NEW EMPIRE OF ABYSSINIA. 69 



fell, near Haouzene, in a bloody battle, in whicb Negoussie was at 

 the same time wounded and the victor. All the surrounding pro- 

 vinces at once proclaimed the pretender. Eevolt was everywhere 

 victorious ; but it was at that very time that it received its check. 

 All looks were now turned towards Gondar, which Theodore had 

 just re-entered, and greedily they questioned the mystery still en- 

 veloping the policy of the new reign. 



III. 



The first acts of Negus Theodore the Second were marked by a 

 practical good sense, and a moderation which singularly contrast 

 with his present conduct. If, however, at the very moment when 

 the bells of Dereskie aunounced his accession to the throne of the 

 Davids and the Fasilides, he had thrown a look at the past, and 

 thought of the still recent period of his proscription and misery, one 

 might easily understand that his head would have been turned. Yet 

 never was it sounder than at that critical moment, and the course 

 that he followed during four years, well justifies the infatuation of 

 which he was, at first, the object on the part of some Europeans. 

 His idea was a very simple one. He wished to regenerate Abyssinia, 

 and to draw the elements of this regeneration from its ancient civi- 

 lization. This idea, at bottom chimerical, was very seductive to the 

 enormous national pride of the Abyssinian s, and did not expose the 

 Negus to the same resistance as that which forced the Czar Peter 

 and Sultan Mahmoud to inaugurate their reforms with bloodshed. 



Abyssinia, even at the period of its greatest declension, oifers to 

 the eyes of the unprejudiced traveller, the principal strata of a tole- 

 rably advanced social order. The feudal system exists there but not 

 more powerfully than in England ; the institutions are very demo- 

 cratic, the machinery of administration simple, the code is that of 

 Justinian with some modifications, rendered necessary by the genius 

 of the people, property is well defined, individual rights are guaran- 

 teed by the right of appeal to the emperor, family relations are se- 

 cure, commerce is protected, and the vengeance of the state and the 

 atrocities of war are neutralised by the inviolability of numerous 

 gJiedem (asylums). The law is good and futile in itself: it is the 

 fault of barbarism, brought about by endless anarchy, if the nobi- 

 lity is contentious and plundering, the church avaricious, justice 

 venal, marriage annulled by the contagious example of the aristocracy. 



