as the wages of hire; any day therefore that a servant receives such compensation, he is in duty bound to serve for that day; but not otherwise. Secondly, The condition of a contract of hire requires that the return of profit be agreeable to the wages of hire, and this cannot be ascertained, but by degrees and in course of time. The contract of hire therefore becomes complete or fulfilled, according to the services or benefit, actually rendered in return for the wages of hire received; and the person hired has consequently the option of dissolving the contract at any moment of the period originally agreed for. It is however unavoidable, and actually necessary, in contracts of a different nature, such as in farms of land, &c. that the lessee should not have this power. But reverting to contracts of hire for service, for a long period, and the nefarious practices of subjecting free-men to a state of bondage and slavery under this pretence, it appears expedient to provide against such abuses; and with this view, to restrict the period of service, in all contracts of hire of free-men, to a month, one year or at the utmost to three years; as in the case of a farm of endowments. It is customary also, among women who keep sets of dancing girls, to purchase female children from their parents; or by engagements directly with the children themselves. Exclusively of the illegality of such purchases, there is a further evil, resulting from this practice, which is, that the children are taught dancing and singing for others, and are also made prostitutes; both of which are extremely improper, and expressly forbidden by the Law.

Q. 2. What legal powers are the owners of slaves allowed to exercise upon the persons of their slaves; and particularly of their female slaves?

Duties on

which slaves may be employed.

R. 2. The rightful proprietor of male and female slaves has a claim to the services of such slaves, to the extent of their power and ability; he may employ them in baking and cooking, in making, dying and washing clothes; as agents in mercantile transactions; in attending cattle, in tillage, or cultivation; as carpenters, ironmongers and goldsmiths; in transcribing; as weavers, and in manufacturing woollen-cloths; as shoemakers, boat-men, twisters of silk, or water-drawers; in shaving, in performing surgical operations, such as cupping; and as farmers, bricklayers, and the like: and he may hire them out on service in any of the above capacities. He may also employ them himself, or for the use of his family, in other duties of a domestic nature; such as in fetching water for washing, or purification; in anointing his body with oil, and rubbing his feet, in attending his person while dressing; and in guarding the door of his house, &c. He may also have connexion with his legal female slave; provided she is arrived at the age of maturity, and the master or proprietor has not previously given her in marriage to another.

Q. 3. What offences upon the persons of slaves, and particularly of female slaves, committed by their owners, or by others, are legally punishable, and in what manner?

R. 3. If a master oppress his slave, by employing him in any duty beyond his power and ability; such as insisting upon his carrying a load which he is incapable of bearing, or climbing a tree which he cannot accomplish, the ruling power may chastise him. It is also improper for a master to order his slave to do that which is forbidden by the Law; such as to put an innocent person to death; to set fire to a house; to

tear the clothes of another, or to commit adultery and fornication, to steal, or drink spirits, or to slander and abuse the chaste and virtuous; and if a master be guilty of such like oppressions, the ruling power may inflict on him exemplary punishment by Tazeer and Akoobut, on principles of public justice. It is further unlawful for a master to punish his male or female slaves for disrespectful conduct, and such like offences, further than by moderate correction, as the power of passing sentences of Tazeer and Qisas is solely vested in the ruling power. If therefore the master should A master may be punished exceed the limits of his power of chastisement above for maltreatstated, he is liable to Tazeer. If a master should have slave, but this connexion with his female slave before she has arrived is not legally a sufficient at the years of maturity, and if the female slave should cause for emancipation. in consequence be seriously injured, or should die, the ruling power may punish him by Tazeer and Akoobut, on principles of public justice as before stated.

Q. 4. Are slaves entitled to emancipation upon any and what maltreatment? and may a Court of Justice adjudge their emancipation upon proof of such maltreatment? In particular, may such judgment be passed upon proof that a female slave has, during her minority, been prostituted by her master or mistress? or that any attempt of violence has been made upon her person by her owner?

R. 4. If the master of male or female slaves should oppress or tyrannize over them, by beating them unjustly, stinting them in food, or imposing upon them duties of a difficult and oppressive nature, so as to cause them affliction and distress; or if a master should have connexion with his slave girl, before she has arrived at the years of maturity; or should give her in marriage to another, with permission to cohabit with

ment of his

A free-man cannot legally be sold as a slave.

her, in this state; such master sins against the Divine Laws; and the ruling power may punish him by Tadeeb and Tazeer on principles of public justice; but the commission of such crimes, by the master, does not authorize the manumission of the slaves; nor has the ruling power any right, or authority, to grant them emancipation. Adverting, however, to the principle upon which the legality of slavery is originally established, (viz. that the subject of property must be an infidel, and taken in the act of hostility against the faith); and also to the several branches of legal slavery, arising from this principle, as by purchase, donation, inheritance, and Khana Zadee; whenever a case of the unlawful possession of a male or female, shall be referred to the ruling power for investigation, it is the duty of such authority to pass an order, recording the original right of freedom of such individual; to deprive the unjust proprietor of possession, and to grant immediate emancipation to the slave.

CASE III.

Q. 1. The father of Deendar Khan (the plaintiff) was a Hindoo, who in a year of scarcity, out of necessity, sold his son to Budun Khan and Mussummaut Asalut, to whose property Gholam Hoosein Khan (the defendant) lays claim. Does Deendar Khan by such sale legally become a slave or not?

R. 1. As the original state of man is freedom, no free person, whether Hindoo or Moosulmaun, can legally become a slave, from the circumstance of his having been sold in a year of scarcity, out of necessity. The contrary doctrine is maintained only by very weak authorities. That such sale does not constitute slavery, is the authentic opinion.*

See Prin: Slavery 1.

Q. 2. According to Law, what circumstances are essential and necessary to the ceremony of emancipation?

how effected.

R. 2. Words indicative of the act of emancipation Emancipation are sufficient to give it effect, in whatever language expressed. It is not at all necessary, or essential, to execute a deed, or to use any formalities on the occasion.

CASE IV.

Q. It is a well known principle of Law that free persons cannot on any account be sold; yet it appears to be a generally received opinion that the selling and purchasing of mankind, in times of distress or difficulty, are allowable. Does the latter doctrine rest on any legal foundation?

R. Although it is doubtless the most received and authentic doctrine that, generally speaking, purchase confers no right of dominion over mankind, yet it is laid down in certain works of authority, such as the Inaya, the Zukheera and the Moheet, as a tradition of Imam Moohummud, that a person is at liberty to sell his own freedom in times of difficulty and distress, when hard pressed by his creditor.* The following is an extract from the Inaya:-" A person put a question to Imam Moohummud, requesting his opinion as to the sale of the liberty of a free-man, when perishing from famine. He replied, that under the circumstances stated, the sale is allowable; otherwise not.-A second question was put to him as to the right of concubinage, possessed by the purchaser of a woman under such

The doctrine here maintained seems to conform to that of the Civil Law,-" Slavery was created thirdly by sale from others or themselves, for persons of above twenty years of age might sell themselves to slavery."--Brown's Civil Law, vol. 1, page 57.