Chapter IV. 
INHERITANCE OF COURTIERS AND OTHER OFFI¬ 
CERS OF GOVERNMENT. 
Men in office in Siam are ranked, as before noticed, agreeably to a 
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scale of fields or Naa, extending upwards from 10 to 10,000. The # 
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grades fixed by this scale are however merely nominal as to reaj 
property, and they are distinct from the Titles which are capriciously 
bestowed by the King. 
Under other conditions of society than we find in Siam, such a 
system might, with propriety, be supposed to have sprung from Insti¬ 
tutions embracing feodal servitude. It is likely that it arose in this 
country from the custom wliieh a needy Court might have resorted 
to for the payment of its servants; and that it was disused when the 
cultivated land had been parcelled out to the mass of cultivators. 
The estates of servants of Government from the rank of 10 to 
400 fields are inherited by heirs in the same manner which has been 
described as applicable to the estates of subjects in general, vizt., by 
the three-fold partition. But for civil and military officers of high¬ 
er ranks bye laws are in force. - 
An officer of the rank of Sena or Bddee or Montree [minister] 
cannot, it seems, will the whole of his property away. The Govern¬ 
ment acts here on the supposition that none of its servants are hon¬ 
est, and therefore reserves the right of controlling the distribution of 
the property of the higher ranks. 
When an officer of one of the above degrees dies, his estate is 
realized, and claims entered, in the manner described for Estates in 
general. It is then separated into four portions, one is taken by the 
King, and the remaining three portions are divided agreeably to the 
laws relative to property in general; with exceptions in case of the 
deceased leaving a widow or widows bestowed on him by the King. 
A widow who was the gift of the King to an officer receives, at 
his death, one half of half a share , above that taken by another wife. 
But if the officer received the wife at his special solicitation, she will 
