Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

NOWLEDGE
IT
IS
NOT
GOO

[graphic]

TOGLAKABAD.

WITHIN a few miles of the city of Delhi*, in India, stand the remains of a once populous and important town, named Toglakabad, or Tughlickabad. It was a fortified town with a strong citadel, situated in the territories assigned to the Mogul in the province of Delhi, and named from its founder the Emperor Tughlik. A few miserable huts contain all the present inhabitants of Tughlickabad; but the rude, massy, and stupendous ruins of its walls, palaces, and subterranean apartments, still attract the curiosity of travellers. Within a separate irregular fortification, connected with the town by a causeway, stands the mausoleum of the Emperor Tughlik Shah, (who reigned about A.D. 1321,) built of gigantic blocks of granite, in the form of a truncated pyramid, the walls converging as they ascend.

Toglakabad appears to have been intended as a sort of citadel for the defence of the imperial city of Delhi, and to have arisen out of the disturbed state of Hindostan at an early period of its history. In the year 1317 (717 of the Hegira) Mubarick the First ascended the throne of Delhi, through the instrumentality of some of his military officers. These *See Saturday Magazine, Vol. X., pp. 130, 186. VOL. XVII.

supporters he put to death after he had gained the imperial dignity,-a species of gratitude not at all uncommon in oriental countries: it is not improbable that monarchs, who hold the sceptre by so loose a tenure, apprehend that those who have power to put them on the throne may also be able to remove them from it. Mubarick disgusted many of the nobles of his court by heaping honours and rewards on slaves and persons of the lowest degree. Among others, Hassan, one of his slaves, the son of a seller of rags in Guzerat, received the title of Chusero, and, through the king's partiality for him, became the greatest man in the empire: he was appointed to the command of the army, and at the same time to the office of vizier; without possessing any of the talents necessary for those offices. The king then entered on a series of wars, which, being generally successful, enabled him to heap favours on s his favourite Chusero. These favours so increased the influence and the ambition of this minion, that he began to have designs against the throne, and tampered with the officers of the army to gain them over to his purpose; this they refused to do, and they informed the emperor of the designs of Chusero, but 516

Magazine.

18TH, 1840.

PRICE ONE PENNY.

[graphic]

the latter contrived to gain credence for a false tale, by which he was pardoned and the officers punished. Chusero, however, afterwards succeeded, by the aid of a band of hired ruffians, in murdering the emperor and all his supporters, and then mounting the throne of Delhi under the title of the Emperor Chusero.

during the prosperous times of the empire of Delhi. Half way to Furreedabad we passed the gigantic ruins of Toghlikabad, on a hill about a coss* to our right. I regretted that we could not see them nearer; but the stage was of sufficient length for our horses, and the few remaining hours of daylight, without this addition. Mr. Elliot described them as chiefly inte

weight of the stones employed in them."

These scenes excited disgust in the mind of Ghazi, Governor of Lahore, who, being resolute and well-resting from their vast dimensions, and the bulk and intentioned, resolved to do his utmost to get rid of a cruel usurper, who, as well as the man whom he had just murdered, had no legitimate right to the throne. He collected around him all the omrahs and chiefs who had resolution enough to oppose the tyrant, and marched with a powerful army towards Delhi. The usurper with his army came out to meet them, and was utterly defeated, taken, and slain. Ghazi then entered Delhi, where the omrahs and magistrates of the city came to meet him. He then inquired whether there were yet living any descendants of the legitimate line of princes whom Mubarick and Chusero had set aside; and if not, desired them to choose a king to govern them in future. They answered with one voice that none of the royal family were left alive, and then at once proceeded to choose him as emperor; and he accordingly, in the year 1321, ascended the throne of Delhi by the title of Tuglick the First.

From Major Archer, however, we obtain more detail on the subject. He says that the new city of Delhi, and the old fort of Toglakabad, form a continuation of each other, extending seven or eight miles. Toglakabad he describes as one of the grandest sights he ever witnessed, although nothing more than the deserted ruins of a huge fortress, the rearing and building of which must have cost infinite time and labour. The beholder is struck with awe at the colossal remains, which seem rather the work of "Titans" than of men. The circumference of the fort is from five to six miles: the citadel is very high and commanding; and to add to the strength of the whole, a large space on one side can easily be inundated. The king's tomb is outside the fort, and forms a fortified outwork; the communication is by a stone causeway, arched. "The wonder," says Major Archer, "is excited how men could put such enormous blocks of stone together, and fashion them into fair proportions, when assisted so limitedly by art, through the aid of mechanics: how they managed is a secret which will doubtless rest with the inventors, for their descendants are as blessedly ignorant of any useful science as men need be."

Our frontispiece, which conveys a good idea of the remarkable ruins we have attempted to describe, is taken from the valuable Indian Views of Captain Luard, with his kind permission.

A coss is the Indian name for a road-measure about a mile and

Tuglick exerted his utmost powers to repair the mischief which had fallen on the empire during the preceding reigns; he repaired the palaces and fortifications, founded others, and encouraged industry and commerce; men of genius and learning were called to court; institutes of law and government were esta blished and founded; and a better system of government pursued. Soon after his accession, he found it necessary to send an army to bring to allegiance a revolted chief, Lidderdeo, the prince of Arinkil; and the conduct of this army was given to Jonah, the emperor's eldest son. Through the treachery of a half in length. some of the omrahs, this expedition failed of success; but, in a few months afterwards, another army was collected, and despatched to Arinkil. This city was then besieged and taken, and Lidderdeo and all his family, together with their elephants, treasure, and effects, were sent to Delhi. The emperor received them in a citadel which he had built near Delhi, called Tughlikabad, and this is the first mention which is made in the history of Hindostan of the place represented in our frontispiece. We do not propose to continue the details of the history; having shown what were the circumstances under which, and by whom, the city of Toglakabad* was built in the year 1323.

The amiable Bishop Heber appears, from the following extract from his Journal, to have contemplated a visit to Toglakabad, but to have been unable to fulfil his intention: "January 3.-This morning early I sent off my tents and baggage to Furreedabad, a little town about fifteen miles from Delhi, and in the afternoon followed them on horseback, escorted by five of Skinner's horse, and accompanied by Mr. Lushington and Dr. Smith. We passed by Humaioon's tomb, and thence through a dreary country, full of ruins, along a stony and broken road, marked out at equal distances of about a mile and a half, by solid circular stone obelisks, 'cross minars,' erected

[ocr errors]

*The orthography of Indian names is exceedingly confused and uncertain; there are half a dozen different modes of spelling the name of the city which we call Toglakabad, and it is difficult to say which is the right one. We may mention, as another and still more striking instance of this, the name of Genghis Khan, the Asiatic conqueror not only are there ten or twelve different modes of spelling this name (such as Chengiskan, Gengiskhan, &c.), but we have actually known the same author spell it seven different ways in different parts of the same volume.

THE EARTH IS THE LORDS, AND THE FULNESS THEREOF. Interesting and lovely as the green fields in their luxuriant richness must ever be, to the eye of faith and devo tion they are even more so: did we accustom ourselves to associate with their beauty the superintending providence of God, as well as the subordinate art and labour of man, they would possess an interest and a loveliness which the mere lover of nature never knew. The sweetest landscape is improved by the presence of animated objects, which impart a liveliness, an interest, as it were, an existence, to the by the presence, so to speak, of the living God!

whole. What increased force and interest are added to it

Shall we be so selfish as to ascribe the beauty of our cultivated and richly-laden fields to the mere assistant labours of our own fallen race, unto whom all beyond the original curse of barrenness is mercy? Not unto us, not unto will praise thee for thy goodness, and declare the wonders O Lord, but unto thy name be all the praise. Yea! we which thou doest for the children of men.

us,

If we accustom ourselves to such meditations as these,if we view the earth as the Lord's, and the fulness thereof― if we view every good gift and every perfect gift as coming down from above, we shall find "good in everything;" we shall find more to occupy our minds amid the green fields, despite their solitude and stillness, than in the crowded city; each path will lead us to pleasure, to instruction, to God; the rolling year will be full of Him; the wide theatre of the world will be to our minds but one universal house of prayer, one varied and beauteous temple of Him who dwelleth not in temples made with hands; and all the countless creations of his bounty, all those kindly fruits of the earth given and preserved to our use, and in due time to be enjoyed by us, will constantly admonish us, as they rise into strength and beauty, to give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.-PALIN's Village Lectures on the Litany.

HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE EDICT OF
NANTES.

In reading details of the history of the various mechanical and manufacturing arts, we frequently fnd mention made of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, as being a means by which the regular course of trade was much disturbed and turned into new channels. It may be interesting to general readers, particularly of a Protestant country, to know something of the nature, the object, and the effect of that edict.

The Edict of Nantes was a sort of act of parliament passed in France in 1598, and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was the withdrawal of that act in 1685; the object, in both instances, being of a religious nature. The Protestants of France, during and soon after the time of Luther, were called by the general name of Huguenots, the origin of which term is rather uncertain; and in a recent Supplement on Paris*, we have given the outlines of the various persecutions which the Protestants suffered from the Romish party, particularly the horrid event known as the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. The Edict of Nantes was intended in some respects as a termination of this series of injuries and persecution, and took effect about twenty-six years after the date of the massacre. When the weak and cruel Henry the Third, who was a mere puppet in the hands of the crafty and still more cruel Catherine de Medicis, died, the crown of France devolved upon Henry. king of Navarré, who then took the title of King Henry the Fourth. He was originally a Protestant, and however state policy may have led him to the culpable weakness of changing his profession of faith two or three times during his reign, there seems reason to believe that he always remained, at heart, a Protestant. But be this as it may, in 1598 he passed or granted the Edict of Nantes, by which the Huguenots or Protestants had their civil rights secured to them; the free exercise of their religion was confirmed to them; they were to have equal claims with the Roman Catholics to all offices and dignities; and they were left in possession of certain fortresses which had been secured to them.

The effect of this edict was, that the Protestants much increased in power and influence in France, and Protestantism might have taken deep root in the country; but, unhappily, Henry the Fourth was succeeded by Louis the Thirteenth, a man in every way his inferior. Under the influence of an ambitious favourite and of a crafty confessor, Louis began to renew that narrow system of intolerance of which the Protestants had so long been the victims. A long series of civil contests followed, which ended in the complete subjection of the Protestants to Louis, or rather to his minister, Richelieu, at the siege of Rochelle in 1629. For some years after this period, the Protestants, though not possessed of any political or civil power, were allowed to perform the offices of their religion undisturbed. But when Louis the Fourteenth had been some years on the throne, and had exchanged a life of voluptuousness and profligacy for one of gloomy bigotry, he recommenced the persecution of the Protestants. Under the fallacious and most unchristian idea that Protestants were to be made Romanists at the point of the sword, he commenced a terrible series of oppressive and cruel acts. In 1681 he deprived them of most of their civil rights, and on the death of his minister, Colbert, who had opposed these violent measures, he proceeded to still greater extremities. Bodies of dragoons were sent Saturday Magazine, Vol. XV., p. 250.

into the southern provinces, where the Protestants were most numerous, to compel the unhappy inhabitants to abjure their faith; and, to prevent the emigration of the sufferers, the frontiers were guarded with the utmost vigilance. But notwithstanding this strict watch, more than five hundred thousand Protestants contrived to escape from France, resolved rather to expatriate themselves than to renounce their faith: this was about one-half of the whole number of Protestants in France.

It is not difficult to perceive the effect of this ruthless persecution of the Protestants: we see in it a wise and just ordination of Providence, by which those who embrue their hands in the blood of their fellow-creatures to compel an abandonment of their faith, bring down on their own heads unforeseen and irremediable evils. France lost half a million of her best artisans, and the Protestant countries of Europe, particularly England, Holland, and Brandenburg, gained a large accession of skilled labour, which soon had a most material influence on the manufacturing interests of these countries. Weavers, and others connected more or less with the manufacture of tapestry, were very numerous among the emigrants, and they carried the secrets of their trades to the other countries which we have mentioned.

The grounds on which the Protestants gradually found their position to be insupportable in France were numerous and most vexatious. Every species of favour was lavished upon converts, such as exemption from taxes, enfranchisement from parental authority (if the parents persisted in remaining Protestants), advancement in professions, in public service, and in military rank; while, on the other hand, disabilities of every kind were multiplied for those who adhered to the Protestant faith: all places of honour and profit were closed against them; and those who had previously held such offices were compelled to resign them. The Protestants were next excluded from every kind of trade, and from the profession of law and medicine. All pensions and dignities were withdrawn from them; their names were erased from the books of the universities, and from the list of the royal household; and they were forbidden to farn, the revenue, or to serve the king in any capacity whatever. The chambers of parliament, established for the maintenance of the Edict of Nantes, were suppressed. The Protestant clergy were vexed and humiliated by many restrictions of a most harassing character; their synods were made less frequent, and the subjects of discussion limited in number; their charitable funds were applied to Roman Catholic purposes; they were forbidden to teach the languages, philosophy, or theology; and the flourishing college of Sedan was suppressed, together with other schools and colleges. The Protestants inhabiting the towns were obliged to abstain from secular employments on the festivals of the Roman Catholic church: they were also compelled to salute the host, and to perform many similar offices repugnant to the principles of a Protestant. When they retired into the country, and attended worship according to the form of their church, in the castles of the nobles of their own persuasion, the court limited their number, and disputed the right of the nobles to that feudal rank to which the liberty of worship in their own castles was attached. clergymen were next forbidden to preach, and were discharged from their offices.

The

Is it surprising, then, that this series of cruel persecution should have led to the abandonment of home and country? and can we refrain from expressing admiration at the firmness which induced

the Protestants rather to go to foreign lands than to | afterwards pursued all who had fled on their approach give up their cherished faith? The consequences of to hide themselves among the rocks, and treated such these unrighteous proceedings on the part of the as they could find in a similar manner. Among French court were, as we have said, highly detrimental those who had taken flight, there were many who, to the true interests and the real prosperity of the finding they were pursued by the soldiers, threw French nation, by the prodigious emigration it themselves into the river which crossed their way, occasioned among the Protestants, who sought, in hoping to find the fording-place and to pass in safety; various parts of Europe, that religious liberty, and but as it was night, the greater part were unable to that humane treatment, which in their mother-coun- discover the ford, and were thereby carried away by try was so cruelly refused them. Those among them the current and drowned. M. d'Algue, their pastor, whom the vigilance of their enemies guarded so favoured by the darkness, escaped on this occasion, closely as to prevent their flight, were exposed to the but was taken some time after, together with his brutal rage of an unrelenting soldiery, and were friend, the Sieur Roques, one of the elders of the assailed by every form of barbarous persecution that church of Caderles. They had both remained firm might tend to subdue their courage, exhaust their to their religion, and had been compelled to seek conpatience, and thus engage them to a feigned and cealment, by wandering about in the forests for external profession of Popery, which in their con- eighteen or twenty months. They were at length sciences they beheld with the utmost aversion and arrested, and brought to trial: the crimes of which disgust. The inhabitants of Cevennes, who were they were accused were, the having kept themselves roused to attempt something in their own defence, concealed for a long time, that they might not be afterwards addressed a letter to the Dauphin, setting obliged to change their religion; and having assisted forth the reasons which had compelled them to resort at many Protestant assemblies, and performed in them to arms. After speaking of the persecution which the functions of ministers. They pleaded guilty to preceded the revocation, they proceed :— all these charges, with cheerfulness and readiness, as being charges at which they should feel glory rather than shame. They were condemned to death, but offered life if they would recant: this they scorned to do, and both perished on the scaffold.

After they had done us all these mischiefs, the Edict of Nantes was repealed. In the execution of the revocation of this edict, they demolished our churches, and banished our ministers out of the kingdom for ever, continuing to us a thousand mischiefs, under divers pretences. All these dreadful forms of persecution astonished the Cevennois, It was, then, by such means as these that Louis who had none to comfort them. Fear caused some of them the Fourteenth attempted to root out Protestantism to hide themselves in woods and dens; and others endea- from the land of France. During the subsequent voured to flee out of the kingdom, that they might set their wars in which he was engaged, he gradually relaxed lives and consciences at liberty, according to the precept of the laws against the Protestants; but he could not the Gospel, "If they persecute you in one city, flee unto undo the serious injury already done to the country another." But the passages were so well guarded to hinder the flight of these poor people, that the greater part by the expatriation of such a vast body of industrious artisans, through the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; and there are many acute persons who think that this unrighteous proceeding was one of the numerous causes that led, many years afterwards, to the French Revolution, by exciting, in the minds of the French people, a hatred of the Jesuits and priests, through whose influence, principally, the revocation was brought about.

of them were taken and sent to the galleys. They that fled from the city were also taken and locked up in prisons, which were soon filled with these persecuted Protestants. They proceed to state that while they were in concealment, performing divine worship, in accordance with the institutes of Protestantism,―

The priest and friars, having notice of it, caused yet more dragoons and other troops to be sent into the Cevennes, which they placed in ambuscade, in the places through which those that were of the assemblies were to pass on their return. They seized them and cast them into prison; condemned some of both sexes to be hanged, and others to be carried away, the men to the galleys, the women to the nunneries. And if they happened to find the place where they were assembled, they fired upon them without mercy, and without distinction of sex or age.

These remarks it may be well to illustrate by one well-authenticated instance; and we will avail ourselves, for that purpose, of an interesting little work, published a few years ago, on the subject of the Re

vocation of the Edict of Nantes. A small band of Protestants, with their pastor, M. d'Algue, met in a secret spot for the performance of Divine service, having previously placed some of their body at all the avenues, to secure themselves against surprise. One of those to whom they had confided this office quitted his post, and hastened to St. Etienne, where he broke faith with his companions, and gave information of the assembly to the king's troops. An officer and twenty men put themselves under the guidance of this unworthy person, who conducted them to the place of meeting. They found the assembly engaged in celebrating the Lord's Supper; and into the midst of this peaceful scene of Christian communion the soldiers rushed with fury, making a discharge which at once threw many to the ground. Then drawing their swords, they struck indiscriminately at all they met, whether men, women, or children, killing some, and wounding great numbers. They

TO A FRIEND IN SORROW.

OH! we long have loved and often met with bosoms beating
[bright,
light,
When the Spring that burst around us was smiling fair and
When the bark of hope bore gaily down the glittering stream
of life,
[strife.

cheek,

Nor coming clouds foretold of its course through storms and
Oh! we long have loved, and often met-but ne'er till now
in sorrow,
[furrow;
For care along our flowery path at length has drawn his
I thought of all that we had been when I kissed thy pallid
[could not speak.
And thy trembling form, that grief had changed, I saw, and
Yes! we long have loved in sunshine, but ne er till now I
How deep affection's root 'neath the shade of sorrow grew ;
For friendship, in the bloom and spring of life begun,
A lovelier tint shall wear in the Autumn's mellowing sun.
With interchange of deeper thought, with holier wishes
fired,
¡inspired,

knew

Een the chilling breath of Winter shall seem with warmth
And while the brightness of our morning fades to evening's
gray,
We have a beacon sure beyond, to light our sinking day.—J. F.
ALL amusements which consist in inflicting pain upon
animals, such as bull-baiting, cock-fighting, &c,, are purely
wicked. God never gave us power over animals for such
purposes. I can scarcely conceive of a more revolting exhi-
bition of human nature, than is seen when men assemble to
witness the misery which brutes inflict upon each other.
Surely nothing can tend more directly to harden men in
worse than brutal ferocity.-WAYLAND.

[merged small][graphic]

I.

ST. ANDREW's CHURCH, PLYMOUTH.

There is no pause

To the huge labours o. that Arsenal
Whose foot the Tamar laves. There science lays
The solid keel, and on it rears a frame
Enduring, fair, magnificent! The woods
Of Europe, Asia, Africa, devote
Their mightiest foliage to raise the vast,
The thunder-bearing structure; till, at last,
By genius nobly formed, the finished ship
Is ready for th' impressive launch. The day
Arrives; the Atlantic tide is swelling high
To place her on its bosom. O'er her decks
The streamers wave all gallantly, around
Enlivening music floats, while myriads crowd
Where the bold vessel on her rapid plane
Sits proudly. Hark! the intrepid artizans
Remove her last supports ;-a breathless pause
Holds the vast multitude;-a moment she
Remains upon her slope,-then starts,-an now,
Rushing sublimely to the flashing deep,
Amid the shouts of thousands she descends,
Then rises buoyantly, a graceful pile,

To float supinely on the blue Hamoaze,
Till England the winged miracle shall send

To bear her dreaded banner round the globe.-CARRINGTON. CARRINGTON, born and bred in the immediate vicinity of Devonport, thus speaks of the building and launching of those stupendous machines which are the pride of a maritime country like our own: nor is it surprising that a tone of enthusiasm should pervade the description; for there are but few productions of man more wonderful and admirable than a large ship, completely rigged and fitted for sea.

Plymouth and Devonport are situated at the southwest corner of the county of Devon. Plymouth has long been an important town,-indeed it was so before Devonport was in existence, but when Plymouth became a great naval station, and when all the necessary arrangements were made for building ships in the neighbourhood, the docks became gradually surrounded by houses, the residences of those employed therein; and thus a little town sprang up, which obtained the name of Plymouth Dock. But so rapidly did its population and its importance increase, that in

[ocr errors]

1824 his Majesty King George the Fourth gave to the town the name of Devonport, as it seemed no longer fitting that it should continue to appear as a mere appanage to Plymouth. It thus appears that the two towns of Plymouth and Devonport are so intimately united and connected that it would not be easy to treat of either one separately. We propose, therefore, in three or four articles, to notice, 1st, the general position of the two towns with respect to the British Channel; 2nd, the most important events in their history; 3rd, the Government establishments connected more or less with the Royal Navy; and 4th, the principal objects (not naval) which usually attract the attention of the visitor in these towns.

In looking at a map of that part of the British Channel contiguous to Devonshire and Cornwall, we see that a small arm of the sea, or bay, separates the coast line of the two counties. This bay may be considered as the mouth of the river Tamar, which, as we stated in two articles relating to it*, separates the two counties nearly throughout its whole length. Or it might perhaps be more correct to say, that it is a small bay into which the rivers Tamar and Plym empty themselves. This bay is termed Plymouth Sound. From the Mewstone, at its eastern margin, to Penlee Point, at the western, is a distance of about three miles and a half; and the depth of the bay, from north to south, is about four miles. Across the Sound, at about a mile from the entrance, is the celebrated Breakwater, a description of which was given in the first volume of the Saturday Magazine. The object of this stupendous undertaking was to afford a shelter to the ships in the Sound and harbour from the storms which frequently rage in the British Channel.

Beginning at the Mewstone, a solitary rock at the eastern margin of the sound, we proceed along the eastern shore to the north-east corner of the Sound. Here we find a body of water called the See Saturday Magazine, Vol. XVI., pp. 153, 178:

« PreviousContinue »