will 
A writ of inquiry of damages is a mere 
inquest of office, to inform the conscience 
of the court; who, if they please, may them- 
selves assess the damages. And it is accord- 
ingly the practice in actions upon promis- 
soiy notes and bills of exchange, instead 
of executing a writ of inquiry, to apply to 
the court for a rule to show cause why it 
should not be referred to the master to see 
what is due for principal and interest, and 
why final judgment should not be signed 
for that sum, without executing a writ of 
inquiry ; which rule is made absolute on an 
affidavit of service, unless good cause be 
shown to the contrary. 
WRITER of the tallies, an officer of the 
Exchequer, being clerk to the auditor of 
the receipt, who writes, upon the tallies, 
the whole letters of the teller’s bill. See 
the articles Tally, Exchequer, &c. 
WRITING, origin of alphabetical. The 
history of the origin and progress of written 
languages, is, in most of its stages, less 
enveloped in obscurity than that of oral 
language. Difficulties attend it in common 
with every inquiry into antiquity ; but the 
data are more numerous and progressive 
than the fleeting nature of audible signs 
would admit. The rudiments of the art of 
writing are very simple ; its advances to- 
wards the present state of improvement, 
slow and gradual. Visible language, first 
used marks as the signs of things ; and we 
can trace it through all its stages, from the 
simple picture, to the arbitrary mark for 
the elements of sound. 
The rudest species of visible communica- 
tion was, the variously-coloured knotted 
cords of the Peruvians, called the qiiipos. 
They have been represented by some au- 
thors as regular annals of the empire; but 
though they might have some significancy 
by agreement, it is probable that with- 
out ora! interpretation they would denote 
nothing more than that something was to 
be remembered, like the twelve stones 
in Joshua, iv. 21 , 22. Robertson, with 
more probability, supposes that they w'ere 
a device for rendering calculation more 
expeditious and accurate ; that by the va- 
rious colours, different objects were de- 
noted ; and by each knot, a distinct num- 
ber. This is rendered still more probable 
by the circumstance, that picture-writing 
was used by the Peruvians ; and, as the 
names of numbers must be denoted by 
arbitrary signs to render calculation at all 
extensive, this species of arbitrary sign 
WRI 
might be more convenient for their rude 
arithmetic than any other. 
Picture-writing, such as was adopted by 
the Mexicans, is the first step of the pro- 
gress towards letter-writing. The simplest 
species was a mere delineation of the ob- 
ject to be denoted. Thus the North-Ame- 
rican Indians, when they went to war, 
painted some trees with the figures of war- 
riors, often of the exact number of the 
party ; and if they went by water, they 
delineated a canoe. Thus, loo, the Mexi- 
cans, at the arrival of the Spaniards, sent 
large paintings on cloth as dispatches to 
Montezuma. The Mexicans had made some 
progress beyond simple delineations; but 
of tliese their paintings are principally com- 
posed, and by a proper disposition of their 
figures, they could exhibit a more complex 
series of events in historical order. Some 
very curious specimens of this picture- 
writing are preserved: the most valuable 
one has been published, and may be found 
in Purchas’s “ Pilgrim,” or in Thevenot’s 
“ Collection of Voyages.” It is divided into 
three parts : the first is a history of the 
Mexican Empire ; the second is a tribute- 
roll ; and the third, a code of their insti- 
tutions. 
The defects of this mode of communica- 
tion must have been early felt. Where ap- 
plicable, it was tedious ; and was confined 
to objects of sense. The human intellect, 
stimulated by the necessity of improvement, 
would have proceeded through the same 
course in the New World as in the Old ; 
but a stop was put to this progre.ss by the 
destruction of the most cultivated empires. 
Picture-writing, then the simple hierogly- 
phic, then the symbolical hieroglyphic, then 
the arbitrary character for words, and, last- 
ly, for letters, was the evident progress of 
the mind. The Mexicans had actually, in 
some instances, passed througli all the in- 
termediate stages ; though the short dura- 
tion of their empire prevented them from 
extending these rmliments to a regular 
system. In the simple hieroglyphic, the 
principal part or circumstance of a subject 
is placed for the whole. In the historical 
painting before mentioned, towns are uni- 
formly denoted by the rude delineation of 
a house, to which was added some distin- 
guishing emblem : these emblems were de- 
notements of their names, which were ge- 
nerally significant compounds. Kings and 
generals were in like manner denoted by 
heads of men, with similar emblematic 
