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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



If voluntary gifts, made to propitiate the man who is supreme, by- 

 and-by become tribute and eventually form a settled revenue, may we 

 not expect that gifts made to subordinate men in power, when their aid 

 is wished, will similarly become customary, and at length yield them 

 maintenance ? Will not the process above indicated in relation to the 

 major state-functionary repeat itself with the minor state-function- 

 aries ? We find that it does so. 



First, it is to be noted that, besides the periodic and ordinary pres- 

 ents made in propitiation and acknowledgment of his supremacy, the 

 ruling man in early stages commonly has special presents made to him 

 when called on to use his power in defense or aid of an aggrieved sub- 

 ject. Among the Chibchas, " no one could appear in the presence of a 

 king, cazique, or superior, without bringing a gift, which was to be de- 

 livered before the petition was made." In Sumatra, a chief "levies no 

 taxes, nor has any revenue, ... or other emolument from his subjects, 

 than what accrues to him from the determination of causes." There is 

 a kindred usage in Northwestern India. Of Gulab Singh, a late ruler 

 of Jummoo, Mr. Drew says : " With the customary offering of a rupee as 

 nazar [present] any one could get his ear; even in a crowd one could 

 catch his eye by holding up a rupee and crying out, . . . 'Maharajah, 

 a petition ! ' He would pounce down like a hawk on the money, and, 

 having appropriated it, would patiently hear out the petitioner." There 

 is evidence that among ourselves in ancient days a like state of things 

 existed. " We may readily believe," says Broom, referring to a state- 

 ment of Lingard, " that few princes ! .n those [Anglo-Saxon] days de- 

 clined to exercise judicial functions when solicited by favorites, tempted 

 by bribery, or stimulated by cupidity and avarice." And, on reading 

 that in early Norman times " the first step in the process of obtaining 

 redress was to sue out, or purchase, by paying the stated fees," the 

 king's original writ, requiring the defendant to appear before him, we 

 may suspect that the stated amount paid for this document represented 

 what had originally been the present to the king for giving his judicial 

 aid. There is support for this inference. Blackstone says, " Now in- 

 deed even the royal writs are held to be demandable of common right, 

 on paying the usual fees : " implying a preceding time in which the 

 granting of them was a matter of royal favor to be obtained by propi- 

 tiation. 



Naturally, then, when judicial and other functions come to be de- 

 puted, gifts will similarly be made to obtain the services of the func- 

 tionaries ; and these, originally voluntary, will become compulsory. 

 Ancient records from the East yield evidence. Thus, in Amos ii. 6, it 

 is implied that judges received presents ; as are said to do the Turkish 

 magistrates in the same regions down to our day : the assumption of 

 the prophet, and of the modern observer, that this usage arose by a cor- 

 ruption, being one of those many cases in which the survival of a lower 

 state is mistaken for the degradation of a higher state. Thus, again, in 



