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power; and at that time, too, commenced the connection with England, by which it was destined to be subverted. To unfold the principles on which the political institutions and civil policy of that government were founded; to view the modes in which these were practised, and to explain the effects of their operation; to show the state of domestic and foreign commerce in India, and the peculiar maxims by which it had been regulated in all ages; and, finally, to give an account of the manner in which that commerce gave birth to the intercourse with England, as well as of the origin of the India Company, and their infant establishments, are subjects which, when brought into one point of view, and placed in a perspicuous light, seem well adapted to attract the public attention, and to promulgate an important part of that useful knowledge which lies scattered over several hundred volumes, inaccessible to common readers, from their scarcity, and the different languages in which they are written, and repulsive to men of taste and talents, from their dryness and verbosity. We have made it our business to consult those volumes with scrupulous attention, and to compare the facts which they contain with those which we ourselves collected both in India and England, as well from unpublished documents as oral information. The whole of our materials have been derived from the most authentic sources; and we trust the learned reader will find, that the strictest fidelity has been observed, not only in the relation of circumstances and events, but in the views which have been taken of their causes and consequences.' r. iii.

To this subject we shall soon return: in other parts of the plan, they have made little change. As it was advisable to contract the size of the volume, so each department is less copious and extensive, and the preface concludes with the most consoling prospects of a continuance of peace in India. In this moment of awful impending war, we cannot avoid a word or two on that subject'; and shall remark, that, on the whole, we consider India as secure. In a plan of its conquest, detailed in the present volume, the contingencies are so numerous that the success can scarcely be styled improbable we should think it impossible. Yet perhaps there was a moment, when, if Bonaparte had pushed for northern Persia, and, at the period of Zemaun Shaw's restless ambition, had joined his powers, the English possessions in India would have been in danger. The Corsican's wild plan of colonisation in Egypt saved them froin impending ruin; and his firmness of administration, in retaining possession of Malta, will probably secure them in future. From Russia there is little reason for apprehension. Her vast dominions are already unwieldy from their extent; and, before the eastern parts are sufficiently peopled and civilised to render them formidable, they will perceive how little power a head can have at so great a distance from the extremities, and will become independent.-But to return to the work.

We have very attentively perused the third chapter of the

history, which contains observations on the political and commercial state of India, preceded by remarks on the constitution of the Mogul empire. These contain a very judicious abstract of the state of India, at the time when the Europeans, and particularly the English, were first connected with this part of Asia; and we think the subject has not before been brought together so advantageously, or compacted so judiciously. The account of the political regulations of the emperor Akbar are highly interesting; and, as there is a life of that monarch, written by himself with singular simplicity and candour, we would recommend some extracts from it for a future volume. Some years have elapsed since we saw it; and, if our recollection be correct, the whole. would be too extensive for this work. We shall select, as a specimen of this history, the very masterly and well compacted account of the early commerce of the Hindus.

<Trade between different countries usually arises from a reciprocal want of exchangeable commodities. But the Hindus, limited in their desires, wanted no commodities with which any other nation could supply them. Their character of patience, temperance, and moderation, formed, in a long course of ages, by the restrictive principles of their religious and civil institutions, prevented them from acquiring that taste for luxury and extravagance which is the general concomitant of civilization and refinement, and which so largely contributes to promote the external commerce of nations. Furnished almost with every necessary comfort and convenience, by their own ingenious industry, and the peculiar benignity of the climate in which they lived, they had no relish for the productions of any other country, and even felt little curiosity about them. They therefore never engaged in any external trade, nor speculated on the advantages they might derive from being the carriers of their own commodities to those nations by whom they were so highly prised. The desire of wealth, however, is a passion too general and too powerful, not to have had a very forcible influence on so enlightened a people; and the gold and silver, with which the traders of other countries flocked to the markets of Hindustan to purchase those exquisite manufactures, and other valuable articles of merchandize that could be procured no where else, operated as a strong and constant stimulus to their strenuous ingenuity. And as the money which by this means flowed so plentifully into the coun try was never again remitted from it, either for commercial or other purposes; and as the trade carried on by the Portugueze had infected the people of Europe with an epidemical rage for Indian productions, at the same time that the precious metals brought from America so much increased the facility of obtaining them, the empire of Hindustan naturally became, in the course of the reign of Akbar, the gene sal reservoir of all the specie of the world. This vast influx of specie, circulating throughout the empire, was employed as an instrument of internal trade, which it rendered infinitely more Bourishing than at any former period. The trade of the interior, which was augmented by means of this circulation, was contined to the peninsula, the Deccan

and the provinces of Orissa, Bengal, Behar, Oude, Delhi, Malwa, Guzerat, the Panjab, Cashmir, and Cabul. The horses, which were imported from Tartary, Persia, and Arabia, were exchanged for mus lins, coarse cottons, and silks. The cinnamon brought from Ceylon, the cloves, mace, and nutmegs from the Molucca islands, iron from Europe, and cowries from the Maldive islands, were likewise paid for in commodities. These were the only articles of trade then imported into Hindustan. The demand for horses and iron arose from the great military establishments which were maintained by the emperor and the mussulman princes of the Deccan, and from the wars which were continually carried on between them. But this exchange of commodities, when considered in a relative view to the general commerce of the country, was partial and unimportant, and no way interfered with the established usage by which that commerce was regulated. The great export trade of Hindustan invariably consisted in an interchange of merchandize and specie, and was never carried on by her own inhabitants, but immemorially by other nations: and her internal trade, nourished and invigorated by that specie, rendered her the most opulent country in the world.

The importation of the precious metals was productive of a double benefit; for it not only supplied all the wants both of the government and the people, but thereby did away any temptation on the part of the Mogul princes to work the gold and silver mines of their own country; a temptation to which all governments are naturally prone to yield, and which, when yielded to, never fails to be followed by the most perni cious consequences. The merchants of Hindustan likewise derived a direct advantage from the specie which they received in payment of their commodities from the European traders. In the reign of Akbar, a premium of twenty per cent. was given to all merchants who sent their gold and silver to the royal mints, several of which were established in various parts of the empire. When the specie brought from Europe was re-cast, and issued from these mints, in the coin of the country, (gold mohurs and rupees,) a considerable traffic was carried on in them, by means of their bearing value in the different provinces according to the place in which they were struck. The gold mohurs and rupees of Agra, and Murshedabad in Bengal, were intrinsically, as well as by public estimation, more valuable than those of any other place; and a large profit was obtained on the exchange of these coins, at the markets of the Deccan and Guzerat, whither they were transmitted for the purchase of the diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other precious stones of Golconda, Berar, and of the rich gold and silver velvets, and beautiful carpets of Putten, Beroach and Ahmadabad. The gold and silver coins (the pagoda and the fanam) that were struck by the independent Hindu rajahs of the peninsula, were also employed to great advantage in carrying on the inland traffic in that part of the country. The dams, pice, and other small coins in circulation, contributed to facilitate this trade, amongst a people who, from being habituated to a peculiarly rigid frugality, required to buy their goods in the smallest possible quantities. Amongst the lowest classes, even copper was not cheap, or plenty enough to answer their purposes; and recourse was had to the cowries, or shells, that have been mentioned, by means of which they provided themselves

with necessaries, in such proportions only as suited their parsimonious habits, and as were indispensable to their wants. The trade in cowries was in the time of Akbar principally carried on by the merchants of Cambay, Ghogeh, and Surat, who sent small vessels, called tahwerys, to the Maldive islands, laden with rice and coarse cottons, with which articles they purchased these useful shells. This was the only sort of export trade ever carried on by the merchants of India on their

own account.' P. 13.

This history reaches to about the year 1618. We trust that the authors will be somewhat more expeditious in the following volume. We may, however, remark, that the period of their promised publication is already elapsed, and we have not heard of their volume for 1802.

The chronicle contains the series of events of the year, some of which are singular, and others interesting; but they are too miscellaneous to enable us to offer any general account. The civil and military promotions, with a list of births, marriages, and deaths, follow.

Under the article of Home Intelligence,' is a paper already alluded to, entitled A Project of an Expedition over Land to India, submitted to the Government of France in the Spring of 1801, with a Comment by the Editor.' This plan, we have said, is so full of improbabilities, that the sagacity of the editor was not required as an antidote to the poison. He has, however, offered it in the most satisfactory form, and would almost lead us to think that the plan is somewhat ironical, and intended to ridicule a wild scheme, of a similar nature, which Paul I. was said to have entertained, were not the wild Quixotism of modern Frenchmen so familiar to us.

The State Papers' respect the trade between India and Europe, so far as regards private trade, and the employment of India-built ships for carrying it on. The proceedings in parliament are chiefly on the same subject; to which are added Mr. Dundas's speech on the India budget, and the. abstract of statements relative to the accounts of the EastIndia Company. The reports of the speeches, in each department, seem to be sufficiently faithful and satisfactory, The proceedings at the India-house follow, and chiefly relate to the private trade-a question scarcely yet separated from party, and, we fear, not considered sufficiently without an attention to private interest,

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The Characters' are well selected, and interesting. The account of the life of Bajazet' is from the French of d'Herbelot, not before translated: the account of the life of the emperor Shahrokh,' fourth son of Timur, is from the same author; and both are sufficiently known to those whose

zeal for Eastern literature has led them to the volumes of d'Herbelot.

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The character of Georgian and Circassian women,' from the Travels of Olivier, are scarcely adapted to an Asiatic register, which should be confined to India or its immediate connexions, and contains also little novelty.

The account of the life of Teruvercadu,' a learned Hindu of the Carnatic, is a more appropriate article, and peculiarly interesting to the Eastern scholar, as it points out the principal parts of the Hindu learning. A memoir of the Bounsla family of Mahrattas, since their settling at Nagpoor, under Ruggojee,' is less generally interesting, though of importance to the historian of the peninsula.

An account of Gholaum Hossein Khan, author of a very valuable and interesting work, entitled "Seir Mutakharin, or a View of Modern Times," translated from the Persic original.'

This work comprizes a civil history of Hindustan, from the death of Aurengzebe to A. D. 1781, together with a particular account of the English conquests, and a critical examination of the English government and policy in Bengal. The author treats these important subjects with a freedom and spirit, and with a force, clearness, and simplicity of style, very unusual in an Asiatic writer, and which justly entitle him to pre-eminence among Asiatic historians. This work is little known even to Orientalists but by name. In our succeeding volumes we propose to make our readers familiar with it. The public will naturally be curious to know the sentiments of an independent native of Hindustan, endowed with a great share of penetration, sagacity, knowledge, and spirit, respecting our conquest of his country, and the policy pursued by our government in Bengal previons to the year 1781. In the mean time the following short account of the author's life, written by himself, will be perused with a proportional degree of interest.' P. 28.

The life is written with singular naïveté, and apparent candour. The life itself cannot be of importance to us; but the character of Assof-ud-Dowla, the late nabob of Oude, from the author's history, is more interesting, as it is connected with the British politics in that country. The nabob appears, from the report of a man celebrated for accuracy and impartiality,' as the meanest and most despicable of wretches in every respect, unworthy of reigning, perhaps of living.

Authentic anecdotes of the life of major-general Claude Martin' follow. This enterprising officer went with Lally to India, and left him, when his oppressive despotism disgusted almost his whole army. After attaining the rank of captain in the India Company's service, he went, by their permission, into that of the nabob vizir Sujah-ud-Dowia. He continued a favourite with the vizir; and his influence was at

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