by putting out the eyes of the Princes Chizer and Shadi. He was, however, himself assassinated by another prince, who succeeded to the throne under the title of Mubarik I.

Mubarik, like his predecessors, disgraced his brief reign by plunging into all those excesses of cruelty and debauchery which have consigned the rulers of the Patan and Mogul dynasty to infamy. There is really little variety in the history of these vicious princes-it is a constant repetition of nearly the same scenes. Chusew, an abandoned courtier, had Mubarik's head cut off with a sabre. He in his turn was put to death, and was succeeded by Tuglik, a slave from the warlike border-tribe of the Jits. His crimes, and those of his son and successor, Muhammad III., surpassed those of their most guilty predecessors, and made the latter, during a reign of twenty-seven years, the execration of the East. Mubarik was a monster of debauchery-Muhammad, of cruelty. His actions exceeded in atrocity the greatest enormities of the worst of the Cæsars. On conceiving umbrage at any class of the inhabitants, he assembled his warriors as for a hunt, then told them that men, not animals, were to be the objects of chase. The devoted district was subjected to military execution; the people were massacred, their eyes were put out, or their heads were carried to Delhi and suspended in rows along the walls. These were "the good old times," which it is now deemed by certain fanatics so desirable to revive! It is the descendants of these men who are called the Latimers and Ridleys of India!

These dreadful scourges of humanity were succeeded by Ferose III., who happily found gratification in building mosques, colleges, and bridges. The short reigns of Tuglik II., of Abu Beker, and of Muhammad IV., only served further to exemplify the precarious nature of Oriental power. Mahmud III. was a minor, and the crown was being disputed by Nuserit, grandson to Ferose III., when, in the year 1397, India was assailed by an enemy whom her utmost strength, guided by far abler monarchs, would scarcely have been able to resist. Timur, after the siege and massacre of Batneir, had approached Delhi. Mahmud was induced to give battle to the Tartar without the walls; he was defeated, and fled to Guzerat. Historians vary as to the extent of the guilt of Timur in the fatal scene that ensued. The Muhammadan historians assert, that while that prince was celebrating a great festival in his camp, he was surprised by the view of the flames ascending from the capital. Ferishta, however, gives more credit, and seemingly with reason, to the report that some of his troops having acted with violence towards the citizens, the latter rose and killed several of their number; upon which Timur gave up this immense metropolis to an unrestrained pillage. The unhappy Hindoos, in a state of distraction, slew their wives, then rushed out upon their enemies; but the efforts of this undisciplined crowd availed nothing against the warlike array of the Moguls; the streets of Delhi streamed with blood, and after a short contest the unresisting natives were led captive by hundreds out of the city.

The Tartars, after the departure of Timur, exercised scarcely any sway over India. Money was indeed coined in the devastator's name, and its princes owned themselves nominally his vassals. In other respects, his inroad served only to aggravate the anarchy under which that hapless country was doomed to groan. Delhi, for some time almost

abandoned, began to be repeopled, and passed from one hand to another. Chizev, viceroy of Moultan, seized the throne for a time, and held it as the representative of Timur. Another Mubarik was assassinated by his vizier. The weak reigns of Muhammad V. and of Allah II. had nearly dissolved the empire, when it was seized and held for thirty-eight years by the firm hand of Bheloli. His son, Secunder I., supported his reputation; but Ibrahim II., who succeeded, was cruel and unpopular, and was therefore ill-prepared for the great crisis which impended over the country. The Mongul Tartars, or the Moguls, as the Indians call them, were once more approaching Delhi under Baber. Like his predecessor Mahmud, Ibrahim went forth from the city to give them battle; like his predecessor he was defeated; and Baber, in the year 1526, seated himself on the throne of Delhi. Such was the end of the dynasty, or rather the successive dynasties of the Patan emperors, with a very few exceptions a disgrace, not only to princely rule, but to the very title of manhood. No country could have been in a more humbled state than India was during that long period of misrule and tyranny: the slave of slaves, trampled upon by a foreign soldiery bigotedly hostile to all her creeds and institutions, she was in a position in which life itself was scarcely worth the holding.

It might have been hoped that a change of masters would have brought with it some amelioration in the condition of the prostrate Hindoo, but it was not so. Baber's reign, which only lasted five years, was disturbed by insurrections both in India and in Caubul. This first of the Great Moguls is vaunted as the most accomplished prince that ever ruled over Hindostan; yet, as has been justly remarked, we nowhere see him in the edifying picture of a monarch devoting himself in peace to the improvement of his country and the happiness of his people. He bequeathed his troubled empire to his son Humaioon (Hum-ayyun), who was conspired against by his two brothers, Camiran and Hindal, at the same time that he was attacked by Shere, Khan of Bengal. Driven out of his dominions, this unfortunate prince experienced a succession of calamities such as scarcely ever befel even the most unfortunate princes of the East. Having taken refuge in Persia, he was induced to adopt the Shiah form of Muhammadanism in return for succour to regain his throne. In the mean time the Patan Shere ruled over all India, and was succeeded by his son Selim, after whom, during the short reigns of a Muhammad and an Ibrahim, the empire was distracted by dissensions among the royal family, and by the revolt of the numerous Omrahs and viceroys. Humaioon, the Mogul, took advantage of these dissensions to regain the throne of Delhi, which he left a year afterwards to his son Akbar, who is extolled as the greatest monarch who ever swayed the sceptre of India. This prince, like most of the early Mogul emperors, was, as De Huc describes the Tartars to have been generally, very latitudinarian in his religious convictions. This may account a great deal for the hold which they, the Moguls, obtained and held over Hindoos and Mussulmans alike. Some Portuguese missionaries having visited his court and challenged public controversy, Akbar proposed to decide the question by each party leaping into a furnace, the one with the Bible, the other with the Koran in his hand. Needless to say that the controversialists declined to appeal to such a questionable criterion of religious faith.

"Con

Akbar's son Selim assumed the vain-glorious title of Jehanjir, queror of the World." He began his reign with a crime, committed to obtain possession of one of the so-called "Lights of the World"-also called the Mher ul Nissa, or "Sun of Women." His reign was also embittered by the revolt of his own son Chusew, and by the conspiracies of the fair, but frail, "Nur Jehan." His successor, Shah Jehan, adopted the most dreadful expedients to secure himself against a rival. He caused not only his brother, but all his nephews who were alive, to be put to death; and there remained not a drop of the blood of Timur in Delhi, except what flowed in his own and his children's veins. This sanguinary proceeding did not, however, save him from trouble. A Patan chieftain, Lodi, led a first revolt, and the insurrection of his own sons crowned a reign that had been cradled in crime and violence. It was to this monarch that new Delhi, whither he had removed his residence, calling it after himself, Shah Jehanpoor, was indebted for its famed palace of red granite, which has been compared with the Kremlin, and the Jumma Musjeed, a magnificent mosque, not excelled by any other in India. Agra is also indebted to the architectural taste of the same king for the mausoleum called the Taj Mahal, raised in honour of another "Light of the World," Nur Jehan his favourite queen.

The Mogul Empire is said by its adherents to have attained its highest glory under Aurengzebe, who "exalted the imperial umbrella over his head," after having dethroned and imprisoned his father. Yet what were the characteristics of this so-called glorious reign? The very tenure of the throne was disputed by two brothers, both at the head of powerful armies. The empire was threatened on one hand by the Persians, under the formidable Shah Abbas, on the other by the Mahrattas, now first rising into power. Aurengzebe also paved the way to the fall of his dynasty by violent hostility to the religion of the Hindoos-a new feature in the character of the Mogul emperors; and an insurrection under an old female devotee, Bistamia, showed how readily the superstitious feelings of that strange people are worked upon.

On the death of Aurengzebe, the usual struggle for empire had to be gone through; and after many obstinate and bloody contests it fell to the lot of Shah Allum. The Seiks were at this epoch rising in power in the one direction as the Mahrattas were in another, and in consequence of religious differences were always at feud with the Mogul rulers. At Shah Allum's death, his sons, as usual, contended with one another for the empire. Jehandir Shah, who first succeeded, so abandoned himself to dissoluteness, that he was soon superseded by Ferokshere—the creature of two Sayyids, or descendants of the Prophet-for the Mogul court kept on increasing in fanaticism with its decline. These Sayyids murdered and raised several princes to the throne in succession. At length, Muhammad Shah, who was indebted to them for his elevation, emancipated himself from their thraldrom; but he had more powerful enemies to con tend with without-the Mahrattas and the Persians. The latter were for the first time led victorious to the gates of Delhi by Nadir Shah. They entered the city of the Moguls as magnanimous conquerors, and for two days observed great moderation, but a collision happening, orders were issued for a general massacre in every street or avenue where the body of a murdered Persian could be found. The imperial treasury was

ransacked, and found to contain specie, rich robes, and, above all, jewels to an almost incredible value. The Mogul emperors, since the first accession of their dynasty, had been indefatigable in the collection of these objects from every quarter, by purchase, forfeiture, or robbery; and every store had been continually augmented without suffering any alienation, or being exposed to foreign plunder. Nadir, however, made no attempt to retain India, though it lay prostrate at his feet, but after giving him some salutary advice, he replaced Muhammad on the tottering throne. He was succeeded by his son, Ahmed Shah, during whose short reign, as if foreign enemies had not been enough, the court was perpetually distracted by intestine dissensions. The empire was, indeed, now in a most precarious condition; there was scarcely a power so insignificant as not to think itself sufficiently strong to trample upon it. The king of Affghanistan assailed the capital and gave it up to a sack almost as dreadful as it had suffered from Nadir.

After this decisive event, the Mogul throne ceased to retain its wonted weight and importance. The empire of India was virtually contested by the Affghans and the Mahrattas. Delhi fell alternately into the hands of the one and the other power. Ali Gohur still retained possession of the empty but venerated title of "Great Mogul," but he was in reality the vassal of each daring chief who chose to seize upon the capital.

An Englishman, by the name of Hawkins, had visited the court of the great Mogul in the time of Jehanjir, and he was followed by Sir Thomas Roe, who first succeeded in obtaining some commercial privileges from these jealous monarchs. The English had gone on ever since improving their position till, in 1689, the state of anarchy in which the empire was thrown, and the consequent insecurity entailed to their lives and property, led them to think of strengthening that position by territorial acquisitions. Such was the origin of the power of the East India Company. Calcutta was purchased during the reign of Aurengzebe, in 1698, and already in 1707 it was the seat of a civil and military presidency.

It is not our object here to follow up the rise of British power, but rather to trace the history of the decline of that of the Moguls. When the French and English came in contact in India, the Subahdars of the Deccan and the Nabob of the Carnatic, originally subordinate appointments under the Emperor of Delhi, were contesting the sovereignty of Southern India. The war with Surajah Dowlah, of Black-Hole notoriety, was succeeded by an attempt on the part of the Mogul dynasty to reassert its claims to the sovereignty of India in the person of its Shah Zadeh, or hereditary prince. He was supported in this by two other Mussulman chiefs, the Nabob of Oudh and the Subahdar of Allahabad, who, on the decline of the empire, had established themselves as independent rulers-the religious bond alone remaining. The British, under Clive, supported Meer Jaffier, the native ruler in Bengal, a line of conduct branded by Mill in his history of India as " undisguised rebellion;" but when we consider that the power of the Mogul over distant provinces had for a long time been less than nominal, the support before given to the princes in the south, who were opposed to the supremacy of the French, might have received the same designation with just as much truth and justice. The Mussulman chiefs, however, quarrelled among themselves. The Shah Zadeh, "the descendant of so many illustrious

sovereigns, and the undoubted heir of a throne once among the loftiest on the globe, (!) was so bereft of friends and resources, that he was induced to write a letter to Clive, requesting a sum of money for his subsistence, and offering in requital to withdraw from the province."

The defeated prince soon, however, reorganised another attack upon the British, abetted by the Nabob of Oudh, and he made harassing excursions into the territory of their ally, Meer Cossim; but so greatly were his difficulties increased by the irregularities of his own allies, that he was ultimately induced to march over in person to the British, and unite himself to their cause. Allahabad was captured, and, on the return of Lord Clive, Sujah Dowlah was restored to his dominions, but the Mogul was compelled to leave in the hands of the Company the dewanee, or collection of the revenue of his entire sovereignty.

This establishment of the British sovereignty in Bengal was followed by the long war with Mysore, and no sooner was this over than the English became engaged in the greatest war that they ever waged in India-the war with the Mahrattas. The battle of Assaye and the fall of Alighur were followed up by General Lake marching directly upon Delhi, still the imperial capital, and the residence of him who enjoyed the rank and title of "Great Mogul," although, in reality, the prisoner of the renowned Rajpoot chieftain Sindia. General Lake had advanced within view of the walls of the imperial city, when he discovered the army organised under French command, drawn up in a strong position to defend its approaches. Though he had only 4500 men against 19,000, yet he determined to give battle without delay; but as the enemy could not without difficulty and severe loss have been dislodged from their present ground, he used a feigned retreat as a stratagem to draw them from it. This delicate manœuvre was executed by the British troops with perfect order and skill. The enemy, imagining the flight real, quitted their entrenchments and eagerly pursued; but as soon as they had been drawn forth on the plain the English faced about, and a single charge drove the enemy from the field, with the loss of 3000 in killed and wounded, and their whole train of artillery.

The British general now entered Delhi without resistance. He immediately requested and obtained an audience of the sovereign, with whom a secret communication had previously been opened. He beheld the unfortunate descendant of a long line of princes, rendered illustrious by their crimes, seated under a small tattered canopy, the remnant of his former state; his person was emaciated by indigence and infirmities, and his countenance disfigured with the loss of his eyes, and marked with extreme old age and a settled melancholy. He is described as deeply sensible to the kindness of Lake, on whom he bestowed titles, such as "the sword of the state," "the hero of the land," "the lord of the age," and "the victorious in war." All his adherents, and the people of Delhi in general, expressed delight on this occasion, and the journalists, in the language of Oriental hyperbole, proclaimed that the emperor, through excess of joy, had recovered his sight. Mill, who, as we have before seen, writes from a Muhammadan point of view, and adopts the versions given by Muhammadan historians, derides these rather pompous descriptions of the "delivering of Shah Allum," as he was, in fact, merely transferred as a state prisoner from one custody to another; but the more impartial