not, as many have imagined, owing to the pofitive inftitution of any one man; fome attributing the merit of their origin, and of every thing elfe remarkable in the English Conftitution, to the fuperior abilities of Alfred; but he proves that they were the natural refult of the peculiar fituation and manners of the AngloSaxons.

We cannot deny ourfelves the pleasure of tranfcribing a paffage from the chapter in which this fubject is confidered, where the regulation, obliging the members of every tything to become refponfible for the conduct of each other, is fhewn to be founded on the common notions of juftice entertained by a rude nation.

Among barbarians in all parts of the world, perfons who belong to the fame family are underflood to enjoy a community of goods, and to be all jointly fubjected to the fame obligations. In those early ages, when men are in a great measure strangers to commerce, or the alienation of commodities, the right of property is hardly dif tinguished from the privilege of ufing or poffeffing; and those perfons who have acquired the joint poffetlion of any tubject are apt to be regarded as the joint proprietors of it. At the fame time, when a debt is contracted by one of feveral perfons who have a perfect community of goods, it must of neceffity be discharged from the common funds; and the obligation of every individual becomes therefore a burden upon the whole fociety.

After a family has been enlarged, and fubdivided into different branches, their poffeffions are not upon this account entirely feparated, nor their notions of common property altogether effaced. Though the different families, who are thus formed into a tribe or village, refide in different houfes, their neighbourhood allows them fill to maintain a promifcuous intercourfe; and their fituation difposes them to act in concert with each other in all their important employments and purfuits. As, in their expeditions of war and hunting, they go out in a body, fo, according to the primitive state of agriculture, they labour in the field, and gather in the harveft in common; and what has been acquired by their united exertions, before it is divided among them by confent, is naturally conceived to be the joint property of all.

It is no hardship, that perfons connected in fo intimate a manner fhould be liable for the obligations of one another; and when an individual has become bound to a stranger, who cannot eafily know for whofe benefit the debt was incurred, it seems reasonable that the creditors should be allowed to demand payment from the community, who alone have access to diftinguifh the rights of their particular members.

But the greater part of the debts contracted in a barbarous age arife from injuries and hoftitities; for which it it ufual to make atonement by pecuniary compofitions; and as in fuch cafes it commonly happens, either that the offence was originally committed by a whole village, or, if it arofe from a fingle individual, that the quarrel was afterwards adopted and profecuted by the other members of the community, this appears a fufficient reafon for fubjecting them to a fhare of the punishment.

1

• Thus,

Thus, by the general cuftom of rude nations, the vengeance of the injured party for murder and other atrocious crimes is not confined to the guilty perfon, but is extended to his family, and even to the whole village or tribe of which he is a member. The profecution of claims, founded upon this general cuftom, makes a confiderable part of the hiftory of mankind in the early periods of fociety. Traces of this primitive law of nations may be discovered even in fome civilized countries; where, upon account of enormous offences, the criminal, together with his innocent children and other relations, have been condemned to the fame common punish

ment.

Among the Jews, when a perfon was found murdered in the neighbourhood of a city, and the murderer was unknown, it seems to have been thought that the punishment might with juftice be extended to all the inhabitants; who are, upon that account, directed to perform an expiatory facrifice. "And all the elders of the city that is next unto the flain man, fhall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley. And they fhall anfwer and fay, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes feen it. Be merciful, O Lord, unto thy people Ifrael, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people Ifrael's charge. And the blood fhall be forgiven them."

When it is customary to demand fatisfaction from a whole village for the higheft perfonal injuries committed by an individual, it cannot appear furprising that the fame privilege fhould be claimed upon account of the ordinary violations of property.

I am affured, from the most refpectable authority, that, in the villages belonging to the Highlands of Scotland, a rule of this kind has been immemorially eftablished. The ftealing of cattle was formerly the only fpecies of theft from which the inhabitants of that country could fuffer any great prejudice; and when stolen cattle could be traced within the diftrict of any particular village, the inhabitants were liable to repair the damage, unless they could point out the track of the cattle, pailing again without their territories. This law, which was founded merely upon long ufage, remained in force at least as far down as the beginning of the prefent century.

It was a cuftom, we are told, among the ancient Irish," that the head of every fept, and the chief of every kindred, or family, fhould be anfwerable and bound to bring forth every one of that fept, and kindred under it, at all times, to be juftified, when he thould be required, or charged with any treafon, felony, or other heinous crime." It is probable that this Irish regulation was ana logous to that of the other Celtic nations.

From the code of Gentoo laws, published in 1776, it appears that a fimilar regulation has been introduced among the ancient inhabitants of Indoftan. If the footsteps of a thief have been traced, or if ttolen goods are found, within a certain diftance from any town, the thief is prefumed to be concealed in it. And whenever a robbery or theft is committed in the neighbourhood of any town or city, the head-perfen of that town or city is bound to make up the

lots.

• Upon

Upon fome parts of the coaft of Guinea, the villages or towns, it fhould feem, are liable for the obligations of every fort contracted by any of their members; for we are informed, that when a perfon in that country neglects to pay a debt, the creditor is under no neceffity of arrefting the real debtor, but, in the district where he refides, has the liberty of feizing, at pleafure, fuch a quantity of goods as will fatisfy the demand, leaving the fufferers to indemnify themfelves in the best manner they can...

About the middle of the thirteenth century, it appears that the ftates of Germany had very generally adopted a fimilar practice; which is mentioned by hiftorians as a proof of uncommon rudeness and barbarifm.

The inhabitants of the fame foreign country happening, at any one time, to refide in London, were formerly viewed in the fame light, and any one of them might be profecuted for the debts contracted by his countrymen. In a treaty between Edward the Second and Alphonfo King of the two Caftiles, it is agreed, that the merchants of Bilboa, and the other towns of Biscay, fhall not for the future be arrested, nor have their goods diftrained, for the debts of any Spaniard, for whom they have not become perfonally bound. It is probable that the fmall number of Spanish merchants residing in London, and the distance of their native country, made them appear as much connected as if they had been members of a fingle rude village or tribe.

This noted regulation concerning the Saxon tythings is therefore to be regarded as the remains of extreme fimplicity and barbarifm, rather than the effect of uncommon refinement or policy; and in this view, it may be obferved that, in confequence of fome improvement in the manners of the people, the original obligation impofed upon every tything, to repair the injuries committed by any of its members, was, in a period fubfequent to that which we are at prefent examining, fubjected to certain limitations. By a law which has been afcribed to William the Conqueror, but which is probably of an earlier date, we find it enacted, that, if a crime is committed by any member of a decennary, who efcapes from justice, his tythingman, with two others of the fame tything, together with the refpective tythingmen, and two others, out of the three neigbouring tythings, fhall affemble to examine the ftate of the fact, and if the tything to which the criminal belongs is purged by the oath of thefe twelve perfons, it fhall be freed from the obligation to pay the damage. The progrefs of government, by enlarging the general intercourfe of fociety, contributed to diminish the peculiar connection among the inhabitants of the fame village, and made it appear an intolerable hardship, that they should, without distinction, be accountable for the mifdeeds of one another.'

Finding it impoffible, from the nature of our Review, to follow this ingenious and philofophical writer through the whole courfe of his work, we have rather chofen to dwell on the earlier than the later periods of the hiftory, as containing information more difficult of accefs, and confequently more useful to our Readers. We muft, however reluctantly, now take leave

of

of the Author, who purfues his fubject with the fame diligence of investigation, and accounts for further difficulties with himi Jar acuteness and foundnefs of argument. We have perv fed his volume with fatisfaction, we thank him for the pleasure we have received from his labours, and hope he will meet with encouragement fufficient to induce him to perfevere in his undertaking.

S.R.

ART. IV. Idées fur la Météorologie, &c. i. e. Thoughts on Meteorology. By J. A. de Luc, Reader to the Queen, Member of the Royal Societies of London, Dublin, &c. &c. Vol. II. 8vo. 6s. Elmfley. 1787.

THE

HE firft volume of this work, of which we gave an account in our Review for April, is employed in unfolding the general principles of meteorology; the conftitution, the modifications, and diftinctive characters, of the different fubftances which exift in the atmosphere; on the inceffant decompofitions and recompofitions of which, all the atmofpheric phenomena appear to depend. In this fecond volume, the Author proceeds to confider the phenomena themselves, particularly the grand one of RAIN, and the numerous circumftances connected with it. He examines the received hypothefes on this fubject, and fhews, that they are not only, in feveral inftances, inadmiffible in themselves, but likewife that if they were admiffible, in their fulleft extent, they would be utterly infufficient to account for the formation of rain. On the great and valuable work of M. de Sauffure, he enters into ample difcuffions; and while he bestows juft praife on the industry and accuracy of that ingenious philofopher, in his very important meteorological obfervations and experimental enquiries, he employs many of thofe obfervations and experiments for overturning the hypothefes which they were meant to fupport, and for confirming fome of his own opinions, which M. de Sauffure had controverted. With fome of the materials of the fyftems which he has demolished, with new ones from his own ftores, and with those which the late experiments on air have afforded, he has eftablished an interefting and confiftent theory, which accords admirably with the phenomena, and gives a new face to the whole fcience of meteorology.

The grand queftion in this enquiry is, what becomes of the water that rifes in vapour into the atmosphere, or what ftate it fubfifts in there, between the time of its evaporation, and its falling down again in rain? If it continues in the ftate of watery vapour, or fuch as is the immediate product of evaporation, it muft poffefs the diftinctive characters effential to that fluid :— it muft make the hygrometer move towards humidity, in proportion as the vapour is more or lefs abundant in the air :-on a di

minution

minution of heat, the humidity, as fhewn by the hygrometer, muft increase; and on an increafe of the heat, the humidity muft diminish-and the introduction of other hygrofcopic fubftances, dryer than the air, muft have the fame effect as an augmentation of heat. Thefe are the properties of watery vapour, on every hypothefis of evaporation; and therefore all the water that exifts in the atmosphere without poffeffing thefe properties, is no longer vapour, but must have changed its nature. M. de Luc fhews, that the water which forms rain, though it has ever been confidered and reasoned upon as producing humidity, does not poffefs thefe properties, and muft therefore have paffed into another ftate.

His first doubts on this fubject arofe from a circumftance which he mentions in a memoir communicated to the Royal Society in 1773, viz. that the upper regions of the atmosphere, notwith ftanding the continual afcent of vapours thither, and the dimi nution of heat at the fame time, are dryer than the lower: on the tops of high mountains, a degree of dryness prevails unknown on the plains. Repeated obfervations, with hygrometers more perfect than he was then in poffeffion of, have confirmed this remarkable fact; and he mentions a ruder, though not lefs fare, fymptom of this increased drynefs, that the ferrule of his cane dropped off in afcending one of the Alps, and did the fame on repeating the journey two years afterwards, though it had never been found loose on the plains.

There is another remarkable circumftance of the air on mountains, that it is a little dryer in the night than in the day. As, in thefe elevated fituations, the heat diminishes but little in the night, the humidity fhould not increafe much, but it fhould ra ther increase than diminish. M. de Luc feems to fufpect that this circumstance alfo may be connected with a ftill latent caufe,' but for our own part, we are perfectly fatisfied with the expla nation which he has himself given of it; viz. that the air on the plains being condenfed into lefs bulk by the confiderable diminution of heat which takes place there, the fuperior air muft fubfide, and the air on the mountains is of courfe replaced by the dryer air above them; dryer both as coming from a greater height, and as being free from the immediate vapours of the ground.

It does not appear certain, whether this increafed dryness in the night is fo conftant as the drynefs in the day. The Author has often arrived at the tops of mountains before fun-rife, and fometimes found the grafs covered with dew; but having at thofe times no hygrometer with him, he could not afcertain the ftate of the air. There might have been clouds in the night, though clear at fun-rife, for this is frequently the cafe. Nor is dew upon vegetables any fure fign of humidity in the air, as there are

grounds