers of the people and the patrons of science. From them the chief offices of state were filled; they were the physicians, judges, architects, astronomers and astrologers. They kept science and knowledge to themselves, for by these they held their sway over the people.

Thus it appears that the government of ancient Egypt was despotic, checked only by the power of the priests, and laws established by usage. It appears, also, that this power varied at different periods, being more despotic at one time than another. It does not seem, however, that any other idea of government was ever started, than that of a divine right to rule on the part of the prince, or the priest, and the same obligation to obey on the side of the people.