ed to come from the north-weft; and they were of much the fame violence at the moft north-wefterly fettlements, as at other places in the country. The place, therefore, where they have had their origin, muft have been in fome part of the unknown lands which lie to the north-weft of NewEngland; and probably at fome confiderable distance from any of the European fettlements; as there has been no account from any of them, in which it had not the fame direction, coming on from the north-weft. Whether the great shocks have all originated at the fame place, we have no way to determine; but from the agreement of their courfes and motions, it seems not an improbable fuppofition.

There feems to have been a particular part of the continent of NorthAmerica, which has been the feat of the earthquakes of New-England, and to which they have always been confined. To the fouth west they have several times reached as far as Maryland; but never fo far as Virginia or Carolina. To the northeaft, they have been bounded by Nova Scotia ; having never been felt much further than Halifax. From the unknown lands, at the northweft, they have gone off fouth-eaft, into the Atlantic: their extent this way, being greater than we are able to trace on either point of the com

pafs. The province of Maffachufetts-Bay, or rather, that part of New-England which is about the latitude of 43° north, where the river Merrimack empties itfelf into the Atlantic, has generally been the centre, or place of their greatest vio lence. If from this place, a line be drawn north-weft, it will pretty well reprefent the central course of the earthquakes of this country and from this line they have extended about four hundred miles to the fouthweft and north-east. It is not meant to be very particular, but only general, as to thefe boundaries.And the whole country, within these limits, has been repeatedly shaken,→ moft violently about the middle, and leaft fo towards the fouth-west and north-eaft boundaries. As far as can be gathered from the accounts, it feems probable, that most of the great fhocks have reached to much the fame places: the fmall ones, indeed, have not had fuch an extent; being felt only in different provinces and towns. But all the earthquakes, within the above-mentioned limits, have come from the fame point, and ran in the fame courfe: the great ones reaching to much the fame extent, as though there was fomething to direct their motions the fame way, and to confine them to the fame limits. (To be continued.)

jewel," cried Murphy M'Mullen, " I

in Fishkill, the former obferved to the latter, who was fresh from the haflocks of Kilkenny, that in the courfe of his longer refidence in this country, he had remarked the uncommon docility of its horfes: that among many inftances of tractability, he had seen them actually employed in threshing out wheat. "Arrah, my

lave that."-The Scotsman still perfifted that he afferted nothing but the truth, and Murphy M Mullen as pertinaciously retained his unbelief: till, ftaggered by his companion's ferious and repeated affeverations, he interro→ gated in a tone of wonder," And hoo do they hould the flails ?"

Obfervations

TH

HESE accounts given by ancient authors of the condition and tenure of the renters of land in India, agree fo perfectly with what now takes place, that is may be con fidered almoft as a defcription of the prefent ftate of its cultivation. In every part of India, where the native Hindoo Princes retain dominion, the Ryots, the modern name by which the renters of land are diftinguished, hold their poffeffions by a leafe, which may be confidered as perpetual, and at a rate fixed by ancient furveys and valuations. This arrangement has been so long established, and accords fo well with the ideas of the natives, concerning the diftinctions of calts, and the functions allotted to each, that it has been inviolably maintained in all the provinces fubject either to Mahomedans or Europeans; and, to both, it ferves as the bafis on which their whole fystem of finance is founded. In a more remote period, before the original înftitutions of India were fabverted by foreign invaders, the industry of the hufbandman,on which every member of the community de pended for fubfiltence, was as fecure as the tenure by which he held his lands was equitable. Even war did not interrupt his labours or endanger his property. It was not uncommon, we are informed, that while two hof tile armies were fighting a battle in one field, the peasants were plowing or reaping in the next field in perfect tranquility. Thefe maxims and regulations of the ancient legiflators of India have a neal refemblance to the fyftem of those ingenious modern ípeculators on political economy, who reprefent the produce of land as the fole fource of wealth in every country; and who confider the difVOL. III. No. 3.

covery of this principle, according to which they contend that the government of nations fhould be conducted, as one of the greateft efforts of human wifdom. Under a form of government, which paid fuch attention to all the different orders of which the fociety is compofed, particularly the cultivators of the earth, it is not wonderful that the ancients fhould defcribe the Indians as a most happy race of men; and that the most intelligent modern obfervers fhould celebrate the equity, the humanity, and mildness of Indian policy. A Hindoo Rajah, as I have been informed by perfons well acquainted with the state of India, refembles more a father prefiding in a numerous family of his own children, than a fovereign ruling over inferiors, fubject to his dominion. He endeavours to fecure their happiness with vigilant folicitude; they are attached to him with the most tender affection and inviolable fidelity. We can hardly conceive men to be placed in any ftate more favourable to their acquiring all the advantages derived from focial union. It is only when the mind is perfectly at eafe, and neither feels nor dreads oppreffion, that it employs its active powers in forming numerous arrangements of policy, for fecuring its enjoyments and increafing them. Many arrangements of this nature the Greeks, though accustomed to their own inftitutions, the moft perfect at that time in Europe, obferved and admired among the Indians, and mention them as inftances of high civilization and improvement. There were eftablished among the Indians three diftinct claffes of officers, one of which had it in charge to infpect agriculture, and every kind of country work.

B

They

They measured the portions of land allotted to each renter. They had the cuftody of the Tanks, or public refervoirs of water, without a regular diftribution of which, the fields in a torrid climate cannot be rendered fertile. They marked out the course of the highways, along which, at certain distances, they erected itones, to meafure the road and direct travellers. To officers of a fecond class was committed the inspection of the police in cities, and their functions, of course, were many and various; fome of which only I fhall fpecify. They appropriated houses for the reception of strangers; they protected them from injury, provided for their fubfiftence, and, when feized with any difeafe, they appointed phyficians to attend them; and, on the event of their death, they not only buried them with decency, but took charge of their effects, and restored them to their relations. They kept exact regifters of births and of deaths. They vifited the public markets, and examined weights and measures. The third clafs of officers fuperintended the military department; but, as the objects to which their attention was directed are foreign from the subject of my enquiries, it is unneceffary to enter into any detail with respect to them.

As manners and cuftoms in India defcend almost without variation from age to age, many of the peculiar inftitutions which I have enumerated ftill fubfift there. There is ftill the fame attention to the conftruction and prefervation of tanks, and the diftribution of their waters. The direction of roads, and placing ftones along them, is ftill an object of police. Choultries, or houfes built for the accommodation of travellers, are frequent in every part of the country, and are useful as well as noble monuments of Indian munificence and hu

Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1034. A, &c. + Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1035. D.

manity. It is only among men in the most improved ftate of fociety, and under the best forms of government, that we difcover inftitutions fimilar to thofe which I have defcribed; and many nations have advaneed far in their progrefs, without eftablishing arrangements of police equally perfect.

III. In eftimating the progress which any nation has made in civilization, the object that merits the greatest degree of attention, next to its political conftitution, is the fpirit of the laws and nature of the forms by which its judicial proceedings are regulated. In the early and rude ages of fociety, the few difputes with respect to property which arife, are terminated by the interpofition of the old men, or by the authority of the chiefs in every small tribe or community; their decifions are dictated by their own difcretion, or founded on plain and obvious maxims of equity. But as controverfies multiply, cafes fimilar to fuch as have been formerly determined muft recur, and the awards upon these grow gradually into precedents, which ferve to regulate future judgments. Thus, long before the nature of property is defined by pofitive ftatutes, or any rules prefcribed concerning the mode of acquiring or conveying it, there is gradually formed, in every state, a body of cuftomary or common law, by which judicial proceedings are directed, and every decifion conformable to it is fubmitted to with reverence, as the refult of the accumulated wifdom and experience of ages.

In this ftate the adminiftration of juftice feems to have been in India when firft vifited by Europeans.— Though the Indians, according to their account, had no written laws, but determined every controverted point, by recollecting what had been formerly decided; they affert, that

Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p. 154.

juftice

juftice was difpenfed among them with great accuracy, and that crimes were most feverely punished. But in this general obfervation is contained all the intelligence which the ancients furnish concerning the nature and forms of judicial proceedings in India. From the time of Magefthenes, no Greek or Roman of any note appears to have refided long enough in the country, or to have been fo much acquainted with the customs of the natives, as to be capable of entering into any detail with refpect to a point of fo much importance in their policy. Fortunately, the defects of their information have been amply fupplied by the more accurate and extensive researches of the moderns. During the course of almost three centuries, the number of perfons who have reforted from Europe to India has been great. Many of them, who have remained long in the country, and were perfons of liberal education and enlarged minds, have lived in fuch familiar intercourfe with the natives, and acquired fo competent a knowledge of their languages, as enabled them to observe their inftitutions with attention, and to describe them with fidelity. Refpectable as their authority may be, I fhall not, in what I offer for illuftrating the judicial proceedings of the Hindoos, reft upon it alone, but fhall derive my information from fources higher and more pure.

Towards the middle of the fix teenth century, Akber the fixth, in defcent from Tamerlane, mounted the throne of Indoftan. He is one of the few fovereigns entitled to the appellation both of Great and Good, and the only one of Mahomedan race, whofe mind appears to have rifen fo far above all the illiberal prejudices of that fanatical religion in

* Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p. 154.
† Ayeen Akbery, A. vol. iii. p. 95.
Preface to the Code, p. x.

which he was educated, as to be capable of forming a plan worthy of a monarch who loved his people, and was folicitous to render them happy. As, in every province of his extenfive dominions, the Hindoos formed the great body of his fubjects, he laboured to acquire a perfect knowledge of their religion, their sciences, their laws and inftitutions; in order that he might conduct every part of his government, particularly the adminiftration of juftice, in a manner as much accommodated as poffible to their own ideas. In this generous undertaking he was feconded with zeal by his vizier, Abul Fazel, a minifter whofe understanding was not lefs enlightened than that of his mafter. By their affiduous researches, and confultation of learned men,† fuch information was obtained as enabled Abul Fazel to publish a brief compendium of Hindoo jurisprudence in the Ayeen Akbery, which may be confidered as the first genuine communication of its principles to perfons of a different religion. About two centuries afterwards, the illuftrious example of Akber was imitated and furpaffed by Mr. Haftings, the Governor-General of the British fettlements in India. By his authority, and under his infpection, the most eminent Pundits, or Brahmins learned in the laws, of the provinces over which he prefided, were affembled at Calcutta ; and in the course of two years, compiled, from their most ancient and approved authors, fentence by fentence, without addition or diminution, a full code of Hindoo laws; which is, undoubtedly, the most valuable elucidation of Indian policy and manners that has been hitherto communicated to Europe.

According to the Pundits, fome of the writers upon whose authority they found

Vol. iii. p. 197, &c.