Large trees are planted round this place, which is the scene of their greatest pleasures." It was perhaps a house of this kind that is mentioned in 2 Kings ix. 27, as the place by which Ahaziah, king of Judah, wished to escape the fury of Jehu: for he is said to have "fled by the way of the garden-house."

We know very little of their manner of managing trees, so as to make them more fruitful; but Lightfoot gives us the following short hints from the Talmud : "They lay dung in their gardens to moisten and enrich the soil; dig about the roots of their trees; pluck up the suckers; take off the leaves; sprinkle ashes; and smoke under the trees to kill vermin." Hence, in the

parable of the fig-tree that had been barren for three years, the gardener pleads for delay till he should dig about it and dung it.-The Jews had also a dispute among themselves as to the degree of fruitfulness that a tree should have to make it worth preserving; and their conclusion was, "Cut not down the palm that bears a cab of dates, nor the olive, if it but bear the fourth part of a cab." But as much depended on the age of the tree, so this rule only held good after the end of the third year; when they stigmatised those that were barren, or gave inconsiderable returns, by a red mark, as a mark of destruction."-It would certainly be desirable to have a calendar of the times when the different fruits ripen in Judea, as it might tend to throw light on several portions of Scripture; but, since that hath not yet appeared, I shall add from Clarke's Harmer, ch. i. ob. 30, one that was kept by an European gentleman at Sheeraz in Persia, 1787.

On the 1st of June, apricots, cherries, apples, green

On June 19th,

On July

gages, and plums, came into season. musk-melons. On July 6th, black grapes. 9th, pears. On July 13th, white grapes, and watermelons; and on July 18th, the Orleans plumb. On July 20th, apricots, apples and cherries, went out of season. On July 22d, figs came into season. On August 6th, peaches, and the small white grape called askerie. On Sept. 6th, pomegranates. On Sept. 10th, quinces, and the large red grape called sahibi. On Oct. 4th, the large pear called abbasi. And on Oct. 7th, walnuts.

I shall conclude this account of Jewish horticulture by remarking, that, as hired servants were often employed along with slaves, and the other members of the gardener's family, so a regulated sum was commonly given them in name of wages. Thus, our Lord in one of his

parables tells us of a certain person who went to the market-place and hired labourers for a penny a day,' or about 74d of our money. And when Tobit hired Azarias as his servant, he agreed for a drachm a day, and things necessary, meaning his support, which was also 74d: so that a drachm, or denarius, was the common wages of a servant or labourer for a day, consisting of twelve hours: although these did not always form the stipulated length; for, in the Jewish writings, the labourers are said to have wrought from sunrise till the appearance of the stars, when the urgency of the season required it.

SECT. VIII.

State of Property in Judea.

Pasture in the first stage of society common; arable lands only accounted property while they produced crops; property afterwards, either in the hands of proprietors or occupants; rent, how collected from such; farmers, in the present acceptation of the word, then unknown. Square acres in the land of Judea proportion to each individual family; something like the feudal system among them; the eldest son's share; method of acquiring property; checks on selfishness: the effect of the appointment of kings on property. The natural effects of the Jewish institutions on their national character.

IN pastoral districts, the soil in the East, as was formerly mentioned, is frequently unappropriated, each shepherd keeping his flock in his present pasture, till necessity obliges him to seek for a better. But they sometimes also hold it for a certain annual consideration given to the government of the country, as Niebuhr tells us the Arab tribes give for the privilege of feeding their flocks and herds in some parts of Arabia, in the neighbourhood of Aleppo, and in the rich plains of Upper Egypt. As for lands devoted to agriculture, they seem to be held under several kinds of tenure: thus, some are temporary, but independent; the occupant enjoying the present or succeeding crops so long as it rewards his labour, or suits his convenience; others hold in perpetuity of some neighbouring chief, either for personal service, or pecuniary consideration; and others pay their proportion of taxes to the state, as the price of their security: these are, properly speaking, the possessing proprietors, who devote their care to the improvement of their estates, and personally superintend them but there are others, who, from ignorance, indolence, distance, or other avocations, find this personal attendance inconvenient or impossible, and therefore

Travels, passim.

commit the charge of their property to some trusty individuals, to manage it for them, on the condition of their retaining a certain proportion of the produce in lieu of wages.-This is done in the East, and is hinted at in one of the parables of our Lord, where the proprietor, not of an agricultural farm indeed, but of a vineyard, let it out to husbandmen on his going to a far country, and sent his servants at the proper season to receive the fruits thereof. And in Cant. viii. 12, we are told by Solomon, that he, as proprietor of a vineyard, received five-sixths as proprietor, and gave onesixth to the husbandmen as wages: a royal remuneration surely, if every thing was found them; but as a general ratio of rent, the reverse of this rule ought to have been adopted.-Accordingly, when Egypt, in the days of Joseph, became the property of Pharaoh, a fifth part of the produce was reckoned sufficient as rent or tax for the king, and four-fifths were allowed to remain with the possessor, regulated by the rise of the Nile, as marked in the Nilometer, the invention of which they ascribe to Joseph.-According to this, when the Nilometer marked 18 cubits or upwards, which insured an abundant crop, a full fifth was exacted; and when it showed a less rise, government was contented with a less proportion. It is rather remarkable, that the same mode of assessment continues in Egypt at the present day; but what was originally an equitable tax, is now aecounted an oppressive one, from the less extent of country irrigated, and the more imperfect manner of doing it for the rise of the Nile still fixes the quantum of tax, although the canals which convey the water from the Nile are not regularly cleared of the mud that is deposited in them; nor are they carried to the same ex

a Matt. xxi. 33, 34.

pro

tent as formerly, owing to the insecurity of life and perty. Nay, even this rule, oppressive as it is, is rendered sometimes more oppressive still by the necessities of the Turkish government, as the following extract from Captain Light's Travels" will show: "New modes of obtaining money were adopted; all the land of Egypt was at once considered the property of the divan: it was portioned off to the different villages, overseers stationed to be answerable for its cultivation, the produce divided into a certain number of parts, of which, one fifth remained to the community, and the rest was at the disposal of the pasha; the same demands were made in bad as in good seasons."

I am not certain that farmers, according to the present acceptation of the term, held any place in the ancient modes of occupying land; but if they did, it is easy to see that they could neither be so general nor so respectable as they are at present. They are the connecting link of the rich and the poor, and only thrive where there is mutual confidence and many wants; where the law gives security to life and property; where knowledge directs to judicious management, and commerce creates a floating capital. But we must not overlook the peculiar tenure by which property was held in the land of Judea. A space of ground, 200 miles long by 100 miles broad, was divided among twelve tribes, consisting of 2,035,441 individuals, assuming the number at the banks of Jordan as the average population of the Jewish nation. But these 200 miles long by 100 miles broad give 20,000 square miles, which multiplied by 3,097,600, the square yards in a mile (for 1760 multiplied into 1760 gives that result,) gives us 61,952,000,000 as the square yards in the land of Canaan; and this divided by

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