e
advanced and civilized code than any of the people whose shores they
devastated. Before the year of our Lord 885, the power of the law was
established over all persons of every rank, while, in the other
countries of Europe, the independent jurisdiction of the feudal lords
defied the laws. Before the eleventh century, the law of Scandinavia
provided for equal justice to all, established a system of weights and
measures, also one for the maintenance of roads and bridges, and for the
protection of women and animals from abuse; subjects which few other
European legal systems 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, a copy of which is in the possession of every Norwegian family.
Each law occupies but a single paragraph, and all is simple and
intelligible.

The commerce of Christiania is growing rapidly. Over one thousand
vessels enter and depart from its harbor annually, which, however, is
closed by ice three months in the year, though that of Hammerfest,
situated a thousand miles further north on the same coast, is never
frozen, owing to the genial influence of the Gulf Stream,--an agent so
potent as to modify the temperature of the entire coast of Scandinavia
on its western border.

The university founded here by Frederick VI. in 1811, is a plain but
massive structure; the front ornamented by Corinthian pillars of
polished granite. It accommodates some nine hundred students, the
tuition being free to all native applicants suitably prepared. It
contains a noble library of over two hundred thousand volumes, which is
freely open even to strangers under very simple restrictions. Beneath
the same roof is an extensive museum of zooelogy and geology. The city
has a naval and military school, a lunatic asylum, an astronomical
observatory, and various charitable institutions. Its botanical garden
is situated about a mile from the town, and contains among other
interesting and finely arranged specimens, a collection of Alpine plants
from Spitzbergen and Iceland.

The parliament house is an imposing building of original design, very
pleasing in general effect and style, facing the Carl Johannes Square,
the largest open area in the city. It was finished in 1866. The
market-place is adorned with a marble stat