brought the people who were scattered throughout the open country into the adjacent cities, wherein the provisions were stored, for the greater ease of distribution. The lands thus voluntarily sold, Joseph farmed to the occupiers again, at the moderate and fixed crown rent of a fifth part of the produce. Thus, says Dr. Hales, did he provide for the liberty and independence of the people, while he strengthened the authority of the king, by rendering him sole proprietor of the lands. And to secure the people from further exaction Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt, that Pharoał should have the fifth part; which law subsisted to the time of Moses, Gen. xlvii. 22-26. By this wise regulation, the people had four-fifths of the produce of the lands for their own use; and were exempted from any further taxes, the king being bound to support his civil and military establishment out of the crown-rents. Whereas, by the original constitution, settled by Menes and his prime minister, Thoth, or Hermes, (as we learn from Diodorus,) the lands had been all divided between the king, the priesthood, and the soldiery, who possessed each a separate third part to support their respective establishments. The revenues of the crown, therefore, were rather abridged than increased by this regulation, while Joseph respected the primitive usage, and bought not "the land of the priests;" but during the continuance of the famine, he fed them at the king's expense: so that, by the royal bounty, "they sold not their lands." Thus was this consummate statesman so truly "discreet and wise," because he was guided by the Spirit of God; "a father to Pharoah" and his people, and a blessing to the world, whom God, in kindness, raised up to preserve life to many nations by a great deliverance.

Among the many foreigners who came down to Egypt to buy corn, on account of the dearth in their own lands, were the brethren of Joseph, Gen. xlii. 1—6. This was in the first year of the famine, and the eighth of his regency. It would appear, that, although the Egyptians themselves could purchase the corn of the officers appointed by Joseph for that purpose, no strangers could obtain it till they had received his own special permission. To him, therefore, they came, and fulfilling at once the dreams which, in their anger, they had endeavoured to frustrate, (see Gen. xxxvii.,) they bowed themselves before him, as "the governor over the land," Gen. xlii. 6. Although twenty-two years had elapsed since they had sold him for a slave, they were recognized by

Joseph, and seeing that his brother Benjamin was not there, he appears to have apprehended that they had destroyed him also out of jealousy; and remembering his dreams and their cruelty, he "spake roughly unto them," and charged them with being spies, come to see the nakedness of the land, ver. 7-9.

To understand the full force, and to appreciate the alarm this charge must have occasioned, the reader must recollect the circumstances we have before related concerning the reign of the shepherd race in Egypt, their expulsion and their settlement in Palestine, under the name of the Philistines. The tyranny of these invaders was still fresh in the minds of the Egyptians, so that every shepherd was an abomination to them, and they could not endure to eat bread with the Hebrews, because they were shepherds, and came from the neighbourhood of Palestine. They were apprehensive, also, that the Philistines, who were a warlike people, and who probably had been gathering strength ever since their expulsion from Egypt, might again attempt to conquer that country. Hence that they were spies, come to seek an opening for future conquests, was an obvious suspicion for an Egyptian to entertain, and the charge, to strangers especially, must have been alarming. Traces of such attacks may be discovered in the First Book of Chronicles, from whence we learn that the Philistines were a nation that caused much alarm to the different nations around.

But the brethren of Joseph protested their innocence, and, in their anxiety to repel the charge, they entered into a particular detail of the circumstances of their family, in which they afforded him all the information he required; namely, that his father, Jacob, was alive and well, and his brother Benjamin safe under the paternal roof, ver. 10-13.

The varied and touching incidents connected with this event are so beautifully narrated by the sacred historian, that it is best to refer the reader to that portion of holy writ for the details, (see Gen. xlii., xliii., xliv., and xlv.,) and pass on to that part of Egyptian history wherein it is intimated that Pharoah heard the rumour that Joseph's brethren were come to Egypt.

The kind monarch seems to have heard the circumstance with pleasure, which is a pleasing evidence of the esteem in which Joseph was held at court. He immediately sent for Joseph, and authorized him to express his kindest intentions towards his father and his brethren; and, seeing that it would

be best for them to come to Egypt, he had the consideration to direct that they should be well supplied with provisions for the way, and that they should be furnished with conveyances, in which the aged patriarch, with the women and children, might travel from Canaan to Egypt with comfort, Gen. xlv.

16-20.

Good old Jacob heard the news of his Joseph's exaltation with caution; but when he was convinced of it, in the exuberance of his joy, he exclaimed, "It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die," ver. 21 -28. Towards this country, therefore, he sojourned, pausing at Beersheba to offer sacrifices in that place. Here he was favoured with a dream which relieved him of all fears about the ultimate success of the step he was taking. He was assured in that dream that his sojourn in Egypt was a part of the divine plan concerning his race, which should there be fostered into a great nation, and then brought forth from thence. Thus encouraged, Jacob proceeded on his way, and he finally entered Egypt with all his family, about 1863 years B.C. See Gen. xlvi. 1—27.

Without having consulted the king, Joseph, it would appear, had fixed upon the land of Goshen as the future abode of his father's family; and that, not only as being suited to a pastoral people, but as that which the Egyptians, under all circumstances, would be the most willing to see in their occupation. Accordingly, the land of Goshen, being a border district, in the direction of Palestine, was the first part which Jacob reached, and Joseph after the first emotions of their tender meeting had subsided, Gen. xlvi. 28-30, directed that they should remain there, while he went to make known his arrival to the king, and learn his pleasure concerning them. For this purpose, he took with him five of his brethren, who, after he himself had carried the news to the king, were introduced into the royal presence. The king asked them what was their occupation; and they, as they had been taught, answered, they were shepherds, as all their fathers had been. They then added, that they had come to sojourn in Egypt, for in the land of Canaan the drought had been so severe that they could find no pasture for their flocks, and they concluded with a request, that they might be allowed to remain among the pastures of Goshen. The king, turning to Joseph, told him that the whole land was at his disposal, to place them in the best part of it-in Goshen, if that district seemed the most suitable for them. He farther

desired him, if among his brothers there were men of suffi cient ability to make them overseers of his (the king's) own cattle, Gen. xlvii. 1—6.

The policy of the Egyptian court, says Dr. Hales, in giving a possession or establishment to Joseph's family, in the Land of Goshen especially, was wise and liberal. This country stretched along the Bubastic or Pelusiac branch of the Nile, and formed the eastern barrier of Egypt, towards Palestine and Arabia, the quarters from which they most dreaded invasion; whose "nakedness" was now covered, in a short time, by a numerous, a brave, and an industrious people; amply repaying, by the additional security and resources which they gave to Egypt, their hospitable reception and naturalization.

Joseph having succeeded in his plan of placing his father's family in the land of Goshen, he introduced the aged patriarch, also, to the king. Jacob respectfully saluted the monarch, in acknowledgement of the consideration and favour with which he had been treated; and the king, struck by his venerable appearance, entered into conversation with him, particularly inquiring his age. The answer of Jacob was impressive: "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage." After some further conversation, Jacob having again saluted Pharoah, and blessed him, withdrew from his presence, Gen. xlvii. 7—10.

This is all the information we have concerning this monarch of Egypt: how long a period he reigned, and when he died is not known. The brief notice we have of him, however in the sacred page, shows that he was a good and wise prince, and had the interest of his people at heart. Joseph, his prime minister, died about 1792 years B.C.

Concerning the other monarchs, who reigned during this period, we have still briefer notice. There appears to have been two, Amun-m-gori, and Osirtasen II., of whom Mr. Wilkinson says, that independent of the encouragement given by them to the agricultural interests of the country, they consulted those who were employed in the inhospitable desert; and the erection of a temple, and a station to command the wells, and to serve for their abode in Wady Jasoos, proved that they were mindful of their religious rites as well as of their temporal protection. The breccia quarries of the Kos

sayr, or Cosseir road, were already opened, and probably also the emerald mines of Gebel Zabara.

Besides these monarchs, Dr. Hales places a queen of the name of Nitocris (called Nicaule by Josephus) in this period, and fixes the date 1742 years B. c. Concerning this queen, Herodotus relates a singular stratagem, devised by her, to revenge the murder of her brother and predecessor. She invited a number of Egyptians to an entertainment, in a large subterraneous apartment, which she had built; and, by a private canal, let in the waters of the river upon the company, and drowned them all; and afterwards destroyed herself.

The names of the monarchs who reigned immediately after Nitocris, cannot be specified with any degree of certainty. It was during this period, however, that the Israelites were cruelly oppressed in Egypt. After recording the death of Joseph, with "his brethren, and all that generation," the sacred narrative goes on to say, "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph," Exod. i. 8. This new king is regarded, by Faber and Wilkinson, as the first king of a new dynasty: and the latter, who argues that this new king was Amasis, says: Amasis, or Ames, was the leader of the eighteenth dynasty, and the period of his accession, and this change in the reigning family, strongly confirms the opinion of his being the "new king who knew not Joseph." And if we consider that he was from the distant province of Thebes, it is reasonable to expect that the Hebrews would be strangers to him, and that he was likely to look upon them with the same distrust and contempt with which the Egyptians usually treated foreigners. They stigmatized them as a race of impure people, and the ignoble occupation of shepherds was for the Jews an additional cause of reproach.

Indeed, it is possible, that the Jews, who had come to Egypt on the occasion of the famine, finding the great superiority of the land of Egypt, both for obtaining the necessaries of life and for feeding their flocks, may have asked and obtained a grant of land from the Egyptian monarch, on condition of certain services being performed by them and their descendants. As long as the Memphite dynasty continued on the throne, this grant was respected, and the only service required of them was that agreed upon in the original compact. But, on the accession of the Theban family, the grant being rescinded, and the service still required, they were reduced to a state of bondage; and as despotism seldom respects the rights of those it injures, additional labour was imposed upon