t, easily accessible to all his subjects, both able and
willing to protect the weak against the highest-placed oppressor. The royal
power, however, can only pardon when private resentment is appeased. The
judges are strictly supervised and appeal is allowed. The whole land is
covered with feudal holdings, masters of the levy, police, &c. There is a
regular postal system. The _pax Babylonica_ is so assured that private
individuals do not hesitate to ride in their carriage from Babylon to the
coast of the Mediterranean. The position of women is free and dignified.

The Code did not merely embody contemporary custom or conserve ancient law.
It is true that centuries of law-abiding and litigious habitude had
accumulated in the temple archives of each city vast stores of precedent in
ancient deeds and the records of judicial decisions, and that intercourse
had assimilated city custom. The universal habit of writing and perpetual
recourse to written contract even more modified primitive custom and
ancient precedent. Provided the parties could agree, the Code left them
free to contract as a rule. Their deed of agreement was drawn up in the
temple by a notary public, and confirmed by an oath "by god and the king."
It was publicly sealed and witnessed by professional witnesses, as well as
by collaterally interested parties. The manner in which it was thus
executed may have been sufficient security that its stipulations were not
impious or illegal. Custom or public opinion doubtless secured that the
parties would not agree to wrong. In case of dispute the judges dealt first
with the contract. They might not sustain it, but if the parties did not
dispute it, they were free to observe it. The judges' decision might,
however, be appealed against. Many contracts contain the proviso that in
case of future dispute the parties would abide by "the decision of the
king." The Code made known, in a vast number of cases, what that decision
would be, and many cases of appeal to the king were sent back to the judges
with orders to decide in accordance with it. The Code itself was carefully
and logically arranged and the order of its sections was conditioned by
their subject-matter. Nevertheless the order is not that of modern
scientific treatises, and a somewhat different order from both is most
convenient for our purpose.

The Code contemplates the whole population as falling into three classes,
the _amelu_, the _muskinu_ and the _ardu_. The _