\0G 



milar to those of tlie otlier nations of the East, even if Scrip- 

 ture had not expressl}", as we shall sec in the sequel, assured 

 us of the fact. It is therefore neither inconsistent nor false, 

 to suppose the jurisdiction of the Judge, as in some instances, 

 contemporaneous with the dominion of a foreign cncniv. In 

 a word, the genius of Asiatic conquest, more particularly in 

 the earlier ages, never went to destroy or to alter the form 

 of government, in the subjugated state:* it was limited to 

 the imposition of tribute, and personal service, in the nature 

 of a feudal fee, of which singular, or, perhaps, in an uncul- 

 tivated age, natural policy, it would not be ditKcult to assign 

 the probable causes, or to accumulate examples. The sacred 

 A'olume affords us, many, and the instance of Deborah, which 

 we are proceeding to examine, though sufficiently clear, is 

 not the most express. It is a distinction which deserves to 

 be remarked, between the character of a monarchial and that 

 of any other form of government, when both are abandoned 

 to their natural bias, uninfluenced by the casual effects of 

 political and religious prejudices; and it will not, perhaps, be 

 found an unfavourable feature in the moral aspect of the 

 former. Thucidydes, and the Greek historians in general, 

 sealed as their narrations are with the stamp of truth and 

 verisimilitude, from the events of a later day, will supply 



the 



• The incjuisitive reader may consult, on this interesting subject, Ferishla, as trans- 

 lated by Dow, Xenoplion, Cyr. and Anab. particularly the former, and above all, tli? 

 judioious'and learned Pref. of Richardson to his P, and A. Lexicon. 



I 



