to bring it to perfection. To promote this object more effectually, it was enacted that no artisan should follow any other trade or employment but that which had been defined by law, and followed by his ancestors. No tradesman was permitted to meddle with political affairs, or to hold any civil office in the state, lest his thoughts should be distracted by the inconsistency of his pursuits, or by the jealousy and displeasure of the master in whose service he was employed. They foresaw that without such a law constant interruptions would take place, in consequence of the necessity or the desire of becoming conspicuous in a public station; that their proper occupations would be neglected, and that many would. be led by vanity and self-sufficiency to interfere in matters which were out of their sphere. They considered, moreover, that to follow more than one occupation would be detrimental to their own interests, and to those of the community at large; and that, when men, from a motive of avarice, engage in numerous branches of art, the general result is, that they are unable to excel in any If any artisan meddled with political affairs, or engaged in any other employment than the one to which he had been brought up, a severe punishment was immediately inflicted upon him.

Shepherds, etc.

The last class or caste among the Egyptians included pastors, or herdsmen, poulterers, fishermen, labourers, servants, and common people. The former of these appear to have been held in peculiar contempt among them: hence it is not surprising that Pharaoh should have treated the Jews with that contempt which it was customary for every Egyptian to feel towards shepherds, or that Joseph should have warned his brethren, on their arrival in Egypt, that every shepherd was an abomination in their sight. Herodotus tells us, that the swineherds, in particular, were not permitted to enter the Egyptian temples, nor would any man give them his daughter in marriage. In the Mendesian nome, however, according to this author, goatherds were much honoured. How much all orders of shepherds were in general despised, is proved by their sculptures, both of Upper and Lower Egypt, whereon they are universally represented as dirty and unshaven; and at Beni-Hassan and the tombs near the pyramids of Geezeh they are carricatured as a deformed and unsightly race.

LAWS.

We learn from Herodotus that the kings of Egypt pos sessed the right of enacting laws, and of managing all the affairs of religion and state. We are acquainted, however, with very few of the laws of the ancient Egyptians; but the superiority of their legislature has been acknowledged in all ages as the cause of the duration of their empire-an empire which lasted with a uniform succession of hereditary sovereigns, and with the same form of government, for a much longer period than, perhaps, any other ancient state.

Besides the right of enacting laws, the kings administered justice to their people on those subjects which came under their immediate cognizance, in which they were assisted by the most able and distinguished members of the priestly order. These, were, indeed, consulted upon all questions of importance relating to the internal administration of the country. Thus, previous to the admission of Joseph to the confidence of Pharaoh, they were asked, “Can we find such a one as this is?" Gen. xli. 38; and the prophet Isaiah speaks of "the wise counsellors of Pharaoh," Isa. xix. 11.

The edicts of the Egyptian monarchs appear to have been issued in the form of a firman, or written order, as in all oriental countries. These edicts appear sometimes to have been issued by delegates. Thus, after Pharaoh had set Joseph "over all the land of Egypt," it is said, " And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand," Gen. xli. 42; which, Vossius says, was given both in token of the dignity to which he preferred Joseph, and that he might seal letters and patents in the king's name.

Causes of ordinary occurrence were decided by those who held the office of judges, thirty of whom were selected out of the principal cities to form a body for the distribution of justice throughout the kingdom. These were elected by the king, and they were chosen for their known honesty; and over them was placed one, distinguished for his knowledge and love of the laws, and had in universal esteem, with the title of arch-judge. These judges had revenues assigned them, to the intent, that being freed from domestic cares, they might devote their time to the execution of the laws. Thus maintained by the king's generosity, they administered to the people, gratuitously, that justice to which they have a natural right, and which ought to be open alike to the rich and the poor.

To guard against surprise, affairs were transacted by writing in the assemblies of these judges. That eloquence was justly dreaded which dazzles the mind, and moves the passions. Truth could not be expressed with too much plainness, as that alone was to have the sway in judgments, and because, in that alone, the rich and the poor, the powerful and weak, the learned and the ignorant, were to find relief and security.

The two leading principles of the duty of these judges were, first, that those who had been wronged should be benefitted by the interposition of the laws: and, secondly, that no favour or respect of persons should be permitted. The very spirit of their laws was, indeed, to give protection and assistance to the oppressed; every thing that tended to promote an unbiassed judgment was peculiarly commended by the Egyptian sages.

The president of these judges wore a collar of gold, set with precious stones, on which hung a figure represented as blind, this being called the emblem of Truth. This was a representation of the goddess who was worshipped under the double character of Truth and Justice, and whose name, Thmei, is supposed by some to resemble the Hebrew Thummim, a word, according to the Septuagint translation, implying truth, Exod. xxviii. 30, and bearing a further analogy in its plural termination. When the president put this collar on, it was understood as a signal to enter upon business. He touched the party with it who was to gain the cause, which was the form of passing sentence.

But it must not be supposed that the president and thirty judges, here described, were the only house of judicature in Egypt. Each capital of a nome, it is probable, had its own court for the trial of minor and local offences; and it is possible that this assembly resided wherever the royal court was held, and performed many of the same duties as the senates of other ancient states. Diodorus, indeed, mentions the thirty judges and their president, represented at Thebes in the sculptures of the tomb of Osymandas.

The laws of the Egyptians had the credit of having been dictated by the gods themselves; and Thoth, (Hermes, or Mercury,) was said to have framed them for the benefit of mankind. Those which are handed down to us by Diodorus, and other ancient writers, are briefly these:

Wilful Murder.-The wilful murder of a freeman or slave was punished with death; from the conviction that men

ought to be restrained from the commission of sin, not on account of any distinction of station in life, but from the light in which they viewed the crime itself. So heinous did the Egyptians consider this crime to be, that to be the accidental witness of an attempt to murder, without endeavouring to prevent it, was a capital offence, which could only be palliated by bringing proofs of inability to act. With the same spirit they decided, that to be present when any one inflicted a personal injury on another without interfering, was tantamount to being a party, and he was punishable according to the extent of the assault.

But, though the laws were thus inexorable towards the murderer; the royal prerogative might be exerted in favour of the culprit, and the punishment was sometimes commuted by the king. Herodotus says, indeed, that Sabaco, during his reign, "made it a rule not to punish his subjects. with death," whether guilty of murder or any other crime; but, "according to the magnitude of their crimes, he condemned the culprits to raise the ground about the town to which they belonged, to preserve it from the Nile's inundations."

Infanticide. Unlike the Greeks and Romans among whom fathers had the right of life and death over their offspring, the Egyptians justly deemed the murder of a child an odious crime that called for the direct interposition of the laws. They did not, however, punish it as a capital offence, deeming it inconsistent to take away life from one who had given it to the child, but preferred inflicting such a punishment as would induce grief and repentance. To this end, the corpse of the deceased infant was fastened to the neck of its parent, and he was obliged to pass three whole days and nights in its embrace, under the surveillance of a public guard.

Parricide. This crime was visited with the most cruel punishment. Conceiving that the murder of a parent was the most unnatural of all crimes, they endeavoured to prevent its occurrence by marked severity. The criminal was sentenced to be lacerated with sharpened reeds, and after being thrown on thorns, he was burned to death.

Perjury-Truth, or justice, was considered to be the cardinal virtue among the Egyptians, inasmuch as it relates to others; whereas, prudence, temperance, and fortitude being relative qualities, benefit only the individual who possesses them. Hence it was, that truth was earnestly inculcated among them, and any departure from it was not only con

sidered disgraceful, but when it entailed an injury on another person, was punishable by law. Those who spoke evil of the dead were visited with a severe punishment; and the false accuser was doomed to undergo the punishment which the person accused would have suffered had the accusation been proved. To maintain a falsehood by an oath was deemed the blackest crime, because it attacked both the gods, whose majesty is trampled upon by invoking their name to a false oath, and men, by breaking the strongest ties of human society, namely, sincerity and veracity. The crime was uniformly punished with death.

Theft.-A singular custom prevailed in Egypt respecting theft and burglary. Those who followed the profession of a thief, gave in their names to the chief of the robbers, and agreed that he should be informed of every thing they might thenceforward purloin. The owner of the lost goods always applied by letter to the chief for their recovery, and having stated their quality, etc., when the goods were identified, they were restored to the applicant on payment of one-quarter of their value. The license given by the government to thieves arose from the persuasion that an entire check to robbery was impracticable, either by the dread of punishment or by any method that could be adopted by the most vigilant police; hence, they considered it more for the advantage of the community that a certain sacrifice should be made in order to secure the restitution of the remainder, than that the law, by taking on itself to protect the citizen and discover the offender, should be in the indirect cause of greater loss.

Debt. The laws of the Egyptians respecting debt underwent great changes, according as society advanced, and as pecuniary transactions became more complicated. In the reign of Bocchoris, about 812 B. C., the law of debt gave rise to many disputes and much oppression. To preven tthis, Bocchoris enacted, that no agreement should be binding unless it was acknowledged by a written contract; and if any one took an oath that the money had not been lent him, no debt should be recognised, and the claims of the suing party should immediately cease. This principle was acted upon, in order that great regard might be preserved for the name and nature of an oath; while, at the same time, by substituting the proof of a written document, they avoided the necessity of having frequent recourse to an oath, thereby preserving its sanctity.

In all cases usury was condemned by the Egyptian legislature; and when money was borrowed, even with a written