544 
L A W. 
the expenfe of a per!’e£l cure. Theft was puniflied by 
fine, amputation or hand, or death, according to the ex¬ 
tent of the theft; adultery, by banifnment, fine, and in 
fome cafes by death. Kerdlfnert were anfwerable for all 
accidents whilft the cattle were under their care, even for 
a flock attacked by'wolves; for every thing, except rob¬ 
bery and open plunder, where he purfued and proclaimed 
the thieves, and gave due notice to his mafter; but he 
was not refponfible for the lofs of a fingle flieep killed by 
a wolf fuddenly fpringing out where the flock was kept 
together. On the death of cattle, he mult give the fkins, 
tendons, and greafe exuding from the forehead, to his 
mafter. Three calls of a ftick, or four hundred cubits in 
breadth, was to be left round every village for pafture, 
.and thrice that breadth round towns for the fame pur- 
pofe; within this circle the herdfman was refponfible for 
no damage to uninclofed grounds. The farmer was fine- 
able for deteriorations; land-marks were to let up; and 
all difputes about boundaries to be determined on a view 
of the premifes. 
Thus far the eighth chapter.—The tenth relates to the 
mixed claffes anti the times of diftrefs, during which the 
higher clalfes might defcend to the occupations of the lower. 
The fix mixed dalles may beget fifteen ltill lower, and thefe 
latter, fifteen more in progrellion of degradation ; the bafe 
producing yet bafer ; and the Chandala might apparently 
beget even lower than himfelf, viz. the Antyavalhyin, em¬ 
ployed in places for burning the dead, contemned even 
by the contemptible. The eleventh chapter contains the 
expiation for fins and offences ; and the twelfth and hit, 
the different tranfinigrations and final beatitude. In a 
iaw teaching the dodrine of tranfmigration, we mult ex- 
tpecl humanity to fentient creatures to form a very promi¬ 
nent feature ; for this realon, except in facrifice, animals 
«re prohibited to be killed and eaten. That “he who 
does hurt to animals that are not injurious to him, from a 
wifh to give himfelf pleafurc, adds nothing to his own 
iiappinefs living or dead,” every one mult willingly 
agree: but that “no one exifts more fulfill than he who 
.without oblation to the manes or the gods defires to en¬ 
large his own flefh with the flefli of another creature,” is 
a dodrine not very relifhing to an European ftomach. 
See chap. v. 
Thus much of Hindoo or Gentoo law. We believe 
we have omitted no material point but what may be lup- 
plied by a reference to our article Hindoostan, vol x. 
p. u5-147. The general principles for the guidance of 
man are well laid down, and the morality of the code is 
extremely good. Hofpitality is much recommended ; but 
it muff feem unaccountable to an European, that the li¬ 
beral profeffion of phyfic is excluded, as profane, from 
the feafts 2nd oblations to the gods and manes of ancef- 
tors. Man is taught never to be querulous even under 
pain, nor to injure another in deed or even in thought ; 
to fliun unlawful wealth and pleafures, and even lawful 
acts which may caufe future pain or be offenfive to man¬ 
kind ; to fay what is true, but to fay what is pleafing; to 
fpeak no difagreeable truth nor agreeable falfehood. 
When an ad: gratifies the mind, then let him fteadily pur¬ 
sue it; but let the purfuit lpring from himfelf; for all 
that depends on another gives pain, and all that depends on him¬ 
felf gives pleajure. He is not to be difpirited by former 
mifcarriages, nor to lol'e his fair confidence in himfelf, 
but purlue fortune until death, and never think her hard 
to be attained. He is taught to be charitable, and that 
his whole life fliould be a pradice of truth, juftice, and 
purity, and be employed in colleding virtue as his beft 
and only companion to another world. “Single is each 
man born, fingle he dies; fingle he receives the reward of 
his good, fingle the punifhment of his evil, deeds: when 
he leaves his corle, his kindred retire, but his virtues ac¬ 
company his foul. He who fully contemplates the bound- 
Jels univerfe exilting in the divine fpirit, will never gjve 
his heart to iniquity. In the knowledge and adoration of 
,one Gop (ihp whole rplg of good condud coinprifed. 
In the performance of interefted rites, the regions of the 
lower heaven are indeed attained; but he who performs 
them free from felr-love, equally perceiving the fupreme 
foul in all beings, and all beings in the lupreme foul, fa- 
crifices his own lpirit by fixing it on the fpirit of God, 
and approaches the nature of that foie divinity who fhines 
by his own effulgence!” Chap. iv. 
The Inftitntes of Hindoo Law appear to have been 
founded upon immemorial ufageand patriarchal tradition. 
It may contradict, perhaps offend, the opinions of many 
to advance the pofition, but there is ground for contend¬ 
ing, that thefe Inffitutes, not indeed in the exad form in 
which we now have them, but fubjeff to confiderable re¬ 
trenchments, are of equal if not higher antiquity than 
the era of Jewiih legiflation. They differ from the Mofaic 
in the rule of delcent; the prefervation of inheritances 
was not fo much an object with Menu. They alfo feparated 
the people into a greater number of clafles than the Jews 
were divided into. The materialifm of the Hindoo legis¬ 
lator is a lubject for the theologian to touch, and the 
dottrine of tranfmigration may excite his fmile or his 
pity ; but, with all its defeats, the Code of Menu, in ad¬ 
dition to the general and indifputable equity of its civil 
ordinances, contains a fublime and amiable philofophy, 
perhaps unrivalled, but certainly not furpaffed, in the 
writings of any heathen fage whatever. 
Of the Chinese Laws. 
From the country of Menu we proceed Hill eaftward to 
regions that have known no change from conqueft, no 
improvement from foreign intercourfe. In the Inftitutes 
of Menu, China is reckoned among the countries origi¬ 
nally fubjed to its laws, its inhabitants being of the race 
of the Clhatriyas, or lecond clafs. See the Inftitntes of 
Menu, ch. x. and our article China, vol. iv. p. 436. 
However that may be, thus much is certain ; that, go¬ 
verned for centuries before the Chriftian era by the fame 
fundamental rules with which it arofe, the unvaried in¬ 
fluence of paternal power and unaltered fyftem of educa¬ 
tion have borne the empire of China, without any mate¬ 
rial deviation, through the wear of years, the convulfions 
of domeltic quarrel, ar.d even the lliock of conqueft. 
Each new dynafty has indeed nominally, abrogated every 
thing eftabliftied by the authority of the preceding one ; 
yet luch has been the fimple, though adive, principle of 
its policy, and fo rivetted the habits and manners of its 
people, that none have thought it prudent, even where 
change feemed neceflary, to make any other than fupple- 
mentary ordinances for their own fecurity; and their le- 
giilative labours in other refpeefs feem to have conlifted 
more in revifing and retrenching the overgrown bulk of 
the then-exifting laws, and in reftoring the obfeured prin¬ 
ciples of its political fyftem all together, than in attempt¬ 
ing any alteration of thofe principles. Even their la ft 
conquerors merely profefted to reform the legiflation of 
the dynafty they had overthrown. 
Notwithftanding the immenfe commerce exifting for 
upwards of a century between the weftern world and the 
fubjeds of the Chinefe empire, its laws remained un¬ 
known to Europe; and inquirers were reduced to glean¬ 
ing the few that are difperled through the general, but 
valuable, communications that have been made from time 
to time, by the catholic miflionaries. But, at length, 
our countryman Hr George Staunton has favoured the 
world with a tranflation of its code, intitled Ta Tsing 
Leu Lee, or the Laws and Statutes of the Dynafty of 
Tfing; a work the more valuable, as it may, on a compa- 
rifon with the laws and cuftoms mentioned and to be 
gleaned in the annals and other public documents dif- 
perfed through what Chinefe hiftory and literature we are 
in poffeifion of, fairly be faid to contain the ancient as 
well as modern jurifprudence and policy of this imtnenfe 
and aged empire. 
The exad nature of this volume will perhaps be moft 
adequately conveyed to our readers, by the title-page to 
.1 the 
