970 Memoir of Mechithar Ghosh. [No. 106. 



superior to the " Select Fables of Vartan," published at Paris in the 

 year 1825, with a French translation, by that most indefatigable 

 and highly distinguished orientalist, M. J. St. Martin, under the 

 auspices of the Asiatic Society of that place. 



But the crowning literary production of this great Leviathan of 

 Armenian literature, is the Code of Laws which he concocted, framed, 

 and promulgated, in the year 1184, and which has immortalised 

 his name as a legislator and first-rate author, in the recollection of 

 posterity. In the preparation of this law-book, he availed himself of the 

 assistance of Frater Josephus and Frater Paulus, both equally distinguish- 

 ed in the page of our national history, for their literary attainments and 

 deep research. The laws comprised in this Herculean work are both 

 civil and ecclesiastical, and admirably adapted to the state of the Arme- 

 nians of those days. Mechithar Ghosh shines more conspicuously in the 

 character of a legislator than in that of a divine, a disciplinarian, an 

 annotator, a poet, or a fabulist. I have treated, at great length of the 

 code of this eminent legislator, in my " Essay on the Laws and Law- 

 Books of the Armenians,"C'^) and furnished some specimens of the laws 

 contained therein. I must here repeat, what I have already stated 

 elsewhere, my deep regret at the total absence of a printed Armenian 

 standard Code of Laws, to the great inconvenience and difficulty of the 

 Armenians located within the pale of the Honorable Company's courts 

 in this country. Authentic and genuine copiesC") of the law-book of 

 Mechithar Ghosh, are to be found in the extensive library of the Me- 

 chitharistic Society of Venice. Want of funds to meet the expenses 

 of printing, if I am correctly informed, is the only cause of the non- 

 publication of this valuable work of antiquity ; which, if published, would 

 unquestionably be considered one of paramount interest and utility to 

 the Armenian nation in general, and to the Armenian colonists of 

 Bengal in particular. If the Armenians living under the jurisdiction 

 of the Zillah courts of this country, be really willing to promote the 

 security of the property of their children, let them step forward with 



("') Which will shortly be published. 



(") Since writing the above, I have been credibly informed that correct and elegantly 

 written copies of this book are also kept in the library of Etchmiatchin. It is to be 

 hoped that the work in question will speedily be published, either at Venice or Etch- 

 miatchin. 



