The commander of the artillery, Phaya-viset, Song-khiam, is also often brought in connexion with foreign missions. This office is held by Sur-Beneditto-de-Arvellegeria, a Cambojan Portuguese, who, with his brother, Sur-Pascoal, has been for many years in the employ of the king of Siam. The governors of all provinces, whether great or small, are of the second rank, or phayas, with one exception, that of the governor of Ligore, called Chao-phaya-lahhon. Their subordinate officers are not known. CHAPTER XX. ANCIENT LAWS OF SIAM--LEGAL OATHS--PUNISHMENT FOR DEBT--DIVORCES--POPULATION OF SIAM--STATURE AND COMPLEXION OF THE SIAMESE--DIVISION OF TIME--BOUNDARIES AND POSSESSIONS OF SIAM--MARINE OF SIAM--IMPORTS--INLAND TRADE--CURRENCY--TREATY OF COMMERCE--TABLE OF EXPORTS. The Siamese have written _laws_, which are dated as far back as 561 of Christ; and others are referred to in their courts, to the years of 1053-1614 and 1773. The higher officers of state are the justices and magistrates, but the final decision rests with the principal local authority within whose district the delinquent resides. Where the government is a perfect despotism, and the channels of justice are polluted by corrupt propounders of the law, equity and justice are but empty names, and good laws a mere mockery. Oaths are administered to witnesses only on formal and solemn occasions: the following being the form used in their courts as translated by Capt. Lowe:-- “I, who have been brought here as an evidence in this matter, do now, in the presence of the divine Prah-Phutt hi-rop (Budha,) declare that I am wholly unprejudiced against either party, and uninfluenced in any way by the opinions or advice of others, and that no prospects of pecuniary advantage, or of advancement to office, have been held out to me; I also declare that I have not received any bribe on this occasion. If what I have now spoken be false, or if in my further averments I should colour or pervert the truth, so as to lead the judgment of others astray, may the three Holy Existences, viz.: Budha, the Bali (personified,) and the three priests, before whom I now stand, together with the glorious Dewatas (demi-gods) of the twenty-two firmaments, punish me. “If I have not seen, yet shall I say I have seen; if I shall say that I know that which I do not know, then may I be thus punished. Should innumerable descents of the Deity happen for the regeneration and salvation of mankind, may my erring and migrating soul be found beyond the pale of their mercy--wherever I go, may I be encompassed with dangers, and not escape from them, whether arising from murderers, robbers, spirits of the earth, of the woods, of water, or of air, or from all the divinities who adore Budha, or from the gods of the four elements, and all other spirits.