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and consequently the great increase of expense it would have occasioned. Whether this text of Menu would not form the groundwork of a new edition on the plan of Smith's Leading Cases, may be a subject of consideration for some aspiring and enterprising lawyer, imbued with the spirit of Hindu constitutions, who has time at his command, and who is anxious to perpetuate his fame, and hand his name down to posterity, as a benefactor of the human family; certain it is that there could be no more useful work. The editor would like to see such a work undertaken by his learned friend and former pupil, Mr. Sloan, of the Madras Bar, whose great legal attainments and thorough knowledge of Hindu institutions would enable him to do justice to it.

But although the editor has been unable, for the reasons already assigned, to do little more than pass through the press the original translation of Sir W. Jones, he has not been unmindful that the life of every law-book is its index, without which it is of little use, especially to the English student or lawyer. He has therefore added one to this edition of Menu, as copious as a regard to his original intention would permit. In preparing this index, he has found greater difficulty (which may perhaps account for the omission in former editions) than he at first anticipated. The terseness of the style of the work, the peculiarity of the doctrines contained in it, and the obscurity of several of its texts, combined to render the preparation of a full and complete index difficult. He hopes, however, that, for all practical purposes, the present will be found sufficient. References to many passages have been omitted in the index, as likely to increase the bulk and expense, without any equivalent advantage, as there are parts of the original work of little utility to the student or practical lawyer. With a like view the inverted commas, under which Sir W. Jones quotes the utterances of Menu, have been omitted in the present edition, and the quotations are distinguished by the slokas being brought forward in the page. In the index, the slokas are invariably referred to by the number of the original work, as well as the page in the

present edition; and as all the old numbers of the slokas have been retained, the difference of the paging of the old and present edition will be of little importance.

Mr. Haughton's notes have been transferred from the Appendix to their proper place at the foot of the page, where reference is made to them.

Those students who wish to consult the original Sanserit can find copies of it at Messrs. ALLEN'S, Waterloo Place, London.

5, ESSEX COURT,

30th August, 1869.

THE EDITOR.

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ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE PREVIOUS EDITION.

*

HAVING been for some time engaged in preparing the Institutes of Menu for publication in the Sanscrit language, it appeared to me, that as Sir WILLIAM JONES's translation had been long out of print, a new edition would not only be acceptable to the public at large, but more especially to those engaged in the study of the Sanscrit language, as the great difficulty of the original text made some help of the kind indispensable. In consequence the version of the learned translator has been carefully revised and compared; and as variations, though of trifling importance, have been discovered, they have been carefully recorded at the end of the work. The discrepancies in question may have arisen from some variety in the readings of the manuscripts consulted by Sir WILLIAM JONES. It appeared, however, advisable to take some notice of those which seemed of most importance to the Sanscrit student. The learned translator intended, as he has stated in his Preface, to mark by Italick letters all that he had borrowed from the Commentators on Menu, and to print the text of his author in Roman letters; an arrangement that was intended to afford the reader a precise idea of the original work. It will easily be understood by persons accustomed to the preparation of works for the press, that a rule like this would be occasionally forgotten.

* In the third edition they will be found in footnotes on the pages where they are referred to.

And indeed it has sometimes, though rarely, occurred, that passages have been printed in Italick that should have been put in Roman letters. Every attention has therefore been paid to fulfil the translator's intentions, and the reader may be certain that this singularly interesting record of antiquity is now submitted to him with an exactness and fidelity not attained in the former editions. But it is fair to state, that the first and twelfth books are those which are least literal: this is more particularly the case with the latter. The peculiarity of the doctrines contained in these books will account for the fact, and at the same time explain the difficulty the learned translator laboured under in conveying ideas so novel in their nature to the English reader. When, however, the probable antiquity of the original work, and the occasional obscurity of some of its texts, are considered, it must be conceded, that the translator has been generally happy in his interpretation. The great celebrity which has attended the work since its first appearance in England, encourages a hope that its republication will meet the approbation of those, who, though unacquainted with Oriental literature, take an interest in whatever regards the history of the human mind, and the progress of civilization, to which European nations are under so many obligations.

East-India College, Herts, 6th Jan. 1825.

G. C. HAUGHTON.

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