fuit respond que ne fuit fix al Freehold, mes tied en le Steple, et bound down avec pins ou Keys que peut estre remove sans alteration del Freeholder. 2. Object. Que les Bells sont parcel des biens del Esglise, et vaine serroit a Forfeiter ceo al Roy d'estre per luy redone al Esglise, arere; scil. al pios usus : A que fuit dit que serra forfeit come un satisfaction pur sang, d'estre dispose pur le Roy al auter pious uses. Hide, Chief Justice, & Windham fueront de opinion que le Bell ne fuit forfeit, les auters deux semble contra, mes riens ultra fuit fait en le case que Jeo Dye." Part. I. p. 136.*

In the same style with these are the Reports of Anderson, Jones, Latch, Littleton, Lutwych, Palmer, and Siderfin; and the works of Finch and Winch, and of other learned men of the age. But with this century ceased the use of the French in English law books, without any special edict to that effect, though, it would seem, not without authority. It had been long previously discontinued by legislative enactments, in the pleas of the courts, and the publication of the Statutes. It seems to have fallen into disuse by the common consent of all wise men. Our only astonishment is, that it should have maintained its ground so long. Its disgraceful end forms a sad contrast with its triumphal beginning. It came as a conqueror, and departed as a slave.

The first Reports originally published in English are those of William Style, of the Inner Temple, Esquire," in the year 1658. They were at first briefly taken in law French. The Reporter says in the Introduction; "I have made these Reports speak English, not that I believe they will be thereby generally more useful, for I have been always, and yet am of opinion, that that part of the Common Law which is in English hath only occasioned the making of unquiet spirits contentiously knowing, and more apt to offend others, than to defend themselves; but I have done it in obedience to authority, and to stop the mouths of such of this English age, who though they be as confusedly different in their minds and judgments, as the builders of Babel were in their languages, yet do think it vain if not impious to speak or understand more than their own mother-tongue." †

*Le Reports de Sr. Creswell Levinz, jades un del Justices del Common Bank, en Trois Parts: Commencant en le 12 An de Roy Charles II. & fini en le 8 An de son Majesty William III Imprimée per l'Original, escrie desouth son proper Maine. Ovesque Tables al chescun Part. London. 1702. Introduction, p. 2.

Style's Narrationes Modernæ, fol. Lond. 1658.

Such is the history of the French language in England; a language which though long since discarded, has left behind it voluminous records of its former power, and still struggles to make itself heard amid "the noisy strife of the hoarseclamoring bar," in the title of a statute or a term of court, and the loud Oyes! of the crier. It came first into use as a cunning contrivance of state policy; it continued in use from the respectability of ancient custom; it went out of use from the persuasion, that a general intelligence of the law is better than either political contrivance or ancient custom.

Pickering

ART. II. 1. BOECKH; Erklärung einer Aegyptischen Urkunde in Griechischer Cursivschrift vom Jahre 104 vor den Christlichen Zeitrechnung. (Explanation of an Egyptian Document in Greek cursive Writing, of the Year 104 before the Christian Chronology. By Professor BOECKH. From the Transactions of the Historical and Philological Class of the Prussian Royal Academy of Sciences.)

2. BUTTMANN; Erklärung der Griechischen Beischrift auf einem Aegyptischen Papyrus aus der Minutoli'schen Sammlung. (Explanation of the Greek Marginal Writing upon an Egyptian Papyrus in Minutoli's Collection. By Professor BUTTMANN. From the same Academy's Transactions.)

SEVERAL years ago, by a most remarkable concurrence of circumstances, the learned world was put in possession of some original and very ancient legal documents from Egypt, which throw light on the jurisprudence of that renowned country. But, though they have been so long known to antiquaries and scholars, generally, and have not escaped the notice of the jurists also, on the continent of Europe, we regret, for the honor of a liberal profession, to be obliged to say, that we have not seen any allusion to them in the juridical journals either of Great Britain or of this country.

It is true, indeed, that, if the value of the historical records of our race is to be measured by their capacity of being turned to account in a pecuniary view, if an Egyptian deed of real estate, and the record of an Egyptian law

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suit, are to be estimated only by their utility as precedents for modern conveyancers or special pleaders, - they will hardly repay the trouble of a single perusal. But if, as Sir William Jones observes, "the law be a science," then, as in other sciences, comparative views of the jurisprudence of different nations and different ages, or, in other words, an extended process of induction cannot fail to remunerate the scientific lawyer, as well as the statesman and general inquirer, for bestowing a portion of his leisure hours upon such researches. Under the conviction, therefore, that some of our professional, as well as general, readers will take an interest in the subject of the present article, and we can assure them all, that, if there is any want of interest in this case, it will be owing, not to the subject itself, but to our manner of treating it, we shall proceed to give a brief account of one of the extraordinary documents in question; which is an Egyptian deed of a piece of land in the city of Thebes, written on the papyrus of that country, more than a century before the Christian era, with the impression of a seal, or stamp, attached to it, and a certificate of registry on its margin, in as regular a manner as the keeper of the registry in the county of Suffolk would certify to a deed of land in the city of Boston at this day. Well may we exclaim, with the sage of holy writ," Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us; there is no new thing under the sun."

Before we proceed, however, to the contents of this remarkable conveyance, a brief history of the circumstances connected with its discovery will not be uninteresting. We shall follow the account given of it by the learned Professor Boeckh, of Berlin, who, with the cooperation of his distinguished colleagues, Professors Ideler, Bekker, and Buttmann, translated and elucidated it in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy of Sciences.* In connexion with that account we shall avail ourselves of some emendations and remarks of Dr. Thomas Young, who has justly acquired an enviable celebrity by his discoveries in the hieroglyphic language of Egypt, as well as by his various works in numerous departments both of science and literature. It may

* Abhandlungen der historisch-philologischen Klasse der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

not be amiss for us to remark, in passing, that, by a letter received from Professor Boeckh during the last year, we are informed, that, although his Memoir upon this Egyptian document has been long published, nothing further of importance has been since discovered to throw any new light. upon the subject of it, or upon Egyptian jurisprudence in general.

The original manuscript Deed in question is written in the Greek language, as was common while Egypt was under its Greek dynasty, and is known among the learned as the Papyrus of Mr. Anastasy, the Swedish consul at Alexandria, to whom it belonged. A perfect fac-simile, exhibiting even the blemishes and coloring of the original, was obtained by General Minutoli, and transmitted by him to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin about the year 1820; and from this fac-simile, an engraving of which is given in the Berlin Transactions above referred to, a translation of the document was made, accompanied with elucidations by the eminent scholars above named. The fac-simile annexed to the present article, was made from the Berlin engraving, (without being drawn anew,) by the new and admirable process in lithography, called Dixon's Transferring Process, from the name of an ingenious American, Mr. Joseph Dixon, of Taunton in Massachusetts; of which we shall give some account in a note at the end of this article.

The writing, notwithstanding it is 1944 (or 1946) years old, is in good preservation; the substance of the papyrus itself is of an extraordinary firmness; and the dryness of the tomb, in which the manuscript is supposed to have been deposited, together with the balsamic preparation of the mummy, by whose side the roll was doubtless placed, must have been favorable to its preservation; the papyrus itself, too, appears to have been balsamic, as, on being burnt, it emitted an aromatic smoke.

The manuscript is an original instrument of sale of a piece of land in the city of Thebes, bought by one Nechutes; and it was probably in his tomb, that the document was found, where the sanctity of the place would the better insure its safe preservation. On the left hand margin there is the figure of a human head, which is either a stamp or a seal, and which has a beard, according to the Greek custom. This document is, in many respects, of the highest in

terest. In the first place, we learn from it several circumstances relating to the Egyptians; and then it is extremely valuable, as a memorial, in the history of the written language of Greece. In relation to this last point, it should be recollected, that there has long been a dispute, whether the Greeks, in the common business of life, used an alphabet of small letters, technically called, by scholars, cursive letters, or had only the uncial or capital letters, which have come down to us in the inscriptions upon their marble monuments and their coins. For, although the Greeks of the present day have an alphabet of small letters, the origin of which has not been traced, yet all the manuscripts of the classic authors of Greece which are now extant in the cursive character, are of comparatively modern date; and, hence, some learned men have too hastily drawn the conclusion, that the small letters of the modern Greeks are one among their many supposed corruptions of the language of their fathers. Hitherto we have never had so ancient an authentic monument of a complete cursive or running hand, as the instrument now in question. The inscription from a leaden plate, which was found in a tomb near Athens, and published by Akerblad, was not cursive, except a little unconnected scrawl in it; and the material was not adapted to a cursive handwriting. The verse of Euripides's Antiope,

̔Ως ἓν σοφὸν βούλευμα τὰς πολλὰς χεῖρας [χέρας] νικά,

which was found, in the year 1743, upon an ancient wall at Resina, in Italy, in cursive letters, and having accents and breathings, though received as genuine by Villoison and some other scholars, is now generally believed to be modern, and may have been written on the wall in sport. Some genuine traces, however, of a cursive character, appear in the scrawls, made by the soldiers, upon the pillars of the barracks in Pompeii, which were discovered near the entrance, in the year 1767; but these are not of importance. And, finally, the papyrus inscription, which Schow published, and which is genuine, is not more ancient than the second or third century of the Christian era. But, in the document now under our consideration, we have a specimen of cursive writing, of an ascertained date, at least as early as the year 104 before Christ; and we may safely conclude, that a cursive hand was in use before that period. It is worthy of