inhabitants. Bajerow, the first Peishwah, (head of the Mahratta nation,) who was nominated by the court of Delhi to the government of one of the chief provinces of Hindûstan, even increased in his professions of humility as he advanced in power; and, in his intercourse with the Emperor and the Rajpoot princes, he affected a scrupulous sense of inferiority to those whose countries had been despoiled and usurped. The weak government of Mohammed Shah despaired of recovering an empire which had become the home of the invaders, and whence they carried their predatory excursions into Hindustan itself. Having overrun Bundelcund, and exacted the choute (a fourth of the revenue) on the whole of the Mogul empire, Bajerow left Malwa, and proceeded to his southern territories, with the expectation of making considerable conquests in the Deckan: but the close of his career was disastrous; for he suffered a signal defeat near Poona, and his capital was taken. He was succeeded (A.D. 1740) as Peishwah by his son Ballajee, who obtained from the timid court of Delhi the high office of Soubahdar of Malwa. His history, however, has little farther connection with that of Central India; to illustrate which Sir John Malcolm gives a short account of three Mahratta families, Puar, Sindia, and Holkar, to whom these extensive territories became afterward subject. The origin of Sindia's house exhibits a striking revolution of fortune. The The family of Sindia are Sudras of the tribe of Koombee, or cultivators. Ranojee Sindia, the first who became eminent as a soldier, had succeeded to his hereditary office of head man, or Potail, of Kumerkerrah in the district of Wye, before he was taken into the service of the Paishwah Ballajee Bishwanath, after whose death he continued in that of his son Bajerow Belall. The humble employment of Ranojee was to carry the Paishwah's slippers; but being near the person of the chief minister of an empire in any capacity is deemed an honour in India. frequent instances of rapid rise from the lowest to the highest rank led men of respectability to seek such stations; and it is probable that ambition, not indigence, influenced the principal officer of a village to become, in the first instance, the menial servant of Ballajee Bishwanath. Ranojee's advancement, however, is imputed to accident. It is stated, that Bajerow, on coming out from a long audience with the Sahoo Rajah, found Ranojee asleep on his back, with the slippers of his master clasped with fixed hands to his breast. This extreme care of so trifling a charge struck Bajerow forcibly: he expressed his satisfaction, and, actuated by motives common to men in the enjoyment of such power, he immediately appointed Ranojee to a station in the Pagah, or body-guard. From this period his rise was rapid; and we find him, when Bajerow came into Malwa, in the first rank of Mahratta Mahratta chiefs, subscribing a bond of security to the Emperor Mahomed Shah for the good conduct of his master. Ranojee appears to have been a very enterprising, active soldier. His. expenses went far beyond his means; and he was indebted for considerable pecuniary aid to Mulhar Row Holkar, with whom he formed an intimate connexion. He died in Malwa, and was interred near Shujahalpoor, at a small village called from him Ranagunge. Ranojee Sindia had been married in the Deckan to a woman of his own tribe, by whom he had three sons, Jyepal, Duttajee, and Juttobah; the two eldest of whom became distinguished commanders. 'He had also two sons by a Rajpoot woman, a native of Malwa, Tukajee and Madhajee Sindia; the latter of whom became the head of the family. His character early developed itself; and his rise to a station, to which he had no right from birth, does not appear to have been disputed. This chief was present at the battle of Paniput. He fled from the disastrous field, but was pursued to a great distance by an Afghan, who, on reaching him, gave him so severe a cut on the knee with a battle-axe, that he was deprived for life of the use of his right leg. His enemy, content with inflicting this wound, and stripping him of some ornaments and his mare, left him to his fate. He was first discovered by a water-carrier, of the name of Ranah Khan, who was among the fugitives: this man, placing him upon his bullock, carried him towards the Deckan. Madhajee used frequently to recount the particulars of this pursuit. His fine Deckany mare carried him a great way ahead of the strong ambling animal upon which the soldier who had marked him for his prey was mounted; but, whenever he rested for an interval, however short, his enemy appeared keeping the same pace; at last, his fatigued mare fell into a ditch. He was taken, wounded, spit upon, and left. He used to say to the British resident at his court, the late General Palmer, that the circumstance had made so strong an impression upon his imagination, that he could not for a long time sleep without seeing the Afghan and his clumsy charger pacing after him and his fine Deckany mare! The survivors of the Mahrattas fled from the field of Paniput to the Deckan, and for a period the nation seemed stunned with the effects of that dreadful day; but the return of Ahmed Shah Abdalli to Cabul, and the contests among the Mahomedan nobles for the different provinces of the dissevered empire, enabled them to re-occupy Central India, and again overspread Hindustan.' Those who are conversant with the British transactions in India will recollect that an enterprizing chief of this family, Madhajee Sindia, was recognized by the British government in the treaty of Salbye as an independent prince; and this adventurous soldier became master of Shah Allum and his capital. He was in fact the actual sovereign of Hindûstan from from the Sutleje to Agra: he had conquered the princes of Rajpootana; his army counted sixteen battalions of regular infantry, 500 pieces of cannon, and 100,000 cavalry; and he possessed not only two-thirds of Malwa, but some of the finest provinces in the Deckan. His character was marked by singular traits of greatness. Madhajee Sindia,' says the present author, 'continued through life to retain many Mahrattas in his service; but, as he was, during the greater part of it, engaged in wars to the north of the Nerbudda, these were soon outnumbered by Rajpoots and Mahomedans. This was, though unmarked at the moment, a serious departure from the first principles of the Mahratta confederacy; and the habits of that nation were thus given to a population acting from a different impulse, and with few congenial feelings. But the policy of Madhajee carried the change a step farther. His genius saw, that, to realize his plans, the mere predatory hordes of the Mahrattas could never prove adequate. It was a circle of plunder; and, as one country was exhausted, the army had to march, with numbers increased by those whose condition their success had made desperate, to ravage another. They had, in their first excursions, little or no means of reducing forts; nor did their system of war admit of protracted hostilities in a difficult country, and against a resolute enemy. These wants were early discovered by their enemies. The Bheels from their mountains, and the Rajpoots and others from their strong holds, (which were multiplied by fortifying every village,) not only resisted, but retorted upon the Mahrattas, by laying waste their lands, the wrongs they had suffered. This evil was only to be remedied by a regular force. We are distinctly informed, that its existence led Madhajee Sindia to determine upon the measure he now adopted, of raising some corps of infantry; and accident gave him the aid of a man of no ordinary description. De Boigne, who entered his service at this period, is said to have been brought by chance to the notice of Madhajee, who discovered in the author of a plan to frustrate his operations against Gohud, that military genius, which was afterwards to raise him to a greater, if not a more consolidated power, than any Indian prince had attained since the death of Aurungzebe. Madhajee, accompanied by the brigades, or Campoos, as they were termed, of De Boigne, took forts and fought pitched battles, in a manner that the Mahrattas never before attempted. Not merely the petty disturbers of the peace of Hindustan and Central India were attacked and subdued, but the proud spirit of the higher Rajpoot states was completely broken. The battle of Meirtah, which was fought against the collected force of Joudpoor, was a great triumph, and fixed the ascendancy of Madhajee over that principality, and the neighbouring weak state of Odeypoor, the prince of which had twenty years before been compelled to make over some of his most fertile possessions to the families of Sindia and Holkar. Soon after the battle of Meirtah, Meirtah, De Boigne fought an action with the troops of Jeypoor. To these victories were added the defeat of Junkajee Holkar, and the destruction of four corps of regular infantry under a French officer in the service of that chief. Before this last action took place, Madhajee Sindia had left Malwa, and arrived at Poona, where he died in A. D. 1794.' This prince was succeeded by his nephew Dowlet Row Sindia, a youth of 13, and little equal to the great schemes which had been projected by his uncle: but his reign was soon marked by every abuse of power. Dissentions between the Holkar and the Sindia families also broke out, and desolated the Deckan, which became the theatre of intrigue and war; and the conflict with the British government, which deemed it necessary to interfere, dispelled all the dreams of glory and ambition that had been indulged by Dowlet Row Sindia. He was compelled (1805) to purchase peace by the sacrifice of his finest possessions in Guzerat, Hindûstan, and Bundelcund; yet a large territory was still left to him. He could not, however, but be secretly hostile to the British power, and he saw with satisfaction our embarrassments in the contest that we were carrying on in Nepaul. No doubt exists of his having undertaken in the late war to support the Peishwah but he preferred the path of safety, and entered into the alliance already mentioned with the British government to suppress the predatory system, and to restore the tranquillity of India. [To be continued.] ART. II. The Trials of Margaret Lyndsay. By the Author of Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life. Post 8vo. pp. 403. Blackwood, Edinburgh; Cadell, London. 1823. THE minor family of the Scotish novels is fast increasing on us; and it is no slender homage that has been earned by Scotland, that she has not only produced their great prototype, but is now producing a host of writers animated by his example in those gay and delightful walks of literature, and impressing through the medium of interesting fictions the same lessons of virtue, and the same simple morality. To compare them, indeed, with the splendid productions of their original, would be invidious criticism: but of the "Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life," which we have already examined, and of the affecting volume now on our table, it may be truly said that they abound in beauties of no vulgar class. Their great excellence, indeed, is pathos; while, in a flowing and nervous style, they picture the characteristic virtues of the the Scotish peasant, and the comforts of his little life, embellished with the unostentatious delights of domestic affection, and sustained and solaced in the worst adversities by the promises of religion. In the unlimited learning of the Waverley novels, the knowlege of costume, the keeping of characters, and that redeeming good sense which interposes a barrier between their most irregular and wildest excentricities and downright extravagance; in that presiding taste, which is equally distant from the stiffness of him who fears to give offence, and the unrestrained licentiousness of fancy which makes wanton experiments on the credulity and common sense of the reader; - in these and many other features they hold a very subordinate rank. We have heretofore noticed the "Annals of the Parish," "The Provost," &c. &c., works which evidently reflected much of the humour of the higher school. The "Lights and Shadows," and The Trials of Margaret Lyndsay,' emulate it only in its pathetic delineations of human sorrow, and its pictures of gentleness and resignation, struggling with sorrow, and upheld by the consciousness of duty; relieved by the occasional intervention of those sketches of the scenery and manners of Scotland, so true to nature, and so delightful to the imagination, which abound in the works of their great master. As to the present tale, it is the most painful of stories which could be inflicted on those who read for amusement. It is literally an abuse of the privilege which every fictitious writer possesses of being pathetic. We maintain that he has no right to vibrate too intensely on one chord, to dwell too uniformly on one series of impressions, to draw too unremittingly from one source of emotion. The springs become enfeebled which are too much strained; the feelings are rendered insensible by being too constantly shocked; and whatever is overdone, whether in acting, in painting, or in fictitious composition, offends against the first laws of good judgment. When the modesty of nature is overstepped, the beauty and effect of the piece suffer materially from the transgression. It has pleased the Author of our being to infuse much bitterness into our cup: but he rarely inflicts more than human fortitude and patience, of which the severest trials are only exercises, are able to endure. It should, moreover, be the golden. rule of pathetic writers to venerate the undev ayav of the antients; and to remember that the portion of misery, which they allot, should never be such as to call the mercies of God into doubt; that their object should be that of the milder influences which the poet ascribes to adversity itself, "to soften, not to wound the heart." Such are the sentiments - |