428 



be offered unto him, and ihc next condemned his three friends to 

 a fiery furnace for not worshipping his golden image. Or of his 

 immediate successors, one of whom clothed his virtuous minister 

 with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, as a reward 

 for his services; and the other, who at the instigation of his wicked 

 counsellors ordered him to be thrown into a den of lions ! Such 

 was despotism two thousand years ago, such it continues at this 

 present day ! 



That absolute power hardens the heart, in whatever climate 

 or country it is permitted, cannot be doubted. We need not con- 

 fine our remarks to Asia: some of the cruel and wanton acts of 

 tyranny exercised by the feudal barons in Europe, over their bond- 

 men and villains, arc too shocking for the modest page. Oriental 

 despotism proceeds on different grounds, though acting from the 

 same principle; lust and revenge predominated in Europe, domi- 

 nion and avarice in Asia. ]t would be painful to describe the 

 various modes of oppression within my own knowledge; I shall 

 only mention one anecdote in confirmation of what I have lately 

 alluded to; it happened at Tatlah, on the banks of Indus, where 

 one of my friends was the English resident at the prince of Scindy's 

 court. Taltah, the capital of those princes, has for many years 

 been in a declining stale, occasioned by wars and revolutions. The 

 little commerce it enjo\s since the English factory has been with- 

 drawn, is in the hands of the Hindoo merchants; the principal 

 officers in the commercial and revenue departments are also Hin- 

 doos. The prince and his court are Mahomedans, who, like other 

 oriental despots, permit these officers to amass wealth by every 

 means in their power, and then seize their prey. 



