66 HINDOOSTAN. 



Government, laws... .The government of the Mogul emperors 

 was despotic, and such is that of the different native sovereigns who 

 rule the country at present. The people of Hindoostan are govern- 

 ed by no written laws ; nor is there a lawyer in the whole empire ; 

 and their courts of justice are directed by precedents. The Mahom- 

 medan institutes prevail only in their great towns and their neighbour- 

 hood. The empire is hereditary, and the emperor is heir to his own, 

 officers. All lands go in the hereditary line, and continue in that state 

 even down to the subtenants, while the lord can pay his taxes, and 

 the latter their rent, both which are immutably fixed in the public 

 books of each district. The imperial demesne lands are those of the 

 great rajah families, which fell to Timur and his successors. Certain 

 portions of them are called jaghire lands, and are bestowed by the 

 crown on the great lords or omrahs, and, upon their death, revert to 

 the emperor ; but the rights of the subtenants, even of those lands? 

 are indefeasible. 



Such are the outlines of the government by which this great em- 

 pire long subsisted, without almost the semblance of virtue among 

 its great officers either civil or military. It was shaken, however, 

 after the invasion of Mahommed Shah, by Kouli Khan, which was at- 

 tended by so great a diminution of the imperial authority, that the 

 soubahs and nabobs became absolute in their, own governments. 

 Though they could not alter the fundamental laws of property, yet 

 they invented new taxes, which beggared the people, to pay their ar- 

 mies, and support their power ; so that many of the people a few 

 years ago, after being unmercifully plundered by collectors and tax- 

 masters, were left to perish through want. To sum up the misery of 

 the inhabitants, those soubahs and nabobs, and other Mahommedan 

 governors, employ the Gentoos themselves and some even of the Brah- 

 mins, as the ministers of their rapaciousness and cruelties, Upon the 

 whole, ever since the invasion of Kouli Kahn, Hindoostan, from being 

 a well regulated government, is become a scene of mere anarchy and 

 stratocracy ; every great man protects himself in his tyranny by his 

 soldiers, whose pay far exceeds the natural riches of his government. 

 As private assassinations and other murders are here committed with 

 impunity, the people, who know they can be in no worse state, con- 

 cern themselves very little in the revolutions of government. To 

 the above causes are owing the late successes of the English in Hin- 

 doostan. 



Revenues. ...The whole revenues of the Mogul empire, in the time 

 of Aurungzebe, were computed at thirty millions sterling ; which, it 

 has been observed, considering the comparative value of all the ne- 

 cessaries of life, and produce of the soil in that country, may be esti- 

 mated as equal to four times that sum in England at present. 



Royal title. ...The emperor of Hindoostan, or Great Mogul (so 

 called from being descended from Timur, or Tamerlane, the Mongul 

 or Mogul Tartar) on his advancement to the throne, assumes some 

 grand title ; as, " The Conqueror of the World, the Ornament of the 

 Throne" &c. but he is never crowned. 



. Religion.. ..The institutions of religion, publicly established in all 

 the extensive countries stretching from the banks of the Indus to 

 Cape Comorin, present to view an aspect nearly similar. They form 

 a regular and complete system of superstition, strengthened and up- 

 held by every thing which can excite the reverence and secure the 

 attachment of the people. The temples consecrated to their dei- 



