PAPER.

405

have been described by Merula, Gruter, and others; andthe other by Thomas Demster. The civil, criminal,and ceremonial laws of the Greeks, were engraven onbronze tables, as was the speech of Claudius on plates ofthe same metal, and are still preserved in the Town Hall ofLyons.

The celebrated laws of the twelve tables, it appears,were first written on oak ; afterwards, it should seem, ac-cording to custom, they were transcribed upon ivory tablets,and hung up pro rostris, after they had been approved bythe people they were engraven on bronze. These, withothers, were all melted from lightning having set thecapitol on fire, which Augustus much lamented. The lawsof the Cretans were likewise engraved on bronze. TheRomans it will appear, generally etched their codex plebiscite,contracts, conventions, and public records in brass, as wellduring the existence of the republic as in the time of theemperors. The Athenian magistrates were chosen by lot:their names were engraven on bronze plates, and put in theurn with white and black beans ; we need not observe thenames drawn out with a white bean were duly elected.

The pacts between the Romans, Spartans, and Jews ,were written on brass, which method was also observed bythe Guilds , as well as in compacts between private persons,who likewise got the land-marks of their estates written onmetal. In many collections are yet preserved discharges ofsoldiers on copper.

We have already seen the Tabula Alimentaria of Trajan ,at Veleia, was written upon this metal. Not long since,it is asserted, a copper-plate was dug up at Mongheer, inBengal, on which, characters of Sanscrit were etched,signifying a gift of land from Bideram Gunt to one of his sub-jects. This bill of feoffment on copper, we are told, is dated100 years before the Christian aera, and proves that at thattime, 2000 years ago, the Indians were highly civilized. Suchinstances in more modern times are very rare. ThoughAdelbert, Archbishop of Mentz, ordered a grant to beengraved on metal plates, which are kept over the door-wingsof the church of B. Maria. Virginia ad Gradus, in Mentz.In 1011, those door-wings were afterwards cast in metal,to resemble the bronze, by order of Archbishop Willigis .

The abbot Cabent, and Benedictine monk Legipont, wereof opinion that the most ancient material for writing waswood; and notwithstanding what we have seen, we admit thatboth box, oak, and ivory have been occasionally employed invery ancient days. But it should seem much depended, with