the master has the birch continually in his hand. It has been humorously said that the emperor canes his ministers; the ministers cane the mandarins; and the mandarins cane the people; the men cane their wives; and the wives cane their children. The Chinese may therefore be considered a well-flogged nation.

The art of printing was known in China, even before its discovery in Europe, and now nearly all persons can read. The laws are published, and it is made the imperious duty of all magistrates thoroughly to understand them. The penal code, called "Ta Tsing Leu Lee," has been published in the English language.

From this code, which has been gradually forming under a succession of emperors for ages, it appears that the laws of China are a series of police regulations, many of them such as could not be established or enforced either in Europe or this country.

The punishments inflicted by this code, are chiefly whipping with a bamboo cane; wearing around the body a heavy frame of wood called the cangue, and which is a moving pillory; banishment, imprisonment, strangulation, and decapitation. The following extracts from this code, will give some idea of it:

"Rebellion is an attempt to violate the divine order of things on earth: for as the fruits of the earth are produced in regular succession, under the influence of the presiding spirit, so is their distribution among the people regulated by the sovereign, who is the sacred successor to the seat of his ancestors; resisting and conspiring against him is, therefore, an unspeakable outrage, and a disturb ance of the peace of the universe.

of Great Britain is an aristocratic government, though the form is monarchical. A democratic government is one in which the people have a controlling influence. In this sense, ours is a democratic government, though the form is republican.

The greatest distinctions in government arise from the different parties in whose hands power is placed. In a democracy, it is directly in the hands of the people; in a republic, it is indirectly in their hands, though they depute it to others. Those governments in which the influence of the people preponderates, are called popular; those in which the people have little or no influence are despotic.

CHAPTER XXI.

Origin and History of Government.

THE necessity of Government must have been discovered in the first human family. If a child is not restrained, he will run into the fire, leap out of the window, break the furniture, injure his companions, or set the house on fire; he must therefore be governed. The larger children must be prevented from striking and wounding the younger ones; from taking away their food, &c. These too must be governed.

Without government, a family would be in a state of confusion and anarchy; its necessity therefore must have been discovered by Adam and Eve. The first government must consequently have been family government, and this doubtless suggested

the patriarchal form, which must have soon followed. When Adam became a great grandfather, with numerous descendants around him, he was likely to have an authority founded in reverence and affection, and this would lead him to be regarded, and applied to by the people, as a judge, a counsellor, and, in short, a ruler. Probably Adam was the first patriarch, and the first political chief.

In the first ages of the world, the people were chiefly husbandmen, as they had flocks, with which they wandered from place to place. As each party separated from the rest, they were likely to take some experienced man with them, who would be their patriarch.

When the tribes increased and extended their limits, and the ties of blood were forgotten, they were likely to meet and contend for the mastery. In these struggles, the strong, the daring, or the skilful warrior was likely to become the leader, and at length to receive or usurp authority. It is probable that Nimrod, the mighty hunter, was one of those who became the head of his tribe, and, at length, laid the foundations of Babylon.

He was, doubtless, a very ambitious man, and extended his domain over various countries on and around the plain of Shinar. He thus established an empire and became a despotic sovereign. In order to increase his authority, and to place his throne on a strong basis, he taught the people to consider him as ruling by divine right, and at last claimed their worship of himself as a divinity. He also, no doubt, made the monarchy hereditary in his family.

The example of Nimrod seems to have been

*

followed by all the sovereigns of Assyria, during its continuance of 1700 years. The power of the emperor or king was always absolute, and his claim to divine authority was ever maintained. No instance is recorded in which the right of the sovereign to reign was questioned, nor are we told of a single individual in these ancient days, who ever conceived the idea that the people had any right to govern themselves. Even when the government was just, and consulted the happiness of the people, it flowed only from the mercy of the sovereign.

The despotic system of this first empire appears to have been followed throughout the rest of Asia, and to some extent in Egypt; and we observe no traces of any other ideas of government than that of unlimited power in the hands of a king or chief or the priests, except among the Hebrews. Persia, a vast empire, that rose upon the ruins of the Assyrian empire, adopted the same despotic form of government, and the emperor ruled in the same arbitrary manner. He had unlimited power over the people. If the king was supposed to be bound to govern wisely and righteously, his people were equally bound to serve him as subjects and slaves.