intenance of roads and bridges, and
for the protection of women and animals,--subjects which no other
European code at that time embraced. These laws were collected into
one code by Magnus VII. about the year 1260. They were revised by
Christian IV. in 1604, and in 1687 the present system was drawn up.
So simple and compact is it that the whole is contained in a pocket
volume, which is in the possession of every Norwegian family. Each
law occupies but a single paragraph, and all is simple and
intelligible. Speaking of these early law-makers (as well as
law-breakers!) Carlyle says: "In the old Sea-Kings, what an
indomitable energy! Silent, with closed lips, as I fancy them,
unconscious that they were specially brave; defying the wild ocean
with its monsters, and all men and things; progenitors of our Blakes
and Nelsons!"

The Royal Palace of Christiania is pleasantly situated on an elevated
site, the highest ground in fact within the city, surrounded by an
open park containing miniature lakes, canals, and groves of charming
trees. The park is called the Royal Gardens, which are always open to
the public. Fronting the palace is an admirable equestrian statue in
bronze of the citizen King Bernadotte, who ascended the throne of
Sweden under the name of Carl Johan XIV., and it bears his consistent
motto: "The people's love is my reward." The palace is a large plain
edifice of brick, quadrangular in shape and painted a dull ugly
yellow, with a simple portico. It was erected within the last fifty
years, and looks externally like a huge cotton-factory. The Queen's
apartments are on the ground floor and are very beautifully
furnished, especially the White Saloon, so called. Above these are
the King's apartments, embracing the usual variety of state halls,
audience chambers, reception rooms and the like, plainly and
appropriately furnished. The palace contains some of Tidemand's best
pictures. There is also a royal villa called Oscar's Hall, situated
in the immediate environs on the peninsula of Ladegaardsoeen, less
than three miles from the city proper. It is a Gothic structure amid
the woods, eighty feet above the level of the waters of the harbor
which it overlooks. Oscar Hall, with its one castellated tower, is
scarcely more than a shooting-box in size, though it is dignified
with the name of palace. The grounds are wild and irregular, covered
mostly with a fine growth of trees, mingled with which the mountain
ash was consp