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Academies, tacitly dissolved in the confusion of the time, could be reconstructed anew. This was at length effected, and in a way which added greatly to the solidity of the edifice. The three were fused into one great whole, called the National Institute; and this divided into classes, comprehending the physical and mathematical sciences, moral and political science, and literature and the fine arts. The object was generally the advancement of the arts and sciences, and this was to be obtained by continual researches, the publication of discoveries and transactions, and correspondence with learned and literary men in other countries. The number of resident members was one hundred and forty-four, with an equal number in the provinces, and each class had the privilege of choosing eight foreign associates. But soon the exigencies of the time robbed France of a great proportion of its savants; for Bonaparte carried with him into Egypt nearly a hundred men who had attained eminence in the arts and sciences. This illustrious corps shared the fatigues and dangers of the common soldiers, and on more than one occasion excited the admiration of the whole army by their heroic courage before the enemy, and the patient endurance with which they bore the privations of the desert. At Cairo they were formed into an Institute of Egypt, which cannot be considered otherwise than as a branch of the French Institute. Monze, one of the founders of the Polytechnic School, was the first president; Bonaparte the second; and their place of meeting was one of the greatest palaces of the city. Their task was to compile an exact description of the country; to execute a detailed map; to study ruins and natural productions; to make observations in physics, astronomy, and natural history; and to inquire into the practicability of ameliorating the condition of the people by the introduction of machinery, canals, and new processes adapted to the soil. All this was soon at an end. The French were compelled to evacuate Egypt, the savants were called away in the midst of their labours, and the fragments of the eastern Institute were reunited to the Institute of France.

In 1803, when Bonaparte was silently preparing to ascend the imperial throne, he regarded with some alarm the condition of the Institute, the greater part of whose members had by this time become attached to studies connected with moral and political science. Discussions on such points were very awkward at the time; and the 'man of destiny' discovered that the classes into which the Institute was divided were too few for the requirements of its object, and very liberally gave it a new organisation, dividing it into four classes instead of three. These were-1st, Physical and mathematical science, consisting of sixty-five members; 2d, French language and literature, forty members; 3d, History and ancient literature, forty members; and 4th, The fine arts, twenty-eight members. This, it will be seen, as compared with the republican constitution, divided literature into two-French and universal; and entirely swamped moral and political science. His next step, after he changed his name from Bonaparte to Napoleon, was to make a corresponding change in the name of the society, which from the National became now the Imperial Institute.

The imperial régime passed away, and the Restoration restored the Institute nearly to its original form, as well as to its national name. In 1815, the Bourbons abolished the four classes of the emperor, and re-established the four original academies, but in this order: the French Academy, the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, the Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Fine Arts. Thus united, they formed the National Institute, under the personal direction of the king, but each with an independent organisation, and the exercise of certain peculiar powers. In 1832, the class suppressed by Bonaparte was restored by Louis-Philippe, under the name of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences; and the Institute therefore may now be supposed to have reached its highest development.

The business of the different academies is multifarious. The dictionary, we all know, is due to the French Academy, and it cost an infinite deal of time, trouble, and speech-making. When Colbert attended a sitting to judge for himself how they proceeded in their labours, he listened for two mortal hours to a debate on the single word ami, and left the house impressed with the conviction that no society could get on more rapidly in a work of the kind. The Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres is unlimited in the number of corresponding members; and through this branch the roll of the Institute is embellished with the names of the most distinguished scholars in Europe. This academy is charged with the superintendence of public monuments, and the conservation of those already existing; and it has likewise the principal part in editing the Journal des Savans.' The Academy of Sciences is divided, as at first, into two principal departments-the physical and mathematical. The number of its foreign associates is limited to ten. Bonaparte was proud of his distinction as a member of this branch; and when he was already decorated with the trophies of Italy, he appeared more than once, in public solemnities, in the habit of the Institute. The Academy of Fine Arts is divided into five sections, and has a committee charged with the publication of a dictionary of the fine arts. The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences is likewise divided into five sections, but has only five foreign associates. The honoraires attached to the title of member of the Institute amount to 1500 francs (L.60) a-year.

It will be observed that the grand distinguishing feature of the Institute, is its combining in one society the principal departments of human knowledge. We do not see very clearly the advantage of this kind of centralisation; which is attended with the effect of rendering the title of member somewhat obscure. A member of the Institute' may be either a farce-writer or an astronomer.

THREE WEEKS AT CONSTANTINOPLE.

SECOND ARTICLE.

August 21.-Crossed the Golden Horn in the morning, for a ramble about Constantinople. Went first to the leather bazaar, where we made a few trifling purchases; and thence to the madhouse. This latter is divided into two spacious courtyards; in the first of which we were shown, much to our surprise, some wild beasts in large dens!-by way, I suppose, of preparing us for what we were next to see. Accordingly, in the next court, we saw the patients, about twelve in number, all confined by very strong iron chains and collars round their necks. Their cells were large, but neither paved nor floored; and it seemed as if the poor wretches must often suffer agonies of cold. They were all more or less clothed, though rudely enough; and their persons were not wholly neglected. One poor wretch, who was just about to undergo a washing, was a pitiable spectacle. He was quite naked, but with the iron chain and collar still about his neck, and his body disfigured with bites of vermin. As he sat on the ground in this condition, with his bare shaven head, he was no inapt representative of Job in his affliction. We noticed but one very noisy patient. There was an Arab patient, with only a rough blanket thrown over him, sitting in the farthest window of his cell, with the sun streaming in through the bars over his dark features, as he laughed and conversed wildly with a visitor. Such a study for a painter I scarcely ever saw before. Two other patients, in opposite corners of the same cell, had been smoking, and were now throwing their cherry-stick pipes at one another. Another, whose arm was bound up, as if severely injured, had, as they told us, twice broken his chain. We were given to understand, I know not how truly, that it was permitted to irritate the patients to frenzy, as though their ravings were oracular, and the effect of divine inspiration. Any one within the court had

access to the cells and the patients. I was surprised with myself at not feeling more shocked than I did, at a spectacle which I should certainly have shuddered at had I heard it described as I saw it with my own eyes. There is something in our preconceived ideas of happiness or misery that usually exceeds the reality.

We continued our walk to the desolate site of the barracks of the exterminated Janissaries. The whole quarter is in a most ruinous condition. We saw what had been a beautiful marble fountain quite dried up and disfigured the truest emblem of desolation. We then came to a single column, with the Roman eagle at each of the four corners of the capital. The design of the column was not very striking, and was apparently of late Roman architecture. From thence we made our way to the historical column, or the column of Honorius and Arcadius. Of this the base alone is standing, and even that is in a very ruinous condition. The column fell down about the year 1716, two years before Lady Mary Wortley Montagu came to Constantinople. We ascended the remaining steps of the winding staircase, which once, I conclude, conducted to the summit of the column, and found a small chamber inside the base. The whole seems to have been constructed of white marble, the blocks of which material are very large.

phorus, Constantinople, and the cypress-crowned cemeteries of Scutari filling up the view. The sultan, preceded by a guard and the officers of his household, came on the ground in an odd but picturesque carriage, with a body of the shape of a sedan-chair, richly gilt, with a crimson hammercloth, and drawn by four beautiful white horses. He was followed by the queen-mother, and the foreign ministers, in carriages, and by the chief officers of state, superbly mounted on Arabians. We obtained a very good view of the sultan's features: he is much marked with the smallpox, but has fine dark eyes.

Here were also several very handsome arabas, filled with the women of the imperial harem; but they were closely veiled, and their guards kept all spectators at a most respectful distance. The arabas were drawn by white oxen of great size and beauty, with handsome frontlets, and from the yokes over their necks proceeded long bent pieces of wood, curved backwards, to which the tails of the animals were attached, and held up in the air with pendant bells, tassels, and ribbons. Presently, what should we hear but a report that a Frank had got into a dispute with the Turks, and that he had been severely beaten, and dragged to Scutari as a prisoner between two horse soldiers, and that in all probability he would undergo the bastinado. The August 22.-Went in the afternoon in a caïque to a account had been, as usual, exaggerated; but it was spot called the European Sweet Waters, on the Euro-true that he had been beaten, and was obliged to keep pean side of the Bosphorus, on the banks of the little river that runs into the Golden Horn. Here there is a pretty summer kiosk belonging to the sultan.

August 23.-Made a few purchases in the bazaars, and dined in Constantinople on kabob, a genuine Turkish dish, and very good. It consists of mutton cut into small pieces, broiled on skewers, and served up on large flat cakes resembling crumpits.

August 24.-Dancing dervishes again at two o'clock. August 25.-Rode round the old walls of Constantinople. It is a curious and interesting round to take, with some fine points of view. On our way we passed under the aqueduct of the Emperor Valens, which is a stupendous work, and still serves as an aqueduct; but without the assistance of natural scenery as an adjunct, aqueducts are rarely beautiful objects.

his bed in consequence. One of our party went to visit him, and he turned out to be the identical Frenchman who had accompanied us to the mosques, and who spat upon the sacred pavement. We never heard the origin of the quarrel on the day of the review; but it is clear that a man who could commit so gross an inadvertence as he did on one occasion, might well be supposed not to have acted very wisely on another. On our return, we bought another basket of the delicious grapes of Scutari.

August 27.-Saw the sultan go to mosque on horseback, attended by the grand vizier and other officers of state. We then, by a short cut, got up the hill before the cavalcade, to a point where the road wound round the ascent, and again secured a good position for seeing the procession. Several Turks stood by with petitions In the course of our ride I saw several hoopoes, to present, which were all received in order by the birds which I never before saw on wing. They are fre-appointed officer as the sultan passed by. It was quite quently sold in the streets as articles of food. On our return, we passed by the smoking ruins of above a hundred houses that had been burnt down four days ago; but a hundred houses is not considered as a conflagration of much consequence in Constantinople.

Before we reached home, we met a Greek funeral. The corpse was carried on an open bier, strewed with flowers, and its face exposed. The Bible was laid upon its breast. Two boys followed with lighted candles, with priests, friends, and hired mourners, chanting a dirge. We rode home by the bazaars, and crossed the Golden Horn by the bridge of boats, and so through the cemetery to Pera.

August 26.-Grand military review at Scutari. This, we were informed, was the first review that had taken place in the present sultan's reign, and the second only since the adoption, to a considerable extent, of European military systems and dress. About eight hundred troops were reviewed-light and heavy cavalry and artillery, and large columns of infantry. The light cavalry regiment of lancers looked well in a body, and the red fez, or bonnet, with its deep blue tassel, and the red pennon of the lance above, presented, when viewed in a mass, a surface tinted like the flowers of the cactus. Individually, men, arms, and accoutrements were very shabby. There were no scabbards to the bayonets; and as far as we could judge, knowing next to nothing about military matters, much could not be said in praise of the manoeuvring of the troops. The artillery practice, however, was more creditable. The review took place on a fine tract of undulating open country, with mountains in the distance-the Sea of Marmora, the Bos

realising one of the scenes we had read of, in childhood, from the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. The sultan's saddle-horses, of which several were led, and those on which his officers were mounted, were of the greatest beauty.

August 28. In the course of our walk we passed once more through the slave-market, which had a livelier appearance than when we visited it before. The greater part of the slaves were black females. We saw some miserable-looking objects among the little black girls; and one black lad was being rubbed all over with oil, in the hot sun, which gave him a most attractive polish. But what delighted us most, was to see some dishes of hot potatoes and garlic, which a man was carrying on his head, upset in the crowd, and the little hungry black wretches scrambling for them. This slave-market, notwithstanding the dirt of it, abounds, like every other corner of Constantinople, with interesting studies for painters. We were then just going to look about us once more in the bazaars, when we heard the cry of Fire in Pera!' This was to us equivalent to tam proximus ardet Ucalegor!' and we lost no time in hurrying back across the Golden Horn, with a mixed mob of Jews, Armenians, and others, who closed their shops with all haste in the bazaars, and hurried away to save their property in their dwellinghouses in Pera. We got across the water in the midst of an extraordinary tumult, and rushed up the hilly streets of Pera-not the pleasantest or the easiest ground in the world to hurry over. We found that the fire was not far from our hotel, but that it was being rapidly got under. I saw one small brass fire-engine,

that could scarcely have had as much power as an ordinary garden engine, hurried along on men's shoulders to the scene of action. But the Turkish firemen wore workmenlike dark dresses, and were armed with powerful axes, and very long poles, with iron hooks and spikes at the end, intended to be used, if necessary, or thought to be so, in pulling down the houses adjoining those on fire, so as to smother the fire with the rubbish. Turkish houses, it must be observed, are not built for perpetuity, being, in fact, little stronger than temporary wooden sheds. One way or another, however, the fire was extinguished; whereupon we all recrossed the water, to prosecute our day's excursion in the streets of Constantinople, and no sooner got thither, than we again heard the alarm of Fire!'-this time in Constantinople. Passing by the shop of a perfumer, with whom we had had some bargainings in the early part of the day, we found him hastily shutting up his shop, and hurrying off to the scene of the conflagration, which was near his residence, just as we ourselves had hurried off to Pera a short time before.

August 29.-Ceremony of the dancing dervishes at their convent at Cassim Pasha. I went rather in expectation of some ceremony different from that which I had already witnessed at Pera, but was disappointed. I here saw a very little boy, quite a child, running about in the dress of a dervish. The high conical cap gave him a most ludicrous appearance. When the ceremony began, the poor little thing went through the prostrations and reverences with the rest. But I was really quite glad to see that he soon grew tired, and so put on his slippers, and went out to play in the open air with others of his own age.

In the afternoon we rode round by the bridge of boats to the aqueduct of Valens, and to the old city walls, as before, and outside the city to the suburb of Eyoub. Eyoub, or Job, the standard-bearer of Mahomet, was killed by the Saracens, and was buried there. Hence Eyoub is considered by the Turks as a most sacred place of burial, and here also is their most sacred mosque, where each succeeding sultan is inaugurated, by girding himself with the sword of Othman. The Turks, as true believers, do not much like the Franks to approach the place. The cemeteries are here kept in good order, and the tombs are covered with ivy and creepers of various kinds, and are picturesquely disposed (as indeed everything is in Constantinople) beneath the shade of lofty trees. We then ascended the hill beyond, and obtained a superb view of Constantinople and the Golden Horn. We rode from thence along the brow of the hill, looking down upon the valley of the European Sweet Waters; and in a valley near the sultan's kiosk we saw an encampment of Turkish artillery, to which we descended, and so crossed the hills home to Pera.

August 30.-To Therapia for the second time. Rode in the afternoon to the gigantic plane-trees in the Sultan's Valley, and to the Valley of Roses, and the village of Buyukdéré. Slept at Therapia.

August 31.-From Therapia, on horseback, to visit the city aqueducts, by the villages of Belgrade and Pyrgos, and so to Justinian's aqueduct, and home to Pera, making a ride of about thirty miles through a very interesting country. We first ascended the valley of Buyukdéré, and highly enjoyed the beautiful prospect, as we looked back upon the Bosphorus from the great arch of Sultan Mahmoud's aqueduct, between Buyukdéré and Bagdsche Koï. On arriving at Belgrade, we saw the whole system of collecting water in large reservoirs, or bends, as they are called, for the use of the cities of Pera and Constantinople. The forest of Belgrade is the only woody region near Constantinople. The thick shade is considered a great protection to the reservoirs, and on this account the wood is never cut; and this, again, is probably the cause why Belgrade is, at certain seasons, extremely unhealthy, and very subject to malaria fever. Two out of the seven aqueducts, we remarked, were not conducted in a

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straight line, but with a considerable curvature in the line of their direction.

On arriving at Justinian's aqueduct, we halted for an hour under the shade of its immense structure, and examined it in every accessible part, and climbed up the hill that formed one side of the valley across which the aqueduct is built. On the summit, where the stonework was broken away, the stream of water conveyed by the aqueduct was visible. It was two feet deep, and two feet across; but the channel was only half-full. The water was running with considerable rapidity. Underneath the shade of the arches were two wild-looking shepherds, with sheep, cows, and goats. The goats were hanging about the stonework in the most picturesque manner possible. I observed a few fine butterflies in the woods of Belgrade. In the course of the day we saw several hoopoes (birds which I have made mention of before), and caught a tortoise, and met some strings of camels laden with charcoal. Waterwheels were in general use for irrigating the cultivated lands.

September 2.-At two o'clock, to the ceremony of the howling dervishes of Scutari. The preliminary prayers and prostrations resembled those of the dancing dervishes, but with this difference, that incense was made use of, and that the accompanying song had a slight resemblance to what I have heard in Roman Catholic services. These howlers do not wear a dress peculiar to themselves, as the dancers do, but appeared to consist of devotees of every kind of profession and denomination. However, to show that there must be a community of feeling between the dervishes of both kinds, I will mention that we saw one of the dancing dervishes standing, in a composed attitude, amongst the chiefs of the howlers. After a repetition of some long prayers, and hideously-vociferous and noisy responses, the devotees, at least fifty in number, stood up in a row, quite close together, and began to recite or repeat the words, 'Lă-älläh-il-ăllāh !' (accented agreeably to the quantities I have here marked), bowing themselves backwards and forwards, keeping strict time to their recitative. This motion, and the repetition of the words, became gradually more and more rapid, with occasional violent ejaculations of 'Hu!' whilst the noisy chant and responses, in a yet shriller key, were kept up without intermission by two others who remained kneeling on the floor. The movements and vociferations gradually assumed a more frantic character; the agitations of the devotees, and, I am shocked to add, of several children who bore their part in the ceremony, became dreadful. The heads of some were tossed about so violently, that their features were scarcely distinguishable, and their limbs quivered with excitement, whilst they uttered appalling guttural noises, mingled at the same time with some extremely fine deep bass notes, which were heard at intervals in the storm of vociferation; but at a signal given by the chief who presided over the whole, all the howlers reseated themselves round the room with the utmost apparent composure! Some few, indeed, wiped the sweat from their brows; but not one appeared exhausted, or even out of breath.

A pause now ensued, during which the dancing dervish, who had hitherto remained a tranquil spectator of all that had passed, came forward and pirouetted, after the manner before described of his own sect, in the middle of the circle by himself for several minutes. Then the howlers rearranged themselves, and began all their movements afresh, with the exception that this time their motions were rocking from side to side, instead of backwards and forwards, with their recitative as before, but with the accentuation of the syllables changed, from anapestic, as it were, to iambic, thus, ‘Lăi-lăh-il-lăh-lāh!' Again, in the second act of the performance, did the noise become stunning; again did the contortions and excitement of the devotees seem to be approaching some inevitable climax; again did the poor children bear their part as before; when the whole exhibition, at a given signal from the chief, ended quite

suddenly the dervishes quietly resumed what outer garments they had laid aside, and-walked away!

The whole was little better than a revolting and obscene sight. All these howlers were low, ruffianlylooking fellows. There were several blacks and several soldiers amongst them. We were given to understand that they are tolerated by the government, but that they have had their orgies modified, and their ceremonies cut down, by command of the late sultan. They are generally considered as impostors, and are held as far less respectable characters than the mewlewli or dancing dervishes. Round the room in which the ceremony took place were suspended various iron instruments, with which the howling dervishes used to maim and torture themselves, or at least pretend to do so; but such exhibitions have been forbidden by authority. However, our impression was, that had they indulged in such pastimes, we should have felt little or no pity for any pain they might have suffered. The exhibition lasted two hours.

September 4.-Visited the great cistern of Constantine. It is underground, and contains a vast body of water. It is constructed inside with very handsome arches and pillars, and scarcely conveyed the idea of having been originally intended as a cistern. It was impossible for us to see the whole extent of it. I understand its Turkish name signifies 'The Thousand and One Pillars.' To-day we again passed by the Burnt Column, as it is called. It is the shaft of a Roman column that seems to have once been in the middle of a terrible conflagration, so ruined, split, and blackened is it by the fire. We had frequently seen it before in the course of our rambles.

September 7.-In the afternoon we left Constantinople for Malta by the French steamer.

is it very safe to go out of doors after dark. The troops of dogs without homes or masters that are seen in every street during the day, generally asleep in the sun, towards dusk give themselves the rousing shake, and begin to show their wakefulness by barking at every Frank they meet. At night they prowl about the city, and would probably, especially in the winter season, attack any one that fell in their way. There are several dismal stories current of persons, strangers to the conditions of the place, who have been actually devoured in this manner. Further, whoever is taken up in the streets at night without a lantern, is forthwith consigned to the guardhouse.

The goods in the bazaars are set out in most picturesque and tempting array. . One bazaar is appropriated to the sale of arms, another to the sale of drugs, a third to leathern slippers, a fourth to horse furniture; and so on, for furs, jewellery, silks, embroidery, &c. &c. The motley crowd, exhibiting the dresses of all nations, and made up of all ranks, degrees, and callings, and the brilliant and varied colours of the greater part of the articles exposed for sale, seen down the bazaars in long perspective, with the arched roof of the building high over all, with a light subdued just sufficiently to take off the glare, form a scene that a painter might succeed in expressing on canvas, but of which words cannot convey an adequate idea. I need not add that the sellers reap a tolerably plentiful harvest from the European customers. The bargaining, without which no purchase is ever completed, is often very amusing. Half, or even one-third, of the original demand is usually taken with the greatest composure.

It is absolutely necessary in Constantinople to walk a great deal, and to be equal to fatigue. The arabas are the only wheeled carriages, which only go at a footpace, drawn by oxen; and to these most of the streets are inaccessible. Nor is riding on horseback always convenient. However, very good horses are to be procured, when required for distant excursions. They gallop well, and are remarkably sure-footed in steep and slippery places.

In such a merely amateur and sketchy excursion as ours, we must, in a city like Constantinople, have passed over a thousand points important to be studied and understood. Much, however, that is perhaps of value, and certainly much that is very pleasing, will remain indelibly fixed in our recollections; serving at the same time to feed and cherish one predominant feeling of satisfaction and thankfulness—that England is our home.

JUDICIAL COMBATS AND THE WARS OF

NATIONS.

Thus we passed twenty-four days at Constantinople; and without making any excursion to a greater distance than Therapia or Belgrade, we were actively employed during the whole of the time. With the exception of the interiors of the mosques, in my opinion the chief attractions of Constantinople lie out of doors, in the exquisite views of the hill-enthroned city, and of the Bosphorus and its shores, that you obtain on every side. Above the general mass of the houses rise the spreading cupolas, relieved so happily by the lofty and glittering minarets, which, not without an elegance all their own, partake of the gracefulness both of a church spire and of the mast of a ship. These, together with the dark cypresses, the ever-clear and blue Bosphorus, with its light caïques and shipping-the ever-busy scene, the gay harmony of lively colours, the sky, sunshine, and fresh breeze-are the chief ingredients in the picture; a combination perhaps unequalled in any other part of the world. Happy are they who possess the talent of drawing! Not only the general large features of Constantinople, but the boatmen, the porters under their enormous burdens, the beggars, the itinerant venders of a thousand different articles, are subjects for the pencil on the water and on the land, all equally admirable. The Turks are apparently not without a certain na-peal to justice, in accordance with the system of Feutural refinement of manner; but I do not imagine that much insight into their true character can be obtained, or that anything can be learned concerning their domestic economy, unless some proficiency in their language be made, and after a long residence in the country, or through opportunities afforded only to a few. I have heard, from high authority in such matters, that a dinner at a pasha's table is really excellent. From what may be seen in the shops, they appear to be good cooks and delicate confectioners; and when this natural talent comes to be assisted by a few hints from the cuisine of France, the result is no doubt, as it is said to be, eminently successful.

It is a drawback at Constantinople that there are no public places of entertainment. All acquaintance with the manners and customs of the people must be picked up in the daytime in the streets and bazaars. Neither

ONE of the dark spots on the disk of the middle ages was the trial by judicial combat. When the fierce tribes of Huns and Alans, Goths and Lombards, at once inundated and destroyed the Roman empire in the west, they also displaced its enlightened civil jurisprudence, and at the same time established a rude ap

dality which they organised throughout Europe. This rude appeal to justice was the trial by judicial combat. The savage of a tribe considers it his right and duty indívidually to revenge wrongs or to repel attacks; the administration of justice is with him a personality; he individualises awards and punishments; he takes judicature into his own hands; he has no notion of giving up his individuality in this respect to society. As Feudality was but a more definite organisation of Tribism, so also was the trial by judicial combat but a more organised system of personally settling a quarrel, a dis pute, or a difference between individual and individual. The difference, and the progress, so to speak, in favour of the latter development was, that it was public and recognised, not private or secret.

As the quarrel between two persons is in close analogy, on a small scale, with the war between two nations,

having similar origins and developments, it may be well to trace something of the history of the trial by judicial combat, since it may lead us to inferences upon the military system, of which it is a portion, generally.

on by legists, and became almost the sole study of the feudal nobility.

Such was the origin and development of the trial by judicial combat. Although its institution was popular, and accordant with the spirit of the times, its evil effects soon manifested themselves. The clergy, whose canon law was excellent, and who perhaps regretted the disuse of those ordeals which appeared to appeal more to the interposition of Providence than did a personal conflict, were among the first to protest against the trial by judicial combat, as contrary to Christianity, and inimical to good order. So consonant was it, however, with the fierce spirit of the times, that ever superstition fell powerless before its influence, and the cenregarded. At length the evil became so obvious, that the civil power could no longer disregard it. Henry I. of England prohibited the trial by combat in questions of property of small value, and Louis VII. of France followed his example. The central power of the feudal monarchs was, however, yet feeble, and any restrictions which were to be made upon an institution so popular among the barons, required to be effected with prudence and policy. It was nevertheless the interest of the kings to abate these ferocious contests, and centre the administration of the laws in their own courts. Louis of France, not inaptly named St Louis, earnestly attempted to introduce a better system of jurisprudence. He wished to displace judicial combat, and to substitute trial by evidence. The great vassals of the crown, however, possessed such independent power, that his beneficent regulations were principally confined to his own private seigniory. Some barons, nevertheless, of their own accord, gradually adopted his plans; and the spirit of such courts of justice as existed grew daily more and more averse to the trial by combat. On the other hand, the successors of St Louis, awed by the general attachment to judicial combat, still tolerated and authorised its practice; and so the struggle continued for several centuries. In the course of these, however, the royal prerogatives gradually increased; and what was of more importance, the ideas of the people received a more pacific and intelligent development, as the first germs of the municipal system were manifested among them. Still, instances of judicial combat occur as late as the sixteenth century both in the annals of England and of France. As these decreased, with the ferocious habits they engendered, a great impulse was given to European civilisation by a more regular administration of justice. The authorisation of the right of appeal and of review from the courts of the barons to those of the king, was the grand desideratum; and this was gradually obtained. Royal courts, hitherto held at irregular intervals, were fixed as to time and place, and to these judges of more distinguished talents were appointed than those who administered in the judicature of the barons. They regulated the forms of law, and endeavoured to give consistency to its decisions; and the people were thus led to have more confidence in their decrees than in those of the barons, and were eager to exercise the new right of appeal. The order and precepts of the canon law in use among the ecclesiastics, being good in themselves, also contributed to this reform in jurisprudence. About the middle of the twelfth century, likewise, a copy of Justinian's Pandects' was found in Italy; and this led to a revival of the study of the Roman imperial code of laws, and so added greatly to the growth of more enlightened ideas on the administration of justice. Thus gradually was the trial by judicial combat abolished, and a more liberal system of jurisprudence established in its stead throughout Europe.

The trial by judicial combat was the offspring of feudality. In that state central power was weak. The monarch and his court had little influence during the greater part of its history. The state was composed of tribes, newly fixed in their position, and holding their land from their chiefs under the tenure of fiefs. These barons, therefore, had a court and centre of their own, and in this they claimed to administer justice, with little reference, if any, to their lord paramount the monarch. They had conquered the lands upon which they had settled with the sword; and draw-sures and admonitions of the ecclesiastics were dising his blade, every injured baron sought justice with its point. His adversary met him also with the sword, and the vassals of each supported their respective leaders in the contest. There was no appeal to a written law, to a regular magistracy, or to the decision of a sovereign national court. The same system spread from the barons to their vassals, until it became a recognised public institution, and the form of trial by judicial combat established itself throughout Europe. In civilisation, written documents, witnessed deeds, or attested agreements, regulate the stipulations between individuals, and are evidence as to the facts. In feudality, on the contrary, reading and writing were too rare attainments to be useful in the general affairs of life. National treaties and royal charters were indeed committed to the pen of a clerk, but transactions between private parties, and the details of personal business, were carried on by word of mouth or delegated promise. The proof of claims, and the evidence of facts, was thus therefore difficult, and encouraged both deception and evasion, whether in criminal or in civil cases. The definition of evidence, the decision as to whether a court should accept positive or circumstantial proof, the determination as to the respective credit to be attached to discordant witnesses, and generally all intricate questions, were, under these circumstances, matters of extreme difficulty. Recourse was consequently had to the appeal to trial by combat between the adversaries. They publicly fought hand to hand, and thus decided their differences before their judges. Undoubtedly the innocent often fell thus under the more mighty arms of their guilty antagonists; and by this absurd system justice was left to the decision of chance or force. Yet so military was the nature of feudality, in which every soldier was a freeman, and every rood of ground held by tenure of martial service, that the judicial combat was, for a considerable period, considered as one of the wisest institutions both of civil and criminal jurisprudence. It gradually superseded the ordeal by fire, water, or dead body, as well as the plan of acquittal by oath or compurgation, until it became the distinguished and cherished privilege of a gentleman over all Europe to claim the trial by combat. Not only contested questions, but abstract points undetermined by law, were thus decided by the sword, until justice dropped the scales, and waved only a bloody blade. Evidence was in the point of the sword, and the successful argument in the keenest edge, wielded by the strongest arm. Witnesses, and even judges, were not exempt from a challenge to the combat, nor could it be refused by them without infamy. Moreover, women, children, ecclesiastics, and aged or infirm persons, who could not, from circumstances of sex, or age, or position, be expected to use the judicial sword in their own right, had nevertheless the liberty, or rather obligation, of producing champions, who would fight upon their behalf from individual attachment, or from consanguineous or mercenary motives. In fine, religious ceremonies were added to the judicial combat; and what was really a recourse to the decision of fortuity, or to the preponderance of animal prowess, became superstitiously accounted a direct appeal to God. Its arrangements were settled by edicts, commented

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Let us now see what analogy exists between the history of judicial combat and that of national war. person is a separate individuality. A nation is an aggregate individuality. As the judicial combat was a contest between the individuality of two persons, so also is war a contest between the individuality of two

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