25 



Under these despotic princes, a suspected person is seldom ar- 

 raigned in a court of justice, confronted with his accusers, or per- 

 mitted the shadow of a trial; so that judgment and condemnation 

 are synonimous; and execution prompt, though silent. This is 

 certainly a less degree of misery than some European despots 

 have inflicted on their subjects, by confinement in the dungeons of 

 a Bastile, Inquisition, or a Venetian prison; where the unfortunate 

 sufferer drags on a wretched life in solitude and suspense; a prey 

 to that weight of misery emphatically styled the sickness of the 

 heart arising from hope deferred. 



Capital punishments are seldom inflicted under these adminis- 

 trations; fines are more frequent, and more acceptable to all par- 

 ties; pardons can generally be purchased for the most atrocious 

 crimes between man and man, where the prince or his rulers are 

 not affected. It was formerly customary for the nabob to dedicate 

 some time every morning to administer justice; that power now 

 devolved on a deputy, called the cutwall, who inflicted punish- 

 ments, and superintended the inferior officers of police. 



When the English troops landed at Cambay, although fallen 

 from its former importance, it was the residence of many Shah 

 Zadas, descendants of the Persian kings, and other nobles who 

 left that unfortunate country the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, when Shah Hussein was murdered by Mir Mahmud, and 

 the Afghans usurped the sovereign authority: these were followed 

 by many more who abandoned Persia when Nadir Shah seized 

 the throne, and destroyed the ro}*al line of Saffles. Ahmedabad, 

 then under the Mogul government, and Cambay, were the favour- 

 ite asylum of those unfortunate emigrants, and of many Persians 



VOL. II. E 



