526 
of ho consideration in the account of his 
feelings or his purse, and so may refuse 
to notice them; whilst it appears that 
there is no other person on whom the law 
easts the obligation to feed them. 
It may happen also that the lord may 
neglect to seize and proclaim them as 
estrays; or the time which intervenes be- 
tween their being umpounded and the 
proclamation may be great; whilst it ap- 
pears that he is not in the interim obliged 
to provide them with food. And though 
the hayward, if he be a humane man, or 
in the hope of being repaid, or by the 
command of the lord (in the expectation 
of its becoming an estray), will sometimes 
feed the distress; and though the owner, 
if he be ahumane man, will not fail to re- 
pay him forit; yet this does not, and 
cannot always happen for obvious rea- 
sous. So thatas the law now stands, in 
this age of benevolence and feeling, a dis- 
tress of cattle (often very valuable ani- 
mals) tuken damage-feasant, may perish in 
the common pound for want of sustenance : 
nay, et would often perish if humanity did 
noi prevent it. 
Whilst such a case as this can exist, 
how untrequent soever it may occur, it is 
a reproach to the Law; which should not 
leave what ought to be done to the dis- 
cretion or feelings of any man, but should 
make it compulsory on him ; whichshould 
take to itself the merit of “ commanding 
what is right and prohibiting what is 
wrong,” without borrowing any thing from 
the refinement of public manners or indi- 
vidual compassion. 
If it were my object to interest the 
feelings of the reader, I might justly draw 
a very affecting picture of the misery of 
dumb animals confined for days without 
food, in a small inclosure, without any 
shelter from the weather, or any thing to 
le down upon but mire and dung. I 
might speak of the mute language of their 
pain, which no passenger stops to con- 
strue; and their patiently standing hour af 
ter hour, with eyes closed and head droop- 
ing, inacorner ofthiswretched place,which 
ho passenger sees. But those who are 
born to be the champions of humanity need 
mot themselves be tortured inorder to 
teach them the rights of suffering crea- 
tures: itis enough that they see or are 
told what justice and humanity require. 
A reformation might easily be effected 
in the case before us by making the year 
and day begin to runfrom the time of im= 
pounding’; and by giving alien on the 
distress for the costs of keeping from that 
time. But perhaps the law of distress 
Two Passages in Homer explained 
[July 1, 
may need a complete revision: and lam 
told that a person, high in the law, some- 
time avo alluded to it in the House of 
Commons, and promised to bring forward 
a bil which had this for its object. 
Yours. foes. 0a 
Stroud, PLHP. 
April 20th, 1807. 
ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
ae taste prevailing in this and other 
European countries tor Oriental Lite= 
rature, promises to contribute much to the 
improvement of philology and learning: 
and when classic scholars engage in this 
pursuit, the more eminent Greek writers 
will richly share in the general benefit, 
by light reflected upon them from the 
Kast. The acknowledged derivation of 
‘the Greek from the Asiatic languages, the 
high antiquity of Homer, his frequent use. 
of terms 1n the sense which they bore in 
the parental tongue, are circumstances 
thatoccasion obscurities in many places of 
his immortal works, which the skill of those 
acquainted only with later Greek authors 
has been by no means able to remove. 
Such obscurities the critics and commen- 
tutors, instead of elucidating by more en- 
lighteued criticism, have, from their want 
of acquaintance withthe languages of Per- 
sia, Arabia, Chaldea, Egypt, and Judea, 
passed over unobserved, or at least unex- 
plained. As this subject is new and, 
as I conceive, important, I propose, 
through the medium of your useful and 
well conducted miscellany, to submit an 
example to your classical readers; and if 
it should appear worthy of their attention, 
I shall send for publication a series of re- 
marks upon the several books of the liad, 
combining, in the order of those books, 
critical observations with etymological en- 
quiries. 
I select that example which first oc- 
curs to my memory, though perhaps mot 
the most striking that might be adduced. 
Hector, it appears from many passages 
of Homer, was the chief, if not the only 
means of repelling the Greeks; and in ac- 
knowledgment of his courage, skill, pru- 
dence, and vigilance, in the defence of 
Troy, his fellow-citizens had the gratitude 
to appropriate a tract of land to his only 
son, who was born during the latter period 
of the siege, and whom the father, to 
commemorate a circumstance which re~ 
flected so much bonour upon his valour, 
called Zamindar, which, in the language of 
the Persians (no very distant neighbours) 
signifies lord of the land, and which Me 
this 
. 
