raised to the throne Alumguir Sani, the father of the present Emperor.

WHEN the Durannies entered * Hindostan, in their fourth expedition to participate in the wreck of the Empire, Najeb-ud-Dowlah, who was himself an Afghant, and aware of the superior power of Ahmed Shah, attached hinself without reserve to the fortunes of that prince; dissolving the connection he had formed with Ghaze-ud-Dein, without hesitation, or an honourable regard for the favours he had received from the hand of that minister. The return of Ahmed Shaht into his own country, enabled the Marhattas to exercise an almost undivided authority in the upper provinces of India. Najeb-ud-Dowlah, the only Mahometan chief of power or ability, that was hostile to their interest, could not bring into the field an army of sufficient strength to oppose their progress. He had been compelled to take post in the vicinity of Sookertal, a fort situate on the west side of the Ganges, where he was reduced to such extremity, that, had not the approach of the Rohil

In A. D. 1756.

†The inhabitants of the space of territory, lying between the river Attoc and Persia, are called Afghans.

Ahmed Shah returned into Afghanistan, from his fourth Indian expedition, in the year 1757.

§ Now in ruins-See Rennell's map.

las and Shujah-ud-Dowlah, who were moving to his assistance, together with the rumour of the Duranny Ahmed Shah's march towards the Jumna, obliged the Marhattas to retire, it is probable that Najeb-ud-Dowlah would have fallen under the superior force of their arms.

IN the same year, but previously to this event, Ghaze-ud-Dein had cut off the Emperor*, and placed Shah Jehan the second on the throne. The capital no longer contained any grand object of ambition. The power of its princes had been sunk and trampled on, its treasures had been plundered, and its gates indiscriminately thrown open to Hindoos and Mahometans, according to the varying power of the day. The Marhattas, who in their turn gave the law at Delhi, deposed the Shah Jehan, who had been exhibited to promote the views of Ghaze-udDein, and raised to the throne, Jehan Bucht, the son of Ali Gohurt. After some desultory actions, the Duranny Ahmed Shah, joined by Najeb-udDowlah and their Rohilla chiefs, attacked the Marhattas, and defeated them, in a general engagement on the plains of Bandelly, in 1770; when Najeb-ud-Dowlah singularly dis* Alumguir Sani.

+ One of the domestic titles of the present Emperor.

In the neighbourhood of Delhi, at the passage of the Jumna, called Bouraree Ghaut.

tinguished himself, routing it is said, with his own troops, the division of the Marhatta army commanded by Duttah Pattelle, who fell in the field. In the battle of Panifrett t, the fortune of which was to decide the existence of the Mahometan Empire in India, the Afghans were powerfully assisted by Najeb-ud-Dowlah, who, during the period of an important intercourse with them, evinced an invaried fidelity and spirit.

THE Overthrow of the Marhattas, and Ahmed Shah's return into his own country, contributed to give the affairs of the Empire a less distressful aspect; and the abilities of Najeb-udDowlah, who conducted the administration of the young prince §, again reflected on the capital a glimmering ray of respect. A war now broke out between Najeb-ud-Dowlah and the Jatts, a powerful and warlike tribe of Hindoos, who in the general convulsion of the state, had seized on large tracts of territory, confining on the western bank of Jumna, and comprehending the strong holds of Deigh, Combere, Burtpoure,

* One of the Marhatta generals, and the uncle of Mhadgee Scindia, now so well known in the annals of India.

This decisive action was fought in February 1761.

Ghaze-ud-Dein, in 1761, left Delhi, where he could no longer preserve an influence, and where he was detested for his cruelties and treachery.

Tewen Rucht.

The cause of these

and the city of Agrah. hostilities is not explained in any document that has reached my knowledge; nor would perhaps throw any strong light on the history of Najebud-Dowlah. They arose probably from the source* which produced the various contests

The seeds which produced the decay of the Moghul empire, and which at this day have ripened into such malignancy, took a deep root during the reign of Aurungzebe; who, though one of the most sagacious princes of the house of Timur, endangered the welfare of the state, and the security of his subjects, by an injudicious impulse of domestic affection. He portioned amongst his sons, who were active and ambitious, the most valuable provinces of the empire; where acquiring an influence and strength, that cannot be held by an Asiatic subject with safety to the monarch, they expected with impatience the event that was to determine their schemes and pretensions. On the death of Aurungzebe, the sons eagerly took up arms, and after deluging the country with blood, the war was successfully terminated by Bahauder Shah, who may be said to have mounted the throne of Delhi, from a mound of fraternal and kindred slaughter.-Not being endowed with experience, nor perhaps the genius of his father, the officers who governed the provinces, relaxed during his short reign in their allegiance, shewing obedience to such orders, as might tend to promote their own views. The Marhattas, whom Aurungzebe had nearly subdued by the active efforts of a thirty years war, descended, at his death, from their mountains, and rapidly recovered the territories from which they had been expelled. Previously to the Persian invasion, the subadahs of Oude and the Decan, having virtually erected their chiefships into independent states, commanded, without the controul of the court, large armies, and disposed of the amount of the revenues, without rendering any account to the imperial treasury. The Empire, thus enfeebled, and governed by a luxurious and indolent prince, invited Nadir Shah to conquest and plunder. The river Attoc, the natural western barVOL. I. L

and disorders of the times; when the strong arm, unrestrained by fear of punishment, bore down the weaker; when established rights were subverted, and the private bonds of faith, with impunity, rent asunder.

SOORIDGE Mull, the chief of the Jatts, commenced the campaign by attacking a Mahometan Jaguirdar, the adherent of Najeb-ud-Dowlah. But the event of this war, which was fatal to Sooridge Mullt, did not confer any essential advantage on Najeb-ud-Dowlah, though he gained an easy and complete victory over the enemy for the districts of Sarunpour had been over-run by the Sicques, against whom he was obliged to march, and to forego the fruits of his success.

rier of India, on whose bank Mahomet Shah should have stood in person, was crossed by the Persians without opposition; and this inglorious prince, unworthy of the diadem he wore of the illustrious house which had given to the world a Baber, an Akbar, and an Aurungzebe, surrendered to them without drawing his sword, the wealth and dominions of Hindostan.-A subsequent train of diversified ruin, moving with a rapídity not paralleled in the history of nations, has now left no other vestige of the Moghul empire, than the name of king.

* Moosah Khan, the Jaguirdar of Furrucknagur, a district lying between Delhi and Agrah.

+ Sooridge Mull was killed in December 1763, in an action fought on the plains of Ghaziabad, near the river Hindia, and about eighteen miles distant from Delhi.