352 
LOVE OF RICHES. 
gradually sown in the minds of a people, nothing on earth can 
repress from growing to its natural harvest. 
The long tranquillity which has reigned in the interior of the 
empire, ever since the death of the last sovereign, Aga Mahomed 
Khan ; and the comparative flourishing state of the whole coun¬ 
try ; with the increase of its population, and the augmentation 
of the revenue ; all prove, wliat I have just asserted of the pre¬ 
sent monarch : and, so far from his having imbibed the tyrannous 
style of ruling, so common with many of his predecessors, the 
arm of blood is never raised by his orders, but over the heads of 
the robber and the murderer. 
Yet, perhaps, his passion for riches is not less strong, though 
not indulged by violence, than that which impelled those short¬ 
sighted tyrants to become masters of a wealthy subject’s treasures, 
at the expense of his life. Gold has long been the sceptre and 
the sword of all nations; therefore, we cannot be surprised to 
find its possession one of the leading objects of a prudent prince, 
who, though in the midst of Asia, sees himself surrounded by 
European wealth ; and European policy, to transmute that 
wealth to whatever metal it pleases. 
But the King is not the only man in the country, who would 
be glad of Aladdin’s lamp ; the whole of the higher orders turn 
their views to the same talisman. Some, amassing their gold 
with as clean hands as the most honourable man in Europe; 
while others, would descend to any meanness, rather than allow a 
single tomaun to escape the clutch of their fingers. Of course, 
the lower classes are great sufferers by this; a general system of 
exaction in those above them, depressing their industry, by 
extorting its fruits. Till the princes ^ of the land, know the 
extent of these proceedings, and the tendency, of such oppres- 
