justice. The king is understood to have no power of altering the
laws: if the council are unanimous, the king never decides against
them.[32]

[Footnote 30: But go to the next heir.]

[Footnote 31: This is the written Muhamedan law: the insolvent
is always liable, but cannot be arrested or imprisoned whilst
he remains insolvent, but continues always liable for the debt
if he afterwards becomes solvent. The present Emperor of
Marocco has lately published an edict. Hearing that his Jew
subjects in London frequently became bankrupts, or made
compositions with their creditors, has enacted, that all,
persons in his dominions who live by buying and selling, shall
pay their just debts; but if unable, their brethren, or
relations shall pay their creditors for them. If _they_ are
unable, the insolvent is to receive a beating every morning at
sunrise, to remind him of his defalcation. This law was enacted
at Fas in 1817, and since then, I am informed, no bankruptcy
has happened in that great commercial city.]

[Footnote 32: This is a custom derived from Muhamedan
governments.]

A slave is entirely at his master's disposal, who may put him to
death without trial; yet the slave may complain to the council of
ill-usage, and if the complaint be well-founded, his master is
ordered to sell him. The slaves are always foreign; a native cannot
be made a slave. There are three reasons for which a slave may be
entitled to freedom: _want of food, want of clothes, and want of
shoes_: an old slave is frequently set at liberty, and returns to
his own country. The children of slaves are the property of their
master. Slaves cannot marry without the consent of their masters.
The master of the female slave generally endeavours to buy the male
to whom she is attached.[33]

[Footnote 33: Many conscientious Muhamedans, in purchasing
slaves, calculate how many years' service their purchase money
is equal to. Thus, if a man pays a servant twenty dollars
a-year for wages, and he gives 100 dollars for a slave, he
retains the slave five years, when, if his conduct has been
approved, he often discharges him from servitude. The period
for liberating slaves in this manner is how