the
compilation of Hindoo law translated by Halbed, Jones, Colebrooke,
Macnaghten, Hamilton, and a pretty numerous body of accomplished
men, of whom Mr. Baillie is the most recently enrolled laborer in
the vineyard, have carried on the good work. More comprehensive and
accurate views of Hindoo law have gradually been developed, and the
more advanced and more influential system of Mahometan jurisprudence
has also shared in the attention of European students. There is,
however, still much to be done in this field of inquiry; as a few
remarks on the nature of the present publication, and the source
whence its materials are derived, will show.

[Footnote 4: The Moohummadan Law of Sale, according to the Hunefeea
Code: from the Futawa Alumgeeree, a Digest of the whole Law, prepared
by command of the Emperor Aurungzebe Alumgeer. Selected and translated
from the original Arabic, with an Introduction and explanatory Notes,
by Neil B.E. Baillie, Author of "The Moohummadan Law of inheritance."
Published by Smith and Elder.]

The law of Mahometan jurists is for India pretty much what the Roman
law is for Scotland and the Continental nations of Europe. Savigny has
shown how, throughout all the territories formerly included within the
limits of the Roman Empire, a large amount of Roman legal doctrines
and forms of procedure continued to be operative after the Empire's
subversion. The revival of the study of the Roman law, as embodied
in the compilations of Justinian, by the doctors of the school
of Bologna, augmented and systematized these remnants of Roman
jurisprudence, and extended their application to countries which (like
great part of Germany) had never been subjected to the sway of Rome.
In like manner, throughout that part of India which was permanently
subdued and organized by the Mogul dynasty, and also those parts in
which minor Islamitic states were established, the organization of
the courts of justice, and the legal opinions of the individuals who
officiated in them, necessarily introduced a large amount of Mahometan
jurisprudence. This element of the law of India was augmented and
systematized by the writings of private jurists, and by compilations
undertaken by command of princes. As with the Roman jurisprudence in
Europe, so with Mahometan jurisprudence in India, only so much of its
doctrines and forms could at any time be considered to possess legal
force as had been reenacted by the local sovereigns, or introduc