[2] Derived from _pecunia_.

* * * * *

ORIGIN OF BAIL.

(_For the Mirror_.)

"Worry'd with debts, and past all hopes of _bail_,
The unpity'd wretch lies rotting in a jail."

_Roscommon_.

The system of _giving securities_, or _bail_, to answer an accusation, is
a custom (says Brewer) which appears to have been coeval with the Saxon
nation. This system was, indeed, subsequently carried by the Saxons to a
burthensome and degrading height--not being confined to those who were
accused of crime, but extending to the whole community, who thus gave
surety to answer anticipated criminality. This object was effected by the
division of England into counties, hundreds, and tithings, and by the
direction that every man should belong to some tithing or hundred; which
divisions were pledged to the preservation of the public peace, and were
answerable for the conduct of their inhabitants.

The system of placing all the people under _borh_, or bail, the origin of
which was attributed to Alfred, is first clearly enforced in the laws of
Edgar.

P.T.W.

* * * * *

ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF THE DAY.

(_For the Mirror_.)

"See the minutes how they run:
How many makes the hour full compleat,
How many hours bring about the day,
How many days will finish up the year,
How many years a mortal man may live."

_Shakspeare_.

The Chaldaeans, Syrians, Persians, and Indians began the day at sun-rise,
and divided both the day and night into four parts. This division of the
day into quarters was in use long before the invention of hours.

The Chinese, who begin their day at midnight, and reckon to the midnight
following, divide this interval into twelve hours, each equal to two of
ours, and distinguished by a name and particular figure.

In Egypt the day was divided into unequal hours. The clock invented by
Ctesibius, of Alexandria, 136 years B.C. was so contrived as to lengthen
or shorten the hours.

The Greeks divided the natural day into twelve hours--a practice derived
from the Babylonians.

The Romans called the time between the rising and setting sun, the natural
day; and the time in the twenty-four hours, the civil day. They began and
ended their civil day at midnight, and derived this practice from their
ancient jurisprudence and rites of religion, established long before they
had any idea of the division into hours. The firs