accomplished by the laudable interpofition of the feffions of GENERAL the peace. VIEW AND HISTORY. Jews. Mofaical law not In the ancient Heathen world, the duty of providing for the collective poor, fcarcely appears to have ever occurred as a fubject of speculative inquiry; ftill lefs of practical policy a In the Jewish law it was reduced into a fyftem. The general duty was inforced; and various provifions were made for its effectual accomplishment. THE Mofaical institutions, addreffed and adapted to the elsewhere Jews in Canaan, are, ftrictly speaking, not elfewhere obliobligatory. gatory. However, "in the conftitution of human laws, Lord Stairs' "chief refpect ought to be had to the judicial laws of God; opinion of "and they affumed, where the inclination of the people "and their condition do not render them inconvenient c. its ufe. a «In what is called the body of "the Roman law, we meet with or"dinances for the regulation and 66 protection of hospitals for the fick, "for the aged, for orphans, for wi"dows, for travellers, for infants, "and for almost every kind of cha"rity encouraged among ourselves; but it is not amongst the laws of "the Roman kings, nor among those "of the twelve tables, nor amongst "the decrees of the republican fe"nate, nor amongst the edicts of “the heathen, but amongst those of "the Chriftian emperors, that we meet with them." See bishop Watfon's Sermons, p. 40. b Many eminent divines and lawyers, and, among others, the famous Scotus, thought it unlawful to punith any crime capitally, which the Mofaical law punishes arbitrarily. Even Grotius does not very decidedly condemn this opinion. Eft autem valde probabilis Scoti fententia fas non effe quemquam ad mortem damnare, nifi ob delicta quæ lex per Mofem data morte punivit, additis duntaxat aut quæ his funt paria recta æftimatione; neque enim videtur notitia divinæ voluntatis, quæ fola animum tranquillit, aliunde in hoc negotio tam gravi haberi poffe quam ex illa lege, quæ certe mortis pænam in furem non conftituit. (De jure Belli et pacis.) This question, whether the Mofaical inftitution respecting punishments, are, to the extent above mentioned, perpetually binding, was confidered by the court of jufticiary on a learn ed argument in the cafe of John Macpherfon, tried capitally for ftealing two horfes. The court condemned the pannel to death. Dec. 1743 Maclaurin, No. 48, p. 744. c Stairs' Inft. b. i, tit. 1, § 9. $ 1. GENERAL Throughout Christendom, accordingly, thofe commands that are of a more general import, as being the written law of nature, often become the ground work of the common law. HISTORY. And (to use the language of a learned English judge, in a queftion where the Jewish code was pleaded in fupport of a particular custom, in this very matter of poor laws)," what "better fountain could it be drawn from than the holy fcrip"tures = ?" PERHAPS, therefore, it may not be improper to confider the charitable provifions of that venerable difpenfation more minutely. fund. FIRST, certain fubjects were expressly referved as a fund 1, Poors for maintaining the poor. ONE fource from which they derived a maintenance, was the corners of the fields. "And when you reap the fields of “your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy fieldÞ.” Liberally conftrued, this precept included all annual productions, the fruits of the trees, as well as corn. What precise proportion of the field came under this description, is not mentioned in fcripture; but, in practice, was fixed at a fixtieth part, which (the minimum) the poor could by law exact from the most churlish, while the charitable gave more, according to their refpective inclinations and abilities. ANOTHER fund, set apart for the poor, was the gleanings Cleanings. of the harveft and vintage. "Neither fhalt thou gather any gleanings of thy harvest."-" Neither halt thou glean thy “ vineyard; and thou shalt not gather every grape of thy vine"yard." If three or more ftalks of corn, or three or more clusters of grapes, fell at once to the ground, they * See below, P. juxta. Ebre. &c. lib. 6, c. 6, p. 692. Levit. c. xix, v. 9, c. 23, v. 22. *Selden de jure naturali, &c. Gentium 21. GENELAL could be taken up as ftill the property of the owner of the VIEW AND Crop; but if less than three they belonged to the poor 2. HISTORY Forgotten fruits, or corns. Tithe every third year. happened to fall as gleanings, Under the laft clause, clusters of an inferior quality are to be left to the poor . In like manner, whatever sheaves of corn, or other fruits, "When were forgotten in the field, belonged to the poor. "thou cutteft down thine harveft in thy field, and haft forgot a "fheaf in thy field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it " Like the first precept, this was not confined to corn, but was liberally extended to grapes and fruits ". If the workmen forgot, when the mafter did not, or vice versa, or though both the workmen and the mafter forgot, yet if a paffenger timely put them in remembrance, in fuch cafes this precept was not understood to apply. But as thofe regulations were not intended for the benefit of the "beasts of the "field, and birds of the air," so, if the poor did not collect them in due time, according to the usage of the place, they forfeited their exclufive right to fuch gleanings, and forgotten fruits; which, in that cafe, became the property, either of the hufbandman again, or of any other perfon, though not among the number of the poor, who chose to take them. THE most important provifion in favour of the poor, appears to have been their right to a tenth of every third crop. "At the end of three years, thou shall bring forth all the tithe of "thine increase the fame year, and shalt lay it up within thy a Seld. ibid. b Such, for example, as neither had fcapulos denfiores nec uvas conjunc. tiores fed tam has quam illas ita invicem difperfas et diftantes ut reliquorum ubertatem denfiorem haud imitarentur. Ibid. How far this provifion refpecting gleaning is obligatory now, and how c Deut. c. xxiv, v. 19. e Ibid. § r. GENERAL VIEW AND -JEWISH "gates. And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inherit"ance with thee) and the ftranger, and the fatherless, and the "widow, which are within thy gates, fhall come, and shall eat, HISTORY "and be fatisfied" &c. As the Greeks divided time into coDz. olympiads, or periods, of four years, and the Romans into Olympiads. Juftra, or periods of five years, fo did the Jews into periods Luftra. of seven years, called hebdomada. The seventh year they paid Hebdomada. no tithe; for there was no crop. But each of the other fix years they paid two tithes; one to the Levites, whereof the latter, again, yielded a tenth to the priests, called decima decimarum. The other, a tenth of the remaining nine parts of kinds. the produce, in diftinction to the first, or Levites' tithe, was called the fecond tithe. Every firft, fecond, fourth, and fifth, year, this fecond tithe "was spent at the temple in feafts, 2d tithe. "not unlike the agapa of the primitive Christians "," Every third and fixth year, it was " beflowed at home, within their Poors' “ own gates, upon the poor and the Levites ©.” Tithes, how many Ift tithe. tithe. THE only other fund to be noticed, is almfgivings. "If 5, Alms. "there be among you a poor man, of one of thy brethren, within any of thy gates in thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth "thee, thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother; but thou fball open thy hand wide unto him, "and fball furely lend him, fufficient to his need, in what he wanteth," &c.—" Thou shall furely give him; and thine "heart fhall not be grieved when thou giveft unto him." Among the other funds, it is correct here to enumerate alms, which the Jewish magiftrate had authority to compel the Alms, compulfory. churlish and reluctant to give suitably to their circumstances and the exigency of the cafe. a Deut. c. xiv, v. 28, 29. Forbes's Treatife on tithes, c. 5. But whether this poor tithe really was a different application of the Jeand tithe, as Selden and Pool (Synopfis criticorum, &c. ad loc.) think," or a third extraordinary "tithe, diftin&t from both the Le- d Deut. c. xv, v. 8, 9, 10. GENERAL HISTORY -JSWISH CODE. In each town, or diftrict, it became ufual, in practice, to VIEW AND appoint collectors, to whom, on the evening of the Sabbath, individuals (if they did not choose to be dispensers wholly of their own charity) paid their weekly offering, and by whom, after careful scrutiny, diftribution was made among the for the poor poor, according to their several neceffities; of money from the box (arca); of provisions from the large cheft (scute!la). The former was used univerfally; the latter in fome particular places only . Collectors Arca. Scutella. not liable in their Ir is remarkable that none of the above regulations were Strangers understood to be binding on wealthy ftrangers living among them, even though they had attained the degree of proselytus poor laws. juftitia. So far was this carried, that if a Jew and stranCommon ger were joint partners of a field, the law refpecting the corner, gleanings, as well as applied to the one half only. property between stranger and Jew. ret, fententia forenfi coercendus erat in The following are the words of b Neque vidimus neque audivimus forgotten fheaves and fruits, Alms, again, instead of be raelitarum,defuiffe arcam eleemofinæ. Sed fcutellam quidem loci alii habent, alii non habent pro moris diversita. te." (Maimonides apud Selden, ibid. p. 698.) Si Gentilis in ditione Ifraelitica poftquam fegetem meffuerat, profelytus juftitiæ factus fuiflet, ex fegete illa neque angulus neque fpicilegium neque manipulus per oblivionem derelictus, pauperibus relinquendus; tametfi manipulis jus non inciperet ante tempus quo manipuli avchi foliti. Id est etiam poftquam profelytus effet factus. (Ibid. 701.) d Ubi Ifraelita et Gentilis focii erant vineæ in parte Ifraelitæ (divi, fa) relinquendi erant acini decidui et racematio. Sed pars Gentilis immunis erat. (Thalmud, c. iv, ibid. 701.) |