Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/888

Rh frequently swelled by the enumeration of single fables which are hut parts of larger collections. The number of works on law is considerable ; and it is remark- able that, while in Burmah many Pali codes have currency, not a single Pali text-book on law should have been discovered in Siam ; all that we meet with in the law books are a few Pali quotations here and there. Laksana Phra TJiammasat Laksana Phua Mi, an introduction to the code of Siamese laws, founded on the Dharma- castra and on royal edicts, was completed in 1804. It contains thirty books, at the head of which stands the Phra Thammasat, attributed to Manosara or Manu, a treatise on the classification of laws. Next comes the Inthaphat, or book of Indra, a guide or exhortation to councillors and judges, and then the Phra Thamnun, or rules for the general conduct of judicial business. Then follow in order the undermentioned sections disputes, plaints and allega- tions, official rank, classification of people, debt, marriage, criminal law, abduction, slavery, disputes connected with land, evidence, inheritance, examining officers, appeal, disputes as to classification of people, radius of responsibility for burglaries, &c., the thirty-six laws, the royal edicts, trial by ordeal of water and fire, laws of the palace, laws of the priesthood, offences against the king, offences against the people, rebellion, ancient statutes, recent statutes. Only one of these sections, the one on slavery, has been translated into English, by Dr Bradley ; it appeared in the Bangkok Calendar. The whole work has been printed at Bangkok in two volumes. The Kathu Phra Aiyakan, another compendium of laws, contains edicts principally referring to assaults, adultery, and the appraise- ment of fines. Among these we find the following : " A man who strikes another with a blank book shall be fined as though he had struck him with his hand ; but if the assault is committed with a book of the classics the offender shall be fined twice as much as he would have had to pay for assaulting with a stick." The Laksana Tat Fong, or law of plaints and allegations, and of the institution and summary dismissal of suits, appears to be identical with the fifth section of the printed code. There is also a separate work called Phra Thamnun, which, though identical in name with the section of the Laksana Phra Thammasat above described, covers much more ground. A compendium of law entitled JUimig Kot Mai -UiiaiKj Thai, or Code of Laws of the Kingdom of Siam, in two volumes, was printed at Bangkok in 1879. Colonel Low, who did not touch on jurisprudence in his essay on Siamese literature, made good the omission in a separate article "On the Laws of Siam," in the first volume of Logan's Journal of tJic Indian Archipelago (Singapore, 1847). Pallegoix, in his "Catalogus prrecipuorum librorum lingua 1 . Thai " (Grammatica, pp. 172-180), gives the titles of a good many treatises on scientific subjects, medicine, mathematics, astrology ; but none appear to have been- critically examined. In the first volume of his Description du royaume Thai (1854) are inserted various pieces translated from Siamese works. See also on the Siamese language and literature generally the "Remarks" by the Rev. C. Giitzlaff, in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. iii. (1835), pp. 291-304 ; and on the literature Leyden's "Essay" above referred to (Miscellaneous Papers, vol. i. pp. 143-147). It is only in quite recent times that an Anamese influence has begun to be traceable in the language and literature of the Siamese. In 1810 Dr Leyden undertook, at the instance of the Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society, to superintend a translation of the four Gospels into Siamese ; but he died before the project was carried into effect. Subsequently Messrs Giitzlaff and Tomlin, assisted by learned natives, laboured till 1833 at a trustworthy translation of the new Testament into Siamese. Their task was continued and completed by Messrs Jones and Robinson, and the work was pub- lished in 1846. (R. R.)

 END OF VOLUME TWENTY-FIRST.