Retrofpec? of French Liter ature.—-Mifcellanies. 
igious and political fociety are to be 
found in the Decalogue; and he adds, 
that he is’ unacquainted. with, any laws, 
which are not more or le{s immediately 
derived from thefe ten, primary. inflitu- 
tions. Among other luminous remarks, 
he obferves : | 
1. That the book of Deuteronomy. is 
the only complete code of laws which was 
ever given at once to any people. 
2. That it is the fole entire body of 
Jaws that has been handed down to us. 
_ 3. That it is the only one of ancient 
date, that ftill regulates an exiiting people. 
And, 4. That the nation governed by it, 
being difperfed over the whole furface of 
the earth, it is theonly one equally vbferved 
throughout the four quarters of the globe. 
Not confining himfelf to general veflec- 
tions, he enters.into particular details, 
fuch as the rights of fathers over their 
children, the feverity of punifhments, the 
projeét of infulating tie nasien from ail 
others. 
derations of 2 fimilar import, ineline him 
to think, that the work of Mofes de- 
monftrates a primitive and original legif- 
lation. He remarks on the falutary mercy 
ef that law which put an end to the bond- 
age of the Jews at a ftated’ period, viz. 
luring the jubilee ; and he oblerves, that 
fo jealous were the Jews re/pecting the 
rights of property (a new acquifition on 
their part) that they punifhed every inva- 
fion of it, and even adultery isfelf, which 
they confidered in this point of view, with 
death. 
In a fucceeding letter he confiders the 
hiftory and fituation of the Carthaginians, 
the Phenicians, &c. The Egyptians, with 
their religion, their laws, their kings, their 
education, their burials, and modes of em- 
balming, the conftruction of the pyramids, 
&c. next pafs under review. He remark 
one of the ereateft of their punifhments to 
have been the denial of the rites of fe- 
pulture, which, in the opinion of this fu- 
perftitious people, expofed them even after 
death to a real and corporeal pain. 
«¢ This.was a fublime law (exclaims he) 
which connecéted together all the links of 
the focial chain; and which, by a fingle 
privation, which feemed only to extend 
to the inanimate remains of the criminal, 
at once conitituted the punifhment of the 
dead, as well as a leffon for the living.” 
Such is the attachment of M. Ferrand to 
the injtiiutiois of remote ages, that he 
even defends that very impolicic law, by 
which children were prohibited from fol- 
lowing any other profeffion than the one 
practiied by their fatheres 
Thefe aid many. other confi-. 
“it 
Paffing from the Egyptians to the 
Affyrians, the Perfians, and finally the 
Greeks, he pays a moft-{crupulous atten- 
tion to the legiflature of the Lacedemo- 
nians, one.of the moft fingulr nations of 
antiquity. An account of the policy éf 
the Romans follows immediately after ;’ 
and it is the opinion of the author, that 
this nation was one of the wroft corrupt,’ 
and Rome one of the mot debauched cities 
in the univerfe. ; 
*< Detcription du Departement de |?Oife,- 
par le Citoyen CAMBRI; avec un Recueil 
de 46 Planches d’Oojets gravés -relatifs 3 
la Defcription,”’-=Defcription of the Dé- 
partment of the Oife, by the Citizen 
Cambri, ¥ vol. 8vo. with a Collection of 
46 Defcriptive Plates. 
Citizen Cambri, for fo he ftyles himfelf 
in the title-page, is not only a member of 
feveral learned focieties, but alfo Prefe& 
of the department, which he now under- 
takes to defcribe. As he fufpetted the 
hatty ftatiftical account entered on the 
archives of each department, in confe- 
quence of an order from the Conventior: 
in 1793, and was well aware that the of- 
ficial reports of the population, as well as 
territorial riches, were greatly exaggerat- 
ed, he determined to make a progres’ 
through the whole extent of his govern- 
ment, 19 order to vifit and examine every 
thing with his own eyes. 
Upon this occafion he was accompanicd 
by a chemilt, a botanift, anda landicapce 
painter ; with thefe he furveyed all the 
hills and plains, the farms, the manufac 
tures, the towns, hamlets, -and viliages 3 
he alfo paid the greateft attention to the 
_ woods, thenature of the foils, the minerals, 
&c. &c. produced inthis department. 
Among other objects of his attention, he 
traced the numerous banks of foffil fhells, 
which every where abound; nor did he 
forget antiquities, for he collected mure 
than nine hundred medals, which were 
found in places foimerly frequented by 
by the Roman legions. In fhort, nothing 
connected with public utility, education, 
agriculture, arts, manufactures, cr fei- 
ences, appears to have b:en omitted on 
his part. ' 
No fooner had he formed his plan, thar 
he traverfed the four circuits (arrondifje- 
mens) which compofed his prefecture 5 
beginning firft with that of Beauvais, and 
then proceeding in rotation to thofe of 
Clermont, Compeigne, and Scnlis, He 
flopped for fome time in the chief villages, 
or large towns, of every canton, that he 
might form a juft eftimate of the nature 
of the foil and the induftry of the inha« 
bitants3 
