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the basis upon which, (as it seems to us incongruously) a superstructure of feudalism had been reared. A code of laws for such a community must necessarily omit much that we at the present time consider to be essential, and lay much stress on what we consider unimportant. But, on the other hand, it bears a striking resemblance to all the early codes, to the laws of Solon and Lycurgus, the 12 Tables; to the Mosaic, and the early Teutonic codes.
From an analysis of the “Legacy of Iyeyas” the following results have been obtained. The work consists of 100 chapters in no logical sequence. Sixteen chapters consist of moral maxims and reflections 55 are connected with polities and administrations 22 refer to legal matters and in 7 Iyeyas relates episodes in his own personal history. The Legacy of Iyeyas then resembles other early codes in the following particulars. First, is makes no sharp distinction between law and morality, between the duties of the citizen and the virtue of the man. The man who obeys the law is virtuous, he who disobeys it is vicious and low. It is the province of the Legislator to inculcate virtue; accordingly sixteen chapters of this short lecture are moral maxims quoted apparently from the sages Confucius and Mencius. Secondly, what is termed Substantive Law is nearly omitted. Since human life within the daimiate was regulated by custom, not by agreement, there was hardly any intercourse between different daimiates, since the only property of any importance was land, and no will was allowed; all that we chiefly understand by law, all that embraces the main bulk of modern law,—the law of contracts, the law of personal property, of will, commercial and maritime law, find no place in this code. In this respect too, there is an exact parallel between this and other early codes. On the other hand great stress is laid on criminal law, including offences and the different punishments allotted to each, and the law relating to landed property; on the law relating to the status of persons and of classes, to etiquette and ceremonial, to tables of rank and precedence,
