I have seen many ladies of great elegance and ease of manner. The court of Egypt is composed of an immense number of nobles and high officers, whose palaces crowd the cities of On and Memphis, and whose tasteful, garden-environed villas extend far beyond their limits. Some of these nobles have the title of princes, when they govern one of the thirty-six _nomes_, or command armies. They are opulent, fond of display in apparel and architecture, great lovers of flowers and paintings, and their dwellings are profusely decorated with the one and adorned with the other. These men of rank are educated, polished in bearing, courteous and affable. Their wives are their superiors in refinement, being daughters of men of the same rank and social distinction. Nobles and noble ladies by hereditary title there are none in Egypt; for it is the boast of the Egyptians, and it is often inscribed on their monuments, that Egyptians, being all equally "sons of Misr," are all born equal. It is official elevation and position at court, as the reward of talent or services, which create noble rank. Yet there are families here who speak with pride of the glory and fame of ancestors; and I know young Egyptian nobles whose forefathers were lords in the court of the old Pharaohs, of the XVth and XVIth dynasties. I have already alluded to the brave young officer of the chariot battalion, Potipharis, whose ancestor, a lord of the court of Apophis, purchased of the Idumeans the youthful Hebrew who subsequently ruled Egypt as prime minister; and whose family, now grown to a great nation, are held here in hopeless bondage. The women of Egypt owe their high social rank to the respect shown them by the men, who give them precedence everywhere. The fact that Egypt is ruled by a queen, is testimony that woman is honored here by the laws of the realm, as well as by the customs of the people, or she would not have succeeded to the throne. It is not a mere influence derived from their personal attractions that women possess here; but their claims to honor and respect are acknowledged by law, in private as well as in public. Said Remeses to me, a day or two since, when I was remarking upon the universal deference paid to the sex, "We know, unless women are treated with respect and made to exercise an influence over the social state, that the standard of private virtue and of public opinion would soon be lowered, and the manners and morals of men would suffer." How differently situated is woman with us! Respected she undoubtedly is, but instead of the liberty she enjoys here, behold her confined to certain apartments, not permitted to go abroad unveiled, and leading a life of indolent repose.