The following enactment has a most barbarous character about it, not unmixed with something extremely ludicrous as to the idea of the legislature trying to prevent women from talking: “Whereas many babbling women slander and scandalize their neighbours, for which their poor husbands are often involved in chargeable and vexatious suits, and cast in great damages:--Be it therefore enacted, that in actions of slander, occasioned by the wife, after judgment passed for the damages, the woman shall be punished by ducking; and if the slander be so enormous as to be adjudged at greater damages than 500 pounds of tobacco, then the woman to suffer a ducking for each 500 pounds of tobacco adjudged against the husband, if he refuse to pay the tobacco.” This old statute book of Virginia is full of enactments such as we have quoted; some exceedingly mischievous, and others very ludicrous. It would, however, be unfair to say that there are not also some good regulations in it. Were a history of our own or any other country to be written, founded on the legislative enactments and illustrated, whenever it was possible, by individual cases on record, we should then begin to have some idea of what history is. Instead of the splendours or the follies of a few who occupy the attention of the historian, we should be able to form a more complete picture of the condition of the whole community, and a more exact estimate of the progress which has been made in social knowledge. --------------------- THE LOSS OF THE ROYAL GEORGE. On the 29th of August, 1782, it was found necessary that the Royal George, a line-of-battle ship of 108 guns, which had lately arrived at Spithead from a cruise, should, previously to her going again to sea, undergo the operation which seamen technically call a _Parliament heel_. In such cases the ship is inclined in a certain degree on one side, while the defects below the watermark on the other side are examined and repaired. This mode of proceeding is, we believe, at the present day, very commonly adopted where the defects to be repaired are not extensive, or where (as was the case with the Royal George) it is desirable to avoid the delay of going into dock. The operation is usually performed in still weather and smooth water, and is attended with so little difficulty and danger, that the officers and crew usually remain on board, and neither the guns nor stores are removed.