not entitled to much in return for the taxes paid and services rendered the sovereign. Aside from defending them against outside foes, the government never attempted much in their behalf. In public works there is nothing worthy of mention but palaces, temples and the great roads constructed by the Mughals. Though the people of the higher castes, the twice born, have always enjoyed some advantages of education, it has been given them by the Brahman caste and private teachers, not by the king. The fertility of the soil and the patient industry of the people have led to most excessive and burdensome taxation, to great pomp and luxury in the palaces and to extreme distress among the poor when crops have failed, as they occasionally do. One-third of the gross yield of the land seems to have been regarded as about the right proportion to take, and under the Mughals this was exacted from the villagers and is at this day by the British in many parts from the best lands.

Nowhere else on the face of the earth can be found so dense a population, covering such a vast extent of country, living under an ancient system of laws and yet without a general government, as existed in India at the advent of the British. China during most of its history has had a well organized governmental system, whose authority has been recognized over most or all of its territory. Its people also have been mainly of one race. India exhibits the peculiar spectacle of a vast empire, with endless diversity of races, speaking many different languages, yet recognizing and obeying in its main precepts a code of laws promulgated in the dim past by unknown persons, a code which was never promulgated by a sovereign power having dominion over the ancestors of the people or the land in which they dwell. It owes its authority mainly to the teachings of the Brahmans and to its adoption as the rule of decision by the judges and rulers in past ages, as it has been adopted and followed by the British in recent times. Some analogies to this may be found in the adoption of the principles of the Roman civil law by countries never subject to the empire, and in the adoption of the Koran as the law of all Mohammedans, but in the one case the system was

gradually developed under a strong government ruling a vast empire, and in the other the authority of the law is consequent on religious faith.

The area of the country we have been considering is nearly a million and a half square miles and it now has a population of nearly or quite 250,000,000. Among this vast mass are remnants of what are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of the country, whose lowest type is exhibited by the savage Andaman islanders, wholly devoid of all civilization. Superior to these yet still very low in the scale of humanity are the monkey faced tribes of the south, the Bihls and other predatory hill tribes and the almost numberless fragmentary remnants of races that in past ages may have held extensive districts. Above these are the industrious descendants of Mongolian stocks, the Dravidians, the Indo Chinese, the Afghans, Mughals, Arabs, Persians and the proud descendants of that race which composed the Védas and promulgated the codes. This vast empire is now subject to the government of a little island on the most remote border of the hemisphere. The government of the British will be considered in another place.

Though Great Britain has long maintained its sovereignty over India, it has never attempted to impose its system of laws on the people. The ancient stratification of society still persists and the code of Manu is still the basis of the law administered in the courts. This code is so remarkable in its precepts and has so profoundly influenced the vast population of India for thousands of years that it is well worthy the careful study of every investigator in the field of human laws. A summary of its provisions with copious extracts from the more striking parts will be found in the Appendix.

The student who seeks a comprehensive knowledge of the rules actually applied throughout all that vast country, extending from the valley of the Indus to Siam, encounters a most perplexing multiplicity of details. The Code of Manu is recognized as the foundation of the laws of Hindostan and also of Burmah, Siam and Ceylon, yet there is wide divergence in the practical application of it in different places.

As a result of the teachings of Gautama the Code of Manu, though still recognized as the basis of the laws, was greatly modified in those districts where the Buddhist faith prevailed. The Burmese code, called the Damathat, gives the primary classification of men as Chiefs, Brahmans, wealthy and poor, and elsewhere the mercantile class is mentioned as a distinct order. In the twenty-third section of the fourth volume of the Burmese code, the Royal family is mentioned as the highest class, and other relations of the King, the great Chiefs, ministers or lords, the lesser lords, lords of lower degree, wealthy class Brahmans, thoogyees of villages, governors, land measurers, and those whom the King had advanced, as constituting the next class. The second class and the mercantile are each divided into the great, middle and lesser. The right of the King to raise from the lower to the higher orders is asserted and the rigid rules of inherited castes do not obtain. Though the system evolved by the early Aryan invaders spread over all India as the basis of all the written laws, in the east it has been modified by the influence of Buddhism and the Chinese and in the west by Mohammedanism. Owing to the lack of a single governing force having authority over the whole country no version of the code has at any time found full recognition, even throughout the whole of the Indian peninsula, and the actual administration of the law has at all times been more or less dependent on the will of despotic rulers, having authority over more or less of the country, according to circumstances.

The Burmese code exhibits marked differences in the theory of the distribution of inheritable property. The rules given are very loose and indefinite. On the death of the father the eldest son is given "the riding horse, elephant goblet, betel apparatus, sword, clothes and ornaments, and of the slaves, the betel carrier and two water carriers; and let the mother have her clothes and ornaments, goblet, betel apparatus, and all female slaves. Let the residue be divided into four parts, of which let the eldest son have one and the mother and younger children have three. This is the law when the mother does not marry again; if the mother uses the property for neces

gradually developed under a strong government ruling a vast empire, and in the other the authority of the law is consequent on religious faith.

The area of the country we have been considering is nearly a million and a half square miles and it now has a population of nearly or quite 250,000,000. Among this vast mass are remnants of what are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of the country, whose lowest type is exhibited by the savage Andaman islanders, wholly devoid of all civilization. Superior to these yet still very low in the scale of humanity are the monkey faced tribes of the south, the Bihls and other predatory hill tribes and the almost numberless fragmentary remnants of races that in past ages may have held extensive districts. Above these are the industrious descendants of Mongolian stocks, the Dravidians, the Indo Chinese, the Afghans, Mughals, Arabs, Persians and the proud descendants of that race which composed the Védas and promulgated the codes. This vast empire is now subject to the government of a little island on the most remote border of the hemisphere. The government of the British will be considered in another place.

Though Great Britain has long maintained its sovereignty over India, it has never attempted to impose its system of laws on the people. The ancient stratification of society still persists and the code of Manu is still the basis of the law administered in the courts. This code is so remarkable in its precepts and has so profoundly influenced the vast population of India for thousands of years that it is well worthy the careful study of every investigator in the field of human laws. A summary of its provisions with copious extracts from the more striking parts will be found in the Appendix.

The student who seeks a comprehensive knowledge of the rules actually applied throughout all that vast country, extending from the valley of the Indus to Siam, encounters a most perplexing multiplicity of details. The Code of Manu is recognized as the foundation of the laws of Hindostan and also of Burmah, Siam and Ceylon, yet there is wide divergence in the practical application of it in different places.

As a result of the teachings of Gautama the Code of Manu, though still recognized as the basis of the laws, was greatly modified in those districts where the Buddhist faith prevailed. The Burmese code, called the Damathat, gives the primary classification of men as Chiefs, Brahmans, wealthy and poor, and elsewhere the mercantile class is mentioned as a distinct order. In the twenty-third section of the fourth volume of the Burmese code, the Royal family is mentioned as the highest class, and other relations of the King, the great Chiefs, ministers or lords, the lesser lords, lords of lower degree, wealthy class Brahmans, thoogyees of villages, governors, land measurers, and those whom the King had advanced, as constituting the next class. The second class and the mercantile are each divided into the great, middle and lesser. The right of the King to raise from the lower to the higher orders is asserted and the rigid rules of inherited castes do not obtain. Though the system evolved by the early Aryan invaders spread over all India as the basis of all the written laws, in the east it has been modified by the influence of Buddhism. and the Chinese and in the west by Mohammedanism. Owing to the lack of a single governing force having authority over the whole country no version of the code has at any time found full recognition, even throughout the whole of the Indian peninsula, and the actual administration of the law has at all times been more or less dependent on the will of despotic rulers, having authority over more or less of the country, according to circumstances.

The Burmese code exhibits marked differences in the theory of the distribution of inheritable property. The rules given are very loose and indefinite. On the death of the father the eldest son is given "the riding horse, elephant goblet, betel apparatus, sword, clothes and ornaments, and of the slaves, the betel carrier and two water carriers; and let the mother have her clothes and ornaments, goblet, betel apparatus, and all female slaves. Let the residue be divided into four parts, of which let the eldest son have one and the mother and younger children have three. This is the law when the mother does not marry again; if the mother uses the property for neces