224.

Then, having difmiffed those informers, and returning to another fecret chamber, let him go, attended by women, to the inmoft recefs of his manfion for the fake of his evening meal;

225. There, having a fecond time eaten a little, and having been recreated with musical ftrains, let him take reft early, and rife refreshed from his labour.

226. THIS perfect system of rules let a king, free from illness, obferve; but when really af⚫flicted with disease, he may intrust all these affairs to his officers.'

CHAPTER THE EIGHTH.

On Judicature; and on Law, Private and

Criminal.

་

I. A KING, defirous of infpecting judicial proceedings must enter his court of juftice, compofed and fedate in his demeanour, together • with Brábmens and counsellors, who know how to give him advice:

2. There, either fitting or ftanding, holding forth his right arm, without oftentation in his ⚫ dress and ornaments, let him examine the affairs ⚫ of litigant parties.

3. Each day let him decide causes one after another, under the eighteen principal titles of law, by arguments and rules drawn from local ufages, and from written codes:

4. Of those titles, the firft is debt, on loans for confumption; the fecond, depofits, and loans for ufe; the third, fale without ownership; the fourth, concerns among partners; the fifth, fubtraction of what has been given;

5. • The fixth, non-payment of wages or hire; the feventh, non-performance of agreements; the eighth, refciffion of fale and purchase; the ninth, difputes between master and servant;

6. The tenth, contests on boundaries; the eleventh

⚫ eleventh and twelfth, affault and flander; the • thirteenth, larceny; the fourteenth, robbery and • other violence; the fifteenth, adultery ;

7. The fixteenth, altercation between man and wife, and their feveral duties; the feventeenth, the law of inheritance; the eighteenth, gaming with dice and with living creatures: thefe eighteen titles of law are fettled as the ground work of all judicial procedure in this world.

8. Among men, who contend for the most ⚫ part on the titles juft mentioned, and on a few mifcellaneous beads not comprised under them, let ⚫ the king decide caufes juftly, obferving primeval law;

9. But when he cannot inspect such affairs in perfon, let him appoint, for the infpection of them, a Brahmen of eminent learning:

10. Let that chief judge, accompanied by three affeffors, fully confider all caufes brought ⚫ before the king; and, having entered the court room, let him fit or ftand, but not move back• wards and forwards.

11. In whatever country three Brahmens, particularly fkilled in the three feveral Védas, fit together with the very learned Bráhmen appointed by the king, the wife call that affembly the court of BRAHMA' with four faces.

12. WHEN juftice, having been wounded by iniquity, approaches the court, and the judges • extract not the dart, they alfo fhall be wounded by it.

13. 'Either the court must not be entered by judges, parties, and witneffes, or law and truth 'must be openly declared: that man is criminal, who either fays nothing, or fays what is falfe ⚫ or unjust.

14. Where

14. Where justice is deftroyed by iniquity, and truth by falfe evidence, the judges, who bafely look on, without giving redress, fhall alfo < be destroyed.

15. Juftice being deftroyed, will deftroy; being preserved, will preferve: it must never therefore be violated. "Beware, O judge, left juftice being overturned, overturn both us and “thyself.”

16. The divine form of juftice is represented as Vrisha, or a bull, and the gods confider him, who violates juftice, as a Vrifhala, or one who flays a bull: let the king, therefore, and his judges beware of violating juftice.

17. The only firm friend, who follows men ' even after death, is juftice; all others are ex'tinct with the body.

18. Of injustice in decifions, one quarter falls ' on the party in the caufe; one quarter, on his witneffes; one quarter, on all the judges; and ⚫ one quarter on the king;

19. But where he, who deferves condemnation fhall be condemned, the king is guiltless, ' and the judges free from blame: an evil deed 'fhall recoil on him who committed it.

20. A Brábmen fupported only by his class, * and one barely reputed a Bráhmen, but without 'performing any facerdotal acts, may, at the king's pleasure, interpret the law to him: fo may the two middle classes; but a Súdra, in no case what· ever.

Of that king, who ftupidly looks on, while a Súdra decides caufes, the kingdom itfelf fhall be embarraffed, like a cow in deep

• mire.

22. The

་

་

22.

The whole territory, which is inhabited by a number of Súdras, overwhelmed with atheists, and deprived of Bráhmens, must speedily perifh, afflicted with death and disease.

23. Let the king or his judge, having feated himself on the bench, his body properly clothed, and his mind attentively fixed, begin with doing ' reverence to the deities, who guard the world; ⚫ and then let him enter on the trial of causes:

24. Understanding what is expedient or inexpedient, but confidering only what is law or not law, let him examine all difputes between parties, in the order of their feveral claffes.

25. By external figns let him fee through the thoughts of men; by their voice, colour, countenance, limbs, eyes, and action:

26. From the limbs, the look, the motion of the body, the gefticulation, the fpeech, the changes of the eye and the face, are difcovered ⚫ the internal workings of the mind.

27. THE property of a ftudent and of an infant, whether by defcent or otherwife, let the king hold in his cuftody, until the owner fhall have ended his ftudentship, or until his infancy fhall ⚫ have ceased in his fixteenth year.

28. Equal care mult be taken of barren ⚫ women, of women without fons, whofe husbands • bave married other wives, of women without kindred, or whose husbands are in diftant places, ⚫ of widows true to their lords, and of women afflicted with illness.

29. Such kinfmen, as by any pretence, appropriate the fortunes of women during their lives, a juft king muft punish with the feverity • due to thieves.

30. < Three