CHAP. 3. BOOK II. ten towns; The third was the lord of twenty towns; The fourth was the lord of 100 towns; and the highest vicegerent was lord of 1000 towns. Every lord was amenable to the one immediately above him, and exercised unlimited authority over those below. The following law appears to provide for their personal expenses: "Such food, drink, wood, and other articles, as by law should be given each day to the king, by the inhabitants of the township, let the lord of one town receive; let the lord of ten towns enjoy the produce of two plough-lands; the lord of twenty, that of five plough-lands; the lord of 100, that of a village or small town; the lord of 1000, that of a large town." The expense of the government of each vicegerent was defrayed out of the taxes which he levied, and the surplus was Laws of Menu, ch. vii. 115-117. There is a very remarkable similarity between this mode of subdividing authority among the Hindus, and that adopted by the Incas of Peru. "The Incas," (says Garcilasso de la Vega, part i. book ii. ch. v.) "had one method and rule in their government, as the best means to prevent all mischiefs and disorders; which was this. That of all the people in every place, whether more or less, a register should be kept, and a division made of ten and ten, over which one of the ten, whom they called the Decurion, was made superior over the other nine; then every five divisions of this nature had a lord over them, to whom was committed the charge and care of fifty; then over two divisions of fifty, another lord, who supervised 100; so five divisions of 100 had a magistrate who commanded 500; the divisions of 100 had a leader over 1000," &c. The highest officer under the Inca was the governor of a province. Each inferior officer accounted for his conduct to the superior next above him. See, further, Acosta, Nat. and Mor. Hist. of the Indies, book vi. ch. xiii.; Carli, Lettres sur l'Amérique, let. xiii. The analogy of the Anglo-Saxon institution of tithings, or ten families; of hundreds, or ten tithings; and counties, will suggest itself to every imagination. 2 Laws of Menu, ch. vii. 118, 119. The first of these provisions, that for the lord of one town, is not accurately ascertained; the two or five plough-lands are sufficiently distinct; but the produce of a village or large town must have been extremely uncertain and ambiguous. CHAP. 3. transmitted to the superior lord, to whom he was BOOK II. immediately responsible. From him it was again conveyed to the governor above him, till it reached, at last, the royal treasury. If this plan of government was unskilful and rude,' so was the contrivance employed for checking the abuses to which it was liable. "The affairs of these townships," says the law, "either jointly or separately transacted, let another minister of the king inspect, who should be well affected, and by no means remiss, In every larger town or city, let him appoint one superintendent of all affairs, elevated in rank, formidable in power, distinguished as a planet among stars: Let that governor, from time to time, survey all the rest in person, and by the means of his emissaries, let him perfectly know their conduct in their several districts." Of the practical state of the government abundant proof is afforded, in the passage which immediately follows. "Since the servants of the king," it is said, "whom he has appointed guardians of districts, are generally knaves, who seize what belongs to other men, from such knaves let him defend his people; of such evilminded servants, as wring wealth from subjects attending them on business, let the King confiscate all the possessions, and banish them from his realm." 3 Competent authorities opine differently; after quoting the passages of Manu, referred to in the notes of our author, Col. Briggs concludes, "these extracts afford us sufficient proof of a well-organized system of local superintendence and administration." On the Land-tax of India, 24.-W. 2 Laws of Menu, ch. vii. 120-122. A similar officer formed a similar part of the Peruvian establishment. He was denominated Cucuy Kioc, which is to say, "Eye of all." Carli, Lettres sur l'Amérique, let. xiii. 3 Menu, ut supra, 123, 124. BOOK II. At the head of this government stands the king, on whom the great lords of the empire immediately depend. He is directed by the law to choose a Council, consisting "of seven or eight ministers, men whose ancestors were servants of kings, who are versed in the holy books, who are personally brave; who are skilled in the use of weapons, and whose lineage is noble." With them he is commanded perpetually to consult on the affairs of his government; but a singular mode of deliberation is prescribed to him; not to assemble his Council, and, laying before them, as in the cabinets of European princes, the subject on which the suggestions of their wisdom are required, to receive the benefit arising from the natural communication of their knowledge and views; a plan, apparently more artful and cunning, more nearly allied to the suspicious temper and narrow views of a rude period, is recommended; to consult them apart, and hear the opinion of each separately; after which, having consulted them in common, when each man is swayed by the opinion he had formerly given in private, and has a motive of interest and vanity to resist the light which might be thrown upon the subject by others, the king himself is to decide. A Brahmen ought always to be his prime minister. "To one learned Brahmen, Menu, ut supra, 54.-M. The council of Manu does not comprise all the officers of state; and lists given in the Pancha Tantra from the Mahábhárata, specify thirty-three persons or classes of persons attached in a public or private capacity to royalty. Tr. R. As. Society, i. 174.-W. 2 Laws of Menu, ch. vii. 56. Another precept to the king, respecting the mode of consulting with his ministers, is very expressive of the simplicity of the times; "Ascending up the back of a mountain, or going privately to a terrace, a bower, a forest, or a lonely place, without listeners, let him consult with them unobserved." Ib. 147. CHAP. 3. distinguished among the rest, let the king impart BOOK II. his momentous counsel."1 To provide for the defence of the country was one great branch of the duties of the sovereign, and to preside over the military force was his great prerogative and distinction. As, in the original division of the people, a fourth part of them were appropriated to the profession of arms, and destined from that alone to obtain their subsistence, the great difficulty of government must have consisted, not in obtaining troops, but in finding for them maintenance and employment. When so great a proportion of the population were set apart for the business of war, with nothing to do, from year to year, and from generation to generation, but to improve its principles, and acquire the utmost dexterity in its exercises, it appears extraordinary that the nation was not of a formidable and warlike character. Yet has India given way to every invader; “and the rudeness," says Mr. Orme," "of the military art in Indostan can scarce be imagined but by those who have seen it." The precepts in the ancient and sacred books of the Hindus, which lay the foundation of their military system, are few in number, simple, and rude. For the security of the royal residence, the king is directed to take up his abode 3" in a capital, having, by way of fortress, a desert rather more than twenty miles round it, or a fortress of earth, a fortress of Laws of Menu, ch. vii. 58. 66 2 Orme on the Government and People of Indostan, p. 417. The same accurate and intelligent observer immediately adds: "The infantry consists in a multitude of people assembled together without regard to rank and file," &c. СНАР. 3. 1 BOOK II. water or of trees, a fortress of armed men, or a fortress of mountains." Their great unskilfulness in the science of attack and defence, led them to place great dependence on fortification, as appears by a variety of their precepts. "One bowman," says Menu, "placed on a wall, is a match in war for 100 enemies, and 100 for 10,000; therefore is a fort recommended." Yet their knowledge of fortification was elementary, and mostly consisted in surrounding the place with a mud wall and a ditch, or availing themselves of the natural advantages which insulated rocks, which water, or impervious thickets, could afford. The duty and advantage of maintaining at all times a powerful army are enforced in the most cogent terms. "By a king," says Menu, "whose forces are always ready for action, the whole world may be kept in awe; let him then, by a force always ready, make all creatures living his own."2 In recommending a perpetual standing army, the preceptive part of the military doctrine of the Hindus seems in a great measure to have been summed up; for the marshalling, the discipline, the conduct of an army, in any of its branches, no instruction is conveyed. General exhortations to firmness and valour are all the additional advice of which the utility appears to have been recognised. The Hindu prince is, by divine authority, informed, that those rulers of the earth, who, "desirous of defeating each other, exert their utmost strength in battle, without ever averting their faces, ascend after death directly to heaven.”3 "Never to recede from combat," says Menu, “to Laws of Menu, c. vii. 74. 2 Ib. 103. 3 Ib. 89. |
