Instances of like legislation disfigure the statute-books of every civilized country downward from the fifth century, A. D. All sumptuary laws, at Rome, were formally repealed by the later emperors; but the folly thereafter re-appeared when European society began to rally and segregate under Charlemagne. To illustrate, “in the latter middle ages, knights were allowed to wear gold, and esquires only silver; the former damask, the latter satin of taffeta; when the esquires used damask, velvet was reserved for the knights.” The first legislation of this character, in the modern world, was enacted by Frederick II., in Italy; James I., in Aragon; Philip IV., in France; Edward II. and Edward III., in England. Commencing in France with Charlemagne, it first became extensive and flourished under Philip IV. and Charles VI. From Edward III. until the Reformation, it was in great favor in England. Great was the absurdity to which legislators were carried by this vain policy. In Scotland, for example, one parliament forbade ladies to attend church with the face muffled in a veil, and another fulminated against superfluous banqueting and the inordinate use of foreign spices; while a Danish law provided that no servant girl should wear her hair curled. The edicts of Philip IV. related to extravagance at table and in dress. An edict of Charles V. forbade the use of long-pointed shoes. Charles VI. allowed no one to exceed a soup and two dishes at dinner. Later French kings sought to restrict the use of gold, silver, silks, embroidery, and fine linen. From Blanqui we take a sample ordinance of the character under consideration. “The said Lord the King, being duly informed that the great superfluity of meat at weddings, feasts and banquets, brings about the high price of fowls and game, wills and decrees that the ordinance on this subject be renewed and kept; and for the continuance of the same, that those who make such feasts, as well as the stewards who prepare and conduct them, and the cooks who serve them, be punished with the penalties hereunto affixed. That every sort of fowl and game brought to the markets shall be seen and visited by the poulterer-wardens, in the presence of the officers of the police and bourgeois clerks to the aforesaid, who shall be present at the said markets, and shall cause a report to be made to the police, by the said wardens. The public shall be likewise bound to live according to the ordinance of the King, without exceeding the limit, under penalty of such pecuniary fines as are herein set forth against the inn-keeper, so that neither by private understanding nor common consent shall the ordinance be violated.” During the same year, another ordinance provided “that no bourgeois woman shall have a chariot; no bourgeois man or woman shall wear green, or grey, or ermine, and they shall dispose of those they have, by a year from Easter next. The dukes, counts and barons of 6000 livres, in land, or more, may have