capital of Bengal and Bahar; and the most authentic books, both ancient and modern, (a lift of which is given in the work) were collected, and the original text, delivered in the Hindoo language, was faithfully tranflated into the Perfian idiom. They began their work May 1773, and finified it by the end of February 1775

Such is the account given us of the rife and execution of this curious and interesting volume, from which, to use the tranflator's words, "a precife idea may be formed of the customs and manners of thefe people, which, to their great in jury, have been long mifreprefented in the western world." From hence alfo materials may be collected towards the legal accomplishment of a new fyitem of go. vernment in Bengal, wherein the British laws may in fome degree be foftened and tempered by a moderate attention to the peculiar and national prejudices of the Hindoo; fome of whofe intitutes, however fanciful and unaccountable, may perhaps be preferable to any which could be fubftituted in their room. They are interwoven with the religion of the country, and are there fore revered as of the highest authority they are conditions by which they hold their rank in fociety long ufage has perfuaded them of their equity, and they will always gladly embrace the permillion to obey them; to be obliged to renounce their obedience would probably be efteemed amongst them a real hardship."

In the preliminary difcourfe, after a few general and introductory obfervations upon the mythology of the Gentoos, the tranflator has given a fhort account of the Shancrit language, and an explanation

of fuch paffages in the body of the code as might appear by their pe. culiarity or repugnance to our fentiments, to lie moft open to objec. tion, Amongst thefe, we could have wished, as we should be forry to entertain, in any respect, a lefs favourable opinion of the author's understanding, than his great ingenuity feems to deferve, that he had not profeffed himself fo ferious an advocate for the wild and extravagant chronology of the bramins.

The Hindoos, he fays, reckon the duration of the world by four joques or diftinct ages. The it is faid to have lafted 3,200,000 years, and they hold, that the life of man was in that age extended to 400,000 years, and that his ftature was 21 cubits,

20,

3d,

4th,

lafted.

2,400,000 1,600,000

400,000

Life of man. 10,000 1,000

100

Of this laft or present age 5000: years are fuppofed to be paft. Computation, as the author justly ob. ferves, is loft, and conjecture overwhelmed in the attempt to adjust fuch aftonishing spaces of time to our own confined notions of the world's epoch. And yet, extravagant as this may appear, the tranflator feems inclined to think that it comes recommended to us with at least equal marks of authenticity with any other history of the creation. We are afterwards told of one Munnoo, an author who flourithed early in the futtee joque, or firit age, and of Jage Bulk wha lived at the beginning of the tirtal, or fecond age, whole works are ftill extant, and from which a confiderable part of the prefent compilation has been made. It does not fall in with our defign to attempt

to convince Mr. Halhed of the extravagancy of these affertions. Had he given himself but a little time to reflect upon the abfurdities of their geography (Vid. page civ.) with regard to which I apprehend he would not be thought to entertain any doubts, it might have led him at least to have fufpected that a people who could be fo grofsly ig. norant in things which day perpetually before them, and which were palpable to their fenfes, might be equally extravagant in a fcience, the object of which is fleeting and tranfient.

The code is divided into twentyone chapters, the heads of which are as follows. 1. Lending and borrowing. 2. The divifion of inheritable property. 3. Justice. 4. Truft or depofit. 5. Selling a tranger's property. 6. Shares. 7. Gift. 8. Servitude. 9. Wages. Jo. Rent. 11. Purchase. 12. Boundaries. 13. Shares in the cultivation of lands. 14. Cities and towns. 15. Scandal. 16. Af fault. 17. Theft. 18. Violence. 19. Adultery. 20. Women. 21. Sundry articles.

Among many other curious particulars, the reader, no doubt, will be aftonished to meet with a prohibition of the ufe of fire-arms, in records, which lay a claim to fuch unfathomable antiquity. It certainly gives fome colour to the conjectures of thofe commentators, who have fuppofed, from a well known paffage in Quintus Curtius, that Alexander abfolutely met with fome weapons of that kind in India and the extraordinary accounts which are given of the Feu Gregeois of the Crufades, will alfo gain fome degree of probability from the description given of the Indian Agnee-After.

We might tranfcribe the whole book, were we to attempt to give an account of all the peculiarities contained in this code of braminical jurifprudence. The laws, as might be imagined, are for the molt part local and characteristic. They frequently bear ftrong marks of the remoteft antiquity, and seem in many instances calculated for the crude conceptions of an almost illiterate people, upon their first civilization. We must therefore be content with laying before our readers, as a fpecimen of the ingenious translator's abilities, his obfervations upon fome of the most remarkable paffages in the work.

"The rights of inheritance, in the fecond chapter, are laid down with the utmost precifion, and with the strictest attention to the natural claim of the inheritor in the feveral degrees of affinity. A man is herein confidered but as tenant for life in his own property; and, as all opportunity of diftributing his effects by will, after his death, is precluded, hardly any mention is made of fuch kind of bequest. By thefe ordinances alfo, he is hindered from difpoffeffing his children of his property in favour of aliens, and from making a blind and partial allotment in behalf of a favourite child, to the prejudice of the reft; by which the weakness of parental affection, or of a mifguided mind in its dotage, is admirably remedied. Thefe laws also ftrongly elucidate the story of the prodigal fon in the Scriptures, fince it appears from hence to have been an immemorial custom in the east for fons to demand their portion of inheritance during their father's life-time, and that the parent, however aware of the diffipated inclinations of his child,

periods in affifting the freebooters with his advice, and participating in their plunder, when, at that time, fuch expeditions were esteemed both legal and honourable.

"The many rules laid down in the 20th chapter, for the prefervation of domeftic authority to the husband, are relics of that characteristic difcipline of Afia, which facred and profane writers teftify to have exifted from all antiquity; where women have ever been the fubjects, not the partners of their lords, confined within the walls of a haram, or bufied without doors in drudgeries little becoming their delicacy. The Trojan princeffes were employed in washing linen; and Rebecca was firit difcovered by Abraham's fervant with a pitcher upon her shoulder to water camels. Two women fhall be grinding at the mill," fays the prophet; but the notoriety of this fact obviates the neceflity of quotations: it may just be obferved, that Solomon, in praising a good wife, mentions, that She rifes while it is yet night," which we muft fuppofe to be before her husband; and we find this to be one of the qualifications for a good Gentoo wife alfo.

"The latter part of this chapter relates to the extraordinary circumftance of women's burning them

felves with their deceased husbands: The terms of the injunction as there fet forth are plain, moderate, and conditional: It is proper for a woman to burn with her husband's corps ;" and a proportionate reward is offered in compenfation for her fufferings. Notwithstanding the ordinance is not in the abfolute tyle of a command, it is furely fufficiently direct to ftand for a religious duty; the only proof that it is not pofitive is the propofal of inviolable chastity as an alternative, though it is not to be taken for an equivalent. The bramins feem to look upon this facrifice as one of the first principles of their religion, the caufe of which it would hardly be orthodox to investigate. There are, however, feveral restrictions with refpect to it, as that a woman must not burn herself if he is with child, nor if her husband died at a diftance from her, unless the can procure his turban and girdle to put on at the pile, with other exceptions of the fame nature, which they clofely conceal from the eyes of the world, among the other myfteries of their faith: but we are convinced equally by information and experience, that the cuftom has not for the most part fallen into difuetude in India, as a celebrated writer has fuppofed."

THE