ore, by the most rigorous control
exercised over all actions, can the primitive unions of men be
maintained. There must be a ruler strong, remorseless, and of
indomitable will; there must be a creed terrible in its threats to the
disobedient; and there must be the most servile submission of all
inferiors to superiors. The law must be cruel; the religion must be
stern; the ceremonies must be strict.

The co-ordinate necessity for these several kinds of restraint might be
largely illustrated from history were there space. Suffice it to point
out, that where the civil power has been weak, the multiplication of
thieves, assassins, and banditti, has indicated the approach of social
dissolution; that when, from the corruptness of its ministry, religion
has lost its influence, as it did just before the Flagellants appeared,
the State has been endangered; and that the disregard of established
social observances has ever been an accompaniment of political
revolutions. Whoever doubts the necessity for a government of manners
proportionate in strength to the co-existing political and religious
governments, will be convinced on calling to mind that until recently
even elaborate codes of behaviour failed to keep gentlemen from
quarrelling in the streets and fighting duels in taverns; and on
remembering further, that even now people exhibit at the doors of a
theatre, where there is no ceremonial law to rule them, a degree of
aggressiveness which would produce confusion if carried into social
intercourse.

As might be expected, we find that, having a common origin and like
general functions, these several controlling agencies act during each
era with similar degrees of vigour. Under the Chinese despotism,
stringent and multitudinous in its edicts and harsh in the enforcement
of them, and associated with which there is an equally stern domestic
despotism exercised by the eldest surviving male of the family, there
exists a system of observances alike complicated and rigid. There is a
tribunal of ceremonies. Previous to presentation at court, ambassadors
pass many days in practising the required forms. Social intercourse is
cumbered by endless compliments and obeisances. Class distinctions are
strongly marked by badges. The chief regret on losing an only son is,
that there will be no one to perform the sepulchral rites. And if there
wants a definite measure of the respect paid to social ordinances, we
have it in the torture to which la